Just the other day, I was listening to a recording of a speech by Joe Sugarman* and Joe said, “One good path to success is to learn all the proven rules and meticulously follow them.  Another path is to occasionally break all the rules, because breakthroughs come only from breaking rules.”  Resonates with me; as you know, I wrote a whole book based on breaking rules.

On one hand, I’m cautious about innovation; pioneers usually come home full of arrow; it’s often costly and time consuming…and I am always much more interested in “what works” than a new idea.  However, as Joe said, OCCASIONALLY, or I might say, <u >at carefully chosen time, you have no alternative but to be the pioneer in order to move forward and in order to stand out from the crowd.  It is, of course, the minority of times that you successfully innovate that you get noticed for, not the majority of times you successfully follow an already plowed path.

(*In case you don’t know, Joe Sugarman is a mail-order pioneer:  first to sell electronic calculators via direct-response ads, first to use 800#’s.  You may know him via his infomercials or QVC appearances for Blu-Blockers.  But his JS&A ads and catalogs preceded The Sharper Image and led in selling various electronic gadgets.)

I think the best times to innovate are when you are absolutely convinced that the conventional wisdom; the already plowed path; the crowd is wrong.  Just as an example, when I was getting started in the speaking business, everybody seemed to operate under the policy of billing clients for fees and expenses after their engagements (anything else was viewed as impolite and unprofessional), and most speakers who sold product from the platform sort of begged the clients for permission, and often sacrificed that opportunity.

Very early on, I determined that being in the banking and collections business did not serve my purposes very well at all – nor did speaking only for wages.  So I insisted on a 50% fee deposit to take a date off the calendar, balance and travel expenses paid on
site at the speech, and I refused dates where I could not also offer my materials.  At the time, peers criticized me; told companies would never accept such terms; and called ‘unethical’ by agents and bureaus.  Today, my payment policies are the norm in the profession.

Another example:  at a time when every vendor in a particular niche was offering only very expensive services requiring long-term contracts, I copied their marketing method but used it to sell a substitute product at a very small price (and quickly took in a couple million dollars) – I was convinced they were idiotically leaving a lot of motived but unsatisfied customers behind by not offering a low price option.

An interesting survey of selected, successful, profitable large corporations turned up 74% that said they’d achieve their first big success with either a unique product or a distinctive way of doing business, although this breakthrough may not have come along until they had been in business for many years.  Note the word:  first.  I also know many companies that are able to subsequently build on that first breakthrough more conservatively, to grow and stabilize their businesses.

The bottom-line, I guess, is that you gotta gamble.  You try to gamble only when you must OR when circumstances look so favorable that it is irresistible, but you got gamble.

DAN S. KENNEDY is a serial, multi-millionaire entrepreneur; highly paid and sought after marketing and business strategist; advisor to countless first-generation, from-scratch multi-millionaire and 7-figure income entrepreneurs and professionals; and, in his personal practice, one of the very highest paid direct-response copywriters in America. As a speaker, he has delivered over 2,000 compensated presentations, appearing repeatedly on programs with the likes of Donald Trump, Gene Simmons (KISS), Debbi Fields (Mrs. Fields Cookies), and many other celebrity-entrepreneurs, for former U.S. Presidents and other world leaders, and other leading business speakers like Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy and Tom Hopkins, often addressing audiences of 1,000 to 10,000 and up.  His popular books have been favorably recognized by Forbes, Business Week, Inc. and Entrepreneur Magazine. His NO B.S. MARKETING LETTER, one of the business newsletters published for Members of Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle, is the largest paid subscription newsletter in its genre in the world.  https://gkic.infusionsoft.com/go/newmifge/briansacks

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Dan’s newsletter is the ONLY  one I wait for each month with a pen and pad in hand.
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by Dan S. Kennedy

Test And Grow Rich

“Testing” is an ugly topic.  Why?  Because testing variables in advertising direct mail, phone scripts and sales presentations requires discipline, diligence and patience.  To get it right, you can only test one variable at a time.  This means that if you change a headline, you can’t change anything else.  Plus you have to make sure all other variables remain the same, like the mailing day or a war breaking out that has everybody watching CNN day and night or the President getting caught again with his drawers down or a hurricane hitting.

Frankly, most business people will just not go through the “detailitis” required to test – which is why it’s a very good idea to model proven promotions.  And in some cases where you’re only going to use something once or twice or you’re dealing with a very small number, it’s just not worth testing; instead, you take your best shot.  But let’s assume you’re working on something you intend to use over and over and over again in some significant quantity, so that it’s worth real effort to fine-tune it…

I have some tips for you: first of all, there’s non-testing testing – huh?  Well, I describe that in my book ‘The Ultimate Sales Letter

’ (available at http://bit.ly/I9Tdha  ), where I talk about the steps to take with a finished sales letter before you actually mail it.  Second, there’s split testing, which is the fastest way to test and get to a reasonable conclusion.  Let’s assume you have a postcard and you want to leave everything the same but test four different headlines, and you have 4,000 similar addresses to mail to.  You do “nth name testing”; that means Headline #A goes to every 4th name, Headline #B to every 5th name, Headline #C to every 5th name, etc.

So you evenly divide the list without bias among the headlines being tested.  Some media (like Val-Pak or MoneyMailer) will let you split test within a single buy.  Third, there’s testing against a control.  A “control” is a marketing strategy that already works well and you’re using it on a continuing basis – maybe it’s a series of letters you mail every month.  You have been using it long enough you know what it produces.  You have a “known” to measure against.  Now you can start trying to improve that control, ideally one step or variable at a time.

If I’m trying to beat a control, here are the “hot” variables I’ll look at closely, to see if there’s room for improvement:

1.  The offer

2.  The guarantee(s)

3.  The urgency of response

4.  The big idea or big promise

5.  The overcoming of skepticism i.e. credibility and believability

6.  The style or tone of the writing itself

7.  The look of the piece

By the way, little, very testable things DO sometimes make very big differences.  Recently I showed an example in my newsletter of a guy who just added four rubber-stamped words to the outside of his envelope, and beat his control by 300%.  I once brought a TV infomercial back from the dead by raising the price of the product.

Gary Halbert saved the Pearl Cream advertising by adding a particular bonus.  In 1984, after attending my seminar, a dentist in Sacramento changed five words on his Val-Pak coupon and went from getting two or three new patients a month to 15 to 20.  This is the sort of thing that makes direct-response advertising as frustrating as golf. (Did you happen to see John Daly miss a put seven times and scratch himself out of the tournament a few weeks back?  Ugh.)

Obviously, you can’t test if you can’t, won’t or don’t collect accurate data.  You have to code every offer, and track where every ounce of business comes from.  If you have employees who are lax about this, you must educate them about the importance, discipline them if they goof it up, and ultimately can’em if they won’t do it right 100% of the time.  I confess that I fly by the seat of my pants in my business more than I should, but I can’t fire me, God knows there are days I should.  Anyway, I can assure you: the clients I have with the best profits and incomes possess the best information about where their business comes from.

Let me switch gears and talk briefly about another aspect of “testing”.  This is actually how all highly successful entrepreneurs view everything they do…as testing.  They do NOT see things in the context of “success” or “failure” like ordinary people do, and as a result they do not become “de-motivated” like most people do.  See, most people drain all the vitality, courage, optimism and git-up-n-go out of themselves by focusing on all the things they do that don’t work out well, as a compilation of failures.

But successful people understand the powerful impact of that negative reinforcement on their own self-image (somewhat akin to the impact of pouring a gallon of toxic waste into a pint of clear water, drinking the result, and wondering why the stomach backs up into the esophagus).  Instead, they carefully organize the things they do into a series or sequence of experiments, testing options, and focusing on the ones they find that work.  And they fully expect to go through any number of experiments that don’t pan out before walking away from the lab with a winner.  This not only has practical relevance, it has profound psychological ramifications.

Just like a little tweak in thinking can make a big difference in the results of say, an ad or a flyer, a little tweak in thinking can make a giant difference in the life results experienced by an individual.

DAN S. KENNEDY is a serial, multi-millionaire entrepreneur; highly paid and sought after marketing and business strategist; advisor to countless first-generation, from-scratch multi-millionaire and 7-figure income entrepreneurs and professionals; and, in his personal practice, one of the very highest paid direct-response copywriters in America. As a speaker, he has delivered over 2,000 compensated presentations, appearing repeatedly on programs with the likes of Donald Trump, Gene Simmons (KISS), Debbi Fields (Mrs. Fields Cookies), and many other celebrity-entrepreneurs, for former U.S. Presidents and other world leaders, and other leading business speakers like Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy and Tom Hopkins, often addressing audiences of 1,000 to 10,000 and up.  His popular books have been favorably recognized by Forbes, Business Week, Inc. and Entrepreneur Magazine. His NO B.S. MARKETING LETTER, one of the business newsletters published for Members of Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle, is the largest paid subscription newsletter in its genre in the world.

WANT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF DAN’S FREE GIFT?

copy this into your browser  http://bit.ly/Igdop1 or just click here DAN’S FREE GIFT

One of my featured guest speakers at a past SuperConference was Michael Vance. Michael worked side-by-side with Walt Disney for a number of years.  As I was listening to Mike, I made a mental note to start talking about a Walt Disney quote about marketing that I used to use a lot.

What Walt Disney said about Marketing is:

“Do what you do so well – and so uniquely – that people can’t resist telling others about you.”

In every field, there are “masters”.  People just so darned good at what they do that people are compelled to tell others about them.

Mike Vance is that kind of speaker, and there are darned few in that category.  Actors like Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro.  The salesman I used to buy my cars from, Bill Glazner, at Sanderson Ford in Phoenix – he puts every other car guy I’ve ever seen to shame.  There are a couple chiropractors I know who put on such a great “report of findings” (their equivalent of the Printing Audit) that they enjoy 100% conversions and can easily sell large dollar “pre-pays.”  There’s a shoe-shine guy at the Atlanta Airport who still rubs wax in by hand, snaps the towel with authority, slaps the leather, makes the brush sing.  And this is important: these people are “master performers.”  They are not just masters at whatever technical thing they do, they are masters at presentation.

So, here’s a very simple, very practical question:  after customer buys from you for the first time, do they – without any prodding from you – rush to the phone, call an associate, and tell them about the amazing buying experience they just had?  Are the first words out of their mouth to the next person they see about you?

If it is, here’s the economic impact:  your need to invest money in acquiring new customers will diminish over time as your business converts to being 100% referral driven.  This means you can take all the money you now spend on advertising, direct mail, telemarketing, etc. and put it into your pocket instead.  This means you will have more people calling and waiting in line for you than you have time, because each client will multiply.

“Mastery” can quite easily be worth an extra $50,000.00 to $200,000.00 or even more to you each year you remain in this business.  (Bank it all at even modest interest and in just five years you can retire a cash millionaire.)

To get that good, you must dedicate yourself to doing so:  I’ve always been impressed with the late Yul Brenner, who performed the “King and I” a record number of times on Broadway – and still rehearsed his lines, gestures and facial expressions everyday, before every performance, right up until his last one.  How many times have you written out your own, complete sales script word for word?  Recorded it and listened to it on tape?  Role-played it with family or mastermind group members?  Practiced in front of a mirror?  Ever?  This month?

Get this:  I can predict your future bank balances if I know what you read, what you listen to, what educational functions you attend, who you hang out with and what you work on (practice) regularly.  Oh, and years ago, Joe Karbo wrote this wonderful ad headline:  are you too busy making a living to make a fortune? Are you?

Discover how you can sneak into the closed door meeting and eavesdrop on the free-wheeling, no holds barred discussions of arguably the most elite and extraordinary group of marketing and moneymaking “masters” ever assembled in one place, at one time.

DAN S. KENNEDY is a serial, multi-millionaire entrepreneur; highly paid and sought after marketing and business strategist; advisor to countless first-generation, from-scratch multi-millionaire and 7-figure income entrepreneurs and professionals; and, in his personal practice, one of the very highest paid direct-response copywriters in America. As a speaker, he has delivered over 2,000 compensated presentations, appearing repeatedly on programs with the likes of Donald Trump, Gene Simmons (KISS), Debbi Fields (Mrs. Fields Cookies), and many other celebrity-entrepreneurs, for former U.S. Presidents and other world leaders, and other leading business speakers like Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy and Tom Hopkins, often addressing audiences of 1,000 to 10,000 and up.  His popular books have been favorably recognized by Forbes, Business Week, Inc. and Entrepreneur Magazine. His NO B.S. MARKETING LETTER, one of the business newsletters published for Members of Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle, is the largest paid subscription newsletter in its genre in the world

https://gkic.infusionsoft.com/go/newmifge/briansacks

HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS ARTICLE

Brian Sacks

PS- Leave your comments below

PS #2- This is one of the only Newsletters I actually wait for with pen and notepad in hand..
We have spoken about the importance of making an offer your customers simply can’t refuse…

Check out Dan’s offer by clicking here now  DAN’S OFFER

or copy and paste this now-

https://gkic.infusionsoft.com/go/newmifge/briansacks

Here’s another great article by my own mentor/guru Dan Kennedy. He’s one of those people like the old E.F.Hutton commercials–
When Dan Speaks — You should Listen!

Everytime I have listened to him and Bill Glazer I have made $$$.

Why People Fail

A series of No B.S.  Articles from Dan Kennedy

If You Want More, Make Yourself More Valuable

The mayor of a small town once wrote to Benjamin Franklin asking for a donation so the town could buy a bell for its town square.

Franklin sent money with a note suggesting they forego the bell in favor of buying books for the town library.  It is at the library we might find an answer to why so few succeed and why most fail – at anything, at everything.

Most people do not apply themselves to acquiring know-how nor apply the know-how they acquire. In short, they have the attention span of a gnat, the diligence of an idle, random breeze. They certainly don’t study.

 I have become quite rich and somewhat celebrated, reaching the pinnacle of success in not one but three different fields. At each required skill-set, I once sucked. For me, there has always been a crawl to competence, then a fast rise to superiority. Part of the process is getting through of a lot of information in a hurry but also continuously. For nearly 25 years,  I read a book a day plus newspapers, trade journals, newsletters, visited the public library weekly; took on a needed skill and so thoroughly and intensely studied it as to become a world class expert. When I was teaching myself to be an advertising copywriter, for example, I studied no less than an hour everyday, listened to recorded material on the subject constantly, sought out and got to know the top people in the field, and when one told me to take great direct-response ads and write them out longhand 21 times each, to teach my subconscious the rhythm  of such writing, I did that with 100 ads. I collected over 200 books on the subject and immersed myself in them. I built organized files of samples that fill a room. I traced one master back to his teachers, they to theirs, thus even knowing the genealogy of the field.  When I am asked by fledgling or journeymen copywriters how they, too, might have clients waiting in line to pay them $100,000.00 fees when there are thousands of copywriters advertising their availability for  1/10^th that or less, and I tell them this answer, they reject it.  They seek rewards out of kilter with their value and are unwilling to do what is necessary to build up their value.

The same answer could be given by the top earners in insurance, real estate, retail store ownership, dentistry – name the business or profession. The answer is the same.

I am told by people all the time that they simply do not have time to read and listen to all the material they have purchased or subscribed to. But time is democratic and just. Everyone has the same amount. When I choose to read with my mid-morning coffee break and you choose to blather about trivia with friends; when I choose to study for an hour sitting on my backyard deck at day’s end but you choose to watch a TIVO’d American Idol episode, we reveal much. When someone says he does not have the time to apply himself to acquiring the know-how required to create sufficient value for his stated desires, he is a farmer surrounded by ripe fruit and vegetables, whole grains and a herd of cattle on his own property who dies of starvation, unable to organize his time and discipline himself to eat.

Incidentally, success in every business, including yours, depends on mastery of a handful of critical competencies (one of which is always marketing).  The individual who sets out earnestly and diligently to acquire a wealth of know-how in each winds up with wealth in his bank account.  All others watch with envy and cry in their soup, two activities they do seem to find time for.

The WHY PEOPLE FAIL articles are provided by Dan S. Kennedy, serial entrepreneur, from-scratch multi-millionaire, speaker, consultant, coach, author of 13 books including the No B.S. series (www.NoBSBooks.com), and editor of The No B.S. Marketing Letter. WE HAVE ARRANGED A SPECIAL FREE GIFT FROM DAN FOR YOU including a 2-Month Free Membership in Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle, newsletters, audio CD’s and more: for information and to register, visit

              www.freegiftfrom.com/briansacks

Articles © 2009/Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle LLC. All rights reserved.

Pay close attention to this one because if your clients/friends/ family don’t believe what you are saying than there is NO WAY you can get what you want/need!

6 Quick Tips to Make Your Copy More Believable

Copyright © 2008 Daniel Levis

You’ve got targeted traffic coming to your site. You’ve made a big, passionate, and clear promise on your landing page. But you’re still not making the sales you’d like.

It could be because your offer sounds too good to be true.

Believability above a certain point makes sales; below that point it does not. Ad copy must make what lawyers call “a prima facie case” — that is, a case that warrants a trial in court. Only the court is the consumer, and the trial is buying and using the goods.

Here are 6 tips to help increase the believability of your copy …

Figures – Ivory Soap, as we all know is 99.44% pure. Would it seem as pure if it were advertised “almost absolutely pure”?

When a quotation is made from a book or from the media, not one in a thousand will verify it, yet it is worth your while to cite the exact volume, chapter, and page when quoting.

Figures are the height of exactness, and exactness is characteristic of truth. Vague generalities slip off the human psyche like water off a ducks back.

Proper Nouns – To say a great western city, instead of Denver is to create suspicion.

Mr. Rockefeller is conceded by all to have been one of the richest Americans, but if so described, and not named, readers unconsciously score one point against the credibility of the copy. Even further, John D. Rockefeller is better copy than Mr. Rockefeller. Proper nouns are almost as valuable as figures in advertising.

It is more believable to say “styles now reigning from Rue de la Paix, Paris, to Fifth Avenue New York” than “styles now reigning from the fashion centers of Europe, to those of America”.

Reiteration – “A Suit Of Clothes FREE!” — an incredible statement…over and over the ad stated a suit of clothes could be had without cost, fully a dozen times. You don’t believe it in the headline, or in the first or second paragraph, but it is human instinct to be impressed by repeated and emphatic repetitions of any statement, however extraordinary. The arrested man who says once, sullenly, “I am innocent!” and then stops, is probably guilty, but he who repeats the phrase incessantly and earnestly shakes the strongest conviction to the contrary.

A preposterous claim becomes believable, merely by making it a number of times, even without adding any further evidence or explanation.

Local Connection – We are more inclined to believe advertising that tells us how happy the locals are with a product, and want to buy that brand for no other good reason. Nobody knows quite why, but we trust proximity. If we hear our neighbors have bought something, it means more to us than it should.

Perhaps we harbor a deep-seated trait from our ancestors. Strangers and far off people are still presumed crafty, and hostile by the savage that sleeps in our sole.

Testimonials – Some things never go out of style, and the testimonial is one of those things. They shouldn’t be edited, and should include as many details of the giver as possible. A well-worded one from an obscure person is often worth more than one from someone famous. To be most effective, a testimonial should site specific results. It’s not enough that a customer say that they are happy with your service, or that they feel they got their money’s worth.

When asking for testimonials, dig for specific “before and after” measurements. You want statements like “We saved $450 on our heating bills last year after installing XYZ windows. That’s 35%!”

Credentials – Before launching into product claims, it’s critical you tell your reader why they should listen to you.

After grabbing the reader’s attention with your headline, and quickly making a big promise, this is generally the third thing you want to impress upon the reader.

Quickly, and powerfully demonstrate your credentials, experience, and track record. This can be achieved either directly in the running copy in your own voice, or in a sidebar using another voice.

Sometimes it even makes sense to add some kind of a credibility element in the pre-head (sub-headline in smaller font above the main headline) at the very beginning of the copy.

Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology “Masters of Copywriting” featuring the marketing wisdom of 42 of the world’s greatest copywriters, including Clayton Makepeace, Joe Sugarman, Joe Vitale,Bob Bly, and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit the below link.
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=850930

Subject:  The ‘Elephant’ in the Room…

What is the ‘elephant’ in the room?

The elephant is…the economy.

And more specifically, the dreaded ‘R’ word – recession.

What’s going on?

Foreclosures are at an all-time high. 

Banks with large portfolios of sub-prime mortgages are failing in record numbers.

Some of the biggest and most well-known brokerages and insurance companies are being either sold, taken over, or bailed out by the US government.

People are losing their jobs and struggling to pay skyrocketing gas and grocery prices.

With all of this confusion, Wall Street is reeling and investor confidence is shaken.  And if that’s not bad enough, many so called ‘experts’ on the economy say the ‘sky is falling’ and it’s only going to get worse.

Is the ‘elephant’ affecting YOU and your business?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

As a matter of fact there is a better way to fight the ‘elephant’ in the room and since you’re one of my online friends, I’m happy to let you in on a ‘secret’. 

DAN KENNEDY, the world’s #1 marketing consultant and best-selling author, has squashed his share of ‘elephants’ in the room over the past 30 years.

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The GOOD NEWS is that I’ve convinced Dan to give you $613.91 of his BEST Money-Making and Marketing Information for FREE…but his is NOT an open-ended offer.  Dan can only make this offer to a LIMITED number of people and once that limit is reached, the deal is history. 

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But if you think the economy isn’t affecting your business, you might want to consider that your customers and prospects are being bombarded with ‘doom & gloom’ messages about how bad the economy is and the coming recession. 

They’re hearing these messages day after day after day.  And they’re probably having frequent conversations about the ‘elephant’ with their friends, relatives, neighbors, and co-workers too.  The ‘elephant’ is a constant topic of stories on television, on the radio, in newspapers & magazines. 

Surrounded by all this negativity, your prospects and customers can’t help but be affected.  It’s human nature to react with caution and cut back on spending…or at least be more careful about what they spend their money on.

No matter how hard you try, unless you’re hiding under a rock, you can’t escape the ‘elephant’ in the room.  So what do you do about it?

You could bury your head in the sand like an ostrich, ignore it, and hope you’re still standing when the dust settles…but hoping is NEVER a good strategy for success. 

Wouldn’t it be a better idea to be more proactive?  Isn’t there a better way to deal with the ‘elephant’ in the room before it squashes you? 

If you’re not familiar with Dan, let me give you the quick run-down.  As a marketing consultant, he has worked hands-on with clients in 136 different product, service, and business categories.

In the information publishing field, he has literally guided hundreds of start-ups to multi-million dollar annual sales.  And to be honest, studying Dan’s material has been largely responsible for my success.

He routinely commands fees of $19,000.00 per day for private consulting, $45,000.00 to as much as $75,000.00 plus royalties to write an ad campaign, series of sales letters or other marketing materials.  Over 80% of all clients who utilize his services once opting to do so repeatedly.  And he’s got people waiting in line begging to pay those fees because the value he delivers far exceeds the fees.

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So please don’t delay.  I strongly urge you to claim $613.91 of DAN KENNEDY’s best Money-Making & Marketing Information for FREE before it’s too late by visiting: FreeGiftFrom.com/briansacks before it’s too late.

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To Your Sales Success,

Brian Sacks

P.S.  The ‘elephant’ in the room is the economy.  Don’t let the ‘elephant’ squash you or your business.  And even if your business hasn’t been affected by the ‘elephant’ yet, wouldn’t it be wise to be proactive and be prepared BEFORE the situation changes?

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+   To Claim $613.91 of Dan Kennedy’s BEST Money-   +  +   Making & Marketing Information for FREE, visit       +                 +                                                                                          +

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DAN KENNEDY is the word’s #1 marketing strategist and a best-selling author.  Dan has seen (and defeated) his share of ‘elephants’ over the past 30 years.  Dan’s marketing strategies have worked for himself and his clients in some of the most demanding sales environments (like infomercials, insurance industry, and even recessions) with outstanding results…imagine what they’ll do for you!

Dan is giving away $613.91 of his BEST Money-Making & Marketing Information for FREE…but only to a LIMTED NUMBER of people so I urge you to ACT QUICKLY before it’s too late. 

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+         To see what all the excitement is about, visit:         
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PPPS– Have you checked out last weeks post — WHAT A MESS? check it out now and leave your feedback on how YOU Deal with it !

A series of No B.S.  Articles from Dan Kennedy

If You Want More, Make Yourself More Valuable

The mayor of a small town once wrote to Benjamin Franklin asking for a donation so the town could buy a bell for its town square. Franklin sent money with a note suggesting they forego the bell in favor of buying books for the town library.  It is at the library we might find an answer to why so few succeed and why most fail – at anything, at everything.

Most people do not apply themselves to acquiring know-how nor apply the know-how they acquire. In short, they have the attention span of a gnat, the diligence of an idle, random breeze. They certainly don’t study.

I have become quite rich and somewhat celebrated, reaching the pinnacle of success in not one but three different fields. At each required skill-set, I once sucked. For me, there has always been a crawl to competence, then a fast rise to superiority. Part of the process is getting through of a lot of information in a hurry but also continuously. For nearly 25 years,  I read a book a day plus newspapers, trade journals, newsletters, visited the public library weekly; took on a needed skill and so thoroughly and intensely studied it as to become a world class expert. When I was teaching myself to be an advertising copywriter, for example, I studied no less than an hour everyday, listened to recorded material on the subject constantly, sought out and got to know the top people in the field, and when one told me to take great direct-response ads and write them out longhand 21 times each, to teach my subconscious the rhythm  of such writing, I did that with 100 ads. I collected over 200 books on the subject and immersed myself in them. I built organized files of samples that fill a room. I traced one master back to his teachers, they to theirs, thus even knowing the genealogy of the field.  When I am asked by fledgling or journeymen copywriters how they, too, might have clients waiting in line to pay them $100,000.00 fees when there are thousands of copywriters advertising their availability for  1/10^th that or less, and I tell them this answer, they reject it.  They seek rewards out of kilter with their value and are unwilling to do what is necessary to build up their value.

The same answer could be given by the top earners in insurance, real estate, retail store ownership, dentistry – name the business or profession. The answer is the same.

I am told by people all the time that they simply do not have time to read and listen to all the material they have purchased or subscribed to. But time is democratic and just. Everyone has the same amount. When I choose to read with my mid-morning coffee break and you choose to blather about trivia with friends; when I choose to study for an hour sitting on my backyard deck at day’s end but you choose to watch a TIVO’d American Idol episode, we reveal much. When someone says he does not have the time to apply himself to acquiring the know-how required to create sufficient value for his stated desires, he is a farmer surrounded by ripe fruit and vegetables, whole grains and a herd of cattle on his own property who dies of starvation, unable to organize his time and discipline himself to eat.

Incidentally, success in every business, including yours, depends on mastery of a handful of critical competencies (one of which is always marketing).  The individual who sets out earnestly and diligently to acquire a wealth of know-how in each winds up with wealth in his bank account.  All others watch with envy and cry in their soup, two activities they do seem to find time for.

The WHY PEOPLE FAIL articles are provided by Dan S. Kennedy, serial entrepreneur, from-scratch multi-millionaire, speaker, consultant, coach, author of 13 books including the No B.S. series (www.NoBSBooks.com), and editor of The No B.S. Marketing Letter. WE HAVE ARRANGED A SPECIAL FREE GIFT FROM DAN FOR YOU including a 2-Month Free Membership in Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle, newsletters, audio CD’s and more: for information and to register, visit: www.freegiftfrom.com/briansacks

Articles © 2008/Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle LLC. All rights reserved.

Hope you enjoyed this article… share it with a friend

Brian Sacks

PS– If you want to learn more about Dan’s systems go to www.whatiused.com

PPS– stay tuned for my next post which will be a wealth creation tip related to my last lesson..

THE UNSPOKEN DIALOGUE

When it comes to online copywriting, it’s not the words you use that count. It’s the reaction to those words in the mind of the reader, as he reads them on the screen…

And it’s your ability to anticipate and plan out those reactions that spells the difference between being able to get your web site visitors to opt-in or buy your product in sufficient numbers to make your business a success.

It’s like a dialogue between two people, divorced in time and space. You are feeding your reader images, ideas, and emotions across the continuum, in a carefully planned sequence… and he is feeding you back reactions.

You plan for certain reactions, and do your best to make them come about. You hope your reader will understand and agree with the assertions you put forward, and that he will share in the emotions you are suggesting he feel.

Included among these reactions are demands, questions, and anticipations, which must be answered, or your copy will fail…

When you’ve successfully aroused your prospect’s interest, his reaction may be to demand more information, more image, and more desire from your copy, as if to say… hmmm, tell me more? Where you have inflamed his desire, he will demand proof. And even when you demonstrate proof, he is likely to demand to know how those results are to be achieved, so he can judge for himself whether or not the product will work for HIM.

CREATIVE SCHIZOPHRENIA… So your challenge is to play a dual role. You must be copywriter and prospect at the same time. You must walk in his shoes, sense his reactions, feel what he feels at each point in the copy… so you can switch direction at the precise moment his demands arise, and answer them. This fracturing of your mind is one of the most difficult skills to master in copywriting. And naturally it demands a great deal of research into the product, and the market you’re working with. This sensitivity is one of the key distinctions between writing “good enough” copy… and writing grand slam home run copy that pulls in obscene returns.

Those anticipation points are crucial. If you miss them, you lose the interest of your reader.

Let’s examine one of these demands in more detail. At some point in your copy, your prospect generally will ask this question. “How does your product do all these good things you say it does?” First you must anticipate where this question will arise, and then answer it.

“REASON WHY”

Notice this a very specific kind of proof. It’s not a testimonial or an authoritative endorsement. Your prospect is asking for an explanation of the “reason why” something works, which may or may not be included in the aforementioned. It is an explanation of the mechanism behind the magic.

I have seen ads that included every conceivable proof element under the sun fail, because they left this simple device out. They failed to demonstrate the ‘reason why’ the product delivered the promised results.

Of course John E. Kennedy and Claude C. Hopkins are well known for popularizing the importance of this idea at the turn of the last century, and today many direct response ads make use of it to some degree. But how much ‘reason why’ is enough, how much is too much, and where in the copy does it belong?

WHEN TO USE LOGIC AND REASONING IN YOUR COPY

The answer to these questions comes from your market. Are you writing to those who already understand the reasons why your product can do what you claim? Do they accept those reasons as valid? If so, there is not much point in wasting the reader’s attention with a lot of ‘reason why’ copy. For example, if you are writing a car ad today, and the car you are writing about has ABS brakes, all you need do is name this mechanism. Millions of dollars of advertising, perhaps hundreds of millions that has gone before you, has distilled the logic and workings of this technology down to a three letter acronym that just about everyone with a license to drive understands. You simply name the feature, tie it to a benefit, and then move on.

But what about the vast array of products that present a new promise, but where the prospect does not yet understand the mechanism behind the claim? Here it is a simple matter of building a strong promise, backed up by a ‘reason why’ the product delivers on the claim. In the early days of ABS for example, the pioneers made the promise of greater safety, and then backed up that claim with a reason why. Safe, because you could now steer while braking in slippery conditions, and so on.

Of course, the cardinal sin is to make your ‘reason why’ copy dull and boring. It is not scientific discourse. It should sell the mechanism, just as hard as the opening sells the promise, and it must continue to captivate and engage the reader’s interest and build his desire.

In the later stages of product competition, where the market is sophisticated, and it seems that everyone has the same technology, the same promise, the same price, a new strategy is in order.

At this stage your ‘reason why’ should take center stage. Move it up from the anonymity of the body copy, and put it in your headline. It is now just as vital as your promise, no longer just a proof element, but a new, fresh incentive for your prospect to read your ad.

Another place in your copy where this reaction commonly arises is where you offer a special price or discount. Your prospect is suspicious. Many advertisers ignore this fact, and are shocked to discover that a price reduction does nothing to increase sales.

What you must realize is that a price cut, like a promise or a claim or a benefit is only as good as the words you use to describe it, and the strategy you use to present it. Price cuts should be justified. There must be a reason for them. A ‘reason why’ you are doing what you are doing. Without it, you are selling with only a fraction of the power.

Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology “Masters of Copywriting” featuring the marketing wisdom of 42 of the world’s greatest copywriters, including Clayton Makepeace, Joe Sugarman, Joe Vitale,Bob Bly, and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit the below link.
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=850930

Brian Sacks

here you go…

When you boil it right down, there are really only three things that you need to do exceedingly well to market your business effectively online.

And they are,

Obtaining an Opportunity to Sell – Driving traffic to your website.

Closing the Sale – Making your sales presentation on your site.

Following Up on Your Maybes – Pick the ripe ones yes, but be sure to irrigate & fertilize the soil, prune & bug spray the trees with care, and nurture all of the fruit along. In other words, capture email addresses and follow up.

Mastering all three of these activities is critically important to your success.

But when you’re starting a new venture, which one do you master first?

In my experience, the overwhelming tendency is to start at the beginning. That is, spending maximum time & effort attracting traffic.

Unfortunately, this all to common approach often results in failure.

Frequently, those that go this route never really get off the ground, because they can’t turn a profit. They invariably discover, after spending boatloads of cash, that some of the estimates they made in their business plan were off the mark.

Speaking of getting off the ground, allow me relate a story to illustrate my point …

I’m betting you all know the story of Orville & Wilbur Wright. They went down in history as the first human beings to really fly. But how many people remember Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley?

In 1896 the Wright Brothers, and Langley were engaged in a fierce competition.

Who would be first to conquer the skies?

Langley, a distinguished scholar and secretary of the Smithsonian institute was the clear favorite. He had already achieved impressive unmanned flight over the Potomac River with his steam powered Aerodrome No. 6.

Based on this success, Langley was able to raise $100,000 in funding, and set out to develop an extraordinary radial-cylinder internal combustion engine that would produce an astonishing 52 horsepower! In his estimation, capable of powering an aerodrome large enough for manned flight.

The Wright Brothers, by contrast were convinced that the secret to success lay in their ability to control the aircraft, once in flight. They therefore spent their time experimenting with gliders over the forgiving sands of Kitty Hawk.

For several seasons they worked on manipulating the wings, nose, and tail of the aircraft, so as to allow the operator to actively control it.

Wilbur, who most often piloted, suffered a multitude of minor cuts and bruises. But on each successive trial, much was learnt.

On October 7, 1903, it looked like the Wright’s had lost, as Langley made ready his first manned launch. Langley’s plane would go from a dead stop to the 60 m.p.h. flying speed in only 70 feet.

But the stress of the catapult launch proved greater than the flimsy wood-and-fabric airplane could stand, and the front wing was badly damaged on take off.

The nose heavy Aerodrome “A” then plunged into the Potomac.

A reporter who witnessed the event claimed it flew “like a handful of mortar”.

Things went even worse during the second launch of December 9, 1903, where the rear wing and tail completely collapsed during launch.

Langley had succeeded in burning through almost all of his $100,000 in capital.

Just 8 days after Langley’s spectacular failure, a sturdy, well designed craft, powered by a tiny 8 horse power engine, costing about $1,000, struggled into the air at Kitty Hawk, defining for all time the moment when humankind, mastered the skies.

Langley died in 1906 after a series of strokes, a broken and disappointed man.

“What on Earth Does Flying Wooden Airplanes Have to Do With Marketing My Online Business?”

The moral of the story is this.

Test, test, and retest your prime value proposition to be sure it converts customers, BEFORE committing yourself to major capital outlays, and the start of your campaign.

Will your site convert a high enough percentage of prospects into customers to make your campaign profitable?

Like the Wright brothers, who focused on control, versus brute force, you will dramatically improve your chances of success, if you make the development of a persuasive, & compelling closing pitch, your number 1 priority.

TESTED, to bring home the bacon! Don’t even consider launching your production campaigns until this is done.

And then, BRING ON THE TRAFFIC!

It’s all about your ability to control, influence and motivate the minds of your prospects, once you’ve attracted them to your place of business. Just the way the Wright brothers were able to manipulate the wings, rudder, and nose of the aircraft.

Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology “Masters of Copywriting” featuring the marketing wisdom of 42 of the world’s greatest copywriters, including Clayton Makepeace, Joe Sugarman, Joe Vitale,Bob Bly, and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit the below link.
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=850930

Copyright © 2008 Daniel Levis