Photo by Tiffany Washko

Imagine you just won the lottery and was rewarded $1 million. The tax department soon caught up with you and billed you 50% of your winning - which is a hefty $500,000. How would you feel?

Compare that feeling to this scenario: You just won the lottery and was rewarded $500,000… tax-free.

In which scenario do you think you would feel happier?

That’s right. You’d be happier in scenario B than in scenario A and that’s exactly what prospect theory predicts.

Why is that? Don’t you end up with the same amount of money? As it turns out, people tend to value losses more than they do, gains. So if you changed the rules on your customers and although the net effect might be neutral (or even slightly positive), satisfaction might go down.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you are operating an e-commerce style website and sells over a thousand products. When you increase prices on some of them and decrease them on some others, you’ve got yourself a prospect theory situation.

And imagine another scenario: What if the tax department billed you $100,000… five times instead of $500,000 for once? How would that affect your state of your mind?

You’d be even more pissed! That’s another aspect of prospect theory: That multiple losses hurts more than one loss of equal value.

So if you have a subscription based service such as a newsletter or a gym, make sure to charge your customers directly on their credit card. Because if you do that, your charge would just be one item in the long list of charges that he received for that month.

Can you think of other uses of prospect theory to boost your business? Leave your suggestions in the comments section!

In my previous blog posts on increasing increasing conversions, I’ve always stressed on the importance of design. Why is design so important? Well, because the first thing your prospects see when they land on your letter is NOT your compelling headline, it’s your design.

They first notice the overall feel of a copy.

And if you’ve made a bad first impression… you know what happens. In the bin it goes. Or in the case of a web copy, away they go in a click. That’s what happen for most flashy ads. We don’t even read their headlines anymore… heck, for most of the time, we don’t even notice them anymore!

Wait a minute Andre… those ads are designed by professional designers who went to design school for a few years, are you telling me you’re better at designing than they are?

Listen. You have to understand that designers have been trained to make things look pretty in design school… and so most of them have a tendency to make things look pretty. Most of them are trying to win design awards so as to boost their career.

But you’re in business to make your ads look pretty or to win awards, are you? You’re in business to make money. And pretty don’t necessarily mean more money.

So it doesn’t matter if you design your copy yourself… or you get a designer to do it for you: The basic principles of design to sell is a must-know for any entrepreneur. It’s only when you know it yourself that you can guide your designers.

6 Principles of Design To Sell?

So if design isn’t meant to make your ads look pretty, what is it for?

Take a look at the ad to the right. It’s an ad by David Ogilvy, the man who founded the Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency. What makes that ad wildly successful other than the copy?

Principle #1: Designs that sell are invisible

If you weren’t a trained designer, you wouldn’t have seen the design doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes. It looks just like an ordinary editorial yet nothing in the ad is an accident. That ad is the result of countless testing.

Principle #2: Designs that sell amplify the message, not fight for the attention of the readers

If it’s invisible, what’s great about it? I mean, if you can’t see it, what’s the point of it, right?

The point of the attention is to amplify the message. The copy. Pretty designs fight for attention of the customer. And guess what sells? It’s the message. So if your prospects looked at your ad and gasped, “This looks great!”, you’ve just failed.

If your prospects looked at your ad and gasped, “This looks great!”, you’ve just failed.

But what do I mean by “amplify”? That means your design have to make it so that your message is in their easiest form to be consumed by your prospects. In other words: it should increase the readability and scannability of your copy.

Principle #3: Designs that sell have clear visual hierarchy

The most crucial rule of readability, in my opinion, is hierarchy. That means your readers should be able to clearly see which element is the headline, which is the sub-headline and which is the body. There should be no two different elements that look exactly the same.

Again, look at the Rolls Royce ad. There’s a big image right at the top of the hierarchy to grab attention, followed by the headline, subhead then the body. It’s clear where he wants the eye to flow: Top-down.

Principle #4: Designs that sell have but one dominant visual element

For you to have a clear visual hierarchy you need an unquestionably dominant visual element. In the case of the Rolls Royce ad, which did your eyes go first when you first looked at it. The picture! It’s by far, the unquestionable dominant visual element.

There’s no confusion as to what the readers should look at first. If you look at most ads today, most of them would have multiple equally dominant visual element - and that confuses readers as to what they should look at first.

Principle #5: Designs that sell follow natural reading gravity

We’ve all been trained to read from top down and left to right. So remember not to position the most dominant visual element on the right or the bottom because it contradicts what people are already used to. The big image of the Rolls Royce ad is on the top of the ad, not the bottom.

I can’t believe how many advertisers like to place their headline above their huge image… it makes a reader first look at the image then go back up to read the headline and then skip the image down to the body. That takes a lot of subconscious work.

Principle #6: Designs that sell are results of extensive testing

These principles hold only if you’ve tested them. If your tests reveal breaking these “rules” results in greater conversion, then stick to them. Fact is, sometimes a radical design do convert better but make sure you track the results.

If you have a clear hierarchy, how long a reader stays on your copy could reveal problem areas you might previously have not discovered.

In the case of online conversion, I use Affiliate Prophet to test not only my web copy, I also use it to test my designs because Affiliate Prophet can not only perform multivariate testing, it also tracks how long a reader stays on your web copy. If you have a clear hierarchy, how long a reader stays on your copy could reveal problem areas you might previously have not discovered.

So there, 6 simple principles of designing to sell. If you do it right, you could skyrocket your conversion without changing a word in your copy. Do you have any other tips on designing? Care to share it in the comments section?

Photo by Vincent Boiteau

Imagine yourself as a desperate bachelor. You’ve just turned 30 and your last “serious” relationship was 4 years ago. As much as you enjoy “the single life” for its freedom, you woke up one day and felt lonely. You realized you’ve been subconsciously avoiding going home after work because all you’ll be seeing is an empty apartment.

You’ve suddenly realized something is missing in your life.

“Things can’t continue like this anymore.”, you thought. The thought stuck with you all day and you were driving home when you made the decision to join one of those online dating website as soon as you reach your destination.

But before you reached home, as if it’s the universe’s will, you saw a young beautiful woman stranded in the middle of nowhere. Her car has broken down and she obviously needed someone to repair it. You thanked God as you slowed down and stepped out of the car.

The two of you started talking… and about an hour later, her car is fixed. Now’s your chance to make a move. What would you say?

Saying The Right Things At The Right Time

You see, dating and pickup is one of the areas where salesmanship (and thus marketing and copywriting) is crucial because you’re essentially trying to sell the notion that going out with you is a good idea.

You use the same “psychological hot-buttons” salesmen use to sell products. Both you and the salesman approach complete strangers. He is asking his prospects to take the risk of of being scammed… you’re asking yours to take the risk of going out with a psychopath. But while thee salesman would be out of a prospect’s life in a short while… you’ll be staying for a while.

It’s not easy being a pick-up artist…

Most man assumed good looks and a muscular physique is all a man need to seduce. Is it? Or are they reflecting what THEY want onto what WOMEN want?

And from what I see in the dating world, it’s obvious 99.9% of man… and to a certain extent, woman, have no idea how to sell!

Here’s a common misconception about dating: Most man assumed good looks and a muscular physique is all a man need to seduce. Is it? Or are they reflecting what THEY want onto what WOMEN want? Do beautiful women like it when people complements their looks like what 99.9% of men do?

Take a look at this video.

Art of Seduction

Most salesman make the same mistake. They project what THEY thought to be what the prospects want onto the prospects. Can you blame them for slamming the door on your face?

Let’s use the dating advice industry as an example. Is it really possible to become a master pick-up artist by reading a short 20 page e-book? Highly unlikely. But that’s exactly what most guys are looking for. What pick-up lines should I use? What perfume should I buy?

What they really need to know is to get their mindset right… and that means continuing education and trial and error.

As a marketer in the industry, what would your marketing communication be saying? What they want (instant gratification) or what they need? Which one have a better chance of selling? Does that mean you don’t deliver what they need?

Here’s Your Homework

So here’s what I want you to do. Sit down with a customer and ask them the following questions:

1. Why did you buy from me?
2. What is the biggest problem you wanted to solve by buying my product?
3. Why do you want to solve that problem?
4. Was the problem solved?
5. Are there any problems that you faced in implementing it?

By the end of the short interview, don’t be surprised to find that your marketing communication is fundamentally flawed. I know I did.

Photo by Natalia

If there’s only one thing you can do to sell, what would it be? If there’s one unfair advantage you can have over any of your competitors, what would you wish you possess?

Is it scarcity? Authority? Social influence? Or any of those sales ju-jit-su?

When it comes to selling, most people immediately assume there’s some kind of weird background influence tricks that marketers employ to get them to buy stuff. So when they want to sell stuff themselves, that’s what they go looking for: The behind-the-curtain secrets that only a bunch of round-table marketers use to control the minds of millions.

They go about using fancy scripts to use the count-down timer thing. They flawlessly implement scarcity by warning their visitors that this is a limited quantity only offer and yes, they intend to keep their word. Then of course they included pages and pages of testimonials. They did everything right but yet no sale came through.

It’s how well you know your customers that is making the difference, not how well you employ sales tricks.

What happened?

I hate to be the one telling you the secret but there really is NO SECRET. If selling is as easy as implementing sales ju-jit-su, everyone would be rich by now. Sales ju-jit-su is the easy part… and it works only if you get the foundation right. What’s the foundation?

The You-Attitude

It’s something I like to call “the you-attitude”. I’ll be discussing the concept in my upcoming book “Sales Copy QuickFix v 2.0″ in-depth but here’s a little preview.

The you-attitude is all about knowing your customers. Who are they? What do they want? What are their core needs? What do they THINK they want? Why do they want what they want? These are but some questions you should already know the answer to.

When you address their core needs is when you create desire. And desire, in turn, creates motivation to act. How intense that desire - and therefore motivation - is, can be manipulated by sales ju-jit-su. But if there’s no desire in the first place, there’s really no need for ju-jit-su.

That’s why no matter how many “tricks” a marketer use, he’s not going to sell you a sewing machine if you’re not interested in buying one. Successful marketers stick to the very basic element of selling - that is bartering a solution to a problem for money. You have to have something valuable to your prospects and show them that you have it.

It’s how well you know your customers that is making the difference, not how well you employ sales tricks that makes the difference. The better you know your customers, the easier and the more you sell. That’s the law of nature that is never going to change… That’ how it has been 5000 years go and that’s how it is today.

That’s why Zig Ziglar once said, “You could have anything you want only if you help people have what they want.”

Easy enough right?

Yet if your sirf around the net, you’d see that most people don’t know what they are doing. Their websites are all about themselves as an expert, or their product as the leader in the market, or their service as the best.

It’s never about their customers! That violates the very law of nature!

No one cares if you’re an expert or just another junkie. No one care about how well crafted your product is. No one cares about how good your service is. They care only about what you can do for them.

Let’s use the eczema industry as an example. Eczema is a kind of skin disease that turns skin dry, red and itchy. There are mainly two types of websites that exist when I first entered the market a few years ago:

There are several websites promoting the services of M.Ds. Those websites talk about how well-qualified they are, a picture of them and their contact details. Obviously they should stick to medicine and let marketers do the marketing.

Then there are websites that promoted alternative solutions like cleansing, essential oils and other stuff. Again, most of those website are about how their product is 100% organic, hand made and “made of highest quality…”. Then there’s a big picture of the product and a huge banner on top. But they do have before and after pictures that showed results. No immediately noticeable words that communicate the “you-attitude” though.

I think the only reason they survived is because eczema is an extremely painful disease. If they were in the internet marketing industry, they would have sold a single thing!

So what I did is I built a simple, sales letter type website that communicates I understand what they are looking for. No fancy graphics. No fancy flash websites and no fancy product shot. What happened? Let’s just say I still make a significant amount of my living from that site!

Now, I’m sure you can think of examples of websites that don’t “get it”… these sites tend to be e-commerce sites taking the supermarket approach. They assumed that if people landed on their site, that means they want to buy something… just like they would in a supermarket… so all they do is display their products.

You should know better by now.

Photo by Patty O’Hearn Kickham

Do you know what’s a bounce rate? Do you know what’s yours?

The bounce rate is the number of people who landed on your webpage and did not either

1. Click through to another page or
2. Stay longer than 30 seconds

It shows your website’s ability to not only capture the attention of your prospective readers but also engages them. If you have an advertising campaign going on, it would show you how targeted the people you’re bringing in are.

This blog’s bounce rate, for example, is a great 28%. It averaged at about 39% just before I started writing articles for Thou Shall Blog and other websites plus a few well-known article directories like Ezine Articles. Therefore the readers I’m bringing in are likely to be  more targeted than before.

How to keep bounce rates low?

Bringing in more targeted readers is but one way to keep bounce rates low. Here are a few more tips:

1. Have no more than one purpose in a single page. This doesn’t quite apply to blogs. If you run a traditional website, make sure every page has one focus only. I’ve more quadrupled my client’s conversion rate (sales and opt-in) just by removing adsense from their squeeze and sales page. If you are running a blog, make it very clear what you want your readers to do. For example, in this blog, you’d know that my main purpose is to get people to sign up for my newsletter because that box is the most attention-drawing element on it.
2. Make navigation easy by including a search box and a distinct navigation tab.
3. Have a great design. It needn’t be anything fancy but your design have to easy on the eyes. For example, using white words on a black background is definitely a no-no. A big fancy header don’t normally improve your bounce rate but a great headline definitely would.
4. Use images to capture attention and place your main message as a caption because captions are about 400% more likely to be read than your body copy.
5. Track and test. If you don’t which design would do better, test out different versions. In the first few months of this blog, I changed the theme of this blog 7 times before settling on this one because it gave me the lowest bounce rate and the highest conversion.

It really is that easy. Try it out.

P.S. If you are just getting started with this bounce rate thing, check out the free Google Analytics. There more sophisticated tools out there but this does job all the same.

Don't forget to take breaks once every 2 hours or so

Photo by Nattu

“The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” - Bertrand Russell

In the busy world we live in today, taking are often take a back seat. It’s often viewed as laziness and reluctance to work. There’s this belief ingrained in all of us that hard work = good and if you do nothing, you’re wasting your time.

I don’t agree. Some of you might be wondering where I’ve disappeared to in the past 2 weeks. Well, I went for an impromptu get away. My wife saw a Gold Coast ad one day and we just decided to go the next day (one of the perks of working form home). I tied some loose ends that night and we head off, initially deciding to stay there for 2 to 3 days but we got hooked at stayed there for a whole 13 days.

To tell you the truth, I take some 3 - 4 months worth of breaks every year, most of the time in 14 days block.

Why? Well, it’s not that I hate work. I love it. But it doesn’t matter what much you love your job, there’s just no way anyone could do what they do 24/7 for the whole year and not get bored with it. There’s just no way it wouldn’t catch up to you.

But it doesn’t matter what much you love your job, there’s just no way anyone could do what they do 24/7 for the whole year and not get bored with it.

Breaks allows you to recharge not just your battery, it also allows you to recharge your passion for what you do. With burning passion and a clear mind, who knows what you can achieve? Taking breaks also allows me to be far more productive than I could ever be if I had worked all year like most people do. I’ve tried it and I know.

When to take breaks?

Do you know what’s the circadian rhythm? It’s the rhythm in which you sleep at night and wake up in the morning. If you record what time you sleep every night and what time you wake up every morning, you’d find that they are mostly the same every work day. Then there’s another pattern for weekends.

And not only is the time you go to sleep fairly consistent, how long you sleep would also be fairly unchanging.

That’s the circadian rhythm. If you disrupted that rhythm but staying up late and sacrificing sleep for a prolonged period of time, you’d find you body start to deteriorate.

But did you know there’s a much smaller rhythm in play? It’s called the ultradian rhythm. That’s where you’d find you get tired every 90 - 120 mins. So remember to take 10 minutes breaks there.

The rhythm I want to talk about here is your yearly rhythm. I don’t know if they have a name for this. It’s where you take breaks in certain periods of time every year. Most people could taking breaks during the Christmas - New Year period. Imagine if your boss were to demand that you go to work that week.

Would you be fine with that?

That’s because he’s distrupting your rhythm. If he does that to you for a prolonged period of time, you’d find yourself deteriorating emotionally. Imagine yourself missing out on the Christmas fun, family gatherings and parties. It’s what would happen to your body when you distrupting your circadian rhythm.

So here’s what I want you to do. Take a look at your life and identify what is your yearly rhythm. When the time comes, go ahead and enjoy yourself. Don’t deprive yourself of that break because you NEED it.

Keeping your readers hooked is as easy as building chains in your writing

Photo by Kevin Wong

Have you ever read a book so good you can’t seem to put it down? It’s like you’re a giant metal and an extremely powerful magnet has just came near you. You keep your face buried under that book for the rest of the day, or sometimes even for the rest of the week, all while neglecting work commitments and chores.

I know I’ve been there and while most of the books I can’t put down are fiction, there are a handful of sales copies that I consumed from start to finish in one seating. Naturally, I studied them. How did they make me, a busy man, stop my other priorities to sit down here and let them pitch to me?

I dedicated a whole weekend to study them. There are a lot of great lessons that I found but here’s probably one of the best: the correct use of connectors and disconnectors.

What are connectors and how can I use them keep my readers hooked?

Connectors are words that connects one idea to another. Some connector words are “therefore”, “but”, “then” and so on. You get the idea. Connectors keep your writing flowing and writings that flow keep readers in a trance.

As long as they are in a trance, they’ll keep reading.

As long as they are in a trance, they’ll keep reading.

The problem is, our brain often work quite the opposite. When newbies write, their brain would normally jump from one idea to another because they have so much to say and so their writing appears chopped and broken. Nothing flows.

I want you to read through your writing and hunt for disconnects. Here’s an example.

“Headline is the most powerful element of a sale copy because it grabs attention and gets your copy read. To craft a powerful headline, one of the most important element you need is curiosity. Curiosity occurs when there’s a disconnect in thoughts.

Specificity is also another important element of a headline…”

See how there’s a disconnect between curiosity and specificity? One moment you’re reading about curiosity and the next it’s specificity. It creates an itch that wakes readers from their trance (There’s a correct way to use disconnects and I’ll show it you later in this article). Now let’s take a look at an example of how to do with connectors.

“Headline is the most powerful element of a sale copy because it grabs attention and gets your copy read. To craft a powerful headline, one of the most important element you need is curiosity. Curiosity occurs when there’s a disconnect in thoughts.

But curiosity alone will not get your sales copy read if your readers that don’t believe you. That’s where specificity come in. Specificity is also another important element of a headline that…”

See how it flows now? That “But” is the connection between curiosity and specificity.

What are disconnectors and how can I use them to hook my readers?

Connectors keep your readers hooked. But you can’t KEEP someone hooked unless you hook them in the first place right?

You see, there’s a certain limit as to the efficiency of curiosity. You can’t keep readers hooked on one curious object forever

Disconnectors, should only be used for that purpose - to hook your readers. The example above is the WRONG way to use disconnects because it doesn’t create curiosity. Here’s an example for the RIGHT way to use disconnects.

“John is a middle aged man who was just fired form his job. He suspects his wife is about to get a divorce because their marriage has always been rocky and unemployment would surely tip the scale. He sat down one day to write a “goodbye” note. With a rope in one hand, he climbed onto a chair to tighten one end to the ceiling fan.

‘David! Get over here!’ Mary shouted. Mary is a mother of 3, David, John and Peter….”

Are you curious what is going to happen to John? There’s an obvious disconnect between the paragraphs and that’s done on purpose to hook the customer in before the “boring” part of the story. And in that “boring” part of the story, there’ll a lot of connectors to keep the readers hooked until they get to another interesting disconnect.

This combination of connects and disconnects pulls you back and forth like any TV drama would.

You see, there’s a certain limit as to the efficiency of curiosity. You can’t keep readers hooked on one curious object forever. Once a certain amount reading turned up nothing, they are bound to give up. That’s why you have to create more curiousity to keep them hooked.

When you disconnect, make sure you create

Photo: tango in black by Zabara Alexander

It’s no news that people are influenced by the opinions of an authority. It’s like in the picture. When you want to learn tango, you listen to your tango teacher right?

If she asks you do a particular type of exercise, you do it. If she asks you to put up your leg in a certain way, you follow. If she recommends a certain shoes… you go buy them. Same logic applies to any kind of authority.

But you already know that. The point of this post is to help you realize just how much we obey authority. It’s definitely more than you think.

Would you murder if an authority commands you to do it?

A study conducted in 1962 by a psychologist named Stanley Milgram showed that about 65% of the subjects agreed to administer 450v of electric shocks (potentially fatal) for up to 3 times, just because an authority figure ordered them to do so.

A study conducted in 1962 by a psychologist named Stanley Milgram showed that about 65% of the subjects agreed to administer potentially fatal shocks for up to 3 times

But why does an authority have so much influence over us, mere mortals?

For one, we tend to conform to group norms. Second, it’s something called an Agentic State. When an authority figure says something to someone, they go into the agentic state.

That’s where people shift responsibility for their action to the authority and considers themselves as instruments. That’s why you hear people complaining about the government. Kids blaming teachers for failing their exams. Patients accusing doctors of poisoning them instead of curing them.

So how can I be an authority?

Now that you know being an authority drastically helps you make some moola, here’s how to build it.

The easiest way to do it is to simply educate. When you educate, you demonstrate your expertise and you become an authority figure. Simple.

There are many ways in which you can educate. There’s

1. Blog posts.
2. Ezine articles.
3. Newsletters.
4. Free e-books.
5. Making online videos.
6. Podcasts.

And the list doesn’t end there.

I already know that. Why aren’t I an authority yet?

The problem with newbies is that they tend to hold back their best information.

Here’s an example. Let’s say I’m a new weight loss guru. I decided to write an article to establish my authority. What do I write about? Well, the same thing every other weight loss guru is writing about.

“How to lead a healthy lifestyle”. In it, I write about how you should eat more vegetables, drink more water, exercise at least 3 times a week and stay away from fatty food. Technically, those advice DO help my readers lead a healthier lifestyle.

They should be happy right? Heck no!

Because any Tom, Dick and Harry already knows that. It’s just like one of those “How to write compelling headline” articles you find in article directory. It’s junk.

What you want to do when you educate is you want to SHOW your expertise. Tell them what they don’t already know.

Let’s continue with the weight loss example. Instead of talking about “How to lead a healthy lifestyle”, I talk about “How vegetables clean your blood”. See how it delivers more punch now?

It’s because I talk about an extremely niche subject but I drilled deep into it.

It’s not something everyone knows and it shows I know what I’m talking about. It shows I’ve done my research and it immediately establishes me as an expert.

Bottomline: Write one inch wide, one mile deep articles.

Bottomline: Write one inch wide, one mile deep articles.

I’m still not convinced. Any alternatives to education?

Sure there are.

1. Get a qualification from a popular institution.
2. Acquire glowing testimonials and proudly display them.
3. Do a case study of someone you’ve helped (a fancy testimonial).
4. Get someone else to say how good you are.
5. Appear like you are professional (and you will get treated as a professional).

But here’s a fair warning. Without education, these alternatives don’t work as well as they could have because education don’t just establish you as an authority. It also builds trust like nothing you’ve ever seen.

Coming up with great headlines needn't be such headaches!

Photo by John Steven Fernandez

I’m sure you already know the headline is the most crucial element in any sort of writing. I’m not going to dwell on that.

Instead, I’m not just going straight into HOW to craft headlines that makes people to STOP their busy schedule and READ what you have to say… I will also teach you WHICH headlines gets the most conversion. Because at the end of the day, it’s not the amount of readers you get that you care. It’s the amount of readers who took your desired action.

Before I start, let me tell you that approaching this subject with a simple list of tips is very much useless. I’m wasting neither yours nor my time with that. If you want that, you should leave.

Instead, I would like to take a more holistic approach. To do that, you’ve got to understand human psychology. Understand what makes people click. So head over there, educate yourself first then continue with this article.

Once you know what makes people click, you’ve got a pretty clear picture of how to do this. Now let’s make it clearer.

Capturing The Interests of Your Target Customers?

Imagine two cavemen.

They were hiking through a thick jungle. The day ended before they managed to reach the other end. The set up camp and they slept.

Caveman A heard a rustling in the middle of the night. He woke up, looked around and armed himself with his spear. Caveman B also heard the rustling but decided to ignore it.

Who do think survived if it was an attack?

Millions of years and a lot of sacrificial caveman B later, our brains soon caught up. And here’s the lesson it learned: If there’s a problem, stand up and pay attention. Capturing attention is as easy as easy using problem-oriented headlines like this article has.

Copywriters who have problems writing compelling headlines would immediately notice it. There’s no doubt about that.

But that’s not enough, is it? You want people to KEEP reading it.

The Power of a Question

It’s amazing how our brain are attacted to problems. It’s even more amazing how our brain is unable to NOT answer a question.

Read that headline again. Did you find yourself trying to answer it? If you didn’t, I suggest you get your head checked because NORMAL brains are supposed to. It’s just natural instinct.

And as you answer that question, I’ve got you involved in the copy. Now you’re not just a passive readers, you’re also an active participant in the copy…

When you’re an active participant, and you’ve got that problem… yet you can’t answer the question, what happens?

You read the copy for answers, don’t you? Or your brain would bug you until you find out what is it that makes headlines fail.

It Really Is That Easy

Really. Use a combination of problem-based element and question-based element and you’re 90% above all other online copywriters out there.

But remember. Rules are meant to be broken. (Although you have to know the rules first before you can break them.)

That’s where the psychological triggers come in. Use your creativity and integrate different triggers into the lessons you’ve learnt here. I can guarantee you’ll see results also overnight.

Just don’t forget to test them.

Writing needn’t be such hard work

Photo by Kendra

Are you a newbie writer struggling to weave your words everyday? Are you a pro looking to improve your craft? Then listen up.

Ever wonder why it’s so damn diffult to write up a good article even though you’ve listened to more writing courses than you care and you’ve read more books on writing than you can remember? What if I told you the problem doesn’t lie in the education you’re getting?

Heck, it’s not even your fault.

The problem is in how you learn to write. Or rather, how you’ve been taught to learn.

You see, writing is not that much different to sports. When you want to learn how to play a certain sport, can you learn it from a textbook? Heck no!

That’s because you when you play, you don’t let your conscious mind control your body. Every major players in sports goes into a trance when they are in the game. It’s what they like to call “second nature”.

And when they are in “the zone”, they let their instinct and reactions do their job. If they ever try to consciously take over, they immediately “lose their touch”.

I’m sure you’ve had similar experience.

Same principle goes to just about anything you can think of. If you want to get good at writing, you have to be in that zone too.

But you see, the problem is that when you educate yourself by listening to courses and reading books, you educate only your conscious mind. You’re only consciously aware of the principles of great writing. When it comes to really write, your mind goes blank.

It’s like math. You listen to your teacher’s 3 hour lecture and at the end of the class, you still don’t know how solve the problem.

How to really absorb all those writing education you’re getting

To really GET what your math teacher is talking about, you have to SOLVE math problems. Over and over and over again until it’s your second nature. Until just a glance is required for you to KNOW the answer.

When it comes to writing, the best way to absorb education is to WRITE.

Take a piece of your favorite author’s work and copy it. By hand, not type.  When you copy someone else’s work, you’re absorbing their hidden techniques that you don’t consciously detect.

That’s how Gary Halbert, John Carlton, Michael Masterson and any master copywriters came to perfecting their craft.

And it’s only now that science has a reason for it.

As it turns out, when masters are in “the zone”, their reptilian (or limbic) brain takes over. The limbic brain has no capacity for logic, reason or any sort of objectivity. It’s pure instinct and it allows you to ACT without consciously thinking.

But when you educate yourself by listening and reading, it’s your cerebral cortex that gets it. Cerebral cortex is the source of logical thinking.

And as it turns out, different parts of the brain don’t communicate well with each other…. unless your brain has tons of connections between its brain cells called dendrites.

Guess what creates more dendrites and neural pathways between different parts of your brain?

Repeated activities!

The more you practice a certain activity, the stonger that pathway becomes, the better you get at it. It really is THAT simple.

So don’t let negative people put you down by saying you don’t have talent for what you do. What a load of bull.

It’s practice that counts.