• How copywriters and their clients can get bigger winners, more often …
• How business owners and marketing execs can get a copywriter’s best …
• How one of the greats gets more assignments than he can handle …
• How you can multiply your income without writing one more word than you’re writing now …
• And much, MUCH MORE!

Welcome, Business-Builder!

Gawd, I love copywriters.

• Legends like Gary Bencivenga, Jim Rutz and others – pioneers and geniuses who’ve been so generous with their wisdom over the years.
• Today’s hottest "A" level writers – Arthur Johnson, Eric Beutel, Parris Lampropoulos, Carline Anglade-Cole and others – because I learn something that’ll make me a bundle every time I read them.
• Most of all, I love the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young guns just breaking into this business, because they remind me of, well … me. They’re younger, thinner and better looking to be sure – but so was I, once. Their enthusiasm is contagious.

I want you to meet a copywriter I’ve seen go from fledgling to top gun at the speed of light – a guy who took his rightful place at the top of the "A" List several years ago and whose accomplishments have pretty much guaranteed him future installation in the Copywriter’s Hall of Fame …

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There are three things that will slaughter response rates on your Web pages.

If you could recognize them, and banish them from all of your Web pages, your response rates would instantly soar.

What are they?

Savage response rate killer #1 — Boredom

If your website visitors can’t get excited about what they find on your website, your response rate will suck.

Remember, there are only two reasons people visit your website: To obtain pleasure or avoid pain. If what they find there fails to promise one or both, it is by definition, boring. 

You’d think this would be obvious, but it’s not.

Most of the websites I visit online are like the actor who said, “Enough of me talking about myself. What do you think about me?”

Your website is NOT about your company or your product. It’s about your prospect. Keep him at the center of the dialog. Appeal to his self-interest. And you’ll have his attention.

Once you’ve got it. Keep it. How? By continually foreshadowing what comes next, slowly lifting the veil on all of the juicy secrets your prospect needs in order to obtain the object of his desire.

Self-interest and curiosity are critical to maintaining your reader’s interest. But there’s more to the boredom banishing formula …

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If you’re not already taking advantage of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to pull qualified traffic to your site, now’s the time! PPC is hands-down the fastest way to get targeted traffic to your site.

But did you know it’s also a lean, mean testing machine?

That’s right. This HUGE ADVANTAGE comes from the ability to quickly test, track, compare, and tweak your ads.

Use your results to decide what new keywords to optimize your site for. Figure out what types of opt-in offers get the best results. Use it to help you write top-performing copy for your website and landing pages. You can even use it to optimize the text in your meta description tags — which Google displays with your URL in the organic search results.

You can harness the power of your own pay-per-click campaign in just five simple steps:

1. Set up a Google AdWords campaign.
2. Set up your PPC conversion tracker.
3. Split-test versions of your ads.
4. Find out which ad pulls the highest click-throughs and conversions.
5. Use your top-performing campaign elements to optimize your website!

Let’s start by making sure the basic elements of your AdWords campaign are in place.

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Dear Business-Builder,

My great - whatever - Ty Cobb: Hard as nails.

My mom’s cousin married Ty Cobb’s son, Herschel. Since I’m not good at math, I can’t really tell you what that makes me. Ty Cobb’s grand nephew once removed? I dunno.

But still, I’ve always been proud to be related — even distantly — to the man who invented modern baseball. So a few years ago, I read Cobb: A Biography by Al Stump and later, watched the movie starring Tommy Lee Jones.

Great book; good flick. Not because they heralded Cobb’s exploits on the field, but because they painted a crystal-clear picture of the man behind the legend.

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Having just wrapped up my Wild West Marketing and Wealth Summit, I have been reflecting on what made it good – and what needs improvement. 

I host two seminars a year of my own, and I usually attend two others, hosted by others. 

On top of that, I run a local monthly marketing group that meets once a month in Calgary.

Why would I do all this?

To me, it is the quickest and most effective way to enhance my knowledge and grow my revenues. 

Surrounding yourself with like-minded, success-driven entrepreneurs is a MUST.

Constantly learning and evolving is also just as important.

That said, I have been reflecting back on some of my greatest lessons learned from both hosting and attending business building conferences. 

For the next two weeks, I am going to share with you some of my greatest lessons, condensed into some bite-sized nuggets you can use.

On with it …

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Dear Business-Builder,

This issue of THE TOTAL PACKAGE will make everybody money – including you!

If you’re a business owner, marketing pro or copywriter, good graphic design is absolutely essential to producing peak response to your sales promotions. I’ve seen poor design cut sales by half or even more. Conversely, I’ve seen stronger graphic design bump response by 20% or even more.

If you’re a designer, reading this may be the most important fifteen minutes of your career. Because I’m going to tell you what’s what. If you can follow some simple guidelines, you’ll be booked solid. I’ll probably be the first in line to hire you!

First, a quick disclaimer …

I am NOT an “anti-artite!”

Please forgive me if anything I’m about to say offends you. Despite what you may think, I really like most of the graphics people I’ve worked with.

I helped put two kids through art school.

Some of my best friends – Ed Elliott, Rob Davis, Larry Owen and Brian Wilson, for example – are designers.

I even gave my blessing when my daughter married an artist.

But we’ve got to talk. Because sometimes, you guys drive me nuts. Much of what I see in first draft art – and a LOT of what I see on the Internet and in the mail – is abysmal.

And the fact is, if I get one more graphics draft with the same old blunders in it, my head’s going to explode.

So please – have a seat … you’re about to get your advanced degree – from The Makepeace School of Art and Design …

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Dear Web Business-Builder,

From a young age, we are appointed.

Appointed by our parents … old enough to stay home alone. Appointed by our institutions … educated enough to enter the full time work force. Appointed by our employers … responsible enough for promotion.

Important question: Have you become mentally conditioned by all this external appointment?

Have you given your power to someone or something outside of yourself?

Could this be the invisible Great Wall of China that’s blocking you from rocketing toward your goals and reaching your full potential?

For most of us, to one degree or another, the answer is “yes." Take a look at this note I received from one of my subscribers earlier this week:

“I have a few questions re: your material …

1. Is this setup as a correspondence study course or is it just ideas to use for implementation?  Does the material guide you on how to write good, strong copy?  Is there anyone who critiques you on your assignments?  Or is it all up to one’s own imagination and assumptions?
2. How does your material compare to the American Writers and Artists Institute – 6 figure copywriting?  Or to the Institute of Copywritng course?  Or to any other course out there … ?
3. Is it possible to become a successful copywriter without prior experience in finance or marketing?  Without a college degree in journalism, finance, marketing …?
4. Do your materials also include how to improve one’s writing skills, language usage …?

“I’m very much interested in the field of copywriting.  I believe I have a flair with words as well as a good way of expression.  However, I’ve done extensive research online as well as perused the copywriting opportunities available, and I keep coming to the same conclusion.  

“It seems the only way to truly succeed in the copywriting field is to have an accredited history in finance, journalism, or/and marketing as well as experience in the aforementioned fields.  Being familiar with Web design and computer graphics doesn’t seem to hurt either.  Many accomplished copywriters have refuted the idea of being able to master copywriting and succeed in the field by simply taking a copywriting course whether online or by correspondence (which doesn’t even seem to be what you’re offering). 

“Therefore I question you, as well as other courses, which claim that after completing your/their material one can become a successful copywriter and earn … 

“How can you distort reality just in order to sell your product or promote your course?  How can you convince people of unbelievable, unattainable goals?  Is this another marketing gimmick?  Since you guys are the masters of copywriting, perhaps you’re pulling the wool over the consumer’s eyes and convincing them of twisted truths … all for your benefit.  UNLESS … perhaps you can convince me otherwise.”

If it weren’t for the rather cheeky last paragraph, I might have sent this woman a constructive response. As it was, I simply replied: “Thanks for writing. With all due respect, I don’t think this is for you.” Who needs customers like this?

I can only imagine what kind of “research” could have possibly led her to these erroneous conclusions. I mean honestly, “an accredited history in finance, journalism, and/or marketing as well as experience in the aforementioned fields.” I can’t think of more onerous liability, can you? Where do these self-defeating delusions come from?

I’ll tell you …

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In this BULLET you’ll discover the two most powerful words in advertising and how to use them to explode your response fairly easily and consistently.

Which Headline Pulled Best?

First, to illustrate the secret, can you guess which of these two magalog headlines was the big winner for a financial newsletter?

HEADLINE A: (next to photo of financial guru, Charles J. Givens):

If you’ve got 20 minutes a month,
I guarantee to work a financial miracle
in your life.

(caption under photo)

Charles J. Givens, the self-made $200-millionaire,
entrepreneur and best-selling financial author of all time.

HEADLINE B: (same photo and caption):

The Millionaire Maker

(subhead) Can he make YOU rich, too?

* * *

Which of these headlines absolutely smashed the other in a split-run test, out pulling it by a huge margin and becoming a profitable control for years?

Rather than just tell you the winner, let me describe how you could know in advance, once you understand the two most powerful words in advertising today.

By the way, no BULLET you will ever read will give you more sheer power to boost your response consistently, beat existing control packages easily and create your own blockbuster products than the simple yet profound secret I will now share. Yet I doubt if you have ever read this anywhere, even if you have been a lifelong student of advertising.

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Dear Business-Builder,

What a great weekend!

The Redhead and I spent the last few days at The Wentworth Mansion in Charleston, touring historic Revolutionary-War era homes and eating way too much low country food …

Frankly, I had too much fun to write an issue over the weekend.  And this morning, with IndyMac going belly-up … Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac imploding … Bernanke and Paulson kicking the printing presses into hyperdrive … and an explosion in emergency projects for my two favorite clients, I simply don’t have time to publish my issue today.

But, we are ready to announce the winners in last week’s twin challenges:

The winners of the “Best Sales Letter” challenge are:

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With The Ultimate Desktop Copy Coach now out, you have seen the immense potential of the right words to the right market. 

This is an incredible program for those who want to take their marketing to a new level.

Today, I want to discuss an area that many small business owners struggle with – yet it will instantly add to the results you are getting. 

Case in point …

A while back, a company hired me to write some sales copy for a seminar promotion – some autoresponders for the drip campaign and a landing page for teleseminars.

Which I did.

I also gave them a marketing plan and some copy to recruit joint venture partners.

A few months later, I got a call from them claiming the copy wasn’t working.

When I pressed them on the stats, here is what I got: 22 signups for the seminar at $2,497 each = $54,934 in revenues - a very healthy return on the copywriting investment.

So what was their problem?

They thought they should have 50 people.

Upon further investigation:

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