I was gazing out the window of a small, out-of-the-way bookshop in Barcelona’s Gothic district. Time had stopped.
In my hands was a leather-bound 1948 edition of Hemingway’s a Farewell To Arms. But I had long left off reading, lost in reveries of distant moments and faces long gone.
A notification on my iPhone 12 mini brought me back to reality — a handcrafted question from a reader, full of enigma and intrigue:
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Hi John,
I recently saw an email for your MVE course. I didn’t realize you had so many.
Do you have a list of all of your courses floating around somewhere? I can’t seem to find them on your website.
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The fact is, I have been thinking for a while about creating a page on my site where I list all my offers.
A kind of catalog page.
That’s why I started off writing this email in a J. Peterman catalog style — lots of adjectives, some Old-World glamour, a touchy-feely snapshot to start.
I even got ChatGPT just now to condense the sales pages for my various courses into J. Peterman language. Here’s what it gave me for my Copy Riddles course:
Copy Riddles unveils itself as a transformative journey into the art of copywriting. It’s a tool, a guide, a companion on a path less traveled, designed to implant the wisdom of A-list copywriters into the eager mind. Each “round” of this game-like experience is a step closer to…
Kind of funny in its self-importance… but also annoying.
I realized this is exactly the kind of writing I’ve always hated. And it’s the kind of copy I never want to be associated with.
So instead of J. Peterman fluff, here’s my own, bare-bones description of everything I offer at the moment:
Copy Riddles: A new way for marketers and copywriters to own A-list copywriting skills more quickly than you would ever believe.
Big course, expensive, but also the best thing I sell, at least if you want to learn the lucrative skill of sales copywriting.
Most Valuable Email: The most valuable “trick” I have found to produce engaging, influential, and audience-building emails about copywriting and marketing.
This is the secret sauce of what makes my emails to this list work. People love this course, and many have even used the Most Valuable Email trick profitably in their own marketing.
Simple Money Emails: A simple, “hypnotic,” 1-2 process to make more money from your email list today, and keep your readers coming back tomorrow.
In a nut, how to write effective, no-frills sales emails in any market. Distilled from my experience writing close to 2,000 such emails.
10 Commandments Of A-List Copywriters: Control-Beating Breakthroughs From Gary Bencivenga, Gene Schwartz, Jim Rutz & More.
Kindle book. Quick. Short. $5.
Over the past couple years, I’ve also had other courses, and I will make some of them available again soon.
I will also create a catalog page on my site where add all these offers.
Meanwhile, we’ve reached the bottom of this email. I don’t know what to do now, because I don’t have a link to end with.
So let me simply invite your eyes to caress the exotic and luxurious copy describing the four offers above — the four pillars of my house of wisdom. Choose whichever of these jewels strikes your fancy, and follow the link to peruse the rich and distinctive sales page waiting for you, like a cozy home, on the other side.