A few days ago, I came across a trending science article with the headline:
“These cancer cells wake up when people sleep”
From what my zero-biology-classes-in-college brain could understand, researchers have made an important new discovery.
Cancer cells in one part of the body are most likely to spread to other parts of the body — a dangerous process called metastasis — while we sleep.
In other words, sleep — usually a good thing – suddenly becomes threatening and dangerous if you have cancer.
I guess this is big news in the science community and might lead to new ways to stop cancer from metastasizing.
But I’m not part of the science community. I’m part of the direct response copywriting community.
And so I mused that, were I in the business of selling important new health information, like Boardroom used to do, I might sell this breakthrough research with a provocative headline:
“How living next to train tracks can stop cancer”
The reason I thought this immediately was because the above science story reminded me of what I think is the greatest bullet of all time:
“How a pickpocket can cure your back pain”
That bullet was written by A-list copywriter David Deutsch in control package for Boardroom, back in the 2000s. David’s brilliant bullet has a clever underlying structure, which I modeled for my would-be headline/bullet above.
Perhaps you can parse exactly what I did with my bullet above. Or perhaps you know the story behind David’s bullet and therefore don’t need to parse what I did.
But if not, you can find the background of David’s bullet, including a breakdown of his clever technique, in Round 10A of my Copy Riddles program.
But let me put it this way:
Living next to train tracks can transform your copywriting skills.
Because enrollment for Copy Riddles closes later today, at 12 midnight PST.
If you haven’t signed up yet, and if you’re sleeping fitfully when the deadline hits, you will miss the enrollment window, and you will have to wait who-knows-how-long to enroll and find out the secret (and more importantly, the copywriting lesson) behind David’s bullet.
So trains rumbling outside your window might actually be a good thing in this case.
On the other hand, if you got no rumbling trains to count on, then you can always sign up now, while you’re still awake and while your mind is fresh and on it. Here’s the link: