Gene Schwartz

Yet another paranormal Bejako email

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“And the copy writer does not create the desire of millions of women all over America to lose weight; but he can channel that desire onto a particular product, and make its owner a millionaire.”
— Gene Schwartz, Breakthrough Advertising

This past January, I sent out an email in which I told the story of how I magically “manifested” a lost license plate from my car.

The point of that email was that, in spite of being a very skeptical and critical person at times, I am also incredibly attracted to the possibility of real magic.

That’s why I often engage in wishful-magical thinking.

​​And that’s why I’ve repeatedly had “magical” things happen in my life.

Today, I want to give you an update on that — some theory of what real magic is. You might find this theory personally inspiring, or you might even find it useful in your own marketing.

The theory comes from an article I read today, titled When Magic Was Real. The article was written by the very interesting Alexander Macris on his Contemplations on the Tree of Woe Substack channel.

In the article, Macris cites the results of a parapsychology experiment:

60 people were split into four groups. Each group was either given chocolate blessed by a priest or ordinary, zero-blessing chocolate.

In addition, each group was told (truly or falsely) that their chocolate was either blessed or unblessed.

In other words, each of the four groups had a different combination of (belief in blessedness) x (actual blessedness) of the chocolate they were eating.

The experiment ran for a week. Participants were tested for effects on their mood.

So what do you think happened?

Did actual blessing create real benefits?

Or did belief in the blessing — aka the placebo effect — create real benefits?

Or was there no effect at all?

It turns out there was an effect. But the result might surprise you:

The only group that had a significant improvement in mood was the group that 1) got the truly blessed chocolate and that 2) was told that the chocolate was blessed.

Yes, this experiment might be bogus. But if like me, you are attracted to the possibility of miracles and magic, then just run with it for a moment.

Based on this experiment, Macris puts forward his theory:

“Magic is the product of belief x belief. It’s the product of my belief that I’ve blessed chocolate and your belief that you’ve eaten chocolate I blessed. And these beliefs must both be positive. If I don’t believe, it won’t work, even if you are a true believer. If you don’t believe, it won’t work, even if I’m a true believer. Belief x zero is zero.”

True? Who knows. But if it is true, I figure it has a couple consequences:

First, you gotta believe, and you gotta surround yourself with other gullible, uncritical people who are willing to believe without bothering to look closely at the evidence.

Your combined success, including the number of real miracles you experience, depends on it.

Second, rather than trying to persuade the people in your audience that your 28-day flat-belly challenge is really transformative, it might be better to make them believe in magic, in possibility, in miracles.

In other words, the ancient marketing dogma that it’s impossible or impractical to create desire is short-sighted, at least if you are trying to create real results for your customers — and to create customers who love to buy from you over and over.

So instead of just channeling existing desire onto your product, like Gene Schwartz says above, it might be better to focus on making your audience more inspired and motivated and hopeful in general.

Maybe you have your doubts. That’s fine. Don’t make up your mind now. Let the idea marinate there for a while.

​​Maybe you too will come to believe in believing. Our joint success hinges on it.

Anyways, on a mainly unrelated point:

Yesterday, I had the launch of my Most Valuable Postcard.

I magically got what I wanted, my first 20 subscribers, spread out across 11 countries.

I then closed down the order page, because 20 subscribers is all I wanted to start.

But I had people try to sign up afterwards (no-go) and even ask whether I have a waiting list.

Well I do now.

I’m not sure when or if will reopen the Most Valuable Postcard to new subscribers. But if I do, it will be a limited number of spots again.

So if you want to get a chance to be the first to sign up, then get on my regular mailing list here. And when you get my welcome email, hit reply and let me know you’d like to be added to the MVP waiting list as well.

Hot opportunity inside

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Today’s email will:

1. Amuse you
2. Tell you something personal and possibly shocking about me
3. Give you a valuable marketing idea you can use right now
4. Outrage you and give you a chance to feel superior
5. Share some saucy gossip about people you might know, at least online
6. Clue you in to a hot opportunity
7. Remind you of something valuable that you probably know but aren’t doing
8. Allow you to feel like you are making progress simply by reading
9. Give you a chance to think differently
10. Provide you with an experience of insight

Confession: Today I had absolutely no clue what to write. So I went back to a big list of good marketing ideas I’ve been collecting for years, and I found the following:

“Shortcut: Write out all the benefits you can think of before seeing the product. Then keep the ones that the product can satisfy.”

That’s from Milt Pierce, who according to according to A-list copywriter Bob Bly, was “the greatest copywriter you never heard of.”

Bob says that Milt was also one of the greatest copywriting teachers of the 20th century, which might be why I’ve heard versions of the above idea from a bunch of other A-list copywriters, including Parris Lampropoulos, Ted Nicholas, and John Carlton.

So for today’s email, I took Milt’s idea, came up with 10 possible benefits, and kept the four I could possibly deliver on.

But you might be wondering how I’ve delivered on #6, “Clue you in to a hot opportunity.”

The fact is, I heard Milt share the above advice in a special program, the “Gene Schwartz Graduate Course on Marketing.” This “Graduate Course” was more like a seminar of top copywriters and marketers, including Parris, Jay Abraham, and Ken McCarthy, going back and forth on the topic of Gene Schwartz and the marketing and copywriting lessons they squeezed out of the man.

The “Gene Schwartz Graduate Course” used to sell for hundreds of dollars. Then for many years, you couldn’t even get it at any price. But today, it’s yours free — well, “free” as in you gotta buy something, for $12.69, but then you get the Gene Schwartz course as a free bonus.

So what do you gotta buy?

If you check my list above, you won’t find “Charm you with a sales pitch” among today’s benefits. So for that, and for the full info on this hot opportunity, take a look below:

https://overdeliverbook.com/

Tell, don’t show

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Among copywriters, the most famous movie of all time is Lethal Weapon. That’s because Gene Schwartz, the author of Breakthrough Advertising, which is something like a bible in the field, once said that every copywriter should watch Lethal Weapon at least two or three times, preferably back to back.

Gene was recommending Lethal Weapon because of its BANG-talk-BOOM-talk-JOKE-BANG-BOOM-talk structure.

But Lethal Weapon is an influence gift that keeps on giving. For example:

In one early scene, we see Martin Riggs, a cop played by Mel Gibson, in the middle of a Christmas tree lot. Riggs is being used as a human shield by a cornered drug dealer, who is pointing a gun at Riggs’s head.

Riggs starts yelling to the gathering cops, who all have their guns out. “Shoot him! Shoot the bastard!”

The drug dealer is getting flustered. He begs Riggs to shut up.

​​Riggs keeps yelling. And in a flash, he turns around, grabs the gun from the drug dealer, headbutts him, and ends the standoff.

​​Next scene:

W​e see the same Martin Riggs, in his ramshackle trailer by the beach, late at night. He’s drinking and looking at a framed wedding photo of himself and his wife.

Riggs takes his gun and puts it inside his mouth. He tries to pull the trigger, but he can’t. He starts crying. “Oh, I miss you,” Riggs says to the picture.

Are you getting an idea of what kind of character Martin Riggs might be?

I hope so.

But in case not, there’s one more scene I want to tell you about. In fact, it’s the very next scene in the movie:

The police office psychologist is walking with the police captain through the police station. “May I remind you,” she says to the captain, “that his wife of 11 years was recently killed in a car accident? He’s on the edge, sir. I’m telling you he may be psychotic. You’re making a mistake by keeping him in the field. The man is suicidal.”

So now let me point out the obvious:

Probably the most famous bit of writing advice is to show and not tell.

And it’s good advice.

It’s almost as good as the advice to both show and tell, which is what’s happening in those Lethal Weapon scenes.

Because with buddy cop comedies, sales copy, and with influential writing as well, we are really not looking for people to draw their own conclusions.

Sure, it’s great if they conclude what we want them to, on their own. And that’s why we show them stuff.

But you don’t want to leave it there. You don’t want to give people any wiggle room. So that’s why you tell them your point as well as show it.

What? You say you knew that already? Or you say it’s so obvious that it doesn’t need to be pointed out?

Fine. So let me tell you something else, which might be genuinely new:

You can tell people stuff. Including stuff that’s not supported by the emotional visualization you just showed them.

Because an emotion is like syrup. It can be poured over anything… and once it’s poured onto the pancakes, it’s likely to spread all over the plate, to the sausages also.

That’s a super valuable idea, if you only grasp it.

​​In fact, all my emails are chock full of such super valuable ideas. If you want me to show you as well as tell you that, sign up for my newsletter here.

Should getting more client work really be this easy?

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The first advertorial I ever wrote, back in 2016, started off by telling the story of Arcan Cetin, a man who walked into a department store in Washington state, took out a shotgun, and shot four people, killing three of them. ​​

​​When Cetin finished his killing spree, he put the shotgun on the cosmetics counter and walked out of the store.

This advertorial promoted some kind of service to help people get a concealed weapon license. (In my research, I found out that the no. 1 reason people wanted a concealed weapon license was the fear of mass shootings.) The headline I used, a swipe of a classic Gene Schwartz headline, read:

“Should obtaining a concealed carry permit really be this easy?”

This advertorial must have done ok because the client hired me to write some more copy for him after that.

​​From what I could understand, he had a bunch of offers in the gun and gun training space, and he was running a ton of traffic to them.

I think I did a good job with those followup projects too, but really I never found out. ​​After I delivered those projects, the client didn’t ask me to write any more stuff. ​​When I tried following up with him a few months later — “Hey how’s it going? Do you need any more help with copy?” — I never heard back.

So here’s my tip for you today, in case you’re a copywriter who works with clients:

The early time in a client relationship is often the best time to really find out what a business does, to ask lots of questions, and to set yourself up so you maximize the LTV you can get with this client.

After all, when I first got hired by this guns-and-ammo guy, I got on a call with him, like I do with every other client. He was accommodating and open, and answered any questions I asked.

But here’s the thing. I only asked questions that were relevant to this one project.

Had I thought to find out a lot more about his business or businesses, beyond just the project I was hired for, I would have been in a much better place later, when I wanted him to hire me for more stuff.

The bigger point is this:

In my experience, many business owners think of hiring a copywriter as a one-time, unavoidable expense. Not in terms of money. But in terms of their attention and time.

Once that one time is over, business owners often want to put you out of mind, and get on to next things. You can slip off their radar easily. And if you follow up later by naively saying, “Hey, how’s it going, do you need help with anything?” — well, that just creates more work for them, not less.

So the next time you start work with a new client, become genuinely interested in their business, way beyond what is relevant to your own project.

Then squirrel away that knowledge, and use it later.

​​It might be the most unfairly easy way to get more client work down the line — without ever having to hunt for new clients.

And now, you might like to know I am preparing a guide all about the business side of succeeding as a copywriter. It’s called Copy Zone. If you’d like to find out more about it when it comes out, sign up for my email newsletter.

I’m sorry Ms. Jackson

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This one right here goes out to all the email copywriters… the business owners who write their own emails… maybe even those with a YouTube channel.

Here’s the story:​​

A few weeks ago, a music industry insider named Ted Gioia made a big splash by writing an article with the title:

“Is Old Music Killing New Music?”

Gioia had a bunch of stats and anecdotes to prove that old music — stuff that came out 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago — is crowding out the new music being produced today.

Gioia has his theory for why this is.

Basically, he says, record company execs just wants to get a piece of the American pie to take their bite out. So they keep giving people tried-and-true stuff. They’re not willing to take risks.

It’s short-term thinking, Gioia says. Because ironically, the execs are making themselves irrelevant in the process. But one way or another, the fact remains, in Gioia’s words:

“Never before in history have new tracks attained hit status while generating so little cultural impact.”

In my own uninformed yet subjective opinion, this is part of a bigger trend.

It’s not only music that’s getting old. I think it’s movies also, and perhaps other pop culture too.

This matters for marketers.

Because from what I’ve seen writing approximately a billion sales emails… pop culture always gets a great response.

Pop culture references turns you into a magician who can abracadabra a sales point… get people to enjoy it… and maybe even get them to buy.

So what exactly am I telling you?

Well, it’s the same thing that some 40 years ago, A-list copywriter Gene Schwartz said:

“If a movie does a hundred million dollars or more, especially a movie that does two hundred or three hundred million dollars or more, I would go to it two or three times.”

This is a good idea today just as it was in Gene’s time.

Go see blockbusters. But make sure you see the same ones that Gene was talking about, like Lethal Weapon and Home Alone and Pulp Fiction.

In other words, don’t take risks with any of this new stuff. Give people the tried-and-true. And keep doing it. Forever. Forever-ever. For-EVER-ever.

“Whoa there Bejako,” you say. ​”You’ve been handing out a lot of careless and maybe even harmful advice lately.”

Oh yeah, like what?​

“Well, like ​first you said to bet on the Bengals for the Super Bowl. We know how that turned out. Then a couple days ago you almost got me sucked into QAnon.”

That was an honest mistake.
​
“Whatever. The point is, now you’re telling me to pander to my audience with references to Fleetwood Mac and Kill Bill. But isn’t this the same short-term thinking as those record company execs? Won’t I be making myself irrelevant in the process?”

I don’t know. You might be right. I might be wrong. So all I can say is:

I’m sorry dear reader. I am for real. Never meant to send you bad advice. I apologize a trillion times.

But I’ll do more than apologize.

I’ll tell you how to avoid pandering and talk about pop culture your audience isn’t familiar with, without taking much of a risk. That’s in my email tomorrow. I hope you’ll read it. You and your mama.

Answers to life, the universe, and all direct response marketing questions

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If you’re looking for the answer to life, the universe, and all direct response marketing questions, then I have a computer you should talk to.

No, I mean it.

A real computer. It’s called Delphi. You tell it something. And using some computer magic plus an ever-updating database of previous moral judgments, Delphi tells you if your prompt is ethical or not… good or bad… moral or immoral.

I wanted to see if it worked at all. So I fed it a few prompts. And here’s what it spat back:

“Get rich” — it’s good

“Get rich slowly” — it’s okay

“Get rich quick” — it’s wrong

That’s encouraging. Maybe this Delphi really does know something.

Because the responses above are pretty much how a large part of the population feels about money.

They’d like to have more of it, maybe even much more. But they are not very enthusiastic about grinding it out over the years and decades they imagine it would really take. And yet, they have moral hangups about getting there quick — it must mean doing something sneaky or bad.

Ok, Delphi. Let’s see how you do with a few direct response classics. Here are a few promises made by Gene Schwartz, Chris Haddad, and Gary Halbert:

“Master Transcendental Meditation In A Single Evening” — it’s unreasonable

“Get Your Ex Girlfriend Back, Literally At The Push Of A Button” — it’s immoral

“Lose Up To 20 Pounds In Two Weeks The Lazy Way” — it’s bad

Interesting. I wonder what Delphi’s layers of virtual neurons didn’t like about these promises. Let’s try a few full-blown DR headlines, from Parris Lampropoulos, John Carlton, and David Deutsch:

“Scientists Discover Solution to Sexual Problems Hidden in 1,500-Year-Old Himalayan Secret” — it’s good

“Amazing Secret Discovered By One-Legged Golfer Adds 50 Yards To Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices And Can Slash Up To 10 Strokes From Your Game Almost Overnight!” — it’s good

“What Every Wife Wishes Her Husband Knew About Estate Planning And The IRS Hopes You Never Find Out” — it’s good

Perhaps you can see inside Delphi’s mind and understand why the oracle liked these headlines.

I have my own theory. It’s something will be sharing with people who signed up for my Influential Emails training.

That offer is now closed — I shut it down earlier today, as I said I would.

But if you didn’t sign up for Influential Emails… and you want to know my thoughts on the above headlines, and how this can be used to make your emails better… well, then just stay put. I’m sure to use this technique in an email soon, and then it will probably be obvious to you.

But for today, since Influential Emails is closed, I have no offer to make to you. Well, none except absolute moral judgements on any question you might have… along with age-old wisdom about direct response headlines and body copy. You can find it in the hallowed issues of my daily email newsletters. Here’s the entrance to the temple.

My so-called life as a 32-year-old Brazilian female fitness model

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Hiii RadGirl!! Yesss, my subject line today is a take on Carline Anglade Cole’s My Life as a 50+ Year-Old White Male ❤️❤️ Carline is SUCH an amazing and inspiring copywriter and—

Gollum! Gollum!

Ah, that’s better. Now that I’ve cleared my throat and got my own voice back, I can tell you the story behind today’s subject line.

A few years ago, through a series of word-of-mouth recommendations, I got a chance to work with Marina.

Marina is Brazilian. She’s a former top-level athlete turned personal trainer and fitness model. She also sells workout and diet programs for busy and stressed moms.

Marina wanted to send conversational emails to her list. But she didn’t want to write the emails herself.

So she and her husband (a well–known direct marketer) made me an offer. A flat monthly fee + a cut of whatever money we made through the emails I’d be writing. But it was important that the emails really sound like her.

“Sure!” I said. “Love to do it! It’ll be a challenge! But a good copywriter can write in anybody’s voice!”

I knew just what to do.

I got on multiple calls with Marina. I wrote down her fitness and health philosophy. I listened to her funny personal stories. I asked about the restaurants she’s been eating in… the TV shows she’s been watching… the thoughts that pop up in her head when the lights go out.

I also started stalking her online. I analyzed each of her Instagram posts for word choice, punctuation, emotional tenor. I made a “Marina vocabulary” file.

And then I got to work. I told my stories of how I used to hate my crazy curly hair in high school… how I struggled to accept cellulite on my thighs, even though it’s a perfectly natural part of being a woman…

I agonized whether to include one exclamation point (important!) two exclamation points (mind-blowing!!!) or three excla—

“Yeah, I get it.” I hear you say. “You worked hard to mimic her voice. What’s the point you’re getting at?”

I see you’re impatient today. Fine. I’ll hurry it up.

The emails I wrote for Marina made some sales. But I hated the process.

It took an enormous amount of time to juke the emails so they would read passably like her.

And even so, what I wrote never really sounded like Marina. It was obvious to me, and I assume obvious to anybody who actually knew her.

No, we never got any complaints from readers (“WTF, this sounds fake”).

And it was impossible to tell how the sales were affected (“This email Marina doesn’t sound like the Instagram Marina I know…. better hold off on buying till I get this sorted”).

But a couple months into this experience… when I realized this wasn’t going to be a giant money maker for either her or me… I wrote to Marina, said thanks for the opportunity, but it’s time for me to move on. And I did, to the real estate investing space, a market where I had more natural fit.

So the point you were asking about:

Lots of new copywriters claim they can write in anybody’s voice. “Love to do it! It’ll be a challenge! But I can mimic anybody with my secret research processss!!!”

And maybe you can.

​​I cannot. Not if it’s a real, live, sentient human being I’m supposed to mimic. Not if the lexical similarity needs to be greater than 60%. Not if I don’t plan to spend months or maybe years growing into the role.

This is part of a bigger issue in copywriting.

I remember hearing in the “Gene Schwartz Graduate Course on Marketing” that Gene Schwartz — yeah, one of the greatest copywriters of all time — couldn’t write winning copy outside his specialized field.

I don’t remember the exact details. But the person who said it was somebody in the know (maybe somebody who had worked with Gene).

​​And this person said that when Gene was taken out of his “Lethal Weapon,” “Rub your belly away” ads and sales letters, his copy didn’t pull. In spite of the meticulous research he did.

Same story with Clayton Makepeace. Another giant. Clayton made crazy sales in health and financial. But I heard Rich Schefren say on a Facebook live that when Clayton wrote some stuff for Rich in the IM space, it also didn’t pull. In spite of Clayton being a natural.

I’m not 100% sure what my takeaway for you is. If you’re a copywriter, I’m certainly not telling you to skip research. I’m also not telling you to refuse jobs just because the client’s voice is not “you.”

But perhaps, this is just argument #4338, not only for specializing with your copy… but for specializing with a few clients — or maybe even hunkering down with one client only.

And if you’re not a copywriter, but a business owner who’s been writing his or her (Heyyy RadGirl) own copy…

Then everything I just said is an argument against casually outsourcing your own voice to a copywriter. Regardless of how much they assure you they will sound like you. It’s not impossible. But it is likely to take time. You might decide it’s better to do keep this sensitive and valuable part of your business to yourself.

Which brings me to my upcoming Influential Emails training. Here’s a reason NOT to sign up:

Influential Emails is not about tips and tricks to jazz up a one-off email or a sequence for a client you will never work with again. Yes, I’ll reveal some high-level stuff. And yes, you can use this to improve storytelling or get more readers sucked in, regardless of what you write.

But Influential Emails is really about the long game. About influencing and building a relationship with an audience. About getting them to look at you (or your email alter-ego) as a leader.

That’s why Influential Emails only makes sense if you are writing to promote yourself… or your own business or brand… or if you are working with a long-term client.

​​In other words, if makes sense if it pays you to invest time and effort to create long-term, powerful influence, instead of just one-time sales.

In any case, the deadline to sign up for Influential Emails is tomorrow.

I CANNOT WAIT FOR YOU TO JOIN and find out all my amazing secrets! 🙏🏼🙌🏼💞. YOU ARE WORTH IT!

Seriously now. Here’s the link:
​
https://influentialemails.com

The real heroes are dead

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“As a soldier, Rick Rescorla served in Vietnam, where he earned a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and also a Purple Heart. When he returned home, Rescorla landed a job as Head of Security for Morgan Stanley. And as you’ll soon see, in many ways, he was the best investment Morgan Stanley ever made.”

I’ve gotten interested in writing financial copy. So as the first step, I started watching financial promos while I eat lunch.

I got going yesterday, with a Stansberry VSL. The hook is the story of a U.S. Army vet named Rick Rescorla… who, the VSL tells you, could end up having an “enormous impact on you, your family, your money, your savings and investments.” And then it leads to the bit about Morgan Stanley and its best investment ever.

“This story sounds familiar,” I said.

“An Army vet… going to work on Wall Street… as Head of Security… where did I read this before?”

I typed a few words into Google. And yep, there it was. First result.

For many decades, the recommended bathroom reading material for copywriters was The National Enquirer. At least so claimed Gene Schwartz, who said:

“That’s why I say that the required medium for you is all the junk magazines in the United States. I would go out tomorrow and get a subscription to The National Enquirer and read every single word in it. That’s your audience. There are your headlines. There are your people and their feelings.”

But the Rick Rescorla story didn’t come from the National Enquirer. So I’d like to give you a different magazine recommendation as new required reading.

I’m talking about The New Yorker.

It’s a snob magazine. If you’re writing sales copy, it’s unlikely to reflect your audience or their feelings.

And yet I recommend it.

Because the New Yorker and its writers manage to dig up obscure stories… find the fascinating implications… and create drama through substance rather than form.

Stansberry’s Rick Rescorla hook came from The New Yorker.

And it’s not the only one.

If you’ve been reading my emails for a while, you know I’ve written about Dan Ferrari’s Genesis sales letter. It tripled response over the control and sold out the entire stock of Green Valley’s telomere supplement.

Dan’s sales letter kicked off with a snapshot. A secret meeting of Hollywood stars and Silicon Valley millionaires… gathered in a Malibu Beach cliffside mansion… to listen to a Nobel-winning scientist reveal her breakthrough research on doing away with death and old age.

That story was true. And it also came from The New Yorker.

“All right Bejako,” I hear you saying. “You almost have me convinced. Two examples is good. But where’s your third example? Don’t know you all copywriting proof comes in threes?”

You got me. I only have the two examples above to give you.

If that’s enough of a pattern for you to work with, then start scanning The New Yorker and checking if some of their stories could be used for your hooks.

And maybe you will be my third example one day… or maybe I will be, because it’s what I’ll start doing.

In any case, if you’d like to read why Rick Rescorla was the best investment Morgan Stanley ever made, follow the link below.

But before you go, consider signing up for my email newsletter, which serves you up with a daily idea or recommendation for improving your marketing or copywriting.

And now, here’s the tight, fascinating, and moving New Yorker article about Rick Rescorla:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/02/11/the-real-heroes-are-dead

Makepeace, Schwartz, and Dan Kennedy all agree there’s something magic about the number—

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“A piece of alien technology that arrived from the future.”

That’s how one top-level marketer described a sales letter that A-list copywriter Clayton Makepeace wrote back in 2005. Clayton’s sales letter started out with the headline:

“The 23-Cent Life-Saver Heart Surgeons Never Tell You About!”

Beneath that, Clayton had three bullet points:

* So safe, it’s FDA-APPROVED for use in baby food

* So effective, you can actually SEE it working

* So cheap, it’s just PENNIES A DAY

Sounds great, right? But I’m not here to sell you a supplement. Instead, I’m here to sell you a number. For example, consider the following bullet by Gene Schwartz:

“Three things you must never say to your children – but almost everyone does”

Would you like to know what those three things are? I did. So I looked them up in the book that Gene was selling. And by my count, there are either two things or five. But not three. And yet, Gene chose to put three in his bullet.

Why?

For the same reason that Dan Kennedy decided to write the following passage as he did:

“I and my organization NEED honest, ambitious, reliable men and women in your area right now. You can join me and earn profits of $5,000… $10,000… even $20,000 per transaction, implementing my proven and improved Business System — working at it as little as 4 HOURS A WEEK.”

Dan explains the thinking behind this passage:

“Erroneously most people consider themselves honest, they see themselves as reliable, and they believe they are ambitious. What you don’t want to do (unless very deliberately) is use qualifiers that a lot of people would feel ruled them out or that would intimidate or worry them. There is also some magic in 3, not 2 or 4 or more. You’ll just have to take my word for it.”

And now for something completely different:

If you’re interested in persuasion, marketing, or copywriting, and if you are honest, ambitious, and reliable, then you might like my email newsletter. Each email is short, informative, and entertaining. You can sign up to get it here.

The practice to become a skillful copy-fancier

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“Not one man in a thousand has accuracy of eye and judgment sufficient to become an eminent breeder. If gifted with these qualities, and he studies his subject for years, and devotes his lifetime to it with indomitable perseverance, he will succeed, and may make great improvements; if he wants any of these qualities, he will assuredly fail. Few would readily believe in the natural capacity and years of practice requisite to become even a skillful pigeon-fancier.”

I’ll tell you in a moment who wrote that quote. But first, let me admit how foolish I was.

Many years ago, in my first three months of writing copy for money, I thought I’d learned everything there is to know about copywriting.

After all, I’d read Joe Sugarman’s Adweek book and a bunch of Gary Halbert’s newsletters. I’d learned you’re supposed to get attention and turn features into benefits. In the end you had to include a call-to-action. Oh yeah. Also open loops, like I used above. What else is there?

It was a serious case of newbie blindness.

That’s when you know just enough to explain everything away, without seeing the subtle detail that divides failure from success. Take the following headline for example:

The 7 Deadliest Crimes Against Yourself
Are You Guilty of Any of Them?

“A listicle with a warning.” That’s what I would have said back then. “I could write the same, without being so melodramatic. There’s nothing special here.”

Well today, I can see many special things in this short headline.

For example, how it sets you up to expect the 7 deadly sins — and then subverts your expectations. Or how it says deadliest instead of deadly. Or how it sneakily uses “crimes against yourself” rather than ” causes of your anxiety.”

And by the way, I don’t think any of those things are accidental.

The guy who wrote this headline was Gene Schwartz. He was an eminent copywriter, one in a thousand, really. He devoted a lifetime to writing copy with “indomitable perseverance.” As a result, he made great improvements in this field.

Maybe that’s more than your ambition right now. Fine. It’s also more than my ambition. But you might still like to hear the following:

If you want to become a good copywriter, and make yourself a lot of money as a result, then it doesn’t have to take unusual “natural capacity.” I’ve managed, and my natural capacity is common.

But like Charles Darwin says in the quote at the top, it does take practice to become a skillful copy-fancier. It can take you years, like it took me. Or maybe you can do it more quickly, if you don’t waste your time like I did, thinking that I already know everything.

Which brings me to my question for you:

Have you gone through any copywriting course or training in 2021? Anything you would recommend? Anything you would warn others against?

I’ll be transparent about why I’m asking. I’m nearing the halfway point of the trial run of my bullets course. And I am thinking about the next run, which will kick off probably in early June.

So if you’re interested in taking this course down the line… then write me an email and tell me about any copy training you have or have not liked. It will help me make my course better — and more useful to you if you do ever decide to take it.

But bullets course? Maybe you don’t even know what I’m talking about. If that’s the case and you’re curious, take a look at this post, which basically gives you a free sample lesson:

https://bejakovic.com/surprise-how-to-make-your-copy-more-appealing-by-saying-less/