Harlan Kilstein

A swiped skeleton for solutions to chronic problems

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A while ago, I listened to an interview with Harlan Kilstein, a big copywriter in the health space.

One thing Harlan talked about how he swipes ideas from other marketers.

“The key,” Harlan said, “is to swipe across industries.”

In other words, don’t copy weight loss promotions if you’re selling weight loss. But do look to weight loss promotions if you’re selling, say, a kidney disease book. Which is exactly what I did a couple of years ago.

I was supposed to write a new version of the VSL for The Kidney Disease Solution. At the time, this was a top-50 Clickbank product.

Look, I thought to myself, kidney disease is a chronic condition.

So is weight loss.

Why don’t I look at what the best weight loss promotions are doing?

And so I took the skeleton of possibly the biggest weight loss VSL of all time, Mike Geary’s Truth about Abs. It was written by Jon Benson, I believe. And it goes roughly as follows:

1. Opening story — feeling LOUSY
2. Statement of the problem
3. Success story — feeling GREAT
4. Debunking myths and disqualifying the competition
5. Introducing the product, etc.

Like I said, I applied this Truth about Abs skeleton to The Kidney Disease Solution VSL.

And the result was a 30% boost in conversion.

But that’s not all.

I believe this simple formula — basically a before-and-after story lead — works more broadly for chronic conditions.

I’ve just used it to write about an upper back brace used to improve poor posture. I could also imagine it being used for selling dating products, memory supplements, probiotics — in short, any solution to an ongoing, throbbing pain, rather than a sharp, momentary pain.

Of course, the devil is in the details.

How do you choose the right stories for the before and after?

Which myths do you debunk so that you simultaneously build up your own offer?

Well, that’s simply a matter of jog-trotty legwork.

In other words, trying out different ideas, and seeing what seems to sparkle, based on your research and your knowledge of the market you’re writing for.

Anyways, on to a completely different topic:

The chronic problem of not having enough copywriting clients.

And my solution to it.

That is, my Upwork book. It won’t teach you about the craft of copy, or even the boring legwork that’s sometimes required to come up with a thunderbolt of a VSL. Instead, it will only cover the business of copywriting. Specifically, how to get good clients through the online platform Upwork.

If this is something that interests you, then sign up below, and I’ll send you an email when I finish this book and put it up for sale:

https://bejakovic.com/upwork-book-notification-list/

4 examples of shameless headline swiping

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“Learning how to artfully swipe is probably the most important skill a copywriter can have.”
— Harlan Kilstein

I have a big swipe file of complete sales letters, but more than anything, I like to swipe headlines
After all, each headline is really an angle, a hook in itself. If you get the headline right, much of the copy writes itself.

My favorite source for headlines to swipe is not direct response copy
As I’ve mentioned before, I regularly go to Hacker News, a nerd bulletin board, and I pay attention to which general interest articles I click on. I write all these headlines down on an index card and put them in a growing stack under my pillow.

When it’s time to write copy, I go to my swiped headlines stack
And I force myself to write at least 10 or so headlines, using entirely different templates. Here are 4 such shamelessly swiped headlines, and the reasoning behind each:

1. Dog bites Trump -> The content is in the list

The original headline is brilliant, and it might seem that the second headline has nothing to do with it. But what’s really going on? The first headline is simply a modification of saying that’s popular among a specific audience (journalists: “Man bites dog”). Unfortunately, I couldn’t work the uber-clickable “Trump” into my own headline, but I could tweak an existing popular saying (direct marketers: “The money is in the list”).

2. Poland was shockingly liberal during 13th century -> Antibiotics can be shockingly good at causing weight gain

I’m not crazy about power words like “shocking” because they’re overused — every wannabe viral article or video is either “jaw-dropping”, “shocking”, or “epic”. That doesn’t mean that power words cannot or do not work, particularly if the rest of the headline is actually interesting in itself. In both the original headline and my own version, the headline was an interesting fact (rather than a screaming benefit) and the “shocking” power word increased curiosity a notch or two.

3. Why you will marry the wrong person -> Why your kraut will develop mold

Ok, this one is straightforward: Why [major unspoken fear of your target audience]. (My version was a subject line for an email promoting a home fermenting product.)

4. “Close to tears, he left at intermission”: How Stanley Kubrick upset Arthur C. Clarke -> “Almost fell over at how bad I looked”: Essential oil adverse reaction report

This is a good example of a headline template that I never see in direct response copy — a dramatic quote followed by a curiosity-baiting description of the content. Even though it’s not common for direct response, it must work, because similar headlines have sucked millions of people into reading articles.