Generate a Greater Response Rate by Honing Your Advertising and Marketing Skills

Michael: What I’m saying is there’s a possibility that there may be new ideas and new ways never explored by anyone because so many people are used to copying each other, and don’t have the confidence to try anything new, that there may be ways that will leave all these techniques we’ve been learning in the dust.

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Michael: There’s all kinds of styles of writing, all kinds of styles, and people respond to all different types of styles of writing. I mean, writing is nothing but, in my opinion, it’s just a form of communication that just happens to be on a page in the form of words. It’s just getting thoughts and expressions and ideas and a message across to somebody. I think some of the stuff I read in the copywriting courses, everyone’s copying everybody. They’re just dealing out the stuff they learned from the guy before. There is very little original stuff if you think about it, and what if all these guys are wrong? All the same stuff that we’ve been studying over and over again in all the courses, some of it is definitely impactful and definitely applicable like the headlines. I mean, there’s some important stuff, but when you think about it, a piece can make a lot of money just with like a one percent response or two percent response, but what if there’s a whole nother way to do writing and copywriting that you can generate 20,30,40% response? Why aren’t 99% of the people responding to your letter?

Caller: Right, it’s a combination too of not only your writing, but of the marketing that you put behind the writing. Where is your writing placed on the marketplace? What kind of advertising are you doing? How are you marketing that brochure, that sales piece that contributes to the response as well? Not just the writing. If you don’t market that marketing piece the right way, it’s going to cut your response way down too.

Michael: That’s true. I mean there’s a lot of aspects to it. I think what I’m just trying to say is you’ve studied a lot of the same stuff I’ve studied. We both read a lot of the rehashes, and you read over and over the same stuff just spewed out in different ways. What I’m saying is that there’s a possibility that there may be new ideas and new ways never explored by anyone because so many people are used to copying each other and don’t have the confidence to try anything new that there may be ways that will leave all these techniques we’ve be learning in the dust.

Caller: That very well could be. The more I studied, I always have that lingering thought actually in the back of my mind I might be covering up some of my original thoughts over these rehash thoughts kind of like schooling will sometimes stifle your creativity.

Michael: It gets suppressed. You believe that your creativity or your ideas aren’t as valuable as what you’re reading or studying, and you discount them, when in fact, you may be totally wrong.

Caller: Right, because I’m not published or I haven’t written a book, but I’m reading one by somebody who has written a book and they’re such a so-called expert, and I’m thinking, “He knows what he’s doing more than I do.” That might not be the case.

Michael: Yes, just because you’re reading a book because you have learned somewhere in your career or your life that anyone who writes a book is an expert. That’s what’s so great about being published because it does position you as an expert. People see that I have a website and that I have all these marketing seminars and you may perceive me as an expert more than I really am. Is writing your passion?

Caller: It certainly seems to be.

Michael: What’s your background? You’re in Minnesota?

Caller: I’m in Minnesota. I have a very diverse background. I did a lot of job hunting over the years – accounting and customer service, truck driving, delivery. I haven’t had a chance to really use my copywriting skills except in my businesses which were more on a part time basis than full-time. It seems to me that I spent the majority of my time writing copy for my products and services. I got some decent response and results from the writing, and I didn’t really realize that there was actually a copywriting profession years ago. I wish I would have known because maybe this whole process would have been hastened by several years.

Michael: How old are you?

Caller: I’m 40.

Michael: You’re only 40. You’ve got a lot of years left on you to do it.

Caller: Especially something like copywriting. It’s something you can do for well into your old age.

Michael: It’s a great profession. It’s in such demand. So many people just are afraid to write and don’t know how to write, and just too lazy to learn. You are in big demand, and when you get really good, you’ll be untouchable basically.

Caller: Well, I feel that the big market is with small businesses because these corporations, they all have advertising people or departments, and they do a lot of hiring freelance, but these small business people, they don’t have the budgets and they don’t even have the knowledge of copywriting. You see it everyday in your local paper, all the poor ads and the poor letters that are written and brochures and that. I don’t think that’s much of an exploited market maybe because they think there’s not enough money in there to pay for marketing and advertising.

Michael: You could look at trade publications or magazines where you see ads, newspaper ads, anywhere in your local community, and usually the phone numbers on there and you could have you or a girl call these people up and say, “Hey, I’m looking at your ad. I’m a writer and I’ve got a couple ideas that I think could double the response of your ad if you’re interested.” And, if you call 20 or 30 people a day, I’m sure you could pull in three or four jobs a day.

Caller: What I want to do is take a person’s brochure or letter or flier or display ad that I’ve seen and make a couple of correction son it, and send this with a letter explaining that I’ve made these corrections and it should increase your response. If you want it completely redone marketing piece to contact me.

Michael: Absolutely, you should have no problem making a fine living doing just that one technique, just that one thing. You could do it.

Caller: Do you really think my work is – what do you think of it?

Michael: I think it’s fine. I read through some stuff. I’m a guy who’s real big on specifics. Now, I didn’t critique every single thing. It communicates pretty decently. I’m looking at one piece. Some of it seemed a little confusing. Some of it didn’t seem like you explained it in enough detail like specifics. I may be wrong. Let’s see, “You can get more repeat customers and save $100 without spending a dime.” This is the one with the hundred dollar bill on it. This headlines confusing to me. I see a hundred dollar bill, and I read this, “You can get more repeat customers and save $100 without spending a dime.” Maybe identifying the business owners like “Retailers, now you can get more repeat customers”, maybe identifying who this message is going to right in the headline. I don’t want to sit here and critique your stuff because I think overall it’s great, and some of the stuff you had mentioned was older stuff.

Caller: Yes, most of that is stuff that I wrote before I started studying about this.

Michael: Yes, we’re talking about stuff before you even really got serious. It looks great.

Caller: that one you just mentioned, I actually mailed that to the specific target business owners who it was aiming for, so that’s probably why I didn’t put it in the headline.

Michael: You’re probably right.

Caller: I mailed it right to them.

Michael: You’re writing looks great. You’ve got the dollar bill letter. You’re using headlines. You’re using P.S.’s. It’s easy to read. It’s spaced out nice on the page. You’re underlining is great. It’s direct to the point. It’s better than 99% of others out there.

Caller: I used the underlining on the typewritten page because I didn’t know about word processing yet. So, many years ago that was where I had to underline rather than bold because I was using a typewriter.

Michael: I see. It looks great. I think you’ve got the skills right there. Sometimes all you need is just a dose of confidence.

Caller: Yeah, I kind of lack in that. I dwell too much on business failures, and I’m being burdened by the past when it comes to that.

Michael: I talk to a lot of people like that. I really do. The past has nothing to do with today. It just doesn’t. It’s history, and I know sometimes it’s easier thinking about the past and failures and stuff, but the bottom line is there’s not one company out there that didn’t have failures. If you’re not willing to fail, it ain’t going to happen. That is a prerequisite of success in anything. A lot of people don’t know that. They think if they fail, they’re a loser and that they’re not doing it right, but the bottom line is you have to pay your dues. You’ve got to fail. You’ve got to be willing to stick it out and get back up and try again. I’ve got a great audio interview on my website with this guy named Mr. X. He’s a multi-multi-millionaire, and he talks about his failures. I think he’s a Vietnamese guy. I’m not exactly sure where he’s from, but he’s a multi-millionaire in some big radio, cellular phone technology. You can listen to the interview and he’s got some great philosophies just for your note if you want to check that audio out. You’ve got to fail. Business is a lot of just attitude and confidence. If you say you’re an expert, you’re an expert. Who’s to say your not? What’s the difference between a lawyer that charges $100 an hour and one that charges $500? Sometimes it’s a skill, but sometimes it’s just a lack of confidence.

Caller: Yes, that’s true.

Michael: There is no difference between a marketing consultant who charges $50 an hour and one that charges $1,000 an hour. If a guy’s made a company big money, he knows he’s worth $1,000. If he believes it, the next time he talks to a guy and says, “I’m a thousand bucks an hour.” He says it with conviction because he knows he’s worth $1,000, and that comes across to the other guy. You need to get some testimonials under your belt, get some clients. You can do some clients. You charge peanuts, but get some good stories under your belt, some testimonials. That shouldn’t be hard to do.

Caller: There is something I wanted to ask you being that you’re in marketing and copywriting business, and that is I want to kind of focus on small businesses, and I want to do their copywriting, but I also know that copywriting is tied in with design and with marketing. I’m not familiar with design and use Quark Express or the Macintosh to create design or a layout of brochures.

Michael: I separate the two. Copywriting is not part of design or graphic design. There are graph designers who are designers, and there are copywriters who are the wordsmith. You are a copywriter. You’re the guy who puts the words into an order. You shouldn’t be concerned with being a graphic designer because it doesn’t have anything to do with being a copywriter.

Caller: But, then how do you go for the small business market when the mom and pop is thinking-

Michael: Forget brochure. A letter, a sales letter is much more effective than a brochure.

Caller: Do you think so?

Michael: Absolutely. When you get a brochure in the mail, those three cover folded brochures, what are you going to read – a letter that’s typed out that looks like it’s hand-typed and personally signed and personally addressed in a number 10 white envelope with a stamp on it or some piece of junk mail with the tri-fold brochure?

Caller: You’re right about that. I know I did. The letter is more personalized than the brochures. Everybody thinks when they saw it at least they print it out.

Michael: Brochures are losers as far as communication. That’s call institutional advertising. That’s pushed by four-color printers who make money on four-color printing. What’s a brochure offer with pretty pictures and designs and curly cues that a letter, a white piece of paper with words won’t offer? It’s not the look. It’s the words.

Caller: I’m really glad I asked you that question because you gave me a really good answer there. I was really torn between this. I spent many hours thinking about this along with a graphic artist friend. Should we go into business together? Because I know a small business person if I just offer copywriting, sure I can do a letter and I can maybe do a flier if it doesn’t have any intense layout or graphics on it, but when it comes to a brochure I’m going to have to get together with a graphics person then.

Michael: If you’re in a situation where your client absolutely wants his brochure rewritten, you came up with a graphic artist. Do you have a graphic artist friend?

Caller: Yes.

Michael: So, you let them do the graphic arts and you focus on your skill which is the words, writing the words. That’s it. You have a headline and you write the words and the sub-heads and you let your graphic artist put them in the right place.

Caller: I was even thinking about just as far as the business name, should I call it something that’s more generalized or more specific towards copywriting. I didn’t even want to use copywriting because I thought, well first of all small business people don’t even understand the word “copywriting”, and second of all if I say something that’s more broad like “marketing response” it allows me to get into the design and layout.

Michael: Well, you do want something kind of general. Do you have an idea for your business name?

Caller: “Marketing Response” was one of them.

Michael: Why don’t you just be Charles Shield’s Writing Services? Just something like that. I’d use your own name.

Caller: Would you? That’s what most copywriters do.

Michael: Use your own name, some fancy name doesn’t mean anything because if you start building a reputation wouldn’t you like to build it under your own name. No one can copy your own name either. My company is JS&M Sales and Marketing, Incorporated which is part selling and part marketing. You could be Charles Shields Advertising. Advertising would cover all the aspect – brochures, placing ads, writing, everything.

Caller: People understand what advertising is more than copywriting, too.

Michael: You could operate under two different names depending on what you’re doing. You could be Charles Shields Advertising and you could also have a d/b/a, just an extra $20, doing business as Charles Shields Writing Specialist or Writing Expert or Wordsmith, or Charles Shields Writing, just simple. Just so it explains exactly what it is, nothing fancy. You’ve got to get rid of the fancy stuff, and just get right to what it is as concisely as possible. No one cares what the name of your business is. They want to know what are you going to do for them. Bottom line – what is Charles Shields going to do for me, and that’s all they care about.

Caller: I’m going to bring them increased response.

Michael: You’re going to bring them more money.

Caller: More money.

Michael: And what is it that more money brings them, more business? It brings them free-time for themselves, more time with their kids, less stress, more vacations. Hey, life is good. That’s what they want from you. They don’t care about more response. The ultimate thing they want is to benefit. What is your skill going to do for them? Bottom line. If you appeal to those emotions and those needs, because that’s really what anyone wants – “What’s in it for me?”

Caller: Yes, exactly.

Michael: That’s all they care about. They don’t care what you look like. They don’t care if you’re black, white, Chinese, whatever. They don’t care what the company name is. They don’t care what your brochure looks like, what your office looks like, what your car looks like. All they want is “What are you going to do for me, buddy?”, and “Am I going to have to risk anything if you don’t do it?” That even helps better.

Caller: They want the pay-off benefit. They want to know if they’re going to get a lot more value than they pay.

Michael: And, if you show them and educate them a little bit, and teach them that if your writing can produce more sales for them just once, it can produce more sales for them for the life of their business.

Caller: Right, and that’s why the copywriting business is high paying field because you can produce one piece, one time for a company and if it’s a successful piece, they can keep using it for a long period of time.

Michael: That’s right, and you can structure the deal because you’re the boss. This is your company. You can structure it where you get a piece of the action on the increased profits that you bring them, not just a one time little fee up front. You structure it where you get a piece of the increased profit all the way down the road. You can do it for one year, two years, three years, five year, the life of the business. You can offer them the chance to buy your position out, and there’s contracts that cover that. There’s a Jay Abraham contract guide that I sell.

Caller: I saw that. I was interested in that. He’s got all the contracts to use for that. You have that on your site.

Michael: I have that on my site that have a backbone of those agreements.

Caller: What’s the price on that?

Michael: I sell it for $300, but guess what? I don’t have anymore. It’s gone. I just sold it to a guy in Mexico actually and I had one left. This stuff is hard to find, and I’m like running low on a lot of stuff so I have to get back on the phone and starting hunting for more stuff. I’ll come across one eventually. But, I’ve got friends who have one. I’m sure they’d be glad to help you out with it, maybe lend you the book for a day or two. I can hook you up with that. So, don’t worry about that, but you can structure it anyway you want. So, what are you doing now to bring in your income?

Caller: I’m a driver for UPS.

Michael: That’s good.

Caller: I do that on second shift.

Michael: When does the second shift start?

Caller: I start at four o’clock.

Michael: When does that go to?

Caller: Nine-thirty.

Michael: Are you doing pick-ups?

Caller: Yes.

Michael: I have UPS come to my house everyday. How long have you been working with UPS?

Caller: Three years now.

Michael: Three years? I just got a letter from them that said the Teamsters came to some big agreement or something. I have no idea what’s going on. Is it a national thing or local? Do you know?

Caller: It was national. We were two weeks from going on strike. They reached an agreement were we’re going to be getting and extra six dollars an hour over the next six years, like a dollar a year something like that.

Michael: What do they pay you an hour now? Do you mind telling me?

Caller: Sixteen.

Michael: That ain’t bad.

Caller: It goes further in Minnesota than it does in southern California.

Michael: You get more in Minnesota.

Caller: Well, the dollar goes farther in Minnesota.

Michael: Yeah, that’s true.

Caller: I’ve been down to San Diego, and it’s more pricey.

Michael: So, you’re a UPS driver. Any other stuff going on like money-making stuff?

Caller: No, I kind of given up on that because I threw away too much money and time on “business opportunities”.

Michael: Did you invest in a lot of stuff?

Caller: It was more of putting my time in an investment because I never was one to put thousands of dollars into something unless I was creating it myself or something like that which still isn’t any better.

Michael: What kind of programs did you buy into?

Caller: These are years ago - couple of the MLMs, and a couple of other things.

Michael: We all go through it. When I first moved out here to California, I did MLMs for years, multi-level marketing.

Caller: See, I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.

Michael: No, I wanted a lot for multi-level marketing, and multi-level marketing had great marketing, great training, great support for distributors. Which companies did you sign up with?

Caller: Many years ago, Herbalife and I did a couple of these fly-by-nighters. I don’t even remember their names, but they came and went in six months, and lost money and time.

Michael: But, you learned something. You learned not to do MLM again.

Caller: No, I won’t do it.

Michael: I think you’re on a good path. Copywriting, if you have until four o’clock every day to work on this business, and you send that letter out that you’re talking about, just go to a grocery store grab all the local publications, newspapers and just hand address envelopes and make a couple of corrections on some small businesses ads or sales letters or junk mail or whatever and mail one of t hose out. Just have some confidence and charge some good money. You should be able to make a lot more than what you’re doing at UPS.

Caller: I hope so. It’s my dream to be able to do it. I think with copywriting you can do it 20 hours a week, and make a full-time income.

Michael: Yeah, absolutely.

Caller: I mentioned $25 an hour as a starting thing just to kind of get my feet wet and all that. It’s very low for a copywriter.

Michael: That’s fine. You want to build some good testimonials. You can say it’s a reduced rate. You’re doing this because you’re trying to get some great testimonials and you will only do it on this condition is that after I do the job for you if you honestly feel it helped you, you need to write me a detailed recommendation or testimonials, and if you’d be willing to do that, I’ll be willing to give you a reduced rate. They’ll say, “Fine, no problem.” Who have you studied as far as recently that you’ve really been impressed with that you’ve learned a lot from?

Caller: The first two that are coming to mind are Jeffery Lance, and he really hasn’t put out anything recently, him and Robert Wye who’s put more recent information. He’s really prolific. He’s had tons of books out there. Jeffery Lance, he sends the message over and over again. He kind of beats it into your head. The part about getting people to respond, he’s really big on that. His book Cash Copy, the condensed version is how to get people to respond.

Michael: What are the techniques that he uses that really stick out in your mind to get people to respond?

Caller: From the headline all the way through to the P.S., everything has to have the value of what’s in it for your customer, what’s in it for them, and he gets really succinct about that and so you have to analyze every sentence and every word to make sure they’re persuasive and bringing the benefits of the product or service to how it’s going to benefit the customer. That’s his main emphasis. It’s all just a waste of time and paper and ink if you don’t get people to respond, and the only way you’re going to get them to respond is to tell them why it’s in your best interest.

Michael: Have you read “Reason Why Advertising”? John E Kennedy.

Caller: No, I haven’t. I’ve heard about it though.

Michael: This is a guy who worked for Albert Lasker of Lord and Thomas. This is back in the early days. Lord and Thomas was one of the largest advertising agencies every. If you compared it into dollars, the amount of money they would do then to today’s days, they would have been the largest. Albert Lasker, the story goes he was always asking, “What the hell is advertising? What is advertising?” He had his agency, but never really understood what it was. I think he was in his office or something and this guy named John E Kennedy who is – I don’t know what he is – he was just a real thinker and he came over to his office, and passed a note up to Albert Lasker and I said, “I know what advertising is. Invite me up to your office and I’ll explain to you what it is.” And, Albert Lasker almost just blew it off and said, “Oh, who is this guy?”, but then it got him so curious he invited him up and t his John E Kennedy sat for hours and discussed what advertising is and they came to the point is it’s salesmanship. John E Kennedy put together this whole book of his philosophy of what advertising really is, and it’s called “Reason Why Advertising”. When you say you’re writing an ad and you’ve got to say, “What’s in it for me?” another way to look at it is reasons why this person should buy my product or service, list the reasons why. If you just give people all the reasons you can think of why they should buy from, that’s half the battle. So, this whole book is called, “Reason Why Advertising.” I have a copy from a file downloaded from somewhere on the Internet. I’ll email it to you. It’s really, really good. And, so this concept, this guy was like the founder of all the stuff you’re studying today. It all originated from him the story goes.

Caller: From this John Kennedy?

Michael: John Kennedy, yeah. It’s really good. So, I’ll email you a copy. It’s really profound stuff. People just want to know, “Why should I buy from you?” When you look at it, it’s truly easy. What it boils down to is just to answer questions – what’s in it for them, and give them reasons why they should do it. People are so caught up in image. They’re confused because all they see on TV are dancing bears and these fancy looking commercials and these full-page ads in the newspapers with little ducks. That’s called institutional advertising. That has nothing to do with Reason Why Advertising.

Caller: Yeah, that’s image advertising that the corporations are doing.

Michael: People think that’s what advertising is.

Caller: They think colors and they think flashiness.

Michael: But, it’s not. That’s such a waste. It’s criminal the amount of money wasted in ineffective advertising.

Caller: They don’t even know.

Michael: They don’t even know because they can’t test it.

Caller: They have no way to test it really, a commercial audience tested.

Michael: I sit there and watch TV. I watch the commercials. I’m like, “What a joke. What a waste of money.”

Caller: The big advertising agencies that created the commercials are by people in their 20s and their aimed at the 20-something crowd, and they don’t have the concept of benefits and what’s in it for my customer. It’s all about image.

Michael: Still, even if the people are 20 years old and it’s aimed at them, a well-designed advertisement with reasons why and benefit oriented sales copy whether it’s the words on the commercial or whether it’s whatever, are going to blow this stuff that they could see because stuff doesn’t sell. It’s just building image for the company, and it’s ineffective, and another great book by Walter Reeves – have you heard of him?

Caller: No, I haven’t.

Michael: Walter Reeves was a great advertising mane and his book is called “Reality in Advertising.” See if you can pick up a copy. Go on to Amazon or Barnes and Noble, but it’s great. Have you studied any Jay Abraham?

Caller: I got Stealth Marketing. I was able to pick that up one time a couple of years ago, but I didn’t get through much of it.

Michael: This book was published in 1950, the first one. It is reality in advertising. He was the president of a company with an agency, but a huge agency and huge career in advertising and he gives you the reality in advertising and talks about these principles. Great learning. Great things to keep in your head before you get into your copywriting venture. It’s really good.

Caller: Yeah, I’ll pick that up.

Michael: I highly recommend it. It’s a little book. I have it in my hand. It’s only 150 pages. It’s really easy reading.

Caller: Some of those publications from the earlier days from the top copywriters of the 60s and the 50s seem to be the ones that are the best stuff.

Michael: These people were workers. Today, people are lazy. They want it easy.

Caller: They just had the black and white printer back then. They didn’t have the different colored printing so they couldn’t do anything fresh and with lots of graphics. They didn’t have the computers.

Michael: These people knew what it was like to work.

Caller: They had to go just by the black and white printed word.

Michael: There was a show on last night I was watching on the public TV station. You’ve seen the show “Survivor” where people go out and survived for 30 days.

Caller: I try to avoid it, but I know what it is.

Michael: Well, this was a show on public broadcasting TV where they took three families and went back into the 1800s. The rule was they had to live for five months. They went to like Utah in the woods, in the fields like the settlers lived, and they had to live and fend for themselves exactly how they did back in the 1800s or 1850. I don’t know what date it was. Then, they talked at the end. They showed what the families were going through and the work that they had to do. They had to build their home and baking and they had to do it exactly how it was back then - no electricity, and it was just really incredible what these people had to do just to survive.

Caller: It’s amazing. Even the stories from grandparents which weren’t even that harsh or hard to comprehend.

Michael: And, you compare it to today, and we’re just like spoiled.

Caller: Yeah, we have everything and anything.

Michael: But, that’s why these advertising books are so great. There’s another one by Claude Hopkins. Have you heard of him?

Caller: Yes.

Michael: His book is wonderful called, “Scientific Advertising”.

Caller: That’s available on the Internet.

Michael: Yes it is. By the time you study those books and just hone your skills and get business, start generating business and if you don’t have the confidence to ask for a lot of money at first, just screw around with people and act like it’s a joke, and just see what happens, and have a straight-face. You’ll see if you can offer a risk-free. You give hem a guarantee for if they’re unhappy with your service for any reason, they don’t pay you a dime. Sometimes with writing you need to get some money upfront though.

Caller: I tried with that idea with not taking any money until I was finished with the piece or something.

Michael: Actually, I’ve studied some stuff. They do recommend you want to get something up front.

Caller: I think that’s probably a better way to do it with a money back guarantee.

Michael: If you sign a licensing deal where you’re going to get a piece of the action on the increased profits, you’re going to offer a money back guarantee on that.

Caller: How do you enforce something like that?

Michael: Anyone can screw you out of any deal. You’ve got to feel good about the person you’re working with, and if your gut says they’re an honest person, they’re not going to screw you; most of the time you’re right. If you feel like there’s something in your gut that this thing won’t work, you don’t like this guy or it’s going to be pain in the butt, you walk away from it. Because, there’s so much business out there, you don’t need to work with those people. Some people you can just have a gentleman’s agreement and shake their hand and they’ll pay you for years. They’re that type of person. You’ve got to use your judgment of who you work with. Anyone can screw you out of a contract, and you don’t have to give them this legal mumbo-jumbo. I mean, this legal contract by Jay Abraham has. If you come to an agreement, you say, “Okay, Mike, I’m going to write this letter. We’re going to mail it out to your customer list, and if it increasing the response compared to what you’ve been doing, you’re going to pay me say 25 cents for every dollar I make you for as long as we mail the letter.” I say, “Okay that sounds good”, and then you just put it into normal writing. You say, “I, Charles Shields, am going to write a letter for Michael Senoff. Michael and I have agreed that we’re going to mail it to Michael’s customer list. If it brings in any increase revenue, Michael’s going to pay me 25 cents for every dollar on the 30thof every month. I have the rights to look over Michael’s books at any time I want.” And, just put it into normal writing, sign it and date it and you’ve got a contract that’s enforceable.

Caller: I’ve done that before with different contacts with things I’ve done. Just put it in your own words, and you have to agree to it.

Michael: But, you should just stick to being a wordsmith, a writer. Don’t worry about the graphics. You can always get other people to do that. Have you heard of Elance?

Caller: Yes, I’ve used that once to my dismay because I decided to get some business cards designed. I picked the lowest priced one, and it turns out he doesn’t really have any concept of logos and so we talked back and forth, back and forth, and he wasn’t getting it.

Michael: You had a bad experience.

Caller: It seemed like a good service.

Michael: Don’t let that jade you because it’s a great service. You can find great talent on there, any type. You can say, “I need a graphic artist to design this brochure for a client.” You could put that description up right now and have people bidding on your project who all have computers, who all can accept a file within an hour.

Caller: Those aspects of this business really are exciting to me because I kind of envision someday living wherever I want and being able to do my work no matter where I want to live.

Michael: Where you can, absolutely.

Caller: And, with this business, it makes that very feasible.

Michael: Yes it does.

Caller: I just need a computer and a telephone and the mail service.

Michael: That’s it. You pretty much got it. It’s a great feeling it really is. Have you studied some Gary Halbert stuff?

Caller: I used to get his sales letter, the Gary Halbert letter years ago. I’m not aware of any books he has.

Michael: He has all his letters, all his past issue letters up online at seegaryhalbertletter.com.

Caller: I just looked at that about a week ago. I don’t like his letter writing style too much though. I don’t know it kind of flies in the face of everything else you read though. Everything I’ve learned about writing copy that sells, he seems to just sit there and write and not have any format or any principles that he follows. Some of the stuff just seems really off the wall.

Michael: It all comes down to the words really. Some people like him. Some people don’t. Who cares if you like him or not? Is he successful as a copywriter? I think he is pretty much. I’ve gone through his copywriting course. I don’t know how much of this stuff he writes on his own. He does write a lot of his own stuff, but he’ll consult with other writes like John Carlton. Have you heard of him?

Caller: Sure.

Michael: John Carlton did a lot of writing for him in the early days. He probably still does writing for him.

Caller: I’d like to know who does the copywriting for the Urick Vacuum Company. They use a lot of graphics and full color and everything. They are the best of anybody I’ve seen as far as mail order company that you get stuff on a regular basis from. They’re the best.

Michael: Call them up and find out.

Caller: Maybe they’d tell me.

Michael: Call them up.

Caller: I keep their pieces just to look at, and from what I know and read the headlines and read the body copy and all that. It somebody who really knows what they’re doing there.

Michael: Give them a call, “Could you refer me to your writer for your pieces?”

Caller: That company is hugely successful, too.

Michael: Yeah, they are, absolutely.

Caller: To take something like a vacuum cleaner, humdrum everyday vacuum cleaner which you can buy for as little as $79. He charges like $350 for them.

Michael: Claude Hopkins was responsible for the marketing and probably whole entire success of Bissell carpet sweepers. You’ve heard of Bissell, right?

Caller: Sure.

Michael: Well, back in those days, Bissell was just a carpet sweeper with a wood handle, and you’ll read the story in his book, “My Life in Advertising” how he went to work for that company, and made it very, very successful and they’re still around today. So, it all comes down to reasons why and a unique selling proposition, and just good copy.

Caller: The USB is a big thing too. This is such a wide open market for small businesses. They don’t even accrue a lot of this stuff because it’s people who have a skill doing something and they worked in the field working for a company for a number of years, and then they start doing their own business, but they don’t know anything about advertising and marketing. It’s just wide open for somebody to help them with their marketing.

Michael: It really is.

Caller: I’ll send you a copy of the couple of letters that I’ve written that I want to use for my new business here.

Michael: Well, I’d like to see it.

Caller: And, you can tell me what you think. I think they’re a unique idea. It’s nothing something I copied from anywhere. I didn’t see this idea anywhere. It just came to me one day because I was focusing in the back of my mind on small businesses and how to reach them, and this came to me one day, and I started to write this out and wrote this letter in probably 15 minutes.

Michael: Can you email it to me?

Caller: I don’t have a scanner.

Michael: Are you typing everything on a typewriter?

Caller: I have a computer and I have a word processor.

Michael: Do you have it typed on your computer?

Caller: Yes, I do.

Michael: Just save it as a file, and send me the file.

Caller: That’s right. I could do that.

Michael: Have I given you some ideas that you think will help you at all?

Caller: Oh, yeah, definitely. I found this to be beneficial, and I’m glad I asked you specifically about focusing on copywriting this as the whole market. It’s a totally different thing. I want to be able to concentrate on just writing because that’s what I know. I can’t tell you how many hours and hours and days I spend thinking about this as far as the name and should I do the whole thing for a small business. Things started to crumble because the whole idea, because I thought it was going to be too much for me. I’m not going to be able to do this especially if I’m starting part time.

Michael: No, you need to be specific. You are the wordsmith. You are the guy who deals with the words. The words is what brings home the bacon. The pretty pictures don’t. They’re designed their to support your words, and a good graphic designer will recognize this.

Caller: Thank you very much, Mike.

Michael: No problem. I’ll talk to you a little later.

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