Daniel Levis’ latest ‘Total Package’ article is titled “Gotta be true ““ I saw it on the glass teat”. [Copywriting Article]


Daniel Levis’ latest ‘Total Package’ article:

Gotta be true ““ I saw it on the glass teat

Dear Web Business-Builder,

Before I get into today’s ramblings, I just want to say I’m so glad to hear the recession in America is over. Your president said so over the glass teat earlier this week.

A whole gaggle of braniacs proved it to him. Ended back in June of 2009, they say.

Now all of the unemployed people can go back to work.

Consumers can start gobbling up plasma screen TVs and little electronic doodads and thingamajigs again.

And we can start having a good old baby boom to celebrate.

Whadayasay?

Hooray for Obamanomics!

The stimulus program has been a catastrophic success.

Just one question …

Why didn’t they tell us sooner?

Noodleheads.

Heck we could have been partying like it was 1999 … instead of sitting around writing all this copy to compensate for slumping response rates.

Seriously folks, the clowns in Washington can pound the financial numbers into a quivering pulp and force them to confess just about anything.

But who’s fooling who?

You and I know that financial hardship for
millions of Americans is far from over …
And that means us copywriters and marketers have got to work harder and smarter than ever before if we’re going to continue growing our businesses and incomes. Even more so for the courageous folks reading this blog who are just building their chops now and hoping to forge a new career in this incredible business.

I’m often asked by these good folks: How can I get really good at writing sales copy fast, so I can call my own shots and become the captain of my financial destiny?”

And my answer is always the same …

If you want to be a competent copywriter, you must do two things above all others. You must read a lot. And write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I know of ““ no shortcut. You don’t just wake up one day a copywriter. There is a constant learning process going on.

Personally, I skim through three or four books a week. I follow the promotional trail of a half dozen email sales pitches each day, reading the long form sales letters ““ beginning to end.

I make notes, and consciously file dozens of ideas away in my brain each day … hundreds more seep into my sub-conscious … and I’m constantly creating a mental map of everything. So I can come back and grab what I need when I need it. At any one time there are stacks of reference materials piled high on my desk. Hundreds more ebooks, audios and video files clutter my hard drives.

And you know what?

Sometimes it’s the bad copy and stupid reference
materials that have the most to teach …
What could be more encouraging to the fledgling copywriter or info-marketer than the realization his or her work is unquestionably better than somebody who’s getting paid for their writing? Or making money creating reference materials that aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on?

Seriously, go into your in-box right now and ask yourself: How difficult would it be for me to trump this? Not only will you get a great education on what not to do. It’s incredibly motivating.

And then there’s the good stuff that teaches us
the secrets of sound selling …
Being held in rapture by the skill of a great copywriter plying an irresistible pitch ““ having your ego flattened by it, in fact ““ is an essential part of your development as a writer.

You cannot hope to sweep anyone away with the persuasive force of your own words until somebody else has done it to you.

You may find yourself adopting the tone and style of a writer you admire. And in the beginning, there’s nothing wrong with that. Gradually as you forge on and continue to assimilate other writers your own voice will emerge.

Copious reading is the key. It should be your preferred modality. Audio and video are powerful marketing tools, but the written word is the most powerful development tool for copywriters. You can speed through mountains of material in the time it takes to consume a few minutes of audio or video.

There are no new ideas.
Only new combinations of old ones …
As Gene Schwartz is famous for saying (at least on this blog anyway): “great copy is assembled ““ not written.” It is the creative combining of previously unrelated ideas.

A little of this from over here … a little of that from over there … coming together in new ways to solve the specific persuasion problem you’re faced with.

We all have the same 26 letters to work with …

Every word … turn of phrase … writing style … voice … offer … metaphor … story structure … character angle … expression of benefit ““ you name it, has been done before, somewhere, somehow, by somebody else.

It’s up to you to sift and sort through it all, pulling things together from the most unlikely of places, giving them new context, new perspective, and new life.

There is no such thing as imagination, only memory. The more input you give yourself, the more raw material you have to assemble. And the more productive and effective you’ll become as a persuader.

Of course you don’t get paid to read. You get paid to write.
Not by the word, but by the dollars brought in …
And therein lies a problem, for some ““ PRESSURE.

It’s good to be your own worst critic. But it shuts you down, stifles your output. You have to be able to turn the inner critic off while you’re writing. And turn it on again when the time is right. Not always easy.

There’s an old story I read somewhere about the great novelist James Joyce ““ widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Maybe it’ll help you:

One day a good friend found Joyce crumpled over his desk, work under him, in utter despair. The friend rushed to his side and asked. “Is it the work James?”

Remaining face down in the paper, without saying a word, Joyce concurred. Of course it’s the work. Isn’t it always?

“How many words did you get today James?” his friend asked.

Seven fingers extended form the sprawled figure draped out on the desk.

“Well what seems to be the trouble then? For you, that’s good!”

“Ay,” Joyce said, finally looking up, dazed, confused, “I suppose it is, but I don’t know which order they go in.”

Ever felt like that?

I know I often do.

You’ve got to let yourself suck sometimes. Allow the words
to just flow out, automatically, without even thinking …
This is one of the keys to not only quantity, but quality too. All of your reading will pay off. Somewhere in the act of spewing any old words out on the page you’ll find an unexpected connection. Somewhere in there among the dross is the gold you’ve been looking for.

Find the time of day that suits you best, and force yourself to read and to write ““ two, three, four, five hours each.

My time for reading is in the early afternoon and at night.

Writing happens first thing in the morning.

I don’t even shower or eat until I’ve put at least a couple of hours in, nose to the grindstone. I literally drag my butt out of bed, sleep still in my eyes, and write. It sounds weird, but that when I’m at my best.

In a lot of ways a copywriter’s work is never done. If you overdose on input, your sub-conscious can be hard at work while you’re enjoying yourself doing other things in the off hours.

Even while you’re asleep you can be making money.

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis

Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor

THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto, Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology Masters of Copywriting featuring the selling wisdom of 44 of the “Top Money” marketing minds of all time, including Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Michel Fortin, Richard Armstrong and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit http://www.SellingtoHumanNature.com.

He is also one of the leading Web conversion experts operating online today, and originator of the 5R System (TM), a strategic process for engineering enhanced Internet profits. For a free overview of Daniel’s system, click here.

Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

The Total Package

*IMNewsWatch would like to thank Clayton Makepeace for granting permission to reprint this article.

Sharing is caring