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If you've been writing marketing and sales copy for 5 years or more...

by BarryADensa
22 replies
How did you prepare yourself to reach the level of marketing and sales writing mastery you now claim?

Why 5 years or more? I’ve heard it takes a minimum of 5 years before a copywriter internalizes everything he/she has learned and can apply it with appreciable persuasiveness. It’s similar to the maxim that states it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill.

Not to quibble though over the timeframe, as there are, no doubt, overnight wonders among us… how did you educate yourself?

My story begins with Bob Bly…

I read an article by him in Writer’s Digest encouraging struggling novelists (myself at the time) to consider commercial copywriting. He claimed that a copywriter can satisfy the artistic need to create, and to earn a sizable income – so why starve?

Made sense, so I called him on the phone that very day to quiz him on that claim, and he promptly persuaded me to buy two of his books.

(I believe he now has over 70).

And those two books convinced me that... well, that I could do that – that I could be a copywriter.

So what did I do?

I can’t remember what I did first, but I can remember this…

I lived for the next 6 months on Michael Fortin’s Copywriting Board, now extinct. I literally read every single post contained therein – going back years. And I followed every link and lead that took me to even more information…

I read every one of Gary Halbert’s newsletters twice, including the Boron Letters.

I subscribed to the newsletters of John Carlton, Dan Kennedy, Clayton Makepeace, Gary Bencivienga, and a host of others, available online and off, whether they were free or priced.

And, of course, I read all the promos the acknowledged masters had written that I could find.

I also subscribed to an AWAI product that every month delivered a control, written by master copywriters. (Also included were interviews with each copywriter where they explained how they wrote the piece). The promotions were for health, investment, self-improvement, business opportunity, etc.

I don’t know if that service/product is still around, but I believe I subscribed to it for over 3 years (and I still have those controls -- and I read them all again just last year).

Of course, I also read the books that every copywriter should read, listed below (admittedly, I have not read them all).

Sales Letters That Sizzle
By Herschel Gordon Lewis

The Copy Book: How 32 Of The World’s Best Advertising Writers Write Their Copy
By Designers & Art Directors Association of the UK

First Hundred Million
By E. Haldeman Julius

Triggers
By Joseph Sugarman

Advertising Secrets Of The Written Word
By Joseph Sugarman

Powerful Advertising Copy from One of America’s Top Copywriters and Mail Order Entrepreneurs
By Joseph Sugarman

Business-to-Business Direct Marketing/Fool Proof Marketing
By Bob Bly

Magnetic Selling
By Bob Bly

Direct Marketing: Strategy, Planning and Execution
By Ed Nash

Breakthrough Advertising
By Eugene Schwartz

How To Write A Good Advertisement/ My First 50 Years In Advertising
By Vic Schwab

7 Steps To Freedom
By Ben Suarez

The Ultimate Sales Letter/Ultimate Marketing Plan/No BS Business Success
By Dan Kennedy

Tested Advertising Methods
By John Caples

How To Make Your Advertising Make Money
By John Caples

Making Ads Pay
By John Caples

The Greatest Direct Mail Sales Letters Of All Time
By Richard Hodgson

My Life In Advertising/ Scientific Advertising
By Claude Hopkins

My First 65 Years In Advertising
By Maxwell Sackheim

The Robert Collier Letter Book
By Robert Collier

Ogilvy On Advertising/ Confessions Of An Advertising Man
By David Ogilvy

Magic Words that Bring You Riches
By Ted Nicholas

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
By Robert Cialdini

The Tipping Point
By Malcolm Gladwell

Reason Why Advertising
By John Kennedy

Intensive Advertising
By John Kennedy

How Shall We Know Good Copy
By John Kennedy

The Stuff Americans Are made Of: The Seven Cultural Forces That Define Americans – A New Framework for Quality, Productivity & Profitability
By Josh Hammond and James Morrison

Secrets of Successful Direct Mail
By Dick Benson

Looking Out for #1
By Robert J. Ringer

Successful Direct Marketing Methods
By Bob Stone

Purple Cow
By Seth Godin

Art of Readable Writing
By Rudolph Flesch

Unlimited Selling Power
By Donald Moine

Cash Copy
By Jeffrey Lant

Million Dollar Mailings
By Dennis Hatch

Direct Marketing Success: What works and why
By Freeman Gosden

How to Write Letters that Sell
By Christian Godefroy

Reality In Advertising
By Rosser Reeves

Words That Sell
By Richard Bayan

Method Marketing/Million Dollar Mailings
By Denny Hatch

How to Write Advertisements that Sell
By A. W. Shaw Company

All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
By Seth Godin

Thesaurus of Alternatives to Worn-Out Words and Phrases
By Robert Hartwell Fiske

The Culture Code
By Dr. G. Clotaire Rapaille

2239 Tested Secrets For Direct Marketing Success
By Denny Hatch

How To Turn Words Into Money
By Ted Nicholas

Get Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got
By Jay Abraham

Therapeutic Metaphors
By David Gordon

Psycho-Cybernetics
By Maxwell Maltz

Commonsense Direct Marketing
By Drayton Bird

How to Write a Sales Letter that sells!
By Drayton Bird

Profitable Direct Marketing
By Jim Kobs

The Great Brain Robbery
By Murray Raphel

How to Advertise
By Ken Roman and Jane Maas

Writing that Works
By Ken Roman and Joel Raphelson

The End of Marketing as We Know It
By Sergio Zyman

How to Master the Art of Selling
By Tom Hopkins

How to Sell Anything to Anybody
By Joe Girard

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
By Al Ries & Jack Trout

Fund Raising Letters
By Jerry Huntsinger

I’m sure I left out plenty more things that I did, and read, nevertheless…

How did you prepare yourself to be the copywriter you are today?
#controls #copy #copywriting career #marketing #master copywriters #more… #newsletters #preparing copy #sales #writing #years #you’ve
  • Profile picture of the author Mark Andrews
    Banned
    I just started writing Barry.

    Writing. Practicing.

    Writing. Practicing.

    Writing. Practicing.

    Until I got better and
    better at what I do.


    Mark Andrews
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  • Profile picture of the author reactiontm
    I don't write for anyone else but my own business, but I can write a MEAN sales letter.

    Looks like you've read a lot of stuff.

    What have you written?

    You've got plenty of info, now you just need to write.

    If you can't find anyone to write for, then write for your own business.

    In the end, it just might pay better, too.

    And if you're going to practice, as was suggested, what better way to do so than to write solicitation letters to prospective clients?
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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    We have very similar reading experience (libraries).

    I've been doing this for 10 years now and teaching/coaching
    has also helped a lot because apart from letters I write I
    get to critique the letters of my students. No better way
    to learn a subject than to teach it.

    There are some key books that are MUST READS but others
    you find repeating the same ideas. Just one idea can still
    make a big difference. The older classics still remain my
    favorite books.

    But there is no substitute for doing--writing copy and
    getting results for your clients or yourself (I prefer
    writing for others because I know that I have to
    perform whereas writing for myself I think that I
    could always improve it later.)

    Also reading about persuasion outside of copywriting
    helps to improve your copywriting skills as well.

    -Ray Edwards
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeHumphreys
      Barry,

      I started out as a massage therapist in 1993. As I built up my business, I hired other therapists to work for me. They started to rely on me to get clients in the door for them. Otherwise, they'd seek work elsewhere and I'd lose a quality therapist.

      At its peak, I had 7 other therapists and 2 admin staff working for me so there was a lot of pressure for what I did marketing-wise to work. There were plenty of times where I sat down to write a direct mail piece or Val-Pak ad and it was "gun to the head marketing" (Gary Halbert's phrase, not mine). If what I wrote didn't work, then I would have had problems covering overhead, payroll, taxes, etc in the near future.

      So I constantly studied everything I could get my hands on marketing-wise. Originally it was just offline direct response marketing. As the internet evolved and started becoming a viable marketing weapon for all types of businesses, I started studying online marketing too.

      Eventually, I hired a well-known national marketing firm to take over the marketing for my massage center. I was tired of working 100+ hours per week and was looking to lighten my work load.

      For 8 months, they tried to beat any of my controls and could not. Not one single control. Out of frustration, they suggested I check their national consultants only forum to see if anyone else in the company had experience with my industry.

      While I was poking around their forum, I found their recommended reading list. One of the books caught my eye so I went to the local bookstore and bought it. It was about copywriting, a skill set that I wasn't very familiar with yet.

      The book was John Caples' "Tested Advertising Methods" which is one of the best copywriting books I've ever studied. It's one of the few I've ever read multiple times.

      I took what I learned and applied it to my controls which started performing even better. At that point, I fired the marketing firm and took over writing all of the marketing again.

      Fast forward to late 2005. I tell the story in more detail on my copywriting site but the guy who introduced me to my wife guilted me into rewriting the home page for his business website. The conversion rate took off and he immediately referred 4 new people to me without asking me if I wanted any copywriting clients. I suddenly found myself in the copywriting & marketing consultant business. So I literally fell into this industry.

      It wasn't until August 2006 when I decided to get serious about treating like a business. Using what I know about building businesses and my copywriting/marketing skills, it took about 2 months to develop a full-time client load. I've been full-time ever since.

      In terms of who I've studied... the shorter answer is who haven't I studied their work. Since 2006, I've read and/or written copy 6 days per week. I have 3 six-foot bookcases in my office filled with copywriting and marketing books/courses/programs. I have countless binders and folders with different offline and online marketing that compose my swipe files. I am constantly working on improving and refining my skills.

      I give a lot of credit to Michel Fortin and Clayton Makepeace for their training materials. There's other people like John Carlton who I can specifically pin-point what training techniques of theirs (Bullet writing with Carlton) that really connected with me.

      For some techniques, I've had to hear it from more than one source until I found a way the information was presented that finally made me go "A-HA!".

      The 10,000 hour rule probably is true. I look at being a perpetual student and constantly working on improving your skills as being a better sign of a world-class or master copywriter.

      My 3 cents,

      Mike
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    • Profile picture of the author Grain
      I believe it will be faster in the internet
      than direct mail.. But the important
      thing is that you go out and write copy
      for all kinds of products, for all kinds
      of clients, meet various types of writers,
      have quality shares and discussions..

      Mail takes time to reach traffic, but
      the internet is close to instant traffic.
      That means you get to test almost
      immediately and split test.

      It's easy to write a standard sales letter,
      but one which beats the control... That
      takes more thought.

      Mikehumphrey raised excellent
      points too.
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      Kind Regards,
      Grain.

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  • Profile picture of the author BarryADensa
    Yes, writing and writing and writing is extremely important. There's no substitute. It elevates, more than anything else, your craft.

    But without a strong understanding and grounding in what works and doesn't work -- and why -- the end result is often just drivel (which is so prevalent online and off).

    The one thing I never did though was take a course of any kind, though I attended numerous webinars and teleseminars, so you can say I was pretty much self-taught.

    Ironically, I was just asked by MarketingProfs to teach a copywriting course at their online university, which I accepted -- I wonder if I'm being hypocritical

    Anyway, I'm just curious to know how others became the copywriters they became. Plus, sharing experiences could help those on the board who are just starting out -- and reduce the number of copy critique requests, which understandably appears to be a sore point among many copywriters here.

    BTW Ray, I remember you from Fortin's board.
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    Barry A Densa - Freelance Marketing & Sales Copywriter - WritingWithPersonality.com

    Download a FREE copy of my new eBook, containing 21 of my most outrageous rants, when you visit my blog: Marketing Wit & Wisdom

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  • Profile picture of the author BarryADensa
    Let me just add, regarding libraries...

    I remember Dan Kennedy saying that when it comes to learning copywriting (I'm paraphrasing) everything there is to know about how to write copy has already been said -- now, there are just endless ways of saying it.
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    Barry A Densa - Freelance Marketing & Sales Copywriter - WritingWithPersonality.com

    Download a FREE copy of my new eBook, containing 21 of my most outrageous rants, when you visit my blog: Marketing Wit & Wisdom

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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Andrews
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Smidid Sammia View Post

    writing and writing and yu would get bigger progress, I am just a passer-by
    You've been a copywriter for more than 5 years and this is what? A good representation of your standard of writing in English?

    Same with your other post on another thread, it's obvious you're no copywriter. Well, certainly not in English anyway.


    Mark Andrews
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  • Profile picture of the author dennis09
    Nice headline, i never visit this section of the forum but your headline caught my eye. Guess your doing something right!
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    There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs
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  • Profile picture of the author BarryADensa
    Great story, Mike. And I recognize your name, too. Fortin's?
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    Barry A Densa - Freelance Marketing & Sales Copywriter - WritingWithPersonality.com

    Download a FREE copy of my new eBook, containing 21 of my most outrageous rants, when you visit my blog: Marketing Wit & Wisdom

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  • Profile picture of the author abugah
    Though I have not been a copywriter for 5 years, I have found some tricks that help me get ahead.

    One, in the beginning writing was a real pain. I would literally look for reasons not to write when it was time to do it. I conquered this by getting into the habit locking myself in a room for a minimum of 2 hours. During this period, I would have no option but to research and write at least 500 words. Slowly writing became enjoyable. Today I look forward to it every morning and I write faster with less errors.

    Two, this is want I call 'selective ignorance'. I find there is no time to read everything. For instance I rarely read fundraising copy. I have no intention of getting into that niche. What I do instead is to zero in on the niches that are dear to me; financial being one of them.

    Three, I try and hang around great writers and marketers. For instance I know Clayton Makepeace writes for Weiss Research. That means that most of the copy in their websites will be exceptionally good. So using a trick I discovered I can read all the sales copy online by typing on the browser: “reports" site:finance.moneyandmarkets.com

    The same trick gives me all the great letters written by great copywriters I need for…
    Oxford club type: "oxf" sitexfordclub.com
    Stansberry research type: "pro" site://www.stansberryresearch.com
    Agora financial type: "reports" site:agorafinancial.com
    Casey research type: "crpmkt" site:caseyresearch.com

    Lastly, I keep track on the number of words I write and hours I work each day. It is possible to be busy without accomplishing much. My target is to hit 10,000 hours and 2 million words in 3 years or less. That means I need to work 10-12 hours daily writing 2500 words to hit the target in the remaining 2 years.

    Perhaps this quote of Benjamin Franklin sums it all: ‘If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do things worth writing.’
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  • Profile picture of the author BarryADensa
    Abugah, nice swipe tips!

    You can also use that same formula to search for anything on a given website.
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    Download a FREE copy of my new eBook, containing 21 of my most outrageous rants, when you visit my blog: Marketing Wit & Wisdom

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  • Profile picture of the author CharismaticMannequin
    Barry, biggest thing I can say, and what Mark has already said..is the physical practice.

    Halbert said in one of his letters "How to be a world class compywriter in 30 days" that those who study and rewrite the most successful ads are the ones who will do the best.

    This is true. Copying these out by hand yourself puts the structure of successful copy in your brain. You see how each piece works.

    On top of this, practicing your own copy, and making up a product and selling it to an imaginary audience is a very good thing to do. It challenges you to think about how you would tackle that market.

    For example...how would you sell condoms to monks? That kind of extreme thinking and extreme marketing scenario really helps push your copy, and expand your persuasive abilities.


    Hope this helped.


    Ben.


    P.S I realise you're a seasoned copywriter. Just wrote this almost as a piece of advice; I realise you were asking for experiences, not advice. Just thought I'd clarify!
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  • Profile picture of the author Ace OfAllMedia
    You lost interest or desire to read that long dissertation after the first two paragraphs full of fallacy..

    As someone who has also been creating content around the subjects of SEO, advertising, copywriting/blogging, and internet marketing for more than 5 years, I would like to clarify something for the newbies, based on my own first-hand experience.

    I can say with absolute certainty it most certainly does not take "a minimum of 5 years before a copywriter internalizes everything he/she has learned and can apply it with appreciable persuasiveness. "....

    Not everyone is that aloof, in fact I would venture to say most people are blessed with a healthier connection with what we are doing in the Here and Now and why for that to be remotely plausible. Especially true, considering not all of us bear a skull thick enough to keep something that we do every day for a period of time ( Granted, it does take time to know what you're doing, to master it, to apply your knowledge competently, and to become believable as an industry professional - but certainly not 5 years).

    And you lost me for good as soon as you cited an alleged "saying" (one which I have certainly never heard, probably because it's simply not at all true) that it takes "10,000 hours to master a skill" - I can't even keep a straight face as I'm typing this!

    10,000 hours, also known as 600000 continuous minutes, both of you over 13 continuous months ( assuming you never have to eat s*** sleep or do anything but that just to put into perspective you would be that block of time) .... show me a man who can put in half of that amount of time doing any activity to further himself towards the Mastery of a reasonable skill, not unlike what you were equating this to, and has not yet mastered it and I will show you an imbecile ( or a very unfortunate individual with a learning disability for whom that would not be a fair statement) bottom line no it does not.

    The reason those two statements probably irked me? Because oftentimes, those are statements that one makes when they either want to indirectly ( passive-aggressively) discourage newbies with largely exaggerated timelines, sort of the Polar opposite approach as the get rich quick pitch (and equally as effective at "discouraging" as the instant wealth pitch is "appealing")

    Or, something one would say in order to establish some BS aire of perceived "superiority" or "wisdom" to Prime a starry-eyed inexperienced noob for an epic fleecing...

    Either way, red flags everywhere, hopefully I'm just overly sensitive today, if not then hopefully this saves a noob of fleecing LOL
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    • Profile picture of the author Andrew Gould
      Originally Posted by Ace OfAllMedia View Post

      hopefully I'm just overly sensitive today
      By digging up a near six year old post only to miss the point of it and focus on the part the OP said he wasn't interesting in quibbling over?
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      Andrew Gould

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    • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
      Originally Posted by Ace OfAllMedia View Post

      And you lost me for good as soon as you cited an alleged "saying" (one which I have certainly never heard, probably because it's simply not at all true) that it takes "10,000 hours to master a skill" - I can't even keep a straight face as I'm typing this!
      Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers.

      I do want to thank you for bumping this remarkable thread. The OP gave several real gems on what it takes to be really great at just about any practice.
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    • Profile picture of the author DABK
      You lost. I did not.

      I am pretty sure no noob was fleeced today.

      Have you never done anything for 10k hours? Or you just didn't bother to notice that around there, you get the equivalent of 'native fluency' not just fluency.

      Yes, the 10k hours could be 9k or 10437... The point with that is that, for significant knowledge endeavors, it takes a good chunk of time of actually doing, that it takes work... and that there is a difference between the mastery after you've put in the time compared to that you gain from partial time.

      Thanks for reviving this thread, anyway.


      Originally Posted by Ace OfAllMedia View Post

      You lost interest or desire to read that long dissertation after the first two paragraphs full of fallacy..

      As someone who has also been creating content around the subjects of SEO, advertising, copywriting/blogging, and internet marketing for more than 5 years, I would like to clarify something for the newbies, based on my own first-hand experience.

      I can say with absolute certainty it most certainly does not take "a minimum of 5 years before a copywriter internalizes everything he/she has learned and can apply it with appreciable persuasiveness. "....

      Not everyone is that aloof, in fact I would venture to say most people are blessed with a healthier connection with what we are doing in the Here and Now and why for that to be remotely plausible. Especially true, considering not all of us bear a skull thick enough to keep something that we do every day for a period of time ( Granted, it does take time to know what you're doing, to master it, to apply your knowledge competently, and to become believable as an industry professional - but certainly not 5 years).

      And you lost me for good as soon as you cited an alleged "saying" (one which I have certainly never heard, probably because it's simply not at all true) that it takes "10,000 hours to master a skill" - I can't even keep a straight face as I'm typing this!

      10,000 hours, also known as 600000 continuous minutes, both of you over 13 continuous months ( assuming you never have to eat s*** sleep or do anything but that just to put into perspective you would be that block of time) .... show me a man who can put in half of that amount of time doing any activity to further himself towards the Mastery of a reasonable skill, not unlike what you were equating this to, and has not yet mastered it and I will show you an imbecile ( or a very unfortunate individual with a learning disability for whom that would not be a fair statement) bottom line no it does not.

      The reason those two statements probably irked me? Because oftentimes, those are statements that one makes when they either want to indirectly ( passive-aggressively) discourage newbies with largely exaggerated timelines, sort of the Polar opposite approach as the get rich quick pitch (and equally as effective at "discouraging" as the instant wealth pitch is "appealing")

      Or, something one would say in order to establish some BS aire of perceived "superiority" or "wisdom" to Prime a starry-eyed inexperienced noob for an epic fleecing...

      Either way, red flags everywhere, hopefully I'm just overly sensitive today, if not then hopefully this saves a noob of fleecing LOL
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      • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
        Originally Posted by DABK View Post

        You lost. I did not.

        I am pretty sure no noob was fleeced today.

        Have you never done anything for 10k hours? Or you just didn't bother to notice that around there, you get the equivalent of 'native fluency' not just fluency.

        Yes, the 10k hours could be 9k or 10437... The point with that is that, for significant knowledge endeavors, it takes a good chunk of time of actually doing, that it takes work... and that there is a difference between the mastery after you've put in the time compared to that you gain from partial time.

        Thanks for reviving this thread, anyway.
        Lucid and insightful.

        In my own personal experience in learning how to sell, I've seen salespeople with a week of experience that swear that they have mastered it all. Of course, that's the confidence of ignorance.

        But it really did take me about ten years of daily selling and daily study, before I thought of myself as truly an expert. Eventually, the law of diminishing returns sets in and I learn less every year....

        My guess is that just about anyone who has seriously studied a subject for over ten years...or practiced a skill for over ten years, would laugh at someone thinking after a couple of years of part time interest...that they have "seen it all".

        For example, I used to train in Kung Fu for over a decade.

        There were Black belts with 5 years of daily training..and Black Belts with ten years of daily training. There was a world of difference between them.

        Ever seen a Mr. Olympia with only 5 years of bodybuilding? Neither have I.
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        • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
          Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post


          In my own personal experience in learning how to sell, I've seen salespeople with a week of experience that swear that they have mastered it all. Of course, that's the confidence of ignorance.
          Just look at the number of people on this board (mostly on the main board and the offline section) who think that because they have read a book on SEO and managed to rank a page for some obscure term, they are qualified to sell SEO services to all those unwashed bumpkins still running physical local businesses.

          Not just picking on the SEO folks, but they seem to be the most numerous.

          Of course, some of this comes from the sellers of "how to get rich as an IM consultant" courses, telling their marks -- I mean 'students' -- that since they bought the course, they already know more than any B&M business owner.

          Many of them seem to end up back on the forum wailing that they sold someone a pack of services, and now they need someone to tell them how to actually deliver.

          There was a stretch when I was into skeet shooting. I remember the first time I shot a 25, and thought I had it down. Until I matched up with a guy that routinely ran 500 straight. I knew how to hit each target from each position, but I didn't have the mastery to do it again and again.

          Went through a similar experience with golf...

          You may know how to do something, but it takes some amount of time until you can do it consistently and naturally.
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          • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
            Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

            Just look at the number of people on this board (mostly on the main board and the offline section) who think that because they have read a book on SEO and managed to rank a page for some obscure term, they are qualified to sell SEO services to all those unwashed bumpkins still running physical local businesses.
            The world is full of people who took a CPR lesson and think they are now MDs.

            I had a new sales trainee that told me that he was "Tom Hopkins trained". He honestly thought that meant something. What it meant was that he read a book.

            Years ago, I visited another distributor that sold vacuum cleaners in people's home. As a favor I agreed to go with his son on an appointment.

            For two hours this guy missed buying signals, refused to answer questions, and showed a complete lack of knowledge of how to sell.

            The customer gave a minor objection...and after watching the "salesman" flounder for a few minutes...I offered the solution, and the customer agreed to buy.

            The idiot I was with said "I don't think we can do that". I said "Call the office, and you'll see that we can".

            Nope. This moron was in the Sales Prevention Department, and he knew his job.

            Of course, even though the prospect really wanted to buy...the kid couldn't take "Yes" for an answer. No sale.

            In the car, on the way back to the office, I told him that "We could have easily made that sale. I was trying to help".

            The idiot told me "If I couldn't make that sale, that sale couldn't be made".

            It was his second week in the business.

            These people exist everywhere.
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  • Profile picture of the author jcmanheimer
    When I first started, I spent a lot of time upside down in the dumpster behind our local post office.

    That was back in the day when the P.O. trash was full of brilliant direct mail.

    I studied great copywriters like Bill Jayme, Judy Weiss, Ken Scheck, Linda Wells.

    It seems to have worked for me.

    I've beaten them all at one point or another.
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