You are only ONE "swipe" away from becoming rich...and that swipe is:

That's true. But even a rookie knows it appeals to him or her, and wants to understand why.

That creates curiosity, and the motivation to understand. In time, the understanding becomes clearer, and the mechanisms become obvious.

But something has to plant that seed. For many, this letter is where they started. For me, it was the famous International Living letter by Bill Bonner ("You look out your window....").

It really doesn't matter in the beginning if they copy all 27 pages by hand or not, as long as it has sparked their imagination. At some point, they will study this letter and be able to understand the elements contained within it.

But to copy even without understanding does ingrain a sense of cadence. To copy with understanding does that, and much more. Neither is wasted time.

And if they're smart, at some point they will copy this letter out by hand again - along with many others. Is that a fool's errand? Perhaps. But the only way to know for sure is to try. Many highly successful copywriters do swear by the results. I'd agree.

But if someone had to pick just one letter - and only one style - then this one could do it. It has all the right elements. But gjabiz's point goes deeper than than that.

It's about asking one's self what makes something appealing... what makes it work. It's about not relying on an endless stream of conflicting opinions, but forming your own. Differing opinions help, to be sure, but so do personal insights. And the learning never stops.

It's called Copywriting Templates™

I don't know who the "we" is who need to get away from the idea that sales letters can fix a crappy product, mainly because I don't know what that is.

Can you give examples of products people are starving for?

Now a story (or two).

Gary Halbert told Ben Suarez to get into the Astrology business, Ben hated the idea and thought all astrology products were crap. But, he was about to go under and decided to give it a go. You would find that Ben still thinks astrology is a crappy product, however, he's learned not to bias his marketing based on his own feelings.

Ben wrote one of the great breakthrough ads of all time, ASTROLOGY TODAY, and it ran on the back of the Sunday comics and brought in millions of dollars. There wasn't a line of starving people who wanted this product, one even the marketer regarded as crappy.

It was the PROMOTION. It was the letters, the sales letters which sold the product.

And this is just one example...in my experience an OPINION on a product tends to be subjective, my Rolex collecting friend thinks my Timex is a piece of crap.

As for you selling tons of product which people are starving for,, give us an example of such a product and answer the question;

IF you know people are starving for this, why aren't you making tons of money?

WORDS on the paper or page, DO mean something. In copywriting they mean everything.

Billions of dollars have been made from the sale of "crappy" products with words on a page.

Could you offer up some real life examples of what a crappy product is and a couple of those which people are starving for?

gjabiz

If by "crap product" you mean poorly made, I agree...

other than that, there are no crap products, only crap copywriters.

The Halbert thing about a hungry market is nonsense.

I know some of you idolize Halbert, but he's been outsold by many people with better ideas.

Was sitting here by my indoor pool watching my girlfriend skinny dip and was trying to think of a crap product...

couldn't think of any. Only could think of crap copywriters trying to sell something they had no idea how to sell.

In December there was a meeting in Salt Lake City Utah between an entrepreneur and a brilliant marketer.

Guy was trying to sell lamp shades.

Most would say there wasn't a hungry market.

Marketer came up with a brilliant idea.

Every house has lamp shades. Virtually every woman of the house wants the place to smell good.

How bout lamp shades that deodorize the place? Yeah, the heat from the bulbs causes a reaction to the treated shade that sends pleasant aromas into the air. Kinda like the whole Febreze marketing plan...but with a twist.

Imagine the marketing potentials with this idea?

Hopefully you're smart enough to see the possibilities.

I just made the whole story up off the top of my head to show you how you can take a product that doesn't seem exciting, and turn it into a fortune.

If you're creative enough, you can take any product and make a fortune with it.

We've got a lot of "copywriters", but very few creative thinkers.

Good copy can sell a crappy product.

If good copy can help one product outsell a virtually identical product (and we know it can), good copy can sell an inferior product.

Good copy can sell $400 pencils (or rather "writing implements") .

Still, knowing how to write a letter like that doesn't guarantee riches.

You have to know how to buy the right mailing lists, drive traffic to wherever your letter lives online, etc. etc. Or maybe that's the easy part? I don't think so.

Right list counts much more than the right copy.

There's a whole marketing machine in place dedicated to getting eyes on that swipe.

Nevertheless, I'm also writing this one out by hand. We're going to all end up sounding alike.

Hi all, hi Gordon,

Gordon, I hope you're feeling better.

I've followed some of Gordon's advice and spent the last several weeks with This Letter: Can You Write a Letter Like This One?

I've read it through the first time, trying not to analyze it, but just read it as if I were a potential prospect.

The second time reading the letter, I wrote some general notes, thoughts, questions, observations. The more I observed, the more I noted things I should be noting.

Then I hand wrote the letter.

If you've got any interest in seeing what a 24 page typed sales letter looks like when written out by hand, you can check it out here: Handwritten: Can You Write A Letter Like This One

This took a hella lot longer than I thought it would. Once I got into it though, I genuinely enjoyed doing it and I will definitely be doing this more.

As I wrote, I kept a list on index cards of the things I wanted to keep track of the next time through.

And the next time through, I dissected and categorized the elements of the letter.

I created a spreadsheet to track the following Elements:

Who is the ideal reader
Problems
Promises
Proof Elements
The Offer
Call to Action
Features

I also kept track of repeated words or phrases.

Under each main Element, I listed the appropriate sub-category addressed in the letter. For example, within the first 10 pages of the letter, there were 20 different Promises made, such as:

You will have Job Security
You can make great money
You can work from where ever you want
etc.

And then, for example, under You Can Make Great Money, I listed:
p1. Subhead:earning great money
p1. people who have all the money they need
p1. A world where money and time have a different meaning
p2. around $300,000 a year
p3. I could make a lot more
p3. $500,000 … even $1 million a year
p3. earn a very comfortable six-figure income from home
p3. your financial destiny squarely in your own hands
p3. Testimonial: "The ability to pay my bills no longer worries me, even in these rough times
p4. being paid very well to do it.
p4. I went from a $6.50 per hour grocery store shelf stocker to a six-figure income earner in about a year.
p4. letters like the one you're reading now can pay so well.
p4. have five new projects to choose from … each worth anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 in potential income
p4. Sidebar: Make $210,000
p4. Sidebar: Get paid $210,000
p4. Sidebar: Command $8,000 per letter
p4. Sidebar: $96,000 in writing fees alone
p4. Sidebar: royalties can add up to another $120,000
p4. Sidebar: over $210,000 a year

etc. (These are just the first four pages).

I took different color highlighters and picked apart the letter, line by line. If a phrase or sentence fit into my idea of what were one of the above elements, I highlighted it and then categorized it on the spreadsheet.

If you'd like to check out the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...#gid=337806892

And the highlighted letter: Dissected-A Letter Like This One

My expectation was that my different colored highlighters would create something of a map – showing me a section of orange Problems, followed by a large chunk of blue Promises with sections of green Proof mixed in once or twice a page.

It didn't work out this way though - it looks like all of the different elements are pretty thoroughly mixed together. Although I'm sure that my current understanding or classification of the different elements are largely incorrect. For example, I have a really tough time determining if a particular factual sentence qualifies as proof - or if it's just talk.

Regardless, it's interesting to see how efficiently the letter is written and how almost all of the sentences fit into a relatively small number of categories.

When I get to writing my own letters, I think this spreadsheet (once completed) will be very helpful as I try to identify the specific problems, promises, etc. I want to address for my own target reader. When editing my own work, I would think that if a sentence doesn't fit into one of my categories, then it probably has to go.

As useful as I believe this exercise is and will be, I had to stop after about 9 1/2 pages, as it's just taking way too long to complete. I've been at it for almost a week and I haven't even gotten to a single hint of an offer or call to action yet.

If I expect to become a copywriter any time soon, I've got to start actually writing stuff I can test and hopefully profit from.

And that's where I'm off to next. I've got some questions as I move forward on this, but that's for another thread.

Thanks so much for turning me onto This Letter, Gordon. These exercises have been helpful and have me inspired.

Best,
-Rob