Question For The Pros: Do You Think There's Actually THAT MUCH Demand For Copywriting Ebooks?

Thanks for the personal insights, palamino!

A "good copywriter" doesn't try to sell a product when there isn't a demand. This goes all the way back to Halbert's hamburger stand and a starving crowd.

Too many marketers see copywriting as the marketing panacea. I don't know where you ever got the notion, but it is merely one of 4 legs on the barstool. Without all of the legs solidly on the ground, the stool will tip over.

What are the 4 legs of the barstool?

1. A great product that solves a problem
2. A great offer
3. Great copy promising to cure the problem
4. A starving crowd with the problem (and cash)

If any of those elements are missing or out of balance, the stool tips over and you don't make sales. The sooner you guys learn this, the sooner you will make more sales.

Allow me to share a real world example of a guy that never learned this lesson.

I was asked to write a letter for a product by an IM guy. When I asked about his offer he told me the price and I nearly choked. It was $297, which was about $250 higher than I thought it should be.

I immediately expressed concern, but he wouldn't listen. I warned him that I'd do my best but I thought it was way too high. I privately asked a few highly respected copywriters about the offer and both of them shared my opinion. Unfortunately, this guy wasn't listening to the marketing experts, instead listening to his friends that told him, "Oh, it's worth $497."

They were simply telling him what he wanted to hear.

Next, I asked about his market. He told me he had some of the biggest names in IM promoting it. And he wasn't kidding. I could name 10 guys that you've all heard of including several multi millionaires with 6 figure lists. I told him, well that's great but your product isn't targeting the TYPE of people they have on their lists.

He was teaching newbie stuff like how to ftp, buy a domain name, add a paypal button, etc. People on Mike Filsaime's list already know how to do that. They don't have a problem.

He insisted that I not worry about it and so I figured I've done my part and gave him my opinion.

So I opened a vein and poured my heart and soul into that letter. It is one of the finest letters I've ever written. I had 3 copywriters review the letter, all of them guys you've heard and the cheapest one charges $5,000 a letter. The most expensive one is at $15,000.

They gave me some feedback and all thought the letter kicked ass. And the guy I delivered it to loved it. He said, "You hit it out of the park".

Fast forward to launch day.

He sold jack squat. It converted at around 0.2%. And guess whose fault it was?

You got it. All the warnings I gave him about his offer... about his market... all that was forgotten and it was all the copy's fault. I had to fix the copy. After a few tweaks with no success (which made perfect sense to me), he fired me and hired someone else.

The sad part is, the new launch won't go any better than mine because he can't see the real problem. It's NOT the letter. My letters routinely convert at 3-7% when put in front of the right crowd.

Ok, enough ranting. I hope somebody learned something here.

PS: I am still owed money on the project. Another guy teaching people how to make money that can't pay his own bills.

Some of the old school mail order masters would say don't try to sell anything if you have to explain why they need it. You only want to sell what they're already looking for.

...In a more extreme case, you don't want to invent anything new either. The inventor of the Air Conditioner went broke because he had to explain why others needed it.