You Are Not Alone...

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I've created some real stinkers...ads that bombed...sales letters that went nowhere...business start ups that sank quicker than...

82' was an attempt to start a door to door blitz to sell these little alarms that attached to your door. One sale.

84' started the first mobile auto oil change business that came to your home. Dismal failure.

85' sent out 10,000 direct mail pieces for a bumper sticker company. Not one response. Sucked...

countless ads that were dismal at best. Business advice that blew chunks. Sales letters that got 0 response.

2 cars repossessed. Evicted from my apartment. Electric turned off.

I've been a failure more times than I can remember...

all that and it was only the beginning.

92' bought a grocery store that went out of business 9 months later.

94 had a house foreclosed on.

Fast forward to now...I still suck at times...

but I'm also successful.

Wasn't a bright thought that ever occurred to me, but I kept on keeping on. Persistence pays off.

Most copywriters won't ever tell you about their failures. They want you to believe they've always hit home runs. Bullshit. They've had more failures than winners.

Embrace your failures...no, love your failures.

The difference between those who make it big and those who don't is the determined dogmatic desire to succeed.

My failures have taught me a lot. I've worked with some of the biggest companies in the world. Private jet...nice cars...never would have been possible if i'd let failure knock me down.

So, no, you're not alone. Virtually anyone that's ever been successful has had failures.

The difference between those who succeed and those who don't is how you handle your failures.

P.S. The headline I used is the most successful headline ever used for an email...according to tests.
#copywriting
  • Those who've succeeded the most have also probably tried the most and failed the most.

    Good post Max5ty... reminds us all to "keep on keepin on"
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  • Agreed on many points
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  • I've failed more times than I care to mention. (I'm transparent about it in my own marketing copy.) But I would not have written the successful controls I DID create - if I didn't fail.

    There's a lot of competition in the copywriting world. Good copywriters find themselves competing with bargain basement wannabes promising to nail a control on the first go for $297.

    So clients are being conditioned to believe there's something massively wrong - when copy doesn't convert right out of the gate.

    A couple things to remember:

    In the freelance world, you're oftentimes expected to crush a learning curve that top companies give their dedicated employees a year to master. You're expected to distill incredibly complicated information down to its core essence in days. Mistakes, wrong positioning, disconnected headlines, etc., are all normal. It DOES take time to find the path of least resistance. Not all the time. But very often.

    So if you're doing this right, you're going to fail.

    The question is...

    When you fail, are you gonna get back up... or what?

    Great stuff Max.

    Mark
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  • For some reason... when I read the thread title... and anytime I use that phrase in
    my copy... I can't help but think of Michael Jackson and his song "You are Not Alone"

    I start singing it in my head anytime I see those words. Goes to show you the
    power that a phrase can have... when anchoring someone to a specific feeling
    or time in their lives.
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    • haha, me too!

      and I clicked on the topic because I am alone but don't want to believe it
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  • Inspiring post. The part above is really intriguing... Ten thousand sent with zero responses? What were you selling? (Pre-printed bumper stickers? Custom stickers? Biz opp?)

    Not to be nosy... Just curious...

    Would love to see the copy for this piece. Were the 10,000 all one piece or did you test different approaches?

    ...Also what do you do now, max? Are you a copywriter? Entrepreneur?
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    • They were preprinted stickers. Like the t shirts with different sayings, but bumper stickers.

      Unfortunately, I never saved a copy of the letter.

      I didn't test anything. Guess at the time the thought didn't occur to me. Was before the internet and a lot of things I was just winging...even though I read every book I could get my hands on. Probably wouldn't have helped much to test, don't think it was a product anyone really wanted anyways.

      Pretty much just do stuff for myself now.
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    • I'm tempted to take max5ty off my iggy list... just to see what he answered. But I'll refrain. :-)

      Alex
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  • The Following May Be A Slightly Overused Cliche - But It's A Great One…

    Here goes…

    The Only Time You Fail - Is When It's The Last Time You Try.


    Steve
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    • Don't think I ever heard that but it's a great saying.

      Thanks.
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  • Einstein was considered a dunce at school and failed thousands of times.
    But he didn't believe in failure. He believed in doing everything to achieve his goals, and the "failures" were just ways he tried that didn't work...mere speed bumps along the road.

    Lincoln was told he would never amount to much. So many famous and successful people in life had massive failures before finding the key to success.
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    You Are Not Alone...

    I've created some real stinkers...ads that bombed...sales letters that went nowhere...business start ups that sank quicker than... 82' was an attempt to start a door to door blitz to sell these little alarms that attached to your door. One sale.