James Webb Young - A Technique For Producing Ideas
I started reading about Young a little while back. There was a discussion about the history of copywriting on this forum, which led me to google a few things, and somehow came across Young (not sure if it's a Warrior member's site or unrelated ... I forget).
So, I ordered A Technique For Producing Ideas (which I found out later is free all over the place, oh well it was only $4) and it came and I was shocked. It's so short. What could possibly be in there that is so great?
At first it felt like one of those articles where they promise you 10 secrets and you count up to 3 or 4, next thing you know you're at the end and you don't even know if there were 10 secrets revealed at all (or does that only happen to me?).
But by the end of it, it was great. Really good nuggets of insight.
Anyway, I post this because I found step #1 to be so important. I've been learning/reading/studying direct response copywriting for a while now, for my law practice, and have read over and over again the importance of doing due diligence of your target market. Find out how they think, what they think, words/lingo they use.
I was super lazy on that one. Just assuming I knew how they think (after all, they're my clients). So I skipped that part and just wrote. Dumb move because just a little research reveals so much.
Anyway, who the hell wants to listen to my story, I'm no guru
John Forde sent an email to brainpickings.org, and I perused the site and found this. A summary of James Webb Young's five step process to produce ideas. Perhaps good for all the small biz owners who lurk through here
A 5-Step Technique for Producing Ideas circa 1939 | Brain Pickings
I still think the whole thing should be read (it's really short) but this is a good summary of it. Here is what Young says about raw material gathering:
- Joe D
So, I ordered A Technique For Producing Ideas (which I found out later is free all over the place, oh well it was only $4) and it came and I was shocked. It's so short. What could possibly be in there that is so great?
At first it felt like one of those articles where they promise you 10 secrets and you count up to 3 or 4, next thing you know you're at the end and you don't even know if there were 10 secrets revealed at all (or does that only happen to me?).
But by the end of it, it was great. Really good nuggets of insight.
Anyway, I post this because I found step #1 to be so important. I've been learning/reading/studying direct response copywriting for a while now, for my law practice, and have read over and over again the importance of doing due diligence of your target market. Find out how they think, what they think, words/lingo they use.
I was super lazy on that one. Just assuming I knew how they think (after all, they're my clients). So I skipped that part and just wrote. Dumb move because just a little research reveals so much.
Anyway, who the hell wants to listen to my story, I'm no guru
John Forde sent an email to brainpickings.org, and I perused the site and found this. A summary of James Webb Young's five step process to produce ideas. Perhaps good for all the small biz owners who lurk through here
A 5-Step Technique for Producing Ideas circa 1939 | Brain Pickings
I still think the whole thing should be read (it's really short) but this is a good summary of it. Here is what Young says about raw material gathering:
| Gathering raw material in a real way is not as simple as it sounds. It is such a terrible chore that we are constantly trying to dodge it. The time that ought to be spent in material gathering is spent in wool gathering. Instead of working systematically at the job of gathering raw material we sit around hoping for inspiration to strike us. When we do that we are trying to get the mind to take the fourth step in the idea-producing process while we dodge the preceding steps. |
- Joe D