About Breakthrough Advertising

Mark 99

11 years ago

I found "Secret of Selling Anything by Harry Browne very useful starting out. Much of it can be related to copywriting.

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Petar P 11 years ago

Originally Posted by Mark 99

I found "Secret of Selling Anything by Harry Browne very useful starting out. Much of it can be related to copywriting.

Yeah, Selling in the real world.

Great book. I printed out and read the first part "The Secret of Success" twice and about half of "Selling is Easy".

Related because it's selling, Yes. Find out what people want and help them get it. But...

The second part is more focused on selling face to face. It's not easy to adapt it to "print". From what I could learn on this forum - the copywriter is supposed to put himself in the prospect's shoes.

Speaking of selling, I really wish I had a door to door selling experience. If I was 18 now I would work for free, just to learn to sell.
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Loren Woirhaye

11 years ago

Drayton Byrd is as pragmatic and experienced as
Schwartz and the other luminaries on the list.

Read the Collier book at least twice before you
allow yourself to take a disliking to it. It is
very, very deep.

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Petar P

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye

Drayton Byrd is as pragmatic and experienced as
Schwartz and the other luminaries on the list.

Read the Collier book at least twice before you
allow yourself to take a disliking to it. It is
very, very deep.

Thanks for the reply.

So after some consideration, I decided to remove Breakthrough
advertising because of the price and Karbo's book.

I am familiar with Drayton. But, he has two books. Which one do
you recommend? I am assuming you have read both.

Thanks
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Marvin Johnston

11 years ago

Originally Posted by PetarPrchkov

So after some consideration, I decided to remove Breakthrough advertising because of the price and Karbo's book.

I am familiar with Drayton. But, he has two books. Which one do
you recommend? I am assuming you have read both.

Breakthrough Advertising is available in PDF form on archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/Breakthr...ene-M-Schwartz

Somehow, I don't think the price should be an issue

.

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JonMills

11 years ago

Originally Posted by PetarPrchkov

I usually use the search function on the forum or search with Google before I ask anything, and very often the questions I planned to ask were already answered.

This time, however, that was not the case.

I am about to do the "Hand on Experience", that Halbert recommended. Reading the books, handwriting the ads(plus some more) and rereading the books with taking notes. But...

I skimmed through Breakthrough Advertising, which I found online, and noticed a lot of typos, like "anv" instead of "any", "simplv" instead of "simply", and many, many more.

Is it bad OCR? Are there any typos in the real book - the hardcover?

And about "Hand on Experience"...

The only book I won't read now that Gary recommends is "7 Steps to Freedom", which I found out, is more a book about entrepreneurship, than copywriting. - So...

7 Steps to Freedom is postponed.

Instead of Ben's book, I am considering The Thomas Hall Direct Mail Guides and Letters.

If you are an experienced copywriter and have a better recommendation, please post it.

Petar

Magazines.

Buy the magazines several months in a row and you will see the full page ads that are running month after month. Those ads are converting otherwise they wouldn't keep running them.

There is some great copy to be discovered that way.

Reading books is fine but observing copy that is on the front lines month after month is dynamite. You begin to see patterns.

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Bill Jeffels

11 years ago

I have all the books in question here. If you've found spelling errors in Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz I wouldn't deter you from not getting it. It truly is a great book with a wealth of knowledge.

It's the substance of the book that matter's and it truly is amazing. Robert Collier Letter Book is terrific too.

Drayton Bird's How To Write Letters That Sell is loaded with a substantial amount of information.

Now, 7 Step's To Freedom by Ben Suarez. I can see why you want to postpone it for now. It's 886 pages, I have read the whole thing but did skim over some of the dated parts.

One thing I find myself doing from time to time is going to the Index of the book and finding the areas where he speaks of Gary Halbert. You're right it's essentially not about copywriting.

But, getting an inside look of how Gary Halberts marketing mind worked even in those years and the stories Ben shares are truly interesting and very inspiring.

Bill

.

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Loren Woirhaye

11 years ago

I was referring to the Bird book on salesletters
but his book on direct marketing is excellent too
and easier to get through than Seven Steps to
Freedom 2, which is rather technical about the
business and doesn't account for the internet
at all.

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Petar P

11 years ago

Originally Posted by JonMills

Magazines.

Buy the magazines several months in a row and you will see the full page ads that are running month after month. Those ads are converting otherwise they wouldn't keep running them.

There is some great copy to be discovered that way.

Reading books is fine but observing copy that is on the front lines month after month is dynamite. You begin to see patterns.

This sounds great. But I don't live in an English speaking country.
So, I will try to find publications that can be shipped here. Or buy
back issues from ebay.

Originally Posted by Marvin Johnston

Breakthrough Advertising is available in PDF form on archive.org:

https://archive.org/details/Breakthr...ene-M-Schwartz

Somehow, I don't think the price should be an issue

.

I downloaded that particular PDF and found a lot of spelling mistakes.

Originally Posted by gjabiz

...

Thanks for the great reply.

I know that Ben's book is on entrepreneurship. I could go with 7 steps
first, but I have 0 capital and no sales experience. So I am postponing
it for later. First, I'd like to get my life in order.

And the knowledge in copywriting will prove very useful later on when
starting a business.

Though I don't understand one thing about 7 Steps to Freedom. Is 7
Steps to Freedom II better than I? Didn't Halbert recommend the first one?

Thanks
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gjabiz 11 years ago

Originally Posted by PetarPrchkov

Though I don't understand one thing about 7 Steps to Freedom. Is 7
Steps to Freedom II better than I? Didn't Halbert recommend the first one?

First thing, you can email me, I might have a spare digital copy I could send for free, since you live outside English land.

The content is about the same in both editions and it evolved from a series of books Ben wrote about the "mailorder" business, the most popular was SuperBIZ, and 7 Steps II was the last book which I edited in 1997. We had backends, a newsletter, software and were still offering computers for sale then.

SCI underwent dramatic changes a decade ago and with a shift toward specialty products, paper and ink and information products holds no interest to the company...more profitable things to focus on.

Either 7 Steps or ll will give you what Halbert was talking about.

Now some FREE advice, so take it with the proverbial grain of salt. I'd visit suarez.com and amch.com and go over all the pages because these represent what successful direct marketers are doing today.

Every page you see was written, probably by a copywriter, and every product you see has a control just waiting to be beat.

Both companies actively look for new inventors, innovators and new remote salepeople (copywriters) and these are just two of scores of companies out there.

good luck,

gjabiz
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- perryny 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by gjabiz
  
  amhc.com
  
  Is this the correct domain?
  
  -Robert
  
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  gjabiz 11 years ago
  
  Sorry Robert.
  
  The company name is Arthur Middleton Capital Holdings at amch.com and from there you can connect to all the companies, PatentHEALTH (now Twinlabs) has products in Walmart, Walgreens etc. PatentHealth was once owned by SCI but now it is the flagship of Arthur Middleton. Their vault (almost directly across the street from SCI) is said to be the largest of its kind and they do millions with money.
  
  gjabiz
  
  PS. I feel Arthur Middleton is a more efficient version of SCI, just my opinion, but Rod Napier learned his lessons about friends, family and business and he chose not to mix them together.
  
  Originally Posted by perryny
  
  Is this the correct domain?
  
  -Robert
  
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gjabiz

11 years ago

Originally Posted by PetarPrchkov

The only book I won't read now that Gary recommends is “7 Steps to Freedom”, which I found out, is more a book about entrepreneurship, than copywriting. - So…

7 Steps to Freedom is postponed.

Petar

Food for thought…

Copywriting has been a Biz-Op for well over a decade and the pitch is simple; if you can write then you can write copy which people will pay for. You could easily make 100 grand a year as a freelance copywriter.

Well, like most biz-ops, the success % is small. The winners are used to show how “anyone” can do it, and by winner I mean the one in 100 who actually becomes the 100 grand a year freelancer.

Now something to think about. What do the following companies have in common?

PatentHEALTH, HEAT SURGE, World Reserve Monetary Exchange, Fitness Quest, Universal Media Syndicate, EdenPURE, Endless Youth and Life, Lindenwold Fine Jewelers, International Home Shopping…

First thing they have in common is they all use copywriters.

Some in-house copywriters for these guys make mid six figures, a few are paid over a million dollars a year plus they have great benefits, like health insurance and dental, an expense for FREELANCERS which they have to pay out of pocket.

Besides using copywriters (and some DO use freelancers), the other thing they have in common is, all of these successful companies, with combined sales into the hundreds of millions of dollars…are all the results of applying the information found in 7 Steps to Freedom II by Benjamind D. Suarez, the book on Entrepreneurship.

See, today's new copywriters seldom have real world sales experience or business ownership, the two most popular breeding grounds of old school successful copywriters.

Of course you don’t need sales experience or need to know how to run a company to be a successful copywriter, but you will find few who will argue the point (unless they have something to sell to you).

In lieu of real life sales experience or real life marketing company experience, then at the least, you should know processes and procedures which take place inside of a company you may want to work for someday.

The anecdotal material in 7 Steps may be somewhat dated, and technology has advanced but the process for bringing things to market follows a system. A system which has produced billions of dollars in sales, employs hundreds of people, is as state-of-the-art as any marketing company out there and is the system found in 7 Steps to Freedom ll.

Many of you ask about commissions. All of the above companies have agreements that can offer you a commission on your work, but the uninformed and uneducated on the subject have no clue as to how these are figured, how the tracking is done, how long it takes, etc.

Do as you want, read all the copywriting books you can, just keep in mind at the end of the day, when you are seeking to get hired as a copywriter, the person you’ll do the best with isn’t the noobie product developer with a new WSO, but the experienced ENTREPRENEUR who has put some skin, perhaps a lot of skin, in his business and KNOWS the real value of a person who can sell by remote means. You’ll get paid a lot more if you understand how the business in general operates and how your client’s business operates within that.

If it were me reading the signs, I’d put the 11 dollar 7 Steps to Freedom ll at the top of my reading list, and then get all the copywriting information I could.
gjabiz

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Marvin Johnston

11 years ago

Originally Posted by gjabiz

If it were me reading the signs, I'd put the 11 dollar 7 Steps to Freedom ll at the top of my reading list, and then get all the copywriting information I could.
gjabiz

I bought the book when I found out you were involved with it in a recent post

.

Slow reading, but it seems to be worth the effort!

Thanks

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Lurk

11 years ago

Originally Posted by PetarPrchkov

I skimmed through Breakthrough Advertising, which I found online, and noticed a lot of typos, like “anv” instead of “any”, “simplv” instead of “simply”, and many, many more.

Is it bad OCR? Are there any typos in the real book – the hardcover?

Petar

I'd like to know the answer to these questions as well.

Thanks
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Chriswrighto 11 years ago

Originally Posted by Lurk

I'd like to know the answer to these questions as well.

They mostly look like mis-copies.

It's the bottom of the y which has been cut off.
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- JacMer 10 years ago
  
  Just found that there is a re-issue of Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene M. Schwartz. It is the hardcover edition. Yes it is a little pricey at $93.90, but after reading it I'd have to say the "Preface To The Boardroom Edition" was worth the $94 bucks. Gene threw in the rest of the book for free. The Preface, you know, the parts along with the "Forward" we all skip over to get to the meat.
  This appears to be the same book published in 1966 that I've been seeing on Amazon and eBay from $200 to $1,500.
  Got mine on Amazon. It even came with with a bonus book from Mentors.
  Interesting that while reading this book I ran across a number of points and techniques promoted by current Gurus. Now I know where they can from :rolleyes:.
  Thanks Gene!!!
  
  Thanks
  
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ryanmcgee

11 years ago

The hardcover doesn't have any typos.

The OCR version is a bootlegged scan.

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