Last night I was re-watching a few videos from Mike Shreeves Letter System course.

Amazing course - highly recommend it if you want to write Sales Letters.

Mike is such an amazing teacher and I love his approach to writing sales letters.

Anyway, last night I applied a new technique I learnt from Jim Kwik to improve how much I remembered from Mike’s course.

Basically, you only read/watch for 25 minutes, then spend 2-3 minutes taking notes.

It’s proven that this will improve your focus and help you remember things.

So, I took really detailed notes for this particular lesson of Mike’s.

Basically, in the lesson Mike spoke about the “Thud” Factor.

Ever heard of it before?

Back in the days of direct response mail, when someone ordered a product they would receive a huge cardboard box full of goodies on their doorstop.

When the post man dropped it off, if he were to drop it on the porch, there would have been a “thud”.

That’s because of the sheer amount of products crammed into the box.

When the customer opened the box, they were overwhelmed and delighted because of how much value (or perceived value) they received.

And even if the customer never consumed half the products in the box… they were highly respective to another offer from the same company because they received value for their money.

Smart move right?

So how do you do this with digital products?

Bullets! Lots and lots of curiosity driven bullets.

Bullets become your perceived value.

Mike says that if you only get three things right in your sales letter - make sure is this:

See why I love this course so much? So much clear actionable content.

So - I have a real life example of this.

Recently I bought another $97 book.

It’s a copywriting book called ‘The Black Book - By Kelvin Dorsey’.

I want you to go and look at the sales page and see how good the bullets are for this page. Click here: https://kelvindorsey.com/the-black-bookcol/

Napoleon Hill wrote one of the best books ever for Entrepreneurs and the like.

And the thing I love about Think and Grow rich is that most of the book is actually about thinking… not about money or some kind of get rich scheme.

For me, reading is a real joy. It was something I used to find a chore… and not enjoy at all.

But now I could literally spend the day reading.

I LOVE books.

But there’s a problem… and that problem is information overload.

Because we have digital book stores like Kindle, Apple Books and Google Play books, it’s easier than ever to download a book in seconds.

I remember when I first got made redundant from my bank job, I went into anxiety mode.

I thought I had to read every marketing book on the planet.

I thought I needed to know every type of copywriting.

I thought I needed to become a Facebook Ads expert.

But, none of that is true. And as the old saying goes… “Less is more”.

This is something I really learnt from Ben Settle (I’ve learnt a lot from him).

Ben taught me that in order for something to really become knowledge - and become deeply ingrained in your subconscious mind, you need the power of ten.

The power of ten basically means, reading the book 10 times, or listening to the audiobook 10 times.

I’m not gonna sugarcoat this… reading a book 10 times takes real effort.

I mean, I LOVE the Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. It’s one of my all time favs - but reading it 10 times really scared me.

But, here’s what I’ve found..

Your brain pulls more relevant information from the book by reading it 10 times. Like working out in the gym, training your brain has some real advantages.

I’ve actually started reading a book by Jim Kwik at the moment - Jim is the leading expert on brain fitness.

Jim is a real advocate for not overloading our brain with too much information and keeping free of distraction.

He talks about having time to do nothing but reflect, think... and make sound choices.

Personally, I think this is so important.

By focusing on one thing at a time, you gain so much clarity.

Your thoughts are not muddled.

You do better work.

And you often make more money.

I strongly suggest you check out Jim’s Book - read it ten times and apply Jim’s methods for improved focused, memory and digital decluttering.

Buy 'Limitless' here: https://amzn.to/3d1Ci1u

In todays Podcast, I catch up with Aussie Copywriter Alex Edwards.  Alex and I both share the same view point - that having an Irresistible offer is paramount to creating successful marketing campaigns.  In todays Podcast we go over the following questions: How did you get into Copywriting? What type of clients do you typically like working with? Alex, in your opinion, what’s an irresistible offer? Have you seen any really bad examples of businesses ignoring a quality offer? Have you seen any really good examples of a business doing this really well? 

You can contact Alex Edwards here: alexthecopywriter.co

Download the Checklist here: http://bit.ly/alexedwards

Good morning guys,

This morning a direct response marketing book finally came in the mail. 

Kelvin Dorseys "The Black Book". It's a $99 book, and it took 6 weeks to finally turn up from the States. (USPS are slow atm..)

Anyway, the first chapter really caught my attention...

He asks the question, what does Lionel Richie, Jimi Hendrix, David Grohl and heap of really well known musicians have in common?

None of them came read music. 

Crazy right? Who wouldda thought...

Rather than reading music... they "hear the music". They have an ear for music and how it sounds. 

I actually do the same when I play guitar. I can't read music, but I can hear the notes and the tune. 

How does this relate to marketing? We'll go over in todays Podcast.

Last night I was reading a ripper Copywriting book. 

Ben Settles Email Players Cookbook. 

It's not your typical copywriting book actually.. it's actually a text version of an interview that Ben did with his friend Michael Senoff. 

There's so many gold nuggets in this book, and in todays Podcast I wanted to share something I think can help you with your emails.

Michael asked the question of Ben : What is the number one element you include in every email? 

We answer that question in todays Podcast episode. 

I was making my coffee this morning (as per usual) - and I was half in a daze when something crossed my mind.

I was thinking about something I applied for yesterday. Basically, one of the screening questions was “what is your writing methodology”...

A pretty typical question when you’re applying to be a copywriter for someone.

Now, most people would answer with AIDA or something similar. And if you had asked me a few months ago, I would have said the same thing…

But recently I started learning Mike Shreeve’s letter writing system.

A program to write sales letters for businesses of all types.

Mike’s system is unique because it uses the same framework as AIDA - but adds in another super powerful element.

But before I talk about what the P stands for, let’s quickly review what AIDA actually is.

So, ‘A’ stands for Attention.

Your sales letter, email, VSL, webinar.. Whatever it is needs to speak directly to your ideal client.

It can’t be vague.

Like the old saying goes, when you speak to everyone, you speak to no-one.

The first section of your sales letter needs to give your prospect complete whiplash because your headline and opener directly addresses a problem or desire your audience is dealing with.

They can’t NOT read it... because you’re entering into the conversion already going on in their minds.

Now the ‘I’ stands for Interest.

People will NOT be bored. If your sales letter doesn’t hold the prospect's attention… if the content is boring, you’ve lost.

Like Joe Sugarman says, your letter needs to be like a slippery slide. Once you hop on, they slide from one paragraph to the next.

Every story, every bullet and every sub headline is like an explosion of excitement in the reader's mind… sending them further along the slide.

Okay, step three is ‘D’ - Desire.

In A and I, we’ve got the attention and interest of our reader. It’s now time to evoke their desires.

Desire is really about understanding the market, what problems they have and creating a strong desire around your product - to solve that problem.

Desire scratches the itch your market has, and sells the hell out of your product.

Okay, now for the ‘P’. The P stands for Proof.

Proof is what crushes the natural skepticism in people's minds. You see, in today's modern age people don't believe anything they read.

They've been scammed, read horror stories on reddit and seen promises of every kind. They’re trained not to believe you.

So, we use proof elements to show our products and services are the real deal. We do that through testimonials, videos and photos. And the more proof you can add in the better. People on the fence will almost base their decisions entirely from others testimonials.

Enough proof can even sell a crappy product, no kidding.

And finally, our last one is A for Action.

You need to be very clear about what you want the reader to do. Do you want them to send a cheque, call a toll free number or click the purchase button? Tell them!

And when you're closing your letter, tell them again. You need to reiterate what they get with your product and exactly how to get it.

We live in a world where people have a 7 second attention span… they need clear direction.

So there we go.

Thats the writing style or methodology i used. Again, full credit to Mike Shreeve. His letter system is excellent and I use it in my own work.

Morning guys,

This year I was made redundant from my corporate marketing job and decided it was time for me to go full time freelance Copywriter.

It's something I'd be wanting to do for almost 3 years now and I decided it was either now or never!

So, after I finished up with the bank.. I wanted to either find a part time income or get some assistance from the government.

Fortunately, here in Australia, we have access to the NEIS scheme. A government ran program that provides money while you're getting your business off the ground.

In today's Podcast I go over how to apply the scheme and how it can help you.

Cheers,

This weekend we had a short break down in Geelong.

It was wonderful to get away and enjoy the sun.. hang out with family and chase the kids around.

While we were there I discovered a really powerful resource that I want to share with you from the best copywriter ever - Gary Halbert.

His monthly letters were considered by many to be the holy grail of copywriting techniques.. 

One of the techniques I love the most from Gary was his 'open loops'... I think it was SO powerful to grabbing sometimes attention and keeping that attention.

In todays Podcast we talk about that Loop system in more detail.