Copywriting Articles by Michael Masterson

2. MICHAEL MASTERSON – There is no one more qualified and experienced than copywriter,
entrepreneur, and business-builder Michael Masterson to teach you the art, craft, and business of
copywriting.
Michael started his first business – a fifth-grade publishing venture – at age 11.
After finishing grad school at the University of Michigan in 1975, he spent two years in the Peace
Corps, where he began his writing career.
Several years later he was working as a writer for a small newsletter publishing company in
Washington D.C. Then, in 1982, he learned the art of copywriting and launched the first of dozens
of successful direct-marketing ventures, many of which have become multi-million dollar
companies.
All told, he‘s been directly involved in the generation of over ONE BILLION DOLLARS of sales
through the mail and online.
He‘s also a highly successful author. He‘s published more than a dozen books, including several
which have become Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com or New York Times bestsellers.
Today, Michael consults mainly for newsletter publishing giant Agora, Inc., and writes regularly for
Early To Rise, one of the most popular self-improvement newsletters on the Internet, and for The
Golden Thread, AWAI‘s weekly copywriting newsletter.
But there‘s more to Michael Masterson than just his writing and business skills.
Michael also has a knack for taking just about anyone with a burning desire to upgrade his
lifestyle – no matter what his background or education – and transforming him (or her) into a top-
notch copywriter:
 He‘s the one responsible for transforming Paul Hollingshead from a 35-year-old minimum-
wage grocery store stock boy into a copywriter earning upward of $300,000 a year … and
Don Mahoney from a woodworker to a $300,000-a-year copywriter living in Miami Beach …
 He‘s mentored other copywriters who have gone on to generate hundreds of millions of
dollars in sales each year through their copy …
 He‘s shown people in their 50s and 60s – people preparing for retirement – how to
successfully change careers and become well-paid freelance copywriters …
 He‘s taken young people fresh out of college – with no ―life experience‖ at all – and turned
them into top-notch copywriters and newsletter journalists …
 He‘s taught housewives, bartenders, and laborers to excel …
 He‘s even helped ―professionals‖ – doctors and college professors – leave successful
careers to enjoy the big money and stress-free lifestyle copywriting offers …
Discover how Michael can do the same for you with his AWAI
Accelerated Program For Six Figure Copywriting.
Michael Masterson

3. Fear and Greed: Two Overrated Emotions
How to Become a Smarter and More Powerful
Copywriter
Way back when I was learning how to write advertising copy, it was commonly
believed that the way to get high response rates was to appeal to our prospects‘
greed and fears.
I don‘t know who first made this pronouncement, but it was practically a
commandment of direct marketing in those days.
All the ―experts‖ I listened to espoused it. All the copywriters I admired seemed
to do it. On the surface, it seemed to be a good, practical rule. One I should
follow.
But I thought it was stupid.
I didn‘t need a degree in psychology to know that reducing human motivation to
two, very obvious, emotions was wrong.
I knew in my bones — based on 30 years of experience (first with my mother,
then with my teachers and eventually my colleagues, wife, and children) — that
there were better ways to be persuasive than by stirring up fear and greed.
Sure, using fear sometimes seemed necessary — to keep the kids from riding
their bikes in the dark without headlights, for example. But mostly it paralyzed
the person I wanted to motivate. I found it to be both heavy-handed and clumsy.
There were many other emotions and desires I could stimulate that would get the
job done.
And greed? I grew up in a household where greed was considered a deadly sin —
―the devil‘s instrument.‖ I had no desire to use it as my own.
I wanted to build my career by working with, and selling to, people who, like me,
were subject to greed and fear but wanted to rise above those base impulses.

4. I wasn‘t being altruistic. Not really. I didn‘t want to associate myself with greedy,
fearful people because I knew I couldn‘t trust them. I couldn‘t trust them as
friends. I couldn‘t trust them as business partners. And I couldn‘t trust them as
customers either.
So even before I got into marketing in a serious way, I knew something about
persuasion that most of the experts writing books and giving lectures did not
seem to know.
And I had enough common sense to recognize that just because something is
often said and generally believed doesn‘t make it so.
I‘m happy to say that the myth about fear and greed has been eroding. I believe
Bill Bonner had something to do with that. The great promotions he wrote in the
early 1970s relied on other emotions and instincts to sell his products. Gary
Bencivenga and Clayton Makepeace, too, wrote copy that helped disprove this lie.
The biggest move forward came, ironically, from a man whose intention was to
warn consumers against marketing. In his book Influence: The Psychology of
Persuasion, Robert Cialdini, a professor of social psychology at Arizona State
University, analyzed dozens of very successful promotions. He didn‘t choose the
ones that relied on greed and fear. Instead, he focused attention on those that
used more subtle, clever approaches.
The consumers he was hoping to enlighten hardly read the book. But it became a
great hit with a lot of marketers who applied Cialdini‘s insights on the psychology
of persuasion to their promotions.
Among Cialdini‘s insights were these:
 We instinctively try to reciprocate when someone does something for us.
 Once we‘ve made a commitment to do something, we strive to be
consistent with that decision.
 We tend to look to others to determine what our decision should be in any
given situation.
 We prefer to say yes to the requests of people we know and like.

Cialdini eventually crossed the river and became an authority on marketing. His
later books and seminars taught how to do the kind of subtle marketing he had

5. despised. Good for him. Good for us. (I say ―good for us‖ because I believe this
kind of marketing is not only more effective, it is more honest. But that‘s another
subject for another essay.)
As I said, the idiotic ―rule‖ about fear and greed has been eroding — but it‘s never
going to completely disappear.
Why? Because many marketers still believe that fear and greed are the most
motivating of all the emotions. And there is some evidence to support this.
Let‘s begin with fear.
Fear is a primal emotion — one that was inherent in man at a very early stage of
human evolution. It is also an essential emotion, one that is necessary for
survival.
Neurobiologists tell us that our primal emotions are rooted deeply in our
―reptilian‖ brains and are instinctive. Because they are instinctive, they can be
very strong and very difficult to overcome.
And there is no doubt that fear is effective in selling all sorts of products — from
burglar alarms to baby monitors to almost every form of insurance.
But just because an emotion is strong doesn‘t mean it should be used to market
everything.
The reason is simple. Human beings have three ―primal‖ responses to fear: to
fight, to flee, or to be paralyzed into inactivity. And a copywriter doesn‘t want his
prospects to do any of those things.
In selling investment advice (something I‘ve done a good deal of), fear has
sometimes been useful. But I‘ve noticed that if you crank up the fear, you reduce
the responsiveness to your ad. A little fear can go a long way when you are trying
to motivate people to worry about their savings or their job security, for instance.
But you must quickly follow that fear with hope of some kind.
And that brings us to greed.
Proponents of the fear-and-greed approach often argue that the smart thing to do
is to follow a fear-based lead with an appeal to the prospect‘s greed.

6. But I have found that if you do that, you wind up attracting the kind of customer
you don‘t want: someone who is gullible and greedy.
You can‘t build a business by selling to the gullible and greedy. You can make
scores, sometimes big scores. But you will never have a sustainably profitable
business.
About six months ago, I had a conversation with a copywriter who‘d had amazing
success with several fear-and-greed promotions. In fact, his commissions on all
the sales from those campaigns should have come to more than a million dollars.
I say ―should have,‖ because his clients discovered that many of the buyers
brought in by his fear-and-greed promotions asked for refunds. And those that
stayed were not good buyers of their other products.
So he made out temporarily, but eventually lost most of his clients.
I suggested that he learn to appeal to other emotions. He wasn‘t interested. He
just kept on using his credentials to snare new clients… until they, too,
experienced the same disappointing results. And now I hear through the
grapevine that he‘s finding it harder and harder to find anyone who will buy his
copy. (By the way, he sent me an e-mail this morning. I haven‘t read it yet. I
wonder if he‘s ―seen the light.‖)
Greed doesn‘t work because good customers, the kind that will stick with you and
continue to buy from you year after year, don‘t think of themselves as greedy.
They want to be successful. They want to make more money. But they don‘t want
to be greedy.
Here‘s what I want you to take away from this:
Use fear as a primary emotion to sell insurance products (which include such
things as burglar alarms, baby monitors, etc.). For other products, you can try a
little fear… but don‘t go too far with it. Then concentrate on giving your prospects
hope. Hope is far and away a much stronger selling proposition than fear.
And never use greed. Greed-based promotions will only attract customers who
will ruin your business.
Let Michael take you by the hand and show you how to tap into the raw power of
human emotion to sell more products and services than ever before with the

7. AWAI‘s Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting. Use those skills to sell
your own products and services or get paid handsomely for them by becoming a
six-figure copywriter.
How to Enjoy the Writer’s Life Even if You Can’t Write
Like a Professional
The most productive and, next to JK Rowling, richest writer in the world is James
Patterson.
If you don‘t know him, he is the author of ―Don‘t Blink‖ and ―The Postcard Killers‖
as well as 48 other best-selling books in the past 10 years.
By almost any perspective, Patterson is a hugely successful writer. But he doesn‘t
have the normal gifts that one would typically attribute to writers: a brilliant
mind, a passion for his work, etc.
Instead, he has a certain set of skills that he employs over and over again and
then leverages by hiring apprentice writers to do most of his work for him.
They do 80% of the work, following his directions. Then Patterson edits their
manuscripts for pace and tension – key elements in narrative fiction.
By providing the outline and the editing, Patterson insures that his books have
the Patterson feel. This is something that any successful Master Copywriter or
Internet guru can do. In fact, I know quite a few well-known gurus who have
junior writers ghost writing their essays. In some cases these ghostwriters are
good, in others no. When they are not good they degrade the reputation of the
guru.
But what Patterson does is smarter than that. He gives his apprentice a byline.
That makes the transaction more honest and it provides the apprentice with a
reward that is much greater than money.
Several of my clients – well known financial and health authors – could have
bigger businesses if they could produce more copy. But so far they have refused
my suggestions to do so. They don‘t want to use apprentices, they say, because

8. they don‘t believe anyone can write as well as they can. Another reason – one
they don‘t admit – is because they don‘t want to share the credit with anyone
else.
These are both ego problems. And as you‘ve heard me say many times, ego and
laziness are a writer‘s primary vices.
Patterson proves that you can maintain quality (such as it is) in your product,
continue to promote your name and expand your production in multiples by using
apprentices.
By taking advantage of competent researchers and writers who are willing to
work for him, Patterson puts out eight or more books a year. And in 2010 his
annual earnings are estimated at $70 million.
This essay, though, isn‘t about James Patterson. It‘s about Peter de Jonge and
Andrew Gross and Michael Ledwidge*, three of the many researchers and writers
who have earned lots of money and in some cases became best-selling authors
on their own simply by working as an apprentice to the master.
I‘m talking about aspiring writers who, for whatever reason, never were able to
break through the glass ceiling that keeps more than nine published authors out
of ten to sell fewer than 100 copies of the books they write.
The opportunity to become an apprentice writer for Patterson at this moment is
limited, but there are hundreds or even thousands of chances right now to make
a very nice six-figure income helping professional writers do their jobs.
I‘m talking about a new profession – one that before the Internet did not even
exist. I‘m talking about becoming an apprentice writer/researcher to the direct
response information business.
I‘m talking about a pretty exciting opportunity. It‘s exciting because it‘s brand
new and growing fast, which means the barriers of entering it are very small and
the rewards are still very great.
Let me give you an example.

9. Several years ago Judith Strauss and I wrote and published a little book of diction
calledWords that Work. It was a selection of words that appeared in Early To
Rise‘s ―Words to the Wise‖ column that has been running daily for almost 10
years.
At the beginning of this year I wanted to do another edition but, for some reason,
Judith was not available to work with me on it. So I reached out to AWAI to find
someone to help me.
Typically when I call Katie, I‘m looking for a copywriter. But this time I wanted
someone who could do some basic research and compose simple sentences.
Finding a skillful copywriter, even when you have Katie Yeakle next door to you, is
not easy. But it‘s a much simpler job to find someone who knows how to track
information down and summarize it in simple, concise sentences.
I found someone – a retired grant writer and sometime artist who began working
with me last month. Her job was pretty straightforward. I‘d send her lists of
words that I wanted to cover and she‘d look at several dictionary definitions and
craft one that was the simplest version she could of the various iterations.
It was a three thousand dollar job and it would have taken her, I figure, about 45
to 60 hours to complete the task. After I had edited a dozen or so words she
understood both what I wanted in terms of a definition and also my style of
writing, so I could see it was going to be easy for both of us to finish the job.
Her compensation, because we were moving quickly, was going from $50 an hour
to $75.
In addition we have become language buddies along the way. We send each other
interesting articles on language (including whatever Bob Bly writes) and have fun
talking about usage.
From this good experience I decided to expand the book from just another
collection of words that work to something I‘m calling ―One Thousand Words to
Know Before You Die‖.
My idea is to present one thousand words or terms that comprise much of the
most important thinking in Western literature from the time of Homer to the

10. present. Instead of limiting my usage comments to diction and grammar, I‘m
going to talk about how these words added to or subtracted from the history of
knowledge from Greek times to the present.
It‘s a more ambitious book to be sure, but it‘s also a book that‘s more fun to
write. My researcher‘s job is pretty much the same, but she‘s having more fun
now in helping me select and cull words and in learning about the many artistic,
cultural, political and literary ideas that have shaped the way smart people think
today.
Plus, she‘s also got a bigger assignment now. I upped her compensation from
$3,000 to $10,000 and I‘m going to give her a percent of sales as well.
Her compensation has now gone up to about $100 an hour and it could end up
being two or three times that if the book sells well.
The point of this anecdote is to introduce you to a new industry that is developing
thanks to the explosion of information publishing since the Internet exploded in or
around 2000.
It‘s a new type of career, one that allows you to enjoy all the fun and challenge of
being a professional writer (and some of the upside income potential) without
having to have mastered the fine art of fiction or persuasive writing.
I mentioned this idea to Katie and Rebecca several months ago when I was
looking for someone to help me with another book Don Mahoney and I are
working on, a monograph on Barnett Greenberg, an obscure painter whose
personal collection of works Don and I bought from his family‘s estate.
The person we‘ve selected to help us with that book will also be doing research
and writing sentences, but will not be responsible for shaping the book or revising
it. It‘s pretty much the same thing James Patterson‘s apprentices do, but instead
of fiction the subject is biography.
If Don and I make this artist a known and collected name among collector‘s of
Jewish art and artifacts (a very lucrative niche market) this person will also enjoy
a big pay check and plenty of perks including (if he wants) appearing on radio
and television programs.

11. In the old days (prior to 2000) researchers were drones that got paid little for
endless work and were never recognized for their hard work. In today‘s world of
information publishing there are tens of thousands of writers and publishers
looking for people who can help them produce the many published products that
proliferate the internet.
Just think about the demand: books, reports, essays, blogs, web content, e-
letters, e-magazines, surveys, research reports, scientific studies, marketing
studies, religious writing, non-profit pamphlets, annual reviews, critiques, auto
responder series – the list is endless.
And thanks to the Internet, the market is growing. According to Google, the Web
has already exceeded 1 trillion unique web pages (it‘s estimated they index about
15 billion of those pages for search purposes). There are millions more pages
created daily.
If the market for professional writers has increased tenfold since 2,000 then the
market for Internet Research Specialists has probably increased a thousand fold.
What does this mean to you?
If you‘re thinking about becoming a professional writer but haven‘t yet reached
the level of compensation you want, this is the perfect opportunity to make great
money as you go.
If you would love to live the life of a freelance writer but don‘t have the patience
or talent for it, this is also a great way to do that without mastering the craft of
writing.
One of the biggest future opportunities for Internet Research Specialists is in the
direct marketing industry. Based on sales, direct marketing, as you may know, is
a $2 trillion industry.
It is bigger than traditional Madison Avenue-style advertising, as well as
newspaper advertising.
And since 2000 it‘s growing at a rate of 5-7%, making it one of the fastest
growing markets in the world today.

12. If you read ―Automatic Wealth‖ then you know that the fastest way to become
rich is to become an essential employee or contract worker for a fast-growing
business in a fast-growing market. Information publishing is exactly that.
Although many of them may not know it now, the easiest way for a professional
copywriter to double his income is to double his output. But doubling your output
without diminishing the quality of your work is not easy because of the enormous
demand of research.
I‘ve said this a thousand times to AWAI members over the past many years. The
most important single aspect of successful writing depends on the production of
good ideas and the production of good ideas depends almost entirely on good
research.
That‘s where the opportunity is for those who might want to get involved in this
wonderful new industry.
Gradually writers will begin to realize that they, like James Patterson, can make
much more money if they can have apprentices helping them with all the
research. And once they become comfortable using other people to do the
research, they‘ll ask for more (simple sentences) like Don and I are doing.
Eventually, this will mean great, lucrative new careers for thousands or even tens
of thousands of smart, capable people who – for whatever reason – have decided
they want the benefits of the writers life without putting in all the ―hard‖ work.
The job of the Internet Research Specialists will be largely tracking support and
documentation for the claims that professional writers want to make.
Again, this is especially true in the area of direct marketing of published products.
As Roy Furr recently pointed out in an essay in The Golden Thread:
"Because the average prospect is skeptical, proof is an important part of
any letter. People won't believe our claims just because we say so.
Unless we're established experts, our claims are just opinions."
What kind of research are Internet Research Specialists likely to be doing?
Collecting and organizing information for:
 Media mentions of the client or product
 Prestigious publications talking about the product, idea, or industry

13.  Scientific studies to back claims
 Scientists' opinions related to claims
 Charts, graphs, and graphics
 Real or implied expert endorsements
 Real or implied celebrity endorsements
 Quotes from credentialed sources
 Process information, or how the product (or ingredient) works
 Other highly-specific supporting information
Here‘s what I‘m saying:
 There is already a market for Internet Research Specialists
 It is likely to be one of the fastest growing markets in the world
 By getting in now you can start making $50 an hour
 As your skills improve you can easily be making $100 or more in no time
To get in now at the bottom floor you will need to do two things:
Quickly learn how to do quick and helpful research.
Find clients.
You can do the first by investing in AWAI‘s new program that teaches that. It is
called Secrets of Becoming an Internet Research Specialist: How to Surf the Web
for Freedom and Profit. It‘s an online program consisting of 13 chapters, split into
two main parts.
The first part — Chapters 1-6 — is all about what to do and how to do it. This is
how you go from landing the gig to giving the client exactly what they want. This
is what you do in your everyday life as an Internet Research Specialist.
The second part — Chapters 7-13 — is what it takes to get paid. This is how to
attract clients, get other people to sell your services for you, and develop the
client relationship so they'll come back over and over again.
It also includes:
 Access to AWAI's exclusive members-only DirectResponseJobs.com Online
Job Board. (Recently updated to include Internet Researcher gigs!)

14.  Special reports onHow to Deliver Superior Research by Learning One Crucial
SEO Skill…Proof and Credibility: 10 Ways Your Research Can Make Your
Client‘s Copy Sizzle… andFive Other Research Projects to Boost Your Income
 A 3-part webinar series on marketing yourself as an Internet Research
Specialist
 A brand-new white paper you can use to market yourself to writers called
"Writers: How to Write Faster, Better, and Make More Money While You Do."
I wrote the first draft of this essay in 90 minutes (as opposed to several hours) by
writing out the draft and leaving X‘s where I needed facts and figures to support
my argument. I sent it – as is – to my editor Jason, who contacted one of the
AWAI-trained Internet Research Specialists he has on his contact list. That person
got and finished the job in 24 hours and earned about $75 an hour for his efforts.
It was good for him. It was good for me. And it can be very good for you if you
contact AWAI.
Find out more about AWAI‘s Internet Research Specialist Program
* Peter de Jonge is a former copywriter who spent several years on the Patterson
assembly line before writing his first solo novel (Shadows Still Remain).
Andrew Gross is president of HEAD Ski and Tennis and co-wrote some of the
Women's Murder Club Series with Patterson before signing his own 3-book deal
with William Morrow in 2005.

15. Are You Honest, Hard Working, and Financially
Solvent? If So, Read This – You Won’t Like It, But
You Should Read It Now
Just about every adult I know is wondering about the economy.
MB, who owns a large furniture wholesaling business, is wondering when
consumers will start shopping again. ―I‘m just treading water now,‖ he says. ―But
not making any profit. My employees are getting paid, but I‘m not.‖
PE, a real estate developer, fled the US after all his hundred million dollar
developments went bust. Now he‘s building homes in Panama. ―I wonder if I‘ll
ever get back home,‖ he said.
My sister, a high school teacher, has seen many of her friends lose careers due to
budget cutbacks. She wants to know whether we‘re in a ―recovery‖ that will
protect her job or will things get worse next year?
Nobody knows for sure what will happen. But when I‘m not sure about the future
my rule is hope for the best but plan for the worst.
The best we can hope for? A gradually improving economy with full health
restored in 5 to 7 years.
Theworst? A massive, worldwide Great Recession as long and as bad as the
Great Depression.
In this essay I hope to do two things.
1. Show you why I believe the worst-case scenario is about 100 times more
likely than the best-case one.
2. Give you a three-part plan to survive and prosper.

16. Why Things Are Likely to Get Worse
Since the real estate bubble inflated and collapsed trillions of dollars have
disappeared from American households.
And millions of Americans – actually tens of millions – are now, for all intents and
purposes, bankrupt.
My view of what happened differs a bit from the story you‘ve been told by our
government and most economists.
Wealth didn‘t magically appear and disappear. What happened was that the
government, banks, brokers, and real estate professionals colluded in the biggest
wealth transfer in the history of the world.
Wealth (stored assets) shifted from the bank accounts of teachers, plumbers,
merchants, and people like you into the bank accounts of bankers, brokers,
lawyers, and others who participated in the scam.
The wealth I‘m talking about is not the tens of trillions in trumped up property
values that disappeared. That wealth never really existed.
The money that was cleverly shifted from one large group of people to a much
smaller one consisted of hard-earned savings and now-depleted retirement
accounts.
A significant portion of that transfer came from fees – the billions and billions of
dollars in fees charged by the bankers, brokers, and lawyers for all the new and
second mortgages, the appraisals, the insurance, the legal vetting, etc.
But even more of it came from mortgage payments. While property values were
falling, millions of Americans did their best to keep up with mortgage payments,
often emptying their bank accounts in a futile attempt to maintain ―good credit.‖
That transfer was probably in excess of a trillion dollars. And it hasn‘t stopped.
There are still tens of millions of Americans ―under water‖ who will keep paying
till they can‘t do it any longer. Eventually, they will enter into settlements that
will, essentially, leave them bankrupt.

17. So most Americans are poorer now or will be very soon, while the banking and
brokerage community – protected as it has been by the government – is richer
and will become richer still.
But that‘s not the entire problem.
Our government itself is bankrupt. Its debt far exceeds its assets and that debt
has been spiraling skyward since the Clinton administration.
Whether it was to fight the ―war‖ on terror, finance fraudulent brokerages and
irresponsible banks, the federal government has been taking on debt faster than
at any time in its history. We are talking about tens of trillions of dollars.
And finally there are all the future financial obligations our legislators have voted
in. Financing the baby boomer‘s financial and retirement needs in the next 20
years will cost additional tens of trillions of dollars.
The total, by any count, is more than a hundred trillion. And one way or the other
every single dollar of that must be paid back.
Who Will Pay That Back?
Not the financial masters of the universe that planned it all… .not the banks,
brokers and lawyers that promoted it… and certainly not the government (which
never pays back anything).
No, these trillions will be paid back by a small percentage of the population who
have been foolish enough to
(a) work hard,
(b) start businesses,
(c) employ other people,
(d) create new products and services,
(e) make profits,
(f) save those profits and
(g) not fall for stupid scams and schemes like the real estate bubble.

18. Those are the people who are going to have to pay back the debt. There aren‘t
many of them. They comprise less than 20% of the population. But they will pay
back 80% of the remaining debt. That is a 100% certainty.
And why will the sins of the 80% be paid for by the 20%?
Because no one else can pay it back.
Our government can‘t pay it back. It‘s bankrupt. The bankers and brokers and
lawyerswon‘tpay it back. They have been ―saved.‖ Eighty percent of the
population won‘t be able to pay it back because they don‘t have anything.
So it must be paid back by the honest, frugal taxpayers who still have wealth –
the middle-class and upper-class Americans who still have assets.
If you have assets that means you. It doesn‘t matter whether you are a billionaire
or have a net worth of $10,000.
They – the 80% of America that is (or will soon be) bankrupt are coming after
you. And they will have the government and the financial community at their
sides.
There are three ways they will come at you:
1. By taxing you more. If you have a good income, they will make you pay
more taxes. If you have assets, they will make you pay a higher
―wealth/property‖ taxes on those assets. And they will introduce
consumption taxes.
2. They will make create alternative, private taxes on every product or service
you purchase. (These private taxes will take the form of increased banking,
insurance, transportation, purchasing, and other fees – all tied to
regulations meant to ―protect you.‖
3. They will make your income shrink while your expenses rise, making you
ultimately poorer unless you do something radical. This is the primary way
they will make you pay back their debt. With many years of stagflation. The
economy will be sluggish. Income, on a relative scale, will decrease. And
prices will rise. Getting us 20% poorer is really the best and surest way to
pay back all the bad debt.

19. If you think this is crazy speculation, do this. Post this now on your calendar for
2015 and then read it again then. See how crazy it seems then.
If you don‘t think I‘m crazy and want to do something to protect yourself, pay
close attention to the rest of this message.
Recognize that you will not be able to avoid the three-stage assault I outlined
above.
 You will not be able to avoid the extra taxes you will have to pay. If you do
try to get fancy with your taxes, you‘ll end up in jail. This is not an avenue
worth pursuing.
 You‘re not going to avoid paying all the extra ―private taxes‖ on everything
you buy from now on. These will all be buried in the fine print. You won‘t
find them. And even if you do, you‘ll be required to pay them because the
laws that are being written right now to ―protect‖ us contain clauses that
allow banks and brokerages and so on to pass along the extra costs to their
customers.
 And finally, you are not going to be able to avoid the effects of stagflation.
The value of your cash-based assets (it doesn‘t matter they are in dollars or
Euros or what) will diminish. Prices will increase. But your salary will not.
But there is something positive you can do. Actually, there are three things:
1. Keep your job. There is a good chance that the business you work for will
continue to make payroll cuts in the months and years ahead. That means
your income or possibly your job is threatened. The best way to protect
your job is to become an invaluable employee. When your boss has to make
the tough decisions about who gets cut, who gets cut back, and who stays,
you want him to want to keep you. You can do that by becoming an
invaluable employee.
2. Put your savings in tangible assets: gold, real estate and, if possible, your
own private business.
3. Create additional streams of income. This is the only way you can actually
hope to build your wealth during the coming Great Recession. This is the
most important of the three solutions.

20. I am a big believer in multiple streams of income. I started working on it about
twenty years ago. At first the streams were mere trickles. Now each one of them
is more than I need. And I have about a dozen of them.
That‘s why I‘m not personally worried about the great recession. But if you don‘t
have additional streams of income, you should be.
How to Create Extra Income
If you have at least a half million in cash, you can create income two ways:
1. You can invest in rental real estate. I‘m doing that now and I‘m getting cash
flow of between 5% and 10% on my money.
2. You can invest in quality, dividend-bearing stocks. I suggest you follow Andy
Gordon's recommendations in the Sound Profits newsletter.
3. If you don't have a hundred grand to invest, then you really have no choice.
To create a viable second stream of income you must start a side business –
something you can do evenings and weekends.
You could mow lawns or clean windows. But that's hard work for modest
pay. The kind of business I recommend is one that
(a) doesn't require very much start-up capital,
(b) provides you with job satisfaction, and
(c) could eventually allow you to quit your day job.
That‘s exactly what American Writers & Artists Inc. (or AWAI for short) can help
you to do.
AWAI specializes in helping people create multiple streams of income… all from
learning just one financially valuable skill. AWAI has more than a dozen
opportunities for you to choose from. Opportunities like
copywriting,
being an internet researcher or publicist,
writing resumes,
desktop marketing,
self-publishing,
writing grants
graphic design
becoming a travel writer
… to name just a few.

21. These opportunities can give you a sizeable second (or third) stream of income
doing something enjoyable. And more than that, they can be leveraged into
building even more opportunities.
Let me give you a couple of examples of AWAI members who have done just this:
Ann Kuffner originally became an AWAI member so she could promote her
retirement/relaxation development in Belize. But things changed – and changed
dramatically – after she attended her first Bootcamp last year.
While she remains Vice-President of Sales of the Grand Baymen development, she
also has become a full-fledged copywriter enjoying her second stream of income…
―Earlier this year, I reached one of my primary goals. I landed a
significant assignment with a reputable international lifestyle
publication. I‘ve already completed and been paid for the job. And, I‘m
expecting more follow on work… I would never have come this far, this
fast, if not for Bootcamp…‖
Member Roy Furr wasn‘t expecting any big changes in his life last year. He
actually liked his job, but he knew he was limited there.
Today Roy‘s enjoying a recession-proof income stream and has no ceiling on how
much he can make…
"This time last year, I had no clue how my life would be changed when I
attended AWAI's FastTrack To Copywriting Success Bootcamp and Job
Fair. I was holding on to my full-time job, only dreaming one day I'd tell
my boss, 'Adios! I'm off to do what I want to do and make myself rich!'
"I wasn't sure if I was ready, but I invested in Bootcamp anyway and to
my surprise (and my former employer's) I launched my full-time
freelance copywriting business 3 months and 3 days after returning
home.
"Now I can tell you flat-out: AWAI's Bootcamp was the best investment I
could possibly have made in launching my freelance copywriting career.‖
Ann and Roy‘s stories are far from unique. They tell typical stories of doors
opening when you put yourself in the fast-paced, high intensity environment of
AWAI‘sFastTrack to Copywriting Success Bootcamp and Job Fair.

22. Bootcamp opens doors by providing master-level training, training packed with
copywriting and marketing secrets.
It opens doors by giving you opportunities almost every moment you‘re there to
network with other members and with master copywriters and marketers who are
presenting at Bootcamp.
And the most exciting opportunity of all: AWAI‘sFastTrack to Copywriting Success
Bootcamp and Job Fair opens doors by letting you meet face-to-face with
representatives from companies at the Job Fair… who are there specifically to hire
new writers. That‘s how Ann and Roy starting building their second income
streams and how you can too.
There are many others too. Like Susan Clark. from HawthorneCalifornia…
“Last month I made $13,210 from writing copy. I never could have done
it without AWAI's FastTrack to Success.‖
Or Eric Gelb…
"I attended my first Bootcamp last November. The event changed my
life. I learned new and essential techniques and skills. I became friends
with two copywriters and we brainstorm ideas that help me make
money. I landed two clients at the Job Fair. And the best news is within
six weeks of Bootcamp, I received $4,350 in fees."
This year‘s Bootcamp features an amazing lineup of professionals willing – no
make that eager – to share their insights, their lessons, and their secrets with
you so you can get started on building your second, third, or fourth income
stream quickly and surely.
These are pros like…
 Bill Bonner – whose famous International Living letter ran as a control
unchallenged for 30 years, and whose Agora Publishing is now one of the
largest publishers in the world…
 Ted Nicholas – whose copywriting has produced over $5.9 billion in sales for
his companies and his clients' companies, in industries as wide ranging as
candy products to incorporation to marketing to natural health.
 Mark Everett Johnson – copy chief for legendary copywriter Eugene
Schwartz, his 15-plus year control for a major health provider has
generated over 3.3 million paid orders and over $80 million in sales.
And, of course, I‘ll be there too. This year I‘m teaching a systematic way to write
million-dollar copy again and again.
This is just a glimpse of what you can expect to experience at this year‘s
gathering of the greatest minds in direct marketing and copywriting.
Perhaps, you will walk away from Bootcamp this year with an experience like
Susie H‘s…

23. "My expectations for Bootcamp were that I'd learn loads, get psyched
up, be exhausted by the end, and meet plenty of eager AWAI members,
generous seminar leaders, and Bootcamp coordinators. I was not
disappointed in any of those expectations…
“What I didn‘t go expecting, even though I've read these stories myself,
was to walk away with a paid assignment from this Bootcamp… but I
did! Networking happens, whether you consciously do it or not (unless
you talk to absolutely no one while you're there).
“Let it take you where it will, because you'll be thrilled when it does.
And, when you get home and the phone rings the next day with another
paid assignment, you can grin, make the deal, then hang up and
scream, and jump for joy. Go ahead. Expect it all. It happens."
If you want to create an extra stream (or streams) of income for yourself, your
opportunity to start begins at the AWAI FastTrack to Copywriting Success
Bootcamp and Job Fair. It is the best way I know of to do it.
It works. It‘s worked for these copywriters you‘ve already heard from. And it‘s
worked for many others who‘ve used it to generate their own income streams.
Bootcamp opens its doors in just two months. And when those doors open, they
will open doors for you… if you‘re willing to take the first steps.
Click this link to learn even more about the exciting adventure awaiting you at
Bootcamp. And the fulfilling life a second and third income stream can provide for
you.
This is a great chance – maybe the best chance you will ever have – to get to the
next level of financial success.
If you're serious about taking charge of your future, be there!
As I said, the most significant thing you can do to protect yourself from what I
predict will be a disintegrating economic environment is to get an extra (or two)
stream of income. But this is NOT something you should wait to do next year. The
longer you put it off, the more challenging it will be. There‘s still a significant
opportunity to create a lifelong cash stream if you act immediately.

24. The Power of One – One Big Idea
One of the biggest lessons I have ever learned about writing came very late – in
fact, more than twenty years after I wrote my first piece of copy.
It happened about a year after I began writing the Early To Rise(ETR). I was
looking over issues I'd written that year and noting which ones readers rated the
highest. Without exception, those achieving the highest scores presented a single
idea.
It struck me that readers didn't want to hear everything I had to say about a
topic every time I wrote. They were looking for a single, useful suggestion or idea
that could make them more successful.
That was one of those "aha!" experiences for me.
As a reader, I had always most enjoyed stories and essays that tackled one
subject effectively and deeply. As a writer, I sensed my readers felt this way too.
But it wasn't until I looked at the ETR results that I recognized the power of a
narrow focus in writing.
I checked to see if this same phenomenon applied to advertising copy. I pulled
out my box of "best promotions of all time." While not all of them were on a
single topic, most of the very best hit just one idea strongly.
It seemed I was on to something. I presented this idea as one "powerful secret to
publishing success" when Agora had our first company-wide meeting for
publishers in France.

25. Bill Bonner reminded me he'd learned about the Power of One from the great
advertising guru David Ogilvy. Ogilvy's concept was that every great promotion
has, at its core, a single, powerful idea that he called "the Big Idea."
At about that same time, John Forde was rereading the classic 1941 book, "How
to Write a Good Advertisement" by Victor Schwab – the man Advertising Age
called the "greatest mail-order copywriter of all time."
In that book, Schwab listed his choice for the "Top 100 Headlines." John found
that of those 100 top headlines, 90 were driven by single, Big Ideas.
Note how instantly clear and engaging these "Big Ideas" are…
 "The Secret of Making People Like You"
 "Is the Life of a Child Worth $1 to You?"
 "To Men Who Want to Quit Work Someday"
 "Are You Ever Tongue-Tied at a Party?"
 "How a New Discovery Made a Plain Girl Beautiful"
 "Who Else Wants a Screen Star Figure?"
 "You Can Laugh at Money Worries – If You Follow This Simple Plan"
 "When Doctors Feel Rotten This is What They Do"
 "How I Improved My Memory in One Evening"
 "Discover the Fortune That Lies Hidden In Your Salary"
 "How I Made a Fortune with a 'Fool Idea'"
 "Have You a 'Worry' Stock?"
At ETR, we made this concept a "rule" for writing. The mandate was clear. Write
about one thing at a time. One good idea, clearly and convincingly presented,
was better than a dozen so-so ideas strung together.
When we obeyed that rule, our essays were stronger. When we ignored it, they
were not as powerful as they could have been.
Here's an example of the Rule of One as applied to an advertorial taken from
ETR:
Subject Line: The Easiest Product to Sell Online
Dear Early to Riser,
Would you be interested in investing $175 to make $20,727?
That's exactly what Bob Bly just accomplished!
See how he did it below… and how easily you could do the same.
MaryEllen Tribby,
ETR Publisher

26. Dear Friend,
There's no product easier to create or sell online…
… than a simple, straightforward instructional or how-toe-book.
Why are e-books the perfect information product to sell on the Internet?
 100% profit margin.
 No printing costs.
 No inventory to store.
 Quick and easy to update.
 No shipping costs or delays.
 Higher perceived value than regular books.
 Quick, simple, and inexpensive to produce.
My very first e-book has generated $20,727 in sales (so far).
My total investment in producing it: just $175.
Now, I want to show you how to make huge profits creating and selling simple e-
books – in my new e-book "Writing E-Books for Fun & Profit."
Normally my e-books sell for anywhere from $29 to $79, and later this year,
"Writing E-Books for Fun & Profit" will sell for $59.
However, to make it affordable for you to get started in e-book publishing, I'm
letting you have "Writing E-Books for Fun & Profit" for only $19 today – a savings
of $40 off the cover price!
For more information… or to order on a risk-free 90-day trial basis… just click
here now.
Sincerely,
Bob Bly
P.S. But, I urge you to hurry. This special $40 discount is for alimited time
only.And once it expires, it may never be repeated again.
Let me explain how the Power of One operates here.
In the lift letter (signed by MaryEllen Tribby), Bob asks a question and then tells a
single sentence story. The question is an inverted promise. The story validates
the promise.
The sales letter follows. This, too, is a beautifully simple piece of copy. It leads
with a statement that expresses one clear idea: "The easiest way to make money
on the Internet it to market e-books."
That statement is supported by a number of bulleted "facts." Then, Bob validates
the statement by mentioning his own experience.
The reader is already sold. Bob makes the sale irresistible with a strong, one-
time-only offer.
Short, sweet, andsimple.

27. The Power of One is not only one big, central idea. It's a fully engaging piece of
copy with five necessary elements. Using Bob's example:
 One good idea: "There's no product easier to create or sell online than a
simple, straightforward instructional or how-to e-book."
 One core emotion: "It is simple! I bet I can do it!"
 One captivating story: Told brilliantly in 11 words: ―My very first e-book has
generated $20,727 in sales (so far).‖
 One single, desirable benefit: "Now, I want to show you how to make huge
profits creating and selling simple e-books"
 One inevitable response: The only way to get this book for $19 is "click here
now."

To create blockbuster promotions time after time, you must understand the
difference between good copy and great copy. The Power of One is the driving
force behind great copy.
Veteran advertising consultant James Loftus, who's worked with Anheuser-Busch,
Holiday Inn, McDonald's, and many other clients, agrees:
"Also keep in mind that the more points you try to cover, the less effective each
point, and therefore your ad, will be. An effective ad will actually have only one
central focus, even if you discuss it from two or three perspectives. If your points
are too diverse, they compete with each other, and end up pulling the reader's
attention in separate directions."
When challenged with an advertising assignment, most writers conjure lists of
features and benefits, then mention as many as possible. Their thinking goes, "I
wonder which of these benefits will really push the buttons I want? I'll throw them
all in. That way if one doesn't work, another one will."
This is B-level copywriting. It's not the way to create breakthrough advertising.
The Power of One is commonplace now at Agora… it‘s taught by AWAI… and you‘ll
see that most top copywriters follow it.
You can use the Power of One to create your own blockbuster copy. Ask yourself:
"What is the Big Idea here?" "Is this idea strong enough to capture the hearts of
my customers?" Or "Are my ideas all over the place?"
The challenge is to find that one good idea the reader can grasp immediately. And
stick to it. So the idea has to be strong, easy to understand…and easy to believe.
Put the Power of One to work for you in all your communications. You'll be
amazed at how much stronger – and successful – your copy will be.

28. For more breakthrough copywriting tips and tactics check out the AWAI
Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting.
Making Omelets, Breaking Eggs and Sexist Ads
Katie sent me some of the comments given byGolden Threadreaders of an essay I
wrote on ―The Most Interesting Man in the World.‖
The ad reminded me of David Ogilvy‘s classic advertisement campaign for
Hathaway Shirts. It propelled Hathaway from a local company with no reputation
at all to the most recognized shirt brand in America.
I said that while the Dos Equis ad was in many ways a creative knockoff, it fell
short of the Ogilvy classic by failing to make the brand name itself a prominent
feature of the commercial.
For Ogilvy, the name of the product was critical. It was so important to him that
he put the brand name in almost all of his headlines.
One reader, Christine, had this to say: ―While this may have worked for a men's
shirt in Ogilvy‘s day this present ad "The Most Interesting Man in the World" is
disgusting and painful to watch.
She found it ―offensive to women.‖ Besides the content (a bearded man
surrounded by beautiful women) it suggests, she said, that women don‘t drink
beer when they do.
Christine says she would ―go out of (her) way NOT to buy this beer.‖
―Some ads are just too offensive. Copying old ‗Mad Men‘ ads per se without a few
updates is ‗madness.‘ If I were this guy's wife and I found this beer in the fridge,
I would throw it out! Let's get 21st century.‖
I think it‘s interesting that Christine imagines herself married to ―this guy.‖ Is it
possible that the most interesting man in the world got her pulse racing, even
though she objects to his image?

29. That‘s the thing about edgy advertising. It offends as many people as it attracts.
But does that mean it shouldn‘t be done?
It reminds me of the scene from Howard Stern‘s movie, ―Private Parts‖. Pig Vomit,
the network executive who has been trying to get Stern fired, finds out that the
ratings for his show have shot sky high, despite his puerile, offensive-to-some
humor.
―Howard‘s fans,‖ he is told, ―listen to him for two and a half hours.‖
―Well what about all the people who hate him?‖ he asks.
The researcher looks at his notes, ―People who hate him listen to him for five
hours.‖
There is no question that if you want to grab attention, being outrageous is an
effective tactic. But the question still needs to be asked: How far should you be
willing to go to sell your product?
What boundaries, if any, should you be willing to cross? Is it okay to be sexist if it
sells more beer?
Moral issues aside, the criterion for making such a decision has to be the
advertisement‘s effect on sales. Looks like Dos Equis made the right decision:
According to Dos Equis brand manager Ryan V. Thompson, since Dos Equis
introduced The Most Interesting Man in the World in 2006, sales have shot up
significantly every year, leaping 26% since January alone. He recently told Austin
Carr of FastCompany.com. "We're now the fastest growing beer import in the
country.‖
To create breakthrough-advertising campaigns you must be willing to break
through convention. You have to be willing to offend some people so long as the
increase in sales that you stimulate is greater than any loss of business you get
from the offense.
It‘s not that you want to offend anyone. You don‘t. But you recognize that in a
world as diverse and opinionated as ours is, some breakthrough ads will offend.
Elsewhere I have explained that the two greatest vices of a marketer are laziness
and egotism. And the two greatest virtues are empathy and courage.
You must be empathetic enough to understand what your core customers think
and feel and believe (their Core Complex). And, then you must have the courage
to use that empathy to create an ad that tells them you understand.

30. That, in my view, is what the Dos Equis commercial does. It ―gets‖ guys. And it
has the courage to tap into what motivates them most of the time. It‘s not sex,
by the way. And it‘s not the objectification of women. It‘s much more about a
man‘s relationship with other men. Thus, the most interesting man in the world.
It reminds me very much of the new viral marketing campaign to sell Old Spice.
In that, ex-football player Isaiah Mustafa stands topless, showing off his six-pack,
promising women ―he‘s the man your man could smell like.‖
Last time I checked the original ad had attracted 13 million hits.
Christine‘s mistake, if I can judge from her short message, was that she let her
own feelings and thoughts and beliefs (her own core complex) interfere with her
ability to see this ad for what it is.
It‘s no more sexist than the Old Spice campaign. It‘s clever. It‘s compelling. And
it‘s full of self-referential humor.
If Christine thinks this ad is offensive, what must she think of the blue-jeans ads
that Calvin Klein introduced in 1980. Older readers will remember the 15-year-old
Brooke Shields telling the world that ―nothing comes between me and my
Calvins.‖ People were offended by the millions. But the campaign not only put
Calvin Klein on top of the heap, but also virtually created the multibillion-dollar
designer jeans market.
There is something else that needs to be understood about this ad. It not really
about attracting women per se, but about becoming more interesting than other
men. Men are very competitive. And in the world of wooing women, their desire
to compete is at its evolutionary height. The liminal* promise of the ad is a
competitive one: to be more interesting than other men. Yes, the payoff is being
surrounded by beautiful women. But the real issue is other men.
Marketers of women‘s clothing sometimes make the same mistake. They
incorrectly believe women dress to impress or entice men, when in fact they
dress to impress and entice other women.
The point I‘m getting to is this: if you are empathetic enough to really understand
what motivates your core customers at a very basic level, then you will be able to
create outrageous, breakthrough ads that work.
Ask yourself: what is it that my customer really wants?
And don‘t be satisfied with the first or second answer that pops in your head.
Spend some time thinking or talking about his core emotions. Figure out what he
desires, what he thinks and what he believes.

31. And finally, don‘t forget about the product. It‘s great to get the attention you
want but you don‘t want to forget the product.
Here are some other comments on the essay:
“Excellent. Michael Masterson is spot on about the Dos Equis ads. I love
the ad but am always left wanting to know what the product is. I had to
actually force myself to concentrate on the commercial so I could know
what the product is. Further I enjoyed the Golden Thread example. I've
been struggling with that in my writing but with this concise example I
now fully understand the Golden Thread.”– Shawn Maus
“Excellent. Inspiring and great information!! I will read this article a
dozen times and when I get home. I will pull out my AWAI books and
start changing my career… with results this time!”– E.Oneill
“Excellent. WOW I love those Commercials so that was number one
when I saw "SAW" the "GUY" I was compelled to read on and now I
understand some more about this business I love but never knew how
much until this article.”– Dan Slaughter Jr
“Excellent. Great article Michael. Makes perfect sense and a very
interesting insight into David Ogilvy as well!”– Gus G.
“Excellent. What a gift… Thank you Michael!!! There is so much
marketing wisdom in this simple article… Thank you for sharing so
generously.”– Laurie Attwood
“Excellent. Very Interesting and informative. Also reminiscent of
Commander Whitehead's beard. ”– Mike Rodriguez
“Excellent. What a wonderful and insightful piece! You have written this
piece like a good painter that paint work of art you are the masters. The
sequence from thought to purchase and how to influence elegantly if
there is such a word.”– Avihu Kiselstein
YOU‘RE INVITED to continue this discussion with Michael at this year‘s Fast Track
to Copywriting Success Bootcamp and Job Fair.
Anything else you want to talk to him about? You‘ll have plenty of opportunities
during the 3-day event. Plus, you‘ll have access to Bob Bly, John Forde, Ted
Nicholas, Bill Bonner and the dozen other master copywriters and marketers who
will be there… ready and eager to share their experiences and strategies with
you.
*Ed Note: In case you‘re curious about the meaning of the word ―liminal‖, it
means just at the edge of consciousness. It‘s not to be confused with
―subliminal,‖ which means just below the threshold of consciousness.

32. The Man in the Hathaway Shirt
Have you seen The Most Interesting Man in the World?
I'm referring to the TV commercials for Dos Equis beer. They star a
rugged-looking, silver-haired man who is always surrounded by beautiful
women.
In one version of the commercial, he arm-wrestles a Third World general and
releases a grizzly bear from a trap. In another, the narrator relates that even his
enemies list him as their emergency contact and that the police often question
him just because they find him interesting.
If you are a student of advertising, you know this is a knockoff of David Ogilvy's
famous ad campaign: The Man in the Hathaway Shirt.
If you don't know the history of this ad, you should.
In Brief: It was 1951. Ellerton Jette, a shirt maker from Waterville, Maine wanted
to grow his little business into a national brand, but he didn't have much money.
He had heard about the advertising prowess of David Ogilvy. So he booked a
meeting with him.
"I have an advertising budget of only $30,000," he told Ogilvy. "And I know that's
much less than you normally work with. But I believe you can make me into a big
client of yours if you take on the job."
If he'd stopped there, Ogilvy would have thrown him out of the office. But then he
said something that sold the great salesman.
He said, "If you do take on the job, Mr. Ogilvy, I promise you this. No matter how
big my company gets, I will never fire you. And I will never change a word of your
copy."
There is a big lesson here. So let's stop for a moment and talk about it.
What Ellerton Jette did was a little bit of genius, in my opinion. In two short
sentences, he changed the mind of one of the most powerful men in the world of
advertising. At the same moment, he made himself a very rich man.
Not a week goes by when I don't get a letter from a complete stranger who sees
me as his David Ogilvy. They are direct and to the point. "I know I can get rich if
you help me, Mr. Masterson," they say. "So how about it?"

33. What makes them think I have the time, if not the inclination, to help them? It
never even occurs to them to offer me something in return for what they are
asking.
Jette's $30,000 budget might have put $3,000 in Ogilvy's pocket. Though it was a
paltry sum then and a mere pittance now, at least it was something. But what
really cinched the deal was the two promises Jette made.
Going into the meeting, Jette knew he had one chance to forge a relationship with
Ogilvy. He somehow understood that Ogilvy, as successful as he was, had two big
problems. He worried that his biggest clients would walk away from him. And he
hated it when his clients screwed with his copy. So, instead of thinking only of his
own goals, Jette took the time to figure out how he could offer Ogilvy something
that would be of immense value to him. (This, by the way, is one of many lessons
I teach in mySpecial Theory of Automatic Wealth.)
When Jette made his two promises, Ogilvy realized that he was talking to a
businessman who would eventually become a partner. He could see that Jette was
a man of good faith who would let Ogilvy be in charge of his marketing. And that
he would reward Ogilvy with a lifetime of loyalty.
Now, let's get back to the story of the Hathaway shirt ad…
After accepting Jette's offer, Ogilvy spent days doing in-depth research on Jette's
client base. He came up with dozens of ideas. The one he settled on was a
campaign built around the image of a distinguished man in a romantic location
dressed in a Hathaway shirt. He selected a model that looked like William
Faulkner and booked the first photo shoot.
On the way to the shoot, he passed a five and ten cent store where he bought a
few cheap eye patches. At the shoot, he asked the model to wear an eye patch
for a few shots.
The moment he saw the photos with the eye patch, he knew.
The Man in the Hathaway Shirt campaign was an instant success. The ads were
carried in papers around the country, and were mentioned editorially in Time,
Life, and Fortune. Before long, hosts of imitators appeared. Other companies ran
ads featuring eye patches on babies, dogs… even cows. A cartoon in The New
Yorker shows three men looking into the display window of a shirt store. In the
second panel, they are coming out of the store, with eye patches on.

34. Ogilvy got the idea for the patch, he said, from a photo of Ambassador Lewis
Douglas, who had injured his eye while fishing in England. But he got the idea
itself – the idea of this aristocratic man with a romantic life – from the James
Thurber story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty." (Actually, Kenneth Roman pointed
out inThe King of Madison Avenue, it could have been from the secret life of David
Ogilvy. As a young executive, Ogilvy was prone to wearing capes and bowties
while everyone else was in grey flannel suits.)
Of course, it wasn't just the eye patch that made the ads work. It was the
combination of the model, the situation he was in, and the copy itself.
And the copy was brilliant. Here's the first line of the first ad:
"The melancholy disciples of Thorstein Veblen would have despised this shirt."
Most readers of the ad had no idea who Thorstein Veblen was. But they got the
idea. Veblen was some sort of snobby aristocratic. By posing a handsome, silver-
haired model with an eye patch in a Hathaway shirt and putting that line
underneath the photo, Ogilvy struck a chord in the American imagination. We all
hate aristocrats, but we would like to be one.
There was another brilliant thing about the ad. Putting the model in a romantic
location gave the pitch a fictional element. It had "story appeal," as Ogilvy put it.
Ogilvy said he discovered the concept of story appeal in a book by Harold
Rudolph, a former ad agency research director. This was the first time, Roman
says in his book, "that shirt advertising focused as much on the man wearing the
shirt as on the shirt itself."
And now, back to The Most Interesting Man in the World…
I am a fan of these Dos Equis commercials. I like them both because they are a
salute to David Ogilvy and also because they successfully replicate the key
elements in Ogilvy's ads for the Hathaway shirt. They have the handsome, silver-
haired model. They have the eye patch. And they have the anti-aristocrat touch.
(The product is beer, after all.)
They also have the romance and the story. Each new edition of the commercial is
another episode in this most interesting man's life.
They fall short only in one respect. They don't do a great job of equating the
product with the concept.

35. When I remember a Dos Equis ad, I remember the actor's face. I remember the
pretty girls in the background. I'm aware that he is a man that women find
irresistible. And that when he drinks he drinks… Wait a minute. What does he
drink?
There's the rub.
We find out that The Most Interesting Man in the World drinks Dos Equis. But he
could just as well drink Pabst Blue Ribbon. The creative people behind this very
good ad campaign get a big demerit for that. Ogilvy, on the other hand, put the
name of the product in the headline. The fact that his man was wearing a
Hathaway shirt was integral to the story.
Grabbing the prospect's attention with an entertaining story or idea or photo is
essential for any sort of advertising campaign. But you have to do more than
that. You have to sell the product. And to do that, you must link the initial
sentiment created in the headline with the final emotion needed to close the sale
at the end.
In AWAI's copywriting program, I call this "the Golden Thread." It's pretty simple.
The product is at one end of the thread. The prospect's heart is at the other end.
Every element of the copy must be connected to the product as well as to the
prospect. And the connection must be taut. If the thread goes slack, even for a
second, you lose the sale.
I will end this essay by saying this: You have just read about half a dozen of the
most powerful marketing secrets I know. If you put this essay down and forget
about it, you will be making a terrible mistake. Read it at least half a dozen times
and think about it. If it doesn't make you a multi-millionaire, I'll eat my shirt.
Hathaway, of course.

36. How to Write Well:
The World’s Simplest Formula
My income is based almost entirely on writing. And it has given me a very rich life
– rich in every sense of the word. It can do the same for you.
I spend half of my working time coaching writers on how to write better. I spend
the other half writing memos.
My memos are almost entirely persuasive: their object is to encourage my clients
to make business and marketing decisions that will make them more profitable. If
I fail to persuade them then my ideas don‘t get tested. If they don‘t get tested,
then I can‘t help them make money. If I can‘t help them make money, they will
stop paying me. To date I have never lost a client. (Knock on wood.) I attribute
my track record to the persuasiveness of my memos.
Over the 30 odd years I‘ve been doing this, I‘ve developed many complicated
theories about what good writing is. But now I‘ve jettisoned them all in favor of a
very brief, straightforward definition.
My definition of good writing applies to every sort of non-fiction writing that I can
think of. It applies to writing books, magazine articles, and direct-mail sales
letters. It applies to business correspondence, telemarketing scripts, and
speeches.
Here it is:
Good writing is the skill of expressing
compelling thoughts clearly.
That‘s it.

37. When I say this to writers, I get incredulous looks. ―How could it be that simple?‖
I can hear them thinking.
And then I explain. And re-explain. And eventually some of them get it. And when
they do, their writing gets much, much better. And their income gets better too.
Let‘s go over that definition in detail. It has two parts:
Compelling Thoughts and Clear Expression
By compelling thoughts I mean ideas that make the reader think, ―Boy, that‘s
interesting!‖ Or, ―I never thought of that before!‖ Or, ―I‘ve got to remember this!‖
Good writing, then, has nothing to do with correctness. It doesn‘t matter if the
idea you are expressing is well reasoned or even factual. What does matter is
that your writing engages your readers intellectually and emotionally and then
motivates them to do or think what you want them to do or think.
Notice I said intellectually as well as emotionally. I have Don Hauptman, a living
legend in the advertising business, to thank for that additional word.
After a speech I made once to a group of 300 writers, he wrote me to say that I
had reiterated a common phrase he objected to: that people buy for emotional
reasons.
“This lie,” he says, “just invites all the leftist critics of advertising and
capitalism to charge that everyone is „manipulated‟ by evildoers who
exploit our emotions and irrationality. So we‟re cutting our own throats
if we perpetuate the „it‟s all emotion‟ fallacy. I know you don‟t want to
encourage that, any more than I do.
“FYI, there‟s an old adage that expresses the point of your article
another way: „Write the way you talk, if you could edit what you say.‟
DM agency panjandrum Emily Soell once said something like: „Write it
square, then add the flair.‟ I‟ve found these tips useful throughout my
career.”
Don is absolutely correct. Not including the intellect in this discussion is incorrect
and potentially harmful. It invites critics of advertising to accuse persuasive
writers of pandering. And it encourages writers to believe that if they pander, they
are writing well.
The most successful marketers and copywriters know that good writing requires
that we engage our readers on both plains simultaneously. Ezra Pound had the
same theory about writing poetic images. He called them ―emotional and
intellectual complexes in an instant of time.‖

38. Creating the Ah-Ha! Effect
And that is what I mean by a compelling thought: an emotionally and
intellectually engaging idea expressed clearly and succinctly so that the reader
can apprehend it in a moment of time. That is what provides the ah-ha! effect.
Malcolm Gladwell is an expert at this. And that is why he has become a
multimillionaire writing books about arcane and academic subjects. His critics
naively knock him because they argue that some of his ideas are incorrect. I
made that point before: the correctness of the idea is not what makes for good
writing. It is the effect it has on the intellect and the heart of the reader.
If you want to be a wealthy marketer, copywriter or businessperson, you must be
able to come up with compelling thoughts. You must be able to recognize ideas
that are intellectually and emotionally engaging, ideas that arrest and charge up
your readers and make them think, ―That‘s good! I never thought of that before!‖
How do you find intellectually and emotionally compelling ideas?
In all the years I‘ve been struggling to answer this question, I‘ve found only one
answer: you must read.
Successful writers are all voracious readers. Their ideas don‘t spring fully formed
from the thigh of Zues, they come from hours of reading – reading vertically and
horizontally about the subject at hand. They read and read until they come across
something that gives them theah-ha! experience.
I‘d like to tell you there was an easier way. There are some well-known
copywriting gurus who will tell you that you can steal good ideas from swipe files
taken from successful advertisements past or present. This is horseshit, plain and
simple. Stolen ideas are like luxury cars. They lose 40% of their value the
moment you take them out of the showroom.
The reason that my number one client is the dominant publisher in the
information publishing industry is precisely because their 100+ writers have had
this definition of good writing drummed into their heads. They know that they
can‘t expect to write blockbuster promotions consistently without compelling
ideas. And they know how to find those ideas.
Ask any of them how they come up with all their great ideas and he or she will
tell you: ―I read and read until I find one.‖

39. Where to Place the Compelling Thought
The compelling thought must be placed in the lead. It cannot be lingering on page
three or thirty-three. It must be up front so the reader can have his ah-ha!
moment before he tosses the copy away.
It is the same for writing essays or memos. Put your most compelling idea very
early and your readers (prospects, clients, whatever) will be excited. If they are
excited, they will read on with enthusiasm. If not, you will lose them.
If you have the good fortune to discover several compelling ideas, put the best
one first and let the others follow as soon as you can. Don‘t make the mistake of
―leaving the best for last.‖ You don‘t have the liberty to do that. Hit ‗em quick and
hit hard with your best stuff and spend the rest of the
advertisement/essay/memo proving your points.
After you have put your compelling thoughts out there, then it‘s time to make
supporting claims and promises and prove that each one of them is valid.
You must do this because your reader is naturally skeptical. His intelligence
requires him to weed out most of the advice and information he receives. If it
weren‘t that way we could never get anything done. We‘d be eternally lost
jumping from one idea to another. Our brains are hard wired to be skeptical of
ideas – and that goes for compelling thoughts as well. The reader‘s subconscious
tells him: ―You have just been seduced by an intellectually and emotionally
compelling thought. Before you act on it, make sure it makes sense.‖
So this is where the good writer elaborates on his compelling thought by
providing compelling proof of it. He knows he must support his ideas rationally by
providing proof that they are ―true.‖
Truth, of course, comes in many shapes and sizes. And so does proof.
The Three Faces of Proof
There is factual proof. There is anecdotal proof. And there is social proof.
 Factual proof is easy to come by if your idea has been well researched.
Anyone with an Internet connection can find all the factual proof he needs
on most any topic if he knows how to do online research. And if you don‘t
know how to do it, don‘t worry. AWAI is developing a product that will teach
you.

40.  Anecdotal proof includes stories — factual and non-factual — that support
an idea by ―showing it‖ instead of ―telling it.‖ Anecdotal proof is very
powerful, because it appeals so immediately to the emotions. People are not
critical when they are reading a story. Their purpose is to be entertained.
This gives you, as the writer, a strong advantage.
 Social proof refers to the influence that other people have on our opinions
and behavior. As a writer, a good way to support your ideas with social proof
is to use testimonials and expert endorsements.
So that‘s how you incorporate ―good thinking‖ into your writing. Now let‘s talk
about the second part of my definition of good writing: clarity of expression.
Clarity of Expression
By that I mean the ease with which your readers can ―get‖ your compelling
thought and the proof that follows. This is a very important part of the definition.
It is just as important as the compelling thought.
Memorize the following sentence: The easier it is to comprehend, the more likely
it is that your reader will find it to be true.
There is a new science called Cognitive Fluency that supports this assertion.
Among other things, it studies the effect of simple language on readers. What
researchers have found is that a simpler statement has more credibility than a
more complex one — even if they both mean the same thing. It appears, the
scientists say, that our brains are hardwired to trust simpler (and familiar) things.
New writers don‘t understand this. They operate on the theory that good writing
is pretty or impressive. They strive to make their copy intellectually and
emotionally impressive or even intimidating. They have been miseducated into
believe that complexity is a sign of good thinking. And so they complicate their
writing with complex sentences and arcane diction.
This is a big mistake – a mistake that is obviously foolish if you think about it for
a moment. After all, if you have gone to the trouble of coming up with a really
good idea, why would you want to hide it from them with obscure words and
references?

41. The best tool I have found to help writers keep their language clear and
uncomplicated is the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test. The FK (as it is known) looks
at the length of your sentences, how many syllables there are in each word, and
other data. The result is a score that indicates how easy the text is to read. At
Early to Rise, our policy is to keep the FK under 7.5 — which means the average
seventh-grader should be able to read and understand it easily.
Let me give you an example of what I‘ve been talking about here. What follows is
a paragraph by a seasoned financial writer. I had asked him for a brief summary
of the ―big idea‖ for his next essay. Here‘s what he sent me:
―Simon Properties is making good on its promise to swallow up the
minnows. It‘s buying mall owner Prime Properties for $2.3 billion and
not even using up all the cash it‘s been hoarding to take advantage of
opportunities in the marketplace. Simon is big and flush with cash. And
it‘s doing what big bad companies should be doing… beating up their
little brothers, grabbing the best deals out there… getting bigger… and
capturing market share from other companies.‖
I emailed back, telling him that I could see, by reading between the lines, that he
had a good idea in his mind. But he had failed to identify the core of it. He had
failed to turn it into a ―big idea‖ that he could base his essay on. Here‘s what I
said in my e-mail:
―You say that Simon Properties is a good buy because it is buying up
smaller, cash-starved businesses. This is a sound proposition, but it‘s not
a compelling idea. It‘s really just an assertion. To make it emotionally
compelling, you have to make it both more universal and more unique.
You have to find the idea behind your idea.
―In short, you have to find something that would make your reader sit
up and take notice. You have to give him an idea — preferably in a
single phrase — that he could repeat that night at a dinner party,
something that would launch an interesting discussion.
―For example, you might have said, ‗There are companies — I call them
Sharks — that outperform the market by three to one by eating up good
profitable companies that are small and easy to ‗eat.‘
―That is an engaging idea. The reader gets it immediately. He wants to
know more.
―But to make this work, you would need to prove to your reader that, in
today‘s market, Sharks are good investments. Only after you have done
that will he be interested in your assertion about Simon Properties.‖

42. To help writers understand what I mean by a compelling ideas I ask them to write
their compelling idea on top, above their copy. What I often get in reply is a full
paragraph that explains the idea. When I see an entire paragraph above the copy,
I know — without even reading it — that the writer hasn‘t identified a truly
compelling idea. And if that paragraph contains long, complex sentences, then I
know he‘s off base.
Since recognizing the two key components of good writing — a ―big idea‖ and
clarity of expression — I‘ve insisted that all essays or promotions given to me for
review have at the top of the page a one-sentence explanation of the main idea
and the FK score.
If that one-sentence idea doesn‘t impress me, I send the piece back without
reading it. I know the writing that I‘m being asked to review is muddled. And
muddled writing is never good.
If the one-sentence idea is good, then I look to another signal that I insist on:
that the FK rating is posted just below the one-sentence idea. And if the FK score
is above 7.5, it gets rejected too.
I reject it because I have found over many years that essays and advertisements
that have high FK scores don‘t get results. I used to think that was because they
don‘t get read. That is certainly part of the reason. But now I understand from
learning about Congnative Fluency, that it is also because they don‘t get believed.
So that is the definition: Good writing is the skill of expressing compelling
thoughts clearly. To come up with compelling thoughts you must read until you
experience an ah-ha! moment. And then you must prove your promises and
claims with clean, simple language – language that scores 7.5 or below on the FK
score.
This discipline has saved me lots of time and has accelerated the learning curve
of every writer who has worked under my direction. I recommend it to you.

43. Using Daily Task Lists to Accomplish
Your Goals
I didn‘t always plan my days. For most of my career, in fact, I didn‘t.
I had written goals. And I referred to them regularly. My goals kept me pointed in
the right direction, but I was always moving back and forth. Often for no good
reason.
Driving to work in the morning, I would think about my goals. That helped
motivate me and often gave me specific ideas about what tasks I should
accomplish that day. I‘d walk into work meaning to complete those tasks… but by
the end of the day, many of them were not done.
What happened? The same thing that may be happening to you right now. You sit
down at your desk, and there is a pile of new mail in your inbox. You pick up the
phone, and 15 messages are waiting for you. You open your computer, and find
that you‘ve received 50 new e-mails since you last checked. You tell yourself that
you will get to your important tasks later. Right now, you have to ―clean up‖ all
these little emergencies.
Before you know it, the day is over and you haven‘t taken a single step toward
achieving your important goals. You make an effort to do something, but you‘re
tired. Tomorrow, you tell yourself, you‘ll do better.
Does that sound familiar?
If so, don‘t feel bad. You‘re in good company. Most people deal with their work
that way. Even people who set goals and achieve them. Over the long term, they
get everything done. But on a day-to-day basis, they are constantly frustrated.
Youcanbe successful without planning your days… but you will have to work a lot
longer and harder. The reason? When you don‘t plan your days, you end up
working for other people – not just for yourself. You feel that before you get to
your own work, you should first deal with their requests.

44. Starting your day by clearing out your inbox, voicemail inbox, and e-mail inbox is
just plain dumb. Most of what is waiting for you every morning has nothing to do
with your goals and aspirations. It‘s work that other people want you to dofor
them.
If you want to be the captain of your soul and the master of your future, you
have to be in charge of your time. And the best way to be in charge of your time
is to structure your day around a task list that you, and only you, create.
As I said, simply writing down my goals helped me accomplish a good deal. But
my productivity quadrupled when I started managing my schedule with a daily
task list. If you use the system I‘m going to recommend, I‘ll bet you see the
same improvement.
I have used many standard organizing systems over the years, but was never
entirely satisfied with any of them. The system I use now is my own – based on
the best of what I found elsewhere.
At the beginning of the year, I lay out my goals for the next 12 months. I ask
myself ―What do I need to achieve in January, February, etc. to keep myself on
track?‖ Then, at the beginning of each month, I lay out my weekly objectives.
Finally, every day, I create a very specific daily task list.
Here’s how I do it…
I begin each day the day before.
What I mean by that is that I create my daily task list at the end of the prior day.
I create Tuesday‘s task list at the end of Monday‘s workday. I create Wednesday‘s
at the end of Tuesday‘s workday.
I begin by reviewing the current day‘s list. I note which tasks I‘ve done and which
I have failed to do. My new list – the next day‘s task list – begins with those
uncompleted tasks. I then look at my weekly objectives to see if there are any
other tasks that I want to add. Then I look through my inbox and decide what to
do with what‘s there. I may schedule some of those items for the following day.
Most of them, I schedule for later or trash or redirect to someone else.
I do all this in pen on a 6‖ x 9‖ pad of lined paper. I divide the paper vertically to
create columns for the tasks, for the time I estimate it will take to do each one,
and for the actual time it takes me to complete it. I also create a column for tasks
I will delegate to my assistant.

45. On most days, I end up with about 20 15-minute to one-hour tasks.
Here is a typical daily list.
I like doing this by hand, in pen and ink. You may prefer to do it on your
computer. The point is to enjoy the process.
Because longer tasks tend to be fatiguing, I seldom schedule anything that will
take more than an hour. If you have a task that will take several hours, break it
up into pieces and do it over a few days. It will be easier to accomplish. Plus, you
will probably do a better job because you‘ll be doing it with more energy and with
time to review and revise your work as you go.
A typical day for me includes two or three one-hour tasks, three or four half-hour
tasks, and a dozen or so 15-minute tasks. The kind of work you do may be
different, but I like that balance. It gives me flexibility. I can match my energy
level throughout the day to my task list.
Ideally, you should get all of your important tasks and most of your less
important tasks done almost every day. You want to accomplish a lot so you can
achieve your long-term goals as quickly as possible. But you also want to feel
good about yourself at the end of the day.
You may find, as I did, that when you begin using this system you will be
overzealous – scheduling more tasks than you can possibly handle. So set
realistic time estimates when you write down your tasks. And double-check them
at the end of the day by filling in the actual time you spent on each one.
When you complete a task, scratch it off your list. One task done! On to the next
one!
I‘ve been doing this for years, and I still get a little burst of pleasure every time.
Creating each daily task list should take you less than 15 minutes. The secret is
to work from your weekly objectives – which are based on your monthly and
yearly goals.
This system may not work for you, but I urge you to give it a try. I think you‘ll
like it.

46. Before your colleagues, competitors, and coworkers are even sipping their first
cup of coffee, you‘ll have figured out everything you need to do that day to make
you healthier, wealthier, and wiser. You‘ll know what to do, you‘ll know what your
priorities are, and you‘ll already be thinking about some of them. You‘ll not have
to worry about forgetting something important. And you‘ll have a strong sense of
energy and excitement, confident that your day is going to be a productive one.
Heisting Hall of Fame Headlines
Old-time copywriters like yours truly enjoy a walk down Memory Lane now and
then. We do it for fun, but it can be profitable, too.
I‘m talking about rereading the best-known direct-marketing ads of the past.
Copy written by such luminaries as Gene Schwartz, Claude Hopkins, and John E.
Kennedy.
It‘s fun to read through these old ads. Looking at them now — with their dated
language and primitive graphics — you might think they could never work in
today‘s hypercompetitive market.
Yet some of them are still working. And, most of them live on as the arms and
legs or blood and bones of many modern ads written by copywriters who
understand their value.
There are many ways to learn from these time-tested ads.
One way is simply to read them — over and over again. Maybe even copy them
down by hand or say them out loud. I‘m convinced that‘s the only way to
understand all sorts of important but subtle things about good copy — diction,
pacing, phrasing, etc.
But the best way to learn from them is to analyze them from the inside out. Ask
yourself: ―What is going on here beneath the surface? What are the psychological
triggers that are going off in the reader‘s heart and mind as he reads this?‖

47. This is what I call determining the DNA of an ad. If you get the core structure
right, you have a template — invisible to everyone else who looks at the same ad
— of what really makes it work.
So today, I want to introduce you to that kind of deep structure analysis. And I‘m
going to do it by applying it to headlines — the smallest piece of the advertising
puzzle, yet the most powerful.
The headline you use has an enormous impact on the effectiveness of your ad.
Pick the wrong headline and your response rate could drop by more than half.
Select the right headline and you could double or triple response, and even create
an ad which will last for decades.
The Best-Known Headline Ever Written
Several years ago, Raphael Marketing compiled a list of 100 of ―the best print
advertising headlines ever written.‖ As a group, these ads sold hundreds of
millions of dollars worth of products and services. (That would be tens of billions
of dollars today.)
I looked through the list this morning and thought, ―Boy, these are really good. I
bet I could use some of them right now to improve my clients‘ copy!‖
I‘m not talking about copying them verbatim. A word or two or three, maybe.
(And for a headline by a living writer, I wouldn‘t even do that.) But more than
that is just plain dumb, because it doesn‘t work on so many levels. For one thing,
it‘s cheating. And, it makes you a weaker marketer/writer.
What I could do, though, is figure out what is going on beneath the surface
(determine the DNA of those headlines), and then inject that into my clients‘ copy
to invigorate it.
With that in mind, let‘s take a look at one of the ―top 100‖ headlines. In fact, let‘s
look at the headline that came in at number one. It was written in 1925 by John
Caples for a correspondence course from the U.S. School of Music:
They laughed when I sat down at the piano…
But when I started to play!
This headline instantly conveys all the key elements of a successful ad:

48.  One strong idea
 One desirable benefit
 One driving emotion
 One inevitable solution
In just 15 words, Caples tells a powerful story. You can see someone approaching
a piano in a crowded room — perhaps it‘s a dinner party. You can see the look of
disbelief on people‘s faces as he nears it. When he pulls back his cuffs, a twitter
of laughter starts. Before his fingers touch the ivories, there is a chorus of
abusive cackling.
How can you not feel sorry for this guy? Surely you have experienced, sometime
in your life, a similar moment of embarrassing derision. (Who hasn‘t?)
Imagining this situation, you feel his need for revenge and approval — two of the
deepest and strongest human desires.
Now comes the second line — ―But when I started to play…‖
You can see the shock and disbelief on the faces of those who were laughing. Our
hero has begun playing, and the music is flowing like wine. Men grow pale with
admiration and jealousy. Women glow in appreciation.
And then the thought hits you: ―Wouldn‘t it be wonderful if I could play the
piano?‖
Based on Caples‘s headline alone, the reader of this ad is already half-persuaded
to sign up for the course it is selling. As I suggested above, this is an astonishing
amount of work to get done with 15 simple words.
What’s Going on Here?
One of the most important discoveries I ever made about advertising came to me
years after I first read this wonderful headline. But, it could have been inspired by
it. I call it the Rule of One.
I said this about theRule of One:―Write about only one thing at a time. Because
one good idea, clearly and convincingly presented, is better than a dozen so-so
ideas strung together.‖

49. Caples‘s headline is a beautiful example of that. Had he taken the salad bowl
approach — so popular with the whippersnappers who write copy today — it
might have read as follows:
Now You Can Learn to Play the Piano Quickly and Easily!
After years of research, musicologist discovers the world‘s most efficient method
for teaching the piano.
Using this unique new program, you can master the piano
in less than a year!
You will amaze your friends and neighbors!
Some may even be shocked at how well you can play!
Plus, you can earn extra income on the weekends!
This headline doesn‘t have nearly the force of the original because it has too
much going on. Too many unnecessary details, too many unrelated emotions, and
too many damn words!
Another reason Caples‘s headline is so strong is because, as I pointed out, it tells
a story. Of all the ways to get your readers emotionally involved in your copy,
nothing works better and more consistently than the story lead.
In the book I‘m writing with John Forde on copywriting, he has this to say about
it:
“I can think of a lot of people who balk at big promises. I can think of plenty more
who couldn‘t care less about a bulleted list of shocking statistics. But I can‘t think
of a single person who can resist a good story. Can you? Everybody loves a good
story.
“As a way to communicate, nothing feels more natural.
“So doesn‘t it make sense that when someone says, ‗Let me tell you a story… ‘
you perk up and listen? There‘s no better way to melt resistance. Of course, if you
don‘t tell the story well, you can still lose the reader. And telling the right stories
well isn‘t always easy.
“But get it right, and a story lead lets you sneak into the psyche sideways, like no
other lead can, delivering anecdotal proof and promises… and a setup for the rest
of your pitch… long before the reader even realizes what you‘re doing.‖
Caples‘s ad was an instant hit, selling thousands of correspondence courses. Many
call it the most successful ad of the 20th century.

50. And the structure of his classic headline has been ―borrowed‖ time and again by
other copywriters. You may have seen this one (thanks to AWAI Board
MemberDon Hauptmanfor these examples):
They grinned when the waiter spoke to me in French…
But their laughter changed to amazement at my reply.
Or this one:
They laughed when I sent away for free color film…
But now my friends are all sending away, too.
Or this one, which I just saw inSmall Business OpportunitiesMagazine:
They laughed at me when I started my cleaning business…
But when I quit my day job…
So what can the modern marketer/copywriter learn about headline writing from
Caples‘s classic example?
 First, the Rule of One: One strong idea/emotion/benefit is better than half a
dozen mediocre ones.
 Second, the power of the story: There is no stronger way to engage your
prospect than with a simple story.
 Third, that adhering to the ―rules‖ of good storytelling will produce the
greatest effect. That means beginning in the middle with a conflict —
expressed or implicit — that affects a protagonist the reader can identify
with. And offering an emotionally satisfying solution.
You don‘t have to use Caples‘s words. Just borrow the deeper structure of his
headline:
 The hero, an ordinary person like your prospect, attempts to do something
extraordinary.
 People doubt him.
 He proves them wrong.

There are countless ways to apply this structure. If you are selling an investment
system, for example, you could tell a story about how all the experts doubted the
system when it was first unveiled. If you are selling inexpensive domestic caviar,
you could create a story about how a group of gastronomes ridiculed your product
until they tasted it.
Spend a few minutes right now jotting down notes on how you could use it in
your next advertising campaign.