SSWT Internet Marketing Forum

Thought it'd be fun (and instructive) to name your most influential copywriting teacher. Let's say the top three and why.

Here's my list:

1. Gary Halbert. There's no question. I remember sneaking his books and newsletters into work and studying his stuff when nobody was looking. He was sort of my unofficial "coach" -- even though I never had the chance to meet him His were the only ads I would copy out by hand and even today, I love reading his ads for both the educational and entertainment value.

2. Gary Bencivenga. Gary Halbert may have taught me how to "write" copy, but Gary Bencinvenga taught me (through his course, as I have never met him personally) the psychology behind copywriting. And it's making a huge difference in response. Funny story: Back in my early college days -- late 1995 -- I got a couple "bookalogues" in the mail. I held on to them for years (this was back before I cared about advertising or knew what copywriting even was) and I could never bring myself to throw them out. There was "something" about them. Anyway when I bought GB's DVD's last January, lo and behold -- I found out they were two of his biggest control-busting blockbusters. All this time I had them in my swipe file and didn't even realize it. Sheesh!

3. Eugene Schwartz. This was tough. Studying John Carlton's stuff was also extremely influential. But Schwartz's speeches (to Phillips Publishing and Rodale) and his book "Breakthrough Advertising" went so deep into the subject -- especially chapter 7 -- that I have to give it to Gene. His teachings on organizing the different elements of an ad, writing bullets, writing copy to the different "stages" of your market, and using what he calls "identification" is just extremely potent when you use them.

Who else wants to give it a shot?

Ben

Gary Halbert undoubtedly inspires the greatest today.

Jason Fladlien, an exceptional copywriter also, sent out an offer the other day when I was in the middle of other things and I wanted to go back and consider buying it. It's a big ol' package containing 800MB of a Gary Halbert copywriting swipe file with 53 video critiques.

I really enjoy what Brian McElroy has to offer in his Freelance Profit Blueprint. We got an interview with Jaime Mintun that was priceless, and he also interviewed Rob Toth and Kyle Tully. Everything about this program has been excellent and I only regret I'm over my spending quota because he now is launching "Overnight Product Creation."

I have to say too, that Chris Rempel has a style I really relate to, and I can't help myself when he sends out an offer I just can't refuse.

Robert Plank, while being primarily a PHP programmer also puts together some excellent copy.

So, those writers give me a lot of inspiration.

I like Michel Fortin, and I get a lot out of Bob the Teacher too.

Thanks for starting this post.

Mitch

Ok, you guys are in to copywriting, maybe you can help me find the copywriting teachers that would become my personal favorites.

I sell stuff, not to copywriters specifically, but to internet business people in general.

So, it's key for me to understand what kind of sales copy internet business people want to read. Makes sense so far, right?

Here's the problem I always encounter.

EVERYBODY, and I mean everybody, wants to tell me what kind of sales copy will "work" on somebody else.

But, I'm not interested in what "them", some anonymous group of theoretical people want.

I'm interested in what YOU want to read when you land on one of my sites.

Not what you want to read as a student of copywriting, but what you want to read as a shopper for net business related technical services.

If you know of copywriters who talk frankly about what they themselves like to read when they are the shopper, an expert who can still make that psychological leap from seller to buyer, I'd welcome your advice.

Publisher-For-You,

One thing you can do is slap a survey up on your site asking what they want, what they most recently bought, what their most pressing problems are, etc.

Check out Glen Livingston's work on this, it's awesome and should help you with this:



Ben

I only became aware of this discussion forum recently:



I've begun reading there when I get the time. It's fascinating; maybe it's just what you're looking for, some post in there; I can't know if I'm telling you something you already know, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

Hope that helps.

Mitch

The thing I despise the most is to land on a sales page that rambles on and on before telling me how it will solve my question or problem. I want to know with as little fluff as possible, will it benefit me in the direction I need it to go?

Basically I want it to ask the question, bullet point the benefits, tell me why it is that I need that solution and then give me the darn price. To weed through pages and pages to find the price at the end gets me bored and I usually click off of the page and go to a different site that hopefully will cut the fluff and get down to business.

Another big turn off I have come across is when google searching a solution for example: free software solutions and I come across a description that says " Absolutely FREE" that is what I would expect it to be, then I land on the page and it tells me that I can download a free trial of the software but that the full version is say $59.99. I at this point feel mislead, lied to and roped into coming to a site. That kills any thought of doing business in the future in my mind. Truthfulness goes a long way.

It's how they do it. I'm afraid it's all part of the game.

I agree with you totally, but even the big companies resort to that form of marketing. TechSmith's Camtasia, Adobe, just to name two.

You have to weed through it.

What I hate is when you get bored and just want to know the price, and it's not at the bottom paragraph; it's not above that; it's not in the Johnson boxes anywhere; and finally when you're about to presume they aren't even telling you, you decide to go back up to where you started getting bored, and there it is, very unassumingly tucked into a short sentence in the middle of a long paragraph!

Sometimes, when it's nowhere to be found on the page, I click over to see if it's on the order page; as long as I didn't have to join a list just to get there.

If the price is reasonable, and I knew it right from the start, then I probably would read through the rest of the copy, as long as it reinforced my hopes about what the product would do for me.

I hate being tricked.

Unique, funny, clever - that's one thing; tricky and sneaky is quite another.

That's just my $0.02

Mitch