Copywriters Podcast

Our guest today is famous in digital marketing circles as an online advertising expert. His name is Justin Brooke and I’m so happy he can join us. Justin is the founder of Adskills, a great training company for online advertising. He’s also a super-experienced media buyer, having spent more than $10 million for lead generation as well as eCommerce campaigns. While Justin could give us super-valuab...

In just about every copywriter’s life, there comes a time when you ask yourself, “Why on God’s green Earth are all my clients making money hand over fist, day after day, month after month — and I just get paid just once?” It’s a fair question because, more often than not, as copywriters, we end up essentially inventing our clients’ businesses. With our copy. With our ideas. With our expert guidanc...

One reason it's hard to write copy is when you start out, you've got so much in front of you, it can seem overwhelming. Not only that, but just one you get in the groove for writing copy for one part of the letter or VSL, you have to shift gears. That's because different sections of what you're writing have different rhythms. Each one has a different feel. For example, a story needs to have good m...

Whether you’re running a business or running someone else’s Facebook advertising for them, it always seems like there are a million things to keep track of as far as advertising is concerned. No doubt about it; there are. But there are a few things that are truly make-or-break, day in and day out. A few crucial things that will define the line between profitability and losing money. A few things t...

Today, let’s talk about staying with big copy projects, once you get started. You know, they say “begun is half done.” That’s true, but then there’s the other half, and that’s where we run into trouble sometimes. The half that’s not done yet, but still needs to get done. We’ve covered the steps of how to write a sales letter before and we’ll cover it again, but that’s not what I want to talk about...

We’re back with the legendary Bond Halbert, who I am proud to call my friend. On the last show, Bond talked about better ways to get started in copywriting. On today’s show, Bond will share with us some crucial insights about what working copywriters are doing wrong, and how to fix those problems. Bond’s father, of course, was the famous copywriter Gary Halbert, and Bond is among Gary’s first very...

We’re so lucky to have Bond Halbert on the show today. Bond is my friend and has been a great supporter, professionally, for years. Bond’s father, of course, was the famous copywriter Gary Halbert, and Bond is among Gary’s first very successful students. In fact, Bond was closest to his dad in both a personal and professional relationship. More recently, after copy chiefing some of the largest fin...

Every year, between 20 and 30 lucky people get a phone call that goes something like this: "Congratulations! The MacArthur Foundation has determined that you are a GENIUS, and we'd like to send you some Mo-NAY! Unlike my parody of the actual phone call, the money is serious — these days, $625,000, paid over five years. To use however they want. Now that's great for them, but so what? How does this...

We don’t usually give out formulas on this show, but today I’m going to start with one: Empathy = $80 million. I got that -- actually, I created it -- from looking at the work of our guest today, Emily McGuire. She’s a big-time specialist in email marketing. And her email campaigns have earned clients over $80 million in revenue. The reason I put empathy in the formula is that Emily says her guidi...

Today’s show is part of our popular Old Masters series, and we’ve got some unusual info and ideas from a copywriter of old, John Starr Hewitt. This comes from a book we’re pulled from before, from 1925, called “Masters of Advertising Copy.” From everything I’ve seen in this book, Hewitt is the only contributor who gets down to cases when it comes to what it takes to become a master in copywriting....

So, with the year 2021 just days behind us, I thought it would be fun to reminisce about my early days as a copywriter. It was definitely a second career for me. I had started out as a business journalist. Of course, not knowing anything about copywriting when I first started, I assumed writing copy couldn’t be all that different from writing news and feature stories, right? I was about as wrong a...

Our guest today, Chris Haddad, sent shock waves through the copywriting world a couple weeks ago, with the launch of his much-awaited online training program called “The P.I.G. Method.” “P.I.G.” stands for “Punch in the gut” and I would say that’s a fairly universal description of how Chris’s copy in his video sales letters affects viewers. When you watch one of Chris’s promotions, or read his cop...

Our guest today, Chris Haddad, sent shock waves through the copywriting world 10 days ago with the launch of his much-awaited online training program called “The P.I.G. Method.” “P.I.G.” stands for “Punch in the gut” and I would say that’s a fairly universal description of how Chris’s copy in his video sales letters affects viewers. When you watch one of Chris’s promotions, or read his copy, you g...

Today's podcast comes from a handful of idea generators I found in "The Copy Book —How Some of the Best Advertisers in the World Write Their Advertising." I found out about this book from our friend Sean Vosler, who's been on the show before. It's over 500 pages long, and while it's interesting, most of it does not really apply to direct response copywriting, which, after all, is what this show is...

We have an extra-special guest today, and I will tell you about him after I tell you about his book. Nine years ago, someone -- and I’m sorry I can’t remember who it was -- told me about this amazing book called “The Micro-Script Rules.” I went crazy when I got it and have been recommending it to people ever since. Fast forward to earlier this fall. My client Billy Broas emailed me, having recentl...

We’ve got a very special guest today, Kenneth Yu. I really want to thank him for staying up very late to join us. As we’re recording this, it’s the middle of the night in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where Ken is based. He’s going to tell us about what he calls “the most persuasive story structure on Earth,” and he has a point. He calls it “the scalable parable,” and this refers to the way religious st...

We’re back with an episode in the Old Masters series -- four Old Masters, in fact. These four people are the co-authors of the book “The Principles Of Advertising,” first published in 1915. I ran across it while tracking down something else I had learned about from Copywriting Historian Sean Vosler, who has been on this show before. The authors are: Harry Tipper, Harry L. Hollingsworth, George Bur...

When you need some good advice for your business, who you gonna call? My way of looking at is pretty simple: You need someone who knows it, not only because they’ve studied it, but because they’ve also done it. Successfully. In the best of all possible worlds, more than once. For instance, if you wanted to take a cooking class, would you choose a class given by someone who has read all the cookboo...

We’re back with our Old Masters Series, and this is the last part of a four-part series -- What Your Prospects Most Want To Know. I would add, what is it that they want to know right away, and whether or not you tell them might decide whether or not they keep on reading? The answer is still: What will your product, or service, do for me? But this time, we’re going to take it from a different angle...

The market research company Ipsos recently did a poll that found 46% of Americans believe in ghosts. I found that annoying because they didn’t ask Americans how many of them believed in monsters. It’s so important which words you use when you’re taking a survey. Ipsos also found that 7% of Americans believe in vampires, and 6% believe in zombies. With Halloween coming up, I thought this would be a...

We’re back with a special Gold Edition of Copywriters Podcast. The reason it’s a Gold Edition is because we are taking a deep dive into the gold mines of copywriting history. The two men who invented copywriting as we know it are Claude Hopkins and John E. Kennedy. And the man who hired them was Albert Lasker. I came across this book, The Man Who Sold America, which has information I’d never seen...

We’re back with Mike Pavlish for part two of $10-million-plus sales letters, especially in the supplement industry. As we mentioned last week, Mike is a superstar copywriter. He has written promotions for health supplements for some of the most successful supplement companies in the world, including Agora, Dr. Al Sears, Healthy Directions and many others. Mike has also written for smaller entrepre...

Get ready for a master class in creating eight-figure sales letters, from a copywriter who has done it… over and over and over again. I’m really excited that today, we have Mike Pavlish on the show. He has written promotions for health supplements that have in many cases brought in more than $10 million apiece. And he’s done this for some of the most successful supplement companies in the world, i...

We’re back with our Old Masters Series, and this is part 3 of a four-part series -- What Your Prospects Most Want To Know. I would add, what is it that they want to know right away, and whether or not your tell them might decide whether or not they keep on reading? The answer is the still: What will your product, or service, do for me? But this time, we’re going to take it from a different angle....

I’m thrilled that our guest today is Daniel Throssell, a very unconventional and highly successful copywriter from Perth, Australia. He’s the driving marketing force behind the blockbuster bestselling book The Barefoot Investor. Daniel has a slew of very impressive testimonials on his site, to give you and idea of what other top people in copywriting are saying about him: Our friend Ben Settle cal...