The Freelance Course - John Carlton

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How to turn your kick-ass copywritin$ skills into Q
career as an independent, ridiculously-well-paid,
respected professional writer.
The amazingly simple 3-step course
that reveals the shortcuts to earning a
damn good living as a sought-after
hot-shot freelance copywriter!
"The business world is starving for copywriters who know how to
sell... and here is everything you need to know about getting good
(fast), getting connected (so clients start carting you) and (most
importantly) getting paid the bis bucks. Freelance cop/writing is
the one skill that will always be in demand, no matter what
happens in the economy."
By John Carl ton
www.john-carl ton.com
Copyright 2009, Marketing Rebel, LLC
The Freelance Course: Another unfair "insider"
advantage from.,.
"I read your course on becoming a freelancer on Monday night... by Wednesday, I landed
my first paying job — writing copy for a web page for $3,500! And I was a complete rookie.
Because of what you told me, I knew what to say, how to negotiate a fee I never thought Fd
get, and I was in control the whole way. My first year of freelancing earned me over
$322,000." HarlanKilstein, Boca Raton, FL
"I learned more from John in one day than I did from my entire college education. Myfirst
year out on my own, I earned $350,000. Everything he tells you about this being easy,
once you know the secrets, is true." James Curley, Visalia, CA
"I could only devote a small number of hours each week to freelancing — it was LESS than a
part-time job. Yet, because of John's specific advice, it was easy to pull in an extra
$60.000 from just a few clients. This career rocks, and gives me the freedom to live as I
choose, and work only when I want to. Thanks, John." MarkLandstrom,Atascadero, CA
"The sales letter I wrote for my client just hit 2 days ago... and so far it's brought in $52,395!
This was to a house list of just 4,000 names, too." Matt Welch
"My first' post-Carlton education' sales letter drew in $35,000 in sates to a client list of
10,000. Your help was invaluable. Thanks for taking the time to help a 'little guy'". Eric
Jensen, San Diego
"I have applied John's techniques to everything... and the response for my copywriting
services has been immediate and ovewhelining. I went from zero clients to 5 hot ones in
ji»t a few weeks, and I'm ̂ oing to have to quit my day job fast to keep up." April
Morelock, Kemptom, IN
"John's input on my website increased my flow of sales leads by 50%. Also, his advice to
trash my sales letter and start fresh (with very specific instructions on how to do it)
DOUBLED my sates conversion rate! Those numbers add up... I tripled the throughput of
my sales process., while my costs stayed about the same. John's material is not a luxury —
it's a no-brainer necessity." Perry Marshall, Perry S. Marshall & Associates
"John has created millions in profit for us. We pitted bis ads and letters against big-
City ad ageacies, PR firms, and writers with lots of awards... and John slaughtered them all.
He consistently hits 'home runs' for us — a 20-to-l return in profit in not unusual. He has
saved our butts on several occasions." Robert Pierce, president, Tactical Response Solutions
"Latest results are fantastic! A huge bump, thanks to that one great idea you gave me.
Thanks, John." Chris DiRe, software publisher
"I had a massive breakthrough reading your stuff, John. Over the last 14 days, what you
taught me generated an extra $20,979 in sales! Thanks again."
Jeff Gardner, TX (Update; "After a full month, my take is now $70,000! Note to self:
Follow John's advice!")
"You know that new 'hook' you insisted I try in my sales pitch? It tripled response! This
translates into several hundred thousand dollars in sales over the coming year. You are on my
Christmas gift list for life, dude." Lisa Wagner, California
"My average order is 50% higher (and more) since I adopted your idea. I love your
outlook, and your advice cracks me up while bringing in the results." Tom Venuto, NJ
"I recommend this course to every player I know. John is the all-time champ of hard
boiled, get-the-job-done, grab them by the throat and force them to order copy. This is
must-have info for your professional library. Don't even think about it — get your hands on his
course and devour it immediately!" Gary Halbert, The Gary Halbert Letter
"Dear John: Your strategies have made me hundreds of thousands of dollars. I consider
your copywriting to be so influential on my success, that I've literally stalked your ads and sales
letters, purchased countless products and services to get on lists... solely so I could collect (and
study) the sales letters tibat you write. This practice has been like a real-world 'Harvard Business
School' education for me. And I know dozens of millionaire business people and successful
'guru's' that quietly keep an eye on you, follow all that you do, and consider you a major
influence on their success." Ben Cummings, Park Place Publishing, NY
"John fought hard to get us to mail his sales letter for our new book. He ruffled so many
feathers pushing us past our creative 'comfort zone' tibat he got himself temporarily blacklisted...
until, of course, his piece not only knocked off one of our top writers, but also mailed profitably
for over 4 years to millions of names." Sindy Berner, Production Marketing Manager, Rodale
Books,PA
"Thanks to your course, my sales letter are now getting an extra 69% increase in
response! And my print ads are suddenly stratospheric (and highly acclaimed). You are a
friggin' international superstar." Steve King, London, UK
"Just finished a 1,000 trial mailing with new copy using Cariton's concepts. Raked in
S22T000 the first week. It worked so good it was scary."
Dr. John M. La Tourrette, OR
"I implemented your recommendations, and almost DOUBLED my conversion rate on my
website! Awesome." Blair Gorman, New Zealand
"This guv turned our business around literally overnight. Just John's consulting abilities
alone are worth his outrageous fee — the fact you also get one of the best copywriters alive
makes him the biggest bargain in business today. He throws himself into every aspect of a
project... so when the ad runs and the phones start ringing, you're prepared to capture every
dollar." Dr. Russell Horine, NuLife Clinics
"He's earned us a fortune. Killer copywriter, easily the most exciting and effective I've
ever dealt with. He's utterly fearless in meeting challenges and creating successful ads in one of
the toughest markets in tie world." Dr, Michael O'Leary, president, OHP Golf, Inc.
"John Carlton is a copywriter I would hire, and there are damn few of those. Further, I
would pay to be in a room to learn from him, and there are even fewer people on mat list." Dan
Kennedy, "The No B.S. Marketing Newsletter"
"I study Carlton's copy like a 14 year-old boy reads Playboy. Completely dazzled,
entranced and full of desire. I've read hundreds of books on marketing and copywriting and
make my living with it,, so I know how to separate the wheat from the chaff hi this business.
Every time I think I've hit the nail on the head with my copy, I read one of John's letters and
realize how much father I could go. Ouch... it hurts to say that., but it's true." Michael Jans,
President of Insurance Profit Systems, Inc.
"Early in my career, I had the good fortune to discover John Carlton — and he deserves much
of the credit for my success as a freelancer. I hereby confess that many of the ideas behind the
miiiUonHdoIlar controb
John." David Deutsch, world-class freelancer with controls for Boardroom, Phillips Publishing
and other major league mailers
"Carlton's course assaults you with page-after-page of surprising, fresh, rule-bending
marketing secrets. He replaces conventional advertising theory with savvy, hard-learned, down-
and-dirty, real-life techniques that will put your business into high gear right from the get-go.
His simple techniques for recapturing lost customers, or turningexcess inventory into new
revenue, or boosting sales by 50% with a sm ê line of ad copy will blow your mind. Get this
course right away." Steve Barwick, Barwick Direct Marketing
"Our investment education business went from $50k a year in sales to over $200k in six
months, thanks to John Carlton (and a hot webmaster from Houston). Thanks to what I've
learned, I'm quitting my cushy six-figure a year job to go full-time in this new business!"
Daryl Thompson
"I've used many of your secrets and techniques in my copy, and find them to be like little
psychic vacuum machines that suck money out of customers wallets like magic! For example:
I added just one of your tactics to a promotion for a client, and sold $65,000 more
product compared to the same promo minus that trick. Over the next 12 months, this added up
to $726,000 more profit - a huge difference, from just ONE little tactic! I could go on and
on, but your ego is big enough as it is..." Jeff Paul, the guy behind the mega-successful
informercial "How To Make A Fortune While Sitting In Your Kitchen In Your Underwear!"
"Your headline suggestion for one of my web sites boosted sales by 70%! This equals an
extra $3,000 every month... from one simple change. Thanks." Terry Dean, Internet
Marketing Coach, New Castle, IN
"Amazing! My web site conversion rate has nearly doubled, just from what you've taught me.
And guess what? Also following your advice, I tested a much higher price... and the
conversion rate was not affected at all. That's free money without any extra world You
were right, John — your course did pay for itself the very first time I used it Thanks for
everything." Michael Norman, UK
"John Carlton is simply one of the greatest living copywriters in the world today.
And his skills at marketing have been proven, over and over, in a 20-year career
in direct response that is still cooking at fever-pitch. He has written for the largest
mailers in the world, and generated staggering fortunes for almost every type of
business you can imagine. Smart advertisers secretly hoard his ads and letters,
and deconstruct them in order to mimic his incredible style and raw, compelling
salesmanship skills. This course breaks down the path he took from clueless
outsider... to a genuine guru in the business, respected, sought-after, and
admired for writing some of the greatest ads ever penned. Be thankful you got
your hands on this material - it will change your life forever."
Mark Landstrom, "The Best of the Best"
Parlay your love of writing into a career that can
earn you afortune!
"There is no business problem — or angproblem, really - that can't be solved with a
really good sales letter."
JL hink of two exhausted men washing up on an American shore, swimming in from
another country. One guy has $100,000 on him, but possesses no education or skills.
The other guy is dead broke... but has learned the art of salesmanship. Even better, he
knows how to translate his salesmanship skills into print He's a copywriter.
Who would you rather be a year later?
Even $100,000 can vanish quickly, though it may seem like a small fortune at
first. People who win the lottery are understandably nervous about their sudden wealth...
because they know (subconsciously, at least) that they have no chance of replacing the
money after it's spent. They got it through a stroke of luck.
It's the same with children of wealthy parents. I saw this repeatedly when I lived
in a Los Angeles beach community: Entire generations of kids grew up living the "beach
life" of deep tans, hanging out and being ironic, enjoying the surf. And then they were
faced with the reality that, after leaving home, they could not afford to live at the beach
anymore. This led many of them to conrmue living at home into their 30s. Their
youthful joy turned bitter.
They had no way of sustaining their lifestyle. Unless, of course, they found a
way to match the income of their parents. Tough thing for a spoiled, ironic child of
privilege to accomplish. Most never do.
Why learn to earn money from your copywriting? Simple answer: Because it
is a skill that will stay with you forever, and allow you to achieve every little goal your
greedy heart desires.
Even better... it's a skill that can rocket you into a high-income bracket in the
shortest time humanly possible, on your own terms, your own time-table, your own
hours. As a freelance professional writer, you possess skills that will always be in high
demand by businesses. If you choose to work for a company or agency, you can demand
cushy special treatment
However, I only barely understand why someone would take the time to hone
their copywriting skills to lethal perfection... and then tie themselves up with a company
or (shudder) an agency. The ONLY reason to do that is if your comfort zone demands
that you get a regular paycheck and medical benefits. There's something to be said for
the security factor. Maybe you have a family to think about, a spouse that blanches at
the thought of risk, or maybe your own stomach does flip-flops when you consider
"working without a net", as most people see a freelance career.
So, yes, I'll cover using your skills to get a job. But more importantly, the world
is STARVED for freelance talent. Most businesses out there cannot afford to hire a full-
time writer... and, in truth, couldn't keep one busy if they did. But they can afford to pay
outrageous fees to good freelancers who will come in, solve their marketing dilemmas,
and produce killer advertising.
You earn your outrageous fees because — when you're good and you follow the
proven paths — you can turn around any business's advertising results literally overnight.
Flood them with new customers. Get old customers to spend more money. Create
simple campaigns that generate jaw-dropping profits that make your outlandish fees look
like the biggest bargain in the world.
Most businesses don't know how to create even mediocre advertising. They
don't know how to ask for orders. Don't track response, don't keep customer lists or
mail to them regularly, don't back-end... don't, in feet, do ANY of the basic profit-
making things that someone with a decent understanding of salesmanship would do.
Once you master the basics of great salesmanship... and learn to translate those
basics into copy... you become a gleaming White Knight among the great unwashed
hordes. You possess the "magic" to create sales pitches that work... translate them into
written letters (or ads on radio or television or the Web)... and actually compel prospects
to open their wallets and send in money.
A freelance copywriting career -- if you have the cojones to pursue it—will give
you more freedom... more money... and more satisfaction than any other job I've ever
come across - and Lord knows I've had a lot of jobs hi my time. I kept getting spit out
of the business world... until I decided to try freelance copywriting. That was over
twenty years ago, and the career has been very, very good to me. You get to be your own
boss, you can work out of your home in your pajamas, you can be as lazy or as dedicated
as you choose to be.
It's an especially great career if-- like me, and like so many other pro writers I
know — you aren't a perfect "fit" in the normal world of business. Some freelancers do
the suit and tie thing, but most of us don't even have business cards (and don't own a tie).
At the last big marketing seminar where I was a featured speaker, I wore jeans and
Hawaiian shuts the entire time I was on-stage... and earned about $40,000 for a one-hour
effort.
It's a good gig, freelancing.
Every single thing you want can be had through great copy. Money, love,
respect, a big honking home, a lifestyle fit for a king.
You can work for yourself, and call your own hours. Work at home, or on a
laptop at the beach. Take a vacation whenever you feel like it Take a year off. Heck,
take two years off. (I did.) Your skills will still be there.
As long as you can hold a pen, or peck at akeyboard, or talk into a tape recorder,
you can use your mastery of salesmanship to earn a nice, cozy living.
Best of all... your skills are worth buckets of money. You could be dropped into a
strange city, without a penny, and be back living the highlife almost overnight.
Writing great copy is a frustrating mystery to 99.99% of all business owners --
and they will pay a. fortune to anyone who can fuel the engines of their advertising. (If
you know how to demand Hhat fortune, that is. I'll show you the tactics top writers use to
get the big bucks.)
Or, you can create your own marketing campaigns, and keep all the money
yourself. It's your choice.
And it's soooo good to have a choice in how you fund your life.
Knowing how to write great copy is a skill that will never fail you. No matter
what happens to the economy... or how technology changes the world... or even if the
culture takes a left turn down a bizarre road... your skills at turning superior salesmanship
into copy will continue to be a ticket to unlimited success.
When I first got into advertising, we created ads by sending scribbled manuscripts
to the typesetter, who sent back sheets of "cold type" that had to be hand-cut and pasted
onto cardboard slabs, men photographed and etched onto printing plates. Whew.
I began my freelance copywriting career using a beat-to-sbit Olivetti typewriter
(with a sticky "f" key) and a rotary phone. If I made a large mistake, I had to retype the
page. The damn phone was heavy as a bowling ball, with a curly cord so short and
knotted I couldn't even stand up at my desk while talking.
Now, I'm working on state-of-the-art software, with multiple modems, DSL, efax,
scanners, color printers and digital recorders all within arm's reach. When I'm walking
around my office with my cordless phone headset on, accessing someone's domain on
my liquid screen while I talk, scan and receive a fax at the same time, I sometimes feel
like a captain of my own little spaceship.
But you know what? Nothing whatsoever has changed in the actual writing
skills I use. Take away my computer, all my fancy equipment... and leave me on the
street with a broken pencil and a soiled piece of paper... and I'll still write copy that will
compel customers to open their wallets and send in money.
Why learn copywriting? Think of it as a belt of bullets that never runs out. You
are dangerous (the pen really is mightier than the sword)... powerful... and completely in
charge of your fate.
That's why you learn how to write blistering sales copy.
This course is laid out in Hie simplest way possible. To earn your stripes as a
successful copywriter, you must...
•S Get good...
•S Get connected...
S And get paid.
It's really that simple. I will show you how I trod this same path, to get where I
am today. It took me 20 years of trial and error and heartbreak and witless luck.
Through the corporate wastelands, the din of agencies, and the resplendent offices of
shrewd entrepreneurs.
I've mentored under the Grand Legends of advertising, learned real-world truths
from back-alley hucksters, cut my teeth on huge campaigns that mailed in the millions,
and discovered genius in nickel-and-dime efforts with bottom-feeding companies. If I
had possessed a "map" like this, I would have shaved 19 years off my learning curve.
There are a ton of books out there on how to write copy.
But, as far as I know, this is the only course that tells you how to take your skills
out in the world as a freelancer and turn them into cold cash. A lot of writers get good,
but never figure out how to get paid the big bucks. Others earn some decent money, but
wither away in anonymity.
It is so much better to get realty good... get paid at the top end of the scale
(where clients have to sit down in shock when you tell them your fees) (but they sign
the checks anyway)... and get "wired" into the world, so clients seek you out.
So... when you're ready... turn the page and get busy.
Table Of Contents
Step One:
your c-kops, get yourfut/tdflm.etA,tals dowtA, solid,
and take your show out ott the road.
The first dirty word: Discipline.
Get motivated.
Learn how to set goals and meet deadlines.
Tone your goal-setting muscles.
The basics still hold — break it down and figure it out.
What's your main goal in life?
A simple vow: Business before pleasure.
The amazing "read the entire library" shortcut.
Get hip on new subjects in a hurry.
Your working resources.
Take your show out on the road.
Why so many pros are dead wrong.
Great copy is invisible.
Stage One: Raw Rookie
You're dangerous.
Stage Two: Shameless Whore
Use the secrets of great copy for your own ends.
Trading copy for access
The magic at your fingertips.
Stage Three: Lean And Mean Writing Machine
Your choices as a real professional writer.
Find your own groove.
Use what works for you.
The fifth stage to a writer's career.
Copy is king!
How to get promoted to your level of incompetence.
Deal with people who understand what you're doing.
Step Two
The s simple rules of ui/w/lerstai/wHttAxg your OWIA, worth, gettii/ug your ego
straight about koi/u/tectittg, ai/u* working the system for all it's worth,
• What creates true independence in a writer.
• The 3 rules of successful freelancing.
• No career is a straight line.
• Even the best suffer from doubt.
» Your hidden partner is Mr. Confidence.
• Rule Number One: Never forget the entire business world is starved for
great copy!
• Do it your way.
• You NEED to be in charge.
• Use numbers and results as a weapon.
• You ARE the friggin' food chain!
• Copy seems like magic to most of the business world.
• Rule Number Two: Consider yourself a lifelong apprentice of great
advertising!
• Working with "Old School" veteran writers.
• Get your toe-hold in the insider world.
• Grunt apprenticeships.
• Be a sponge.
• Nine steps from rookie to respected veteran.
• Extreme writing that shocks clients.
• Each step is connected to the previous one.
• Take care of the things under your control.
• Rule Number Three: Work the system for all it's worth!
• Doing the "dance",
• Your big damn Rolodex.
• A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind.
• Your invisible assistant.
• A small but critical warning.
• How to work with agencies.
• You're an independent contractor.
• An opening just big enough to jump through.
• Lie, cheat and steal.
• It's all about substance.
• Be the professional advantage he's been praying for.
• The secret behind instant reputations.
• Establish your authority.
• Fundamentally-sound salesmanship.
Sample "get hired fast" letter you can use.
Make it easy for him to say "yes".
Sample text for your first conversation with clients.
Do your shameless whoring with small businesses from the Yellow Pages.
Specialize by going deep in one or two niches.
Never forget: You are gold to any business that needs new customers,
increased sales, more cashflow.
Be the best thing that happens to him all year.
Ask for referrals.
Get off your ass and get on the horn.
Become the "go to" expert in your industry.
Offer free services.
Business card secrets that work.
Why design is almost always a waste of time.
Don't come begging, and don't come swaggering.
Summary.
Step Three
paid
How the professionals -parlay their result-oriented
cash CIA, the barrelhead.
steills
You like money, don't you?
Get paid for freelancing.
The flat fee.
Sample invoices.
Just do the simple homework.
Commissions and royalties.
Get a percentage of every penny that comes in.
A bitch of a good letter.
The "big hint" for super-ambitious writers.
Go with gross. Your slice of the net profit will always be zero.
Fee plus royalty.
Financial punishment
Never miss a deadline.
Do not lift a finger until you have that first check hi hand.
Draw against fee.
Shake hands on the deal.
You still hold the biggest stick hi the deal.
You are your own best insurance for getting paid.
Other fee structures.
High-risk audits.
Sample contracts.
Ste One
Hone your chops, get your
fundamentals down solid, and take yourshow out on the road.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One — Page 1
Ste One
Hone your chops, get your fundamentals down solid,
and take your show out on the road.
JL his part of beginning your career as a professional copywriter is actually easy and
straightforward.
It does, however, require something most people live their entire lives without
indulging in: Discipline.
Oh, it's such a dirty word. It was to me as I grew up. Discipline meant football
coaches screaming at you, crawling out of bed at dawn to make the bus, following insane
rules just because an adult told you to. The word smacked of authority, and my mam
goal in life was to challenge authority. (Geez, I had a bad attitude.)
In fact, that was my only goal. Goals were a hazy concept to me, too closely
connected with another dirty word: Ambition. I liked being young and dumb. It was
simple, no one kept score on me, there was no responsibility to worry about.
I am not making this up. I was 32 when it finally dawned on me mat I was
wasting my life. And suddenly, like a lightning bolt passing through my brain, discipline
and goals and ambition became a goo d thing.
And I had a lot of catching up to do.
Listen: I'm gonna assume that, like me, you are starting out pretty much from
scratch here. Even if you've been in business all your life, and you're as disciplined as a
Marine drill sergeant, it won't kill you to see how the road has been traveled by others.
And, in fact... if all your years in business have befitddledyouf mind... which is
more common than you might want to admit... it may be worth your time to back up and
start over.
I won't teach you how to write here — that's what my course "Kick-Ass
Copywriting Secrets of a Marketing Rebel" is for. Okay, I'll share a few cool secrets I
neglected in "Kick-Ass Secrets", but we're not going to waste a lot of time talking about
the details of copywriting. Just an overview. The more important stuff is in the "Get
Connected" and "Get Paid" sections. That's where the rubber bite the road for freelance
copywriters.
That's where this course takes off and leaves behind everything else you've read.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One — Page 2
So let's be clear on this. If you didn't already have "Kick-Ass Copywriting
Secrets", you should have received it when you got this freelance course. You should
read the copywriting manual first, and read it again to "get?' it Those are the skills you
need to "Get Good", I'll spend a few more pages going over other "getting good" tactics
here — because it was such a crucial part of the path I had to take — but basically, I'm
just covering background in this first section to "set you up" for the next two sections.
Got that? Good.
AH right., where was I before mat little "here's where we're going with all this"
rant? Oh yeah.
Discipline.
When I began my career in advertising, I had zero relevant skills. None. I was a
babe in the woods, ignorant of all tilings advertising or business. I had stumbled into the
field through the back door — my high school journalism teacher discovered I could
draw, and made me the staff cartoonist, and that segued into a professional cartoon strip
in my college paper ("Hie California Aggie" at Davis). In feet, I was the only guy on the
paper who received compensation.
These cartooning skills gave me barely enough graphic skills to become a part-
time commercial artist at a computer supply catalog in Silicon Valley in the late 70s.
(Even at $6 an hour, it was a better job man the one I'd left when I split Sacramento for
the Bay Area.)
I met my first copywriter in the catalog art department, and was instantly
fascinated. I'd never considered the possibility that someone was behind all the words
that appeared in all the catalogs and magazines out there. It had never occurred to me
mat you could get paid to write.
Fortunately, that copywriter was an absolute bitch, a transplanted New Yorker
who despised California and everyone in it She flat out refused to give me a single clue
on how a person could become a copywriter. "It's too hard," she said, dismissing me.
"You'd never get it"
Thank God she said that to me. I mean it I was so pissed off, I stole her copy of
"Tested Advertising Methods", and was able to read some of it before she stole it back.
But that peek was enough.
It was the break I needed to begin cracking the code on becoming a professional
writer.
However, it took me another two years to get to the next step. That's because I
was stumbling around in the dark.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 3
You, however, can begin this next step today.
Here is what I finally did. You can do the same thing, or amend it however you
wish, or simply take advantage of what I discovered and use it as a shortcut. I've met
other copywriters who have mocked this approach... but they are all inferior writers,
every one of them. They got just good enough to get a few jobs here and there, and be
able to call themselves copywriters. But because they leapfrogged over their education,
they have huge gaping holes in then- skill levels. Screw mem.
Pay attention:
First, I got...
Motivated.
You're probably already sold on the idea of earning some major moolah through
copywriting skills... why else would you even be reading this. But are you motivated to
do -what it takes to make it your reality? You need to get clear on -why you want to do
this.
Motivation came slow for me. I was still staring into a dark cave when I set out to
become a writer, with no clue what to do next My motivation bubbled up in the form of
— as I explain in "Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets" — literally having no alternative left. I
tried to do the corporate thing, but it never worked out
Okay, to be completely honest.. I gotfired. I used to get fired a lot, mostly
because of that thing I had about authority. (I highly recommend you get fired at some
point in your life. All the great entrepreneurs I know learned very good lessons about
business by getting a good taste of the "dark underbelly" of the normal employment
world.)
In that Silicon Valley art department, I started out as a lowly paste-up artist but
kept getting bumped upstairs. And I didn't won* to get promoted. I was harboring a
horrible secret that on each promotion, came closer to being revealed.
I was color blind. Well, not blind, actually, but color deficient I don't pick up
red and green very well — about 5% of the population shares this trait with me.
(Including all the males in my family.) I can see a red stop sign, but I don't pick up the
red in the color purple, for example, so it looks blue to me. It's all confusing to non-color
blind people. In kindergarten, before I could read the crayons, I once colored Little Boy
Blue purple, the sun orange, the grass red, and all the trees brown and gray.
You can see where this is heading.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One ~ Page 4
When I first got the paste-up job at the catalog, it was a black and white
publication, and everything was dandy. But then they went to full color — promoting me
to head of the production department at the same time — and every day I drove to work I
was sure I would be discovered as the alien creature in the art department This all
coincided with my discovery mat you could be paid to write copy, and since I was still
fascinated with advertising — it was part of the "ink-stained wretch" world that I'd fallen
in love with as staff cartoonist ~1 decided to make a last-ditch effort to be successful at
something.
Which was a convenient decision, since I had no other options. My career in
graphics was finished. (I didn't get fired for being color blind, however. Instead — and
this was a great lesson to learn early — I took the fall for the marketing vice president,
who had botched a major project up so bad someone had to be sacrificed. He was
astonished that I expressed relief when the hammer came down on my head. Goodbye,corporate world, and all your power trips and back-stabbing.)
This was my motivation: Make it as a writer or... I dunno, disappear into the
ether or something. I couldn't even contemplate an alternative.
You know the story of how Cortez conquered Mexico, don't you? He landed his
tiny army on the coast, then ordered all his ships torched. As the soldiers watched the
galleons burn and sink, it dawned on them that^a//wre was no longer an option. They
were super-motivated to conquer, because there was no turning back.
And that small army took control of half a continent.
Gary Halbert relates a similar tale in "Maximum Money in Minimum Tune". He
decided, upon discovering the wonderful world of direct mail, mat he would make his
fortune in it He met failure after failure getting started, however... to the degree that all
the utilities in his house were shut off for lack of payment, while he sat in the dark
waiting for orders that weren't coming. His wife was outraged — but his own
determination never wavered.
When he finally succeeded, it was a windfall.
What's}>ew motivation for going out on your own as a writer? Again, get clear
on mis. No one can "install" motivation in you. That's a job only you can do. You're
the bottom line in your life. This is your call all the way.
My next step was to learn how to...
Set Goals And
Meet Deadlines.
€> John S. Ccaiton and Marketing Rebel, LUC Section One — Page 5
I tried the "What Color Is Your Parachute" road to discover my "perfect" career,
but that took me nowhere. (It seems that damn book shows up in every path you take to a
new career. I got nothing out of it.) Even now, thinking about working in the nine-to-
five corporate culture makes me break out in a cold sweat. It depresses me just talking
about it I didn't want to learn how to write resumes to get hired.
I was after something else entirely. And it seemed like every book and course and
expert out there designed to "help" you get a fresh start in life... was actually just grim
training for a dismal life slaving away for someone else.
No thanks.
Now, mere had been whispers all around me for a long time about anotherbook
that had some "answers" for guys like me, who were trying to find that unique place in
the world. A very old book, from the 1930s, in feet. All my adult life, certain people had
alluded to it, but quickly withdrew the subject if anyone raised an eyebrow. It's like they
were afraid of being stigmatized if they admitted knowing too much about it.
Nevertheless, that book had changed their lives. And when I was finally ready to
hear about it and not sneer, that book made itself known to me.
It was "Think And Grow Rich", by Napoleon Hill.
' Now, different people get different tilings from this incredible tome. Hill's main
theme was (in part) "anything you can conceive and believe, you can achieve", and that
alone is a wake-up call to the slumbering masses. But what hit me hard was — finally —
his take-no-prisoners approach to setting goals.
I'd never had any real goals before. Because I came of age during the worse part
of Vietnam, and I was prime draft-bait, I had a stunted view of how long I was gonna be
around. (It didn't help that during the Cuban missile crisis, when I was in grade school,
they drilled us on "duck and cover" approaches to surviving a nuclear holocaust Even
ten-year-olds are smarter than that We understood enough to be scared shitless, just like
everyone else. And we knew biding under our desk wasn't gonna protect us from any
Mlout)
You young 'uns have no idea how much the world seemed ready to implode back
then, when the Ruskies, the Chinese, the North Koreans and a growing army of home-
grown whackos were all chanting for America's head. Well, okay, after the September
11 terrorist attacks in 2001, it seems we're back in that swamp. So maybe you're getting
a taste of it now. Imagine growing up with that shit every day of your life* Relentless.
So, for many in my generation, making long-term goals just seemed silly. I never
even bothered to try. My goal-setting muscles were flabby.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, JJLC Section One ~ Page 6
It's something every kid should learn in school, right alongside the 3 R's. Heck,
they should learn it before anything else. Because, once you understand the mechanics of
setting and attaining goals... the world is yours.
One day, I want to create a little mini-seminar on "dealing with reality" I can take
into high schools. Kids get so much nonsense and idealism pumped into them in school,
it can take ten years to shake out the cobwebs when they finally try to exist in the real
world. And the ma/« theme of this seminar will be setting goals. Understanding what
you want, and then taking the steps necessary to get ft.
Here's my short-cut version to setting goals: The hard part is deciding what
you want You cannot say "I wanna be rich and famous". You must be specific. This
takes practice, and even when you get specific, you may decide halfway there you don't
want that goal after all.
Is a million bucks rich enough for you? How about a million bucks over 5 years?
That sounds doable, doesn't it?
Okay, say you decide you want a million over five. Now break it down. That
means, if you do it through a job or business, you need to earn an average of $200,000 a
year. That's a tad over $16,000 a month.
So, if mat's the amount you want, and you want to do it through a job... you gotta
find a gig that pays $16,000 a month, and keep it for 5 years. Next step: Find out what
sort ofjobs pay that kind of money. You may need more education, or you may need to
move to a bigger city, or you may need to do something illegal. (Just kidding.)
But you get the idea. If you decide having a vacation house at the beach is a
wormy goal, break it down.
What beach?
What do houses sell for there?
How much do you have to earn to afford the second mortgage?
And so on.
What most rookie goal-setters discover, much to their chagrin, is mat what they
thought they wanted... doesn't sound so hot after they break it down.
What many veteran goal-setters discover, also much to their chagrin, is mat what
they attain isn't what they wanted after all. That gorgeous spouse turns out to be a high-
maintenance nightmare. The beach cottage is a money pit cloaked in fog six days out of
seven. The big-buck job is sucking the life out of you.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One ~ Page 7
However, the basics still hold. You can get whatever you want, if you know
how to set a goal. You'll need this skill in your new career as an effective freelance
writer, because so many jobs you get will be absolutely foreign to you, and...
You'll Need To Break Them Down
To Meet Your Deadlines.
Now, I'm a bit of a slow learner. I can grasp difficult concepts pretty quickly...
but applying new ideas to my life seems to take forever. I'm embarrassed at how clueless
I was for most of my life. It wasn't just hard for me to understand how goal-setting
worked — it was like pulling teeth.
In a way, I'm glad it was tough. I managed to have serious fun along the way,
and I wouldn't change a day. I was forced to get very good at setting goals. At figuring
out it what I really wanted... and then mapping out a strategy to get it I made mistakes,
got things I really didn't want after all, and accidentally discovered new things I wanted
hi the process.
Now, I'm a friggin' goal-setting fiend, and I'm good at it And I'm telling you to
get good at it, too.
Interesting point: You know what I wanted all along, most of all? It was...
Time.
Lots and lots of free time, to play guitar, to write stupid fiction, to play golf with
my buddies, to hang out with my girlfriend's dogs. To get up late, stay up late, devour
detective novels and old movies, and travel to anywhere in the world I wanted, whenever
I wanted. With whoever I wanted.
Money can buy you time. Pay someone else to do the drudgery that eats up your
prime hours, pay extra to skip the lines, greasethe skids with greenbacks to eliminate
delays and waiting and wasted days. The amount of money necessary for this freedom
has changed over the course of my life... but I have always been on top of it, and that has
kept me from getting too greedy, or burning out (like many writers do) taking on too
much work and neglecting the good stuff in life.
That's my goal. Enough money to buy me time to live a balanced life. What's
your main goal in life?
Start thinking about it now. It will take you a while to discover what you really,
really desire. But your goals will be the^we/ behind your writing career. When you work
without a net, as all freelancers must, you better have your eye on the prize at the end of
the game. Figure out what you want, and how much money it'll take to get it
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 8
Once you do that, you'll get in the right groove, and know what kind of jobs to
pursue and what kind of clients to work for. And how good you're gonna have to get
In the meantime... let's get back to honing your copy writing chops.
The next step I figured I'd better take was to activate the discipline gene in my
head. You have one, too, though it may be dormant Mine safe was. I woke it up with a
simple vow:
"Business before pleasure."
You have to understand, this was a huge revelation for me... and an enormous
sacrifice. I had partied hardy my entire adult life to that point And no matter how good
you get at partying, mere are no paying jobs as professional partier.
My only saving grace was that, as a kid, I'd learned to master rock and roll guitar
only by giving up several hours every day to struggle at it This was the mid-60s, and
every other Md in school was determined to pick up an instrument and join a band. Most
dropped the idea after the first lesson, because it was hard.
I don't know why I stuck it out, but I did. I had a horrible Beatnik teacher who
tried his best to make me hate the instrument, and for two years I hovered at the edges of
"screw if... until I met a kid my age who was mysteriously advanced in music (he had a
better teacher and developed a great ear) and together we formed several successive
bands, each time getting better and better gigs. (Going from garage bands to tight
rocking units in a hurry.)
That kept my interest level high — it is truly a life-changing experience to play
"Mr. Soul" as loud as you can hi front of a thousand boogeyirtg kids in a crowded gym.
Learning guitar gave me a glimpse of what a little discipline could do. (If you
have kids, I highly recommend you put them through the paces with a good — not a bad —
teacher. Any instrument will do. Keyboards, drums, violin, harmonica, whatever.
Mastering an instrument is a huge accomplishment, and the reverberations of it stay with
you forever.)
The simple discipline of putting business before pleasure changed my entire
paradigm. It was a simple rule to follow, too: I had to accomplish every single task
related to my chosen career before I could do anything else. Every hour of every day.
There's an amazing freedom in making a decision like that. There's no gray area.
I even took it further: I put business before everything else. The laundry might pile up,
the house would get dirty, and friends got pissed because I wouldn't return calls right
away.
But I had a lot of catching up to do, and I wanted to dedicate myself to the job.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 9
I wanted to get good, hi a hurry.
To that end, even though I was broke (with no prospects looming), I popped for a
speed reading course. Took three or four nights, as I recall, to learn the system. I didn't
master it, but I got enough pointers to do what I wanted to do:
Read the entire library.
Okay, not the whole library, but certainly all the marketing, advertising, writing
and sales books. The entire 600 section of the Dewey decimal system, I believe it was.
About a thousand books. Maybe more.
Interestingly enough, I later learned that this was what other great writers had also
done. Some actually flew to Washington, D.C., just to spend a week in the Library of
Congress, pouring over out-of-print books on advertising and copywriting they couldn't
find anywhere else.
Great minds think alike.
Anyway... like I said, the speed reading thing didn't exactly "take" in me. My
comprehension never stayed high.
But the course did give me several other ways to effectively plow through a stack
of books in a fraction of the usual time.
Here's how you do it: I cover this in Chapter Thirteen of "Kick-Ass
Copywriting Secrets", under the subhead "Quickly Become An Expert". But it's worth
going over again.
Find a section of the library with a bunch of books you want to read. Pull a pile
of them — as many as you can hold — and dump them on a table. Sit down. Pick up the
first book, and read the Table of Contents and the Forward. Then flip through the book,
stopping at each new chapter to read snatches of text. Keep a notepad handy, and write
down names and words that seem important. Flip through until your eyes have landed on
every page. We're talking maybe ten minutes here. Then put the book aside, and pick up
the next one.
You now have an all-important toe-hold in the subject If you picked up a good
book, you will see similar subject headings, chapters, words and names in other books
you look at hi the same category. If you picked up a loser, you'11 soon know it And
you'll grin from ear to ear when you do find the first good one.
Because you'll recognize it
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 10
Don't keep score on yourself until you've gone through the entire pile of books.
Just this kind of skimming will highlight who knows what, who the real experts are, and
who the charlatans are.
After you've identified the good books — and there will usually only be a handful
of them — put the others back on the shelf, and take the winners home to read more
carefully.
This simple tactic will instantly put you way ahead of almost everyone else in
advertising... because most copywriters will read one book on the subject, and maybe get
to a second book a few months later. And that one or two books will form the basis of all
their professional knowledge.
That is how bad copywriters are created.
You, of course, do not have to go through this same process, since I have done
it for you. (I'll list my favorite books in just a moment) I explained this technique,
though, because you can use it in other circumstances in your career. When you're faced
with a project that has a ton of material to plow through, don't just start at page one and
start reading. Scan it all, winnow out the dud reading, and identify the good stuff.
You'll quickly discover who the real experts are, because they will be referenced
a lot The braggarts wife no real chops will be ignored. The big ideas will be repeated,
and you'll soon pick up the slang of the insiders.
It's just a great tactic for getting "hip" on any new subject in a hurry. It will
make you a killer copywriter, too, because you'll be writing from depth.
Now, I did this read-the-library thing, as I said, to "catch up" with everyone else
in advertising. I just assumed the professionals already earning a living hi the field were
familiar with all this material.
To my astonishment, however, when I walked into agencies (big agencies, too), I
soon discovered that I had not "caught up" to what working writers knew.
Nope.
I was light years
AHEAD of them!
Most professionals never bother to go deep into their own fields. Too much
work. Especially in advertising, where you can bluff your way through an entire career
without knowing a single frigging thing about salesmanship.
So, all of a sudden, I went from raw ignorant rookie... to knowledgeable hotshot.
Literally in under a week.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 11
Just because I'd bothered to research the subject I was going to attempt makinga
living in.
My rampage through the Torrance library led me to several good books on
advertising, like "The Direct Mail Handbook" by Bob Stone, as well as other books by
the great John Caples (who wrote, of course, "Tested Advertising Methods").
References in those books led me to Wilshire Publishing, a private house that put
out Victor Schwaab's "How To Write A Good Advertisement"... and put me on the trail
to find Claude Hopkins "Scientific Advertising", out of print for thirty years. I kept all of
these books close at hand, and referred to them every time I wrote.
I also discovered Frank Bettger, a 50s-era salesman who wrote incredibly incisive
books on salesmanship skills. And I found Stunk and White's "Elements of Style" - an
astonishingly short-cut education on writing clearly and powerfully.
Now, I also read all of David Ogilvy's books ("Confessions of an Adman"), most
of Rosser Reeves, and Robert Collier ("The Robert Collier Letter Book").
And, at some point, I suggest you get familiar with these and other books on
advertising. But I don't consider them critical. They are "background" material. What
you need right now are...
"Working Resources."
Here are the books I had in my professional library, close to my desk, that I
referred to every time I did a job when I started out:
"Tested Advertising Methods", by John Caples. Lots of "how to" advice on
writing actual ads, headlines, letters and more, Caples was mostly a toothpaste-and-soap
guy, though ~ typical Madison Avenue subjects at that time. Nevertheless, it's easy to
"translate" most of his methods to your awn needs. My copy of this book is dog-eared
and splattered with coffee and red ink where I left notes.
"Scientific Advertising", by Claude Hopkins. This book will be a hundred years
old soon... yet it remains unsurpassed in defining the never-changing "insider"
knowledge of great marketing. Few, if any, actual advertising tips you can use, but the
education hi making campaigns work is priceless. Jay Abraham, when I first met him,
insisted I read this book 8 times in a row. I only read it half that amount, but I have never
regretted doing it. I still pull my copy out every year and read it again. So do other
greats like Gary Halbert and Dan Kennedy.
"How To Write A Good Advertisement", by Victor Schwaab. The best
"classic" book on actually writing copy I ever came across. Gave me hundreds of
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One — Page 12
headlines to rip off, plenty of ways to structure ads, good advice on guarantees and more.
An honest "in the tenches" book, though a bit dated.
"Maximum Money In Minimum Time'*, by Gary Halbert. A solid collection of
Gary's first dozen or so newsletters. Amazing advice on how to write killer copy —
especially killer direct mail letters — and how to conduct modem marketing campaigns
that bring in piles of money, plus all the "insider" secrets of a guy who has created
campaigns that have earned multi-millions.
And... the pile of notes mat became "Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets of a
Marketing Rebel", by yours truly. Modesty prohibits me from... oh, screw it. I
purposely wrote the "Kick-Ass" course to fill the void in everyone's copywriting
education. It's the course I would have killed to have when I was starting out., and
nothing else comes close. I didn't try to copy Gary, or Caples, or Hopkins... I just
brought it all home, through my long, bloody years of experience as a veteran, working
copywriter who has to use his bag of tricks every day.
Many professionals have told me mat — if they could choose only one book to use
as a resource — they would choose this one over all the others out there.
And who am I to argue with sensible advice like that?
All righty, then. I've just short-cut your education by six months, and directed
you to the gold out there (most of which is hard to find). There are a ton of other
resources available, many of them A+ stuff (like Dan Kennedy's "No B.S. Marketing
Letter" and Jeff Paul's "Killer Copy" course, among others).
But you can overdo this "getting good" preparation. I've seen guys go into
"copy paralysis" from injecting too much information from too many sources too fast.
Look. Writing copy has its secrets. But it's not like putting a man on the moon.
You need to understand how salesmanship works, and how to recreate mat skill on the
printed page. So, yes, you need to bone up on the basics.
But the next step is even MORE critical. And you don't need to read every
book and every course on advertising to start.
The next step is...
Take Your Show
Out On The Road!
That means actually putting pen to paper. Getting experience in the real world.
Getting your nose bloodied. Paying your dues, dude.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 13
Side note for the raw rookies: If you've never written a word of real copy in
your life, here's a cool "get up to speed fast'* technique that actually works: Get your
hands on some proven ads — pieces that have run or been mailed, and have brought in
huge profits — and copy them.
By hand.
Word for word, recreating every single indent and exclamation mark and bold
subhead.
This is a psychological "trick" to play on your brain. Don't scoff, and don't skip
this step unless you're already a white-hot writer. Nearly everyone alive believes —
really believes, deep in their heart — that they can merely observe something, and then do
it exactly the same way.
They are dead wrong.
Professionals in every category "make it look easy", because they are comfortable
and they've already done it many times. Every "impossible" action you see an athlete
perform... has been done in practice a hundred times already. Every killer speech you
hear a great speaker give... has been practiced to perfection, alone in her room, night after
night.
And every great piece of copywriting you read... has been slaved over by the
writer. You don't just pick up a pen and start doodling and, by magic, come up with a
great ad.
Nope. Every word, every sentence, every paragraph break and subhead... has
been sweated over and rewritten and examined critically to make sure it passes the
ultimate test: Does it help the sates pitch work?
Just passively reading an ad gives you ZERO insight to its mechanics. On the
other hand... sitting down and copying every word, by hand, DOES open the code behind
the sweat and tears and editing.
Do this quick test: Look at a sentence in a magazine. One with more than ten
words in it Read it. Now put the rnag aside... and write that sentence out in longhand,
from memory.
Most people cannot do it They ''think'' they can. In fact, they would bet on it
But they cannot do it
Why? Because reading is a passive behavior. Study after study has shown that
students who take notes while reading do multiple times better than students who merely
read the assigned texts. It's no contest.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One ~ Page 14
You wanna learn how to hit a golf ball like Tiger Woods? You can't just watch
him, and then go do it You need to slowly, painfully, carefully copy every twitch and
movement. You wanna play guitar like Eric Clapton? Just listening won't cut it You
have to sit down and deconstruct every note and phrase.
You wanna write like a world-class copywriter? Sit down and copy his ads.
What you will discover is this: There is a rhythm to the words. An invisible
cadence. You will be copying a sentence, and be surprised to discover you've substituted
other words for the ones actually in the piece,,, or you've combined sentences that the
writer had purposely separated. You've missed the rhythm.
There's a "voice" in your head when you write. Right now, as a rookie, that voice
sucks. Your writing has been corrupted by English teachers and all sorts of other bad
influences.
Great copywriters not only have a smooth, compelling "voice" to their work... but
they have -welded that voice to superior salesmanship skills. And they've worked to
make that weldedcombination effective many times over.
There's a reason for every sentence being written the way it's written, and
put where it appears in the copy.
V They make it look easy, because great copy flows like melted chocolate poured
over cake. The words smoothly run through your eyes, into your brain, down to your
heart, and right into your wallet. Without you noticing the process at all.
If there's any magic to copywriting, mere it is. Great copy is...
Invisible!
Get your name out there on as many direct mail lists as you can find. You WANT
to be getting a fistful of junk mail every day. Pay attention to what's in that pile. When
you see pieces being mailed month after month, you'll know they're working. Learn to
recognize the good pieces from the bad, by guessing which ones you're going to see next
month.
Get ahold of a year's worth of all the top magazines. You can find 'em at the
library. See which long-copy direct response ads are repeated throughout the year.
Those are the winners. (Forget about the non-direct response ads — they are run over and
over again because the businesses behind them have no clue how to track response, and
so they simply run ads hi a vacuum, hoping they'll somehow improve business.)
Collect the great ads you find in a "swipe file". These are the ads you want to
copy, study, and pay attention to.
© John S. Carbon and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One — Page 15
I have created collections of my best letters and ads (you received at least one
volume witii tills course). If you cannot put your hands on other proven pieces, at least
you can find mine. (They're also available at www.marketingrebel .com, as part of the
Insider's Club options.)
This "hand copying" tactic will help you get quickly through the First Stage of
copywriting status. You'll be burning good habits and great rhythm into your brain.
It's the toughest stage to survive, and if a writer is going to fail and get
discouraged, this is where it commonly happens.
Turn the page to get to the first stage...
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One — Page 16
Stage One:
Raw Rookie.
Beginner copywriters are dangerous to everyone, including themselves.
Because I do so many critiques for clients and customers, I see a lot of "first
attempt" ads. And they uniformly suck. Even after I offer concrete examples for
headlines, openings and offers, beginners almost never take my advice verbatim.
They insist on "putting it in their own words" and usually butcher my suggestions
beyond comprehension.
Hey, I butchered the first few ads I did. Fortunately, I understood the need to
rewrite over and over, and put all copy through the two main tests of great copy:
1. The "so what" test, where every phrase must be integral to your pitch. If your
reader can say "so what?" at any point, then that phrase needs to change or come
out Because you've just mumbled, or become dangerously unclear, or — worse —
gotten off-track in your sales pitch. Your copy must grab onto your reader's hot
buttons and NEVER let go. It doesn't matter whatjww think, or what j«w want.
All that matters in your copy... is that you stay focused on the inner needs and
desires of your reader. Examine your copy with a super-critical eye. And, if at
any point, you can furrow your brow and ask "so what?"... then you must rewrite.
And then give your copy...
2. The "off on a tangent" test: All great sales copy is like a greased slide, where the
reader gets on at the beginning, and jets through the piece as if on an oil slick,
right to the part where he takes out his wallet. It's a breathless ride, when you do
it right. If any phrase goes off the pitch, it abruptly "stops" the reader's journey.
That's bad. Get to the point immediately, and stay there.
So — by constantly running my copy through this kind of grinder — even my first
ads were at least low-end "professional quality". Good enough to be mailed, good
enough to pull orders.
In this Raw Rookie stage, you should read and re-read the better material on
advertising... hand-copy great ads verbatim... and -- if you take any jobs at all — take
small ones. You should be more interested in priming yonr pump right now. Force-
feed info and tactics and history and knowledge into your skull.
It's important to shuck any attitude you have during this stage. You're a sponge,
not a player yet. Soak up everything you can. Leave your ego at home — your stuff is
gonna be rough. You're climbing the steep side of the learning curve.
© John S. Carltan and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 17
But if you stick it out... and "load up" on all the right basics... you'll be ready to
launch in a very short time.
How long should you stay in this stage? I took a couple of long weeks. But it's
ALL I did. I woke up early, rushed through breakfast, and spent the day at the library, or
tracking books down, reading constantly, taking reams of notes, really cramming the
facts into my brain.
And every move I made was made with an eye on the prize — becoming a
professional copywriter.
If you're doing this initial "loading up" in your spare time, it'll take longer.
You'll know when you're done, because you'll no longer be reading about things that
seem news to you. You'll nod when you see a headline that works. You'll start to
recognize good ads, as well as identify ads that never stood a chance.
But for God's sake... don't set up camp in this stage. I've seen it happen - people
just get frozen, and spend all their precious time doing more research, finding another
damn book, becoming archivists instead of writers.
Don't do that. You want to be a writer? I've just shown you a primo, tested and
proven shortcut to get yourself ready.
Now it's time to start laying down some copy.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One — Page 18
Stage Two:
Shameless Whore.
This is where you really hone your chops. Get your nose bloodied. Pay your
dues. And all the other metaphors that apply.
This is where you start to write...
For Other People.
Basically, I recommend you take every single "little" job that comes within your
reach. Don't worry about fees — take every job.
Seek jobs out among the local businesses around you, among friends, colleagues,
friends of friends. Write menus up for restaurants, do quickie "touch base" letters for
local real estate agents, make Yellow Page ads for small businesses, write fund-raising
letters for the Elks, create personal ads for friends. Write up easy "welcome pages"
online for friends or businesses with simple websites.
Do as much as you can, so you 're writing every day, learning about choosing Hie
right words, about dealing with clients, about meeting deadlines. And learning how to...
Use The Secrets Of Great Copy
For Your Own Ends!
A writer write*. This is the stage where all the wannabe's get left behind. If you
really have what it takes to become a writer, you'll know during this stage.
Personally, I loved every minute of it, even though most of the jobs I took paid
hardly anything at all. I took stuff in trade (instead of cash), I accepted free meals, I did
favors for friends. And I did the work for free when a business simply didn't have any
cash to pay me.
But I was writing. Writing ad copy, writing letters that got mailed, headlines that
saw print, sales pitches that tried to reach customers.
And here's what I learned, almost immediately:
/ You don't wanna be a shameless whore for very long. Frankly, working for
peanuts sucks big tune. But the experience you gain just from writing for
someone else will stay with you forever. The chasm between wanting to write...
and actually sitting down and stroking out words that you will present as finished
copy to a client... is as wide as the Grand Canyon. Simply busting your cherry on
meeting a deadline will change everything about your life.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One -~ Page 19
S Dealing with people can really suck. There's a saying in business: "No good
deed goes unpunished."So you learn very quickly that, just because you're
knocking yourself out on an ad you're doing for free (or that costs the client a
slim fraction of what he'd have to pay to a working pro), you cannot expect
gratitude or cooperation. This is an important lesson. Get as many surprises as
you can about how people view and treat advertising out of lite way, as fast as you
can. It will clear the cobwebs from your mind, crush any limiting idealism, and
put you firmly in the real world. Where lessons like these can quickly segue into
large amounts of cash.
S The better your copy is, the more people will insist on changing it. Let them.
What you're doing is writing, meeting deadlines, getting experience. Don't get
hung up on any one job. An otherwise savvy businessman will have his niece —
the one majoring in French Literature -- rewrite your ad. Another guy's wife will
refuse to let him mail a great attention-getting letter because of "what people
might think". Remember: Everyone thinks they're a fiiggtn' expert on
advertising. Their minds are completely polluted with the acres of bad
advertising they see around them every second of every day. Don't try to
"evangelize" anyone. Just get your grunt work in.
How long do you stay in this stage? Get into it, and out of it as quickly as
possible. But don't shortcut your learning curve. I spent months mucking around this
stage. And 1 needed every minute of it
Priceless lessons.
Heck., even after I became a pretty good pro copywriter, I willingly went back
into this stage when I first met Jay Abraham. There was no way he was gonna pay me
what I wanted for any job.
So I traded copy for free access to his office. That was a deal many (but not all)
businessmen will jump on. For a couple of years, I came and went as I pleased, writing
whatever bits of copy he needed. And what I learned by watching Jay and observing how
he ran his business was priceless. Worth a million times more man the measly fees I
would have earned by working a "standard" deal.
Sure, I was supposed to be a "real" writer by that time... with all the ego and
attitude... but for the first time in my life, I was smarter than my ego. I kept my eye on
the prize — becoming not just a good writer... but one of the best of the best.
And anytime I came across something or someone that could get me closer to that
goal... I took advantage of it. Screw ego, anyway. What's your high-falutin' ego done
for you lately, except get you into trouble?
Look - you don't have to quit your day job to accomplish this "get your licks in"
stage. Stay up late, steal hours whenever you can, and write like a demon. Have "Kick-
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 20
Ass Copywriting Secrets" and a few other suggested books at your elbow, and steal,
copy, swipe and plagiarize as much as you can.
Craft a headline over several hours until it's perfect Just like a real professional
writer would. Rewrite it 200 times, trying out different words, different styles, different
approaches. Just like a real professional writer would. I mean it — 200 times. Get into it
Just like a real professional writer would.
Rework your opening sentence until it becomes a monster mat grabs the reader
and won't let go. Pay attention to every single word, every comma, every indent Try
fifteen different action verbs in each sentence. (He went downtown. He strolled
downtown. He hurried downtown, frantic. He raced downtown in ̂ freaked-out rage.)
Get into it, dude. Writers get lost in a "trance" when they're working. It's one
of the most pleasurable states of mind I've ever experienced (and I've experienced a lot
of states of mind, believe me.)
What I'm trying to get you to do... is make that connection between your brain
and your fingers. When that "click" finally happens... when your mind races easily
around all that knowledge you've stuffed hi there, pulling out phrases and ideas and
references and metaphors like crazy... and you barely feel your fingers dancing on the
keyboard.., and the words just pour out., well...
It's Magic.
Writing — and writing we// — is like discovering how to sword fight. The power
suddenly available at your fingertips can literally shake up the world.
But there's only ONE way to get there.
By actually sitting down and writing. (Okay... you don't type? I suggest you
learn, because it gives you access to a computer or word processor, and mat will speed up
your writing. But hey — some of the best copywriters still cranking it out can't type a
word. Gary Halbert still works longhand, pen on legal pad, and then has it typed by a
secretary. Works for him. Don't let it hold you up.)
Yes, it's hard at first. You'll feel like your brain is bleeding, because it doesn't
naturally know how to — or even want to — connect all those stray dote hi your mind to
infuse your sentences with the right ingredients.
But it gets easier each time you sit down. This I can promise you. Love your
writing, and force yourself to write (by taking every little job that you can)... and yon
will be rewarded.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One -- Page 21
You know that metaphor I've used about most people standing at the edge of the
pool, a&aid to jump in? Reading everything I've suggested, copying proven ads, getting
hip with everything you can about writing copy... is still standing on die edge of the pool.
However... becoming a Shameless Whore means you've jumped in. You're only
paddling around, making a big wet mess... but you're in the pool, by golly!
This will piss q^fthe wannabe's who can never bring themselves to jump in. This
will separate you from the yammering crowd of losers.
And with each stroke, you're getting closer to the Promised Land.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 22
Stage Three:
Lean And Mean Writing Machine.
Don't pretend you're at this stage until you actually arrive. The world is filled
with copywriters who think it's all about copping an attitude — and yes, that kind of
bluffing may get you some jobs, and you may even be able to talk a few clients into
parting with huge fees upfront
But unlike other jobs... direct response copywriting is dependent on results. If
you cannot write your way out of a paper bag, but you land a big job anyway... you're in
deep doo-doo when it comes time to produce, aren't you.
However... once you've got a few dozen jobs under your belt., and you know you
can create decent copy, because you've already done it several times... and you know you
can meet a deadline, because you have... and you knew how to deal with the client,
because you've given what you've written to someone already and worked through the
consequences... then... and only then... are you...
A Real
Professional Writer.
Now you've got some choices to make. You can:
(a) Go freelance, and use what you learn in "Get Connected" to find jobs and get
your name out there... or...
(b) Get hooked up with an agency as a staff writer... or...
(c) Get hooked up with a company and become "the writer"... or...
(d) Start an entrepreneurial enterprise, and use your sales writing skills to sell
your own products or business or service.
I did all four, in various ways.
Like I said, I was in a hurry to shortcut my education, and get as good as possible,
as soon as possible. To me, that meant following every single path that presented itself,
when it presented itself... and take that path until I stumbled on another one.
So, I became a one-man art department for a small business for a short time. A
very short time — because it was a dull product, and the money available for ads was
miniscule, and I got bored.
So I went freelance, and began being the "hired gun" at several agencies in town.
This led to being the "main" freelancer at one agency, and I was there so often the
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One ~ Page 23
receptionist and the accountant just assumed 1 was on the permanent payroll. When they
did try to hire meoutright, I refused. (Fll tell you why in a moment.)
So, I got entwined with several entrepreneurial projects, some of my own, and
some teaming up with other businessmen.
I got a good, healthy taste of every option.
And I chose freelancing. It was riskier but that didn't bother me. No. What
bothered me was wearing ties and coming to work at 8 am every day, even though I was
doing my best writing late at night. What bothered me was the soul-robbing monotony
and bureaucratic nonsense of the "normal" work world.
The clincher for me — the last straw between me and the corporate master — came
about when I was working late one night (at one of the many "real" jobs I've had), and
the vice president of marketing wandered into the art department, wondering who was in
there at midnight on a Tuesday. Scared the hell out of me. Thought I was alone in the
building. He stared at me, blinked, then left. And I went back to my work, trying hard to
meet the upcoming deadline. I have never minded working long hours when I was
getting stuff done.
And the next morning, when I came in at 8:15 ajn. instead of 8 sharp... the veep
i stormed into the art department and told me he didn't care how late I worked... he wanted
• me Acre on time every morning. Read me a riot act
What would become of the world, he said, if people just worked at men* own
pace, on then* own hours, without anyone to keep track?
That was a wake-up call. In the corporate world, showing up on time is worth
more than getting the job done right It's all about appearances and not rocking the boat
Goodbye to that shit
I admit it. I'm a closet vampire. Many writers are. I've never been a "morning
person" ~ my juices start flowing hard in the late afternoon. It's just the way my biology
works, and always has. When I get on a writing jag, hours can fly by, and suddenly it's
two in the morning and I'm wired.
It's quiet at night, few distractions like garbage trucks, the neighbor with the buzz
saw, landscape crews with leaf blowers. It's a great time to write.
It just makes for a pathetic social life.
Which is all beside the point You'll find your own "groove time" by actually
writing. Maybe you like to get up early and write for a few hours. Lots of writers do
that. (Though me thought of it makes my brain shiver.) Others seem to be able to turn
€> John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 24
on the creative joy juice at will. (I distrust these people.) Most just muddle through,
relying on pots of coffee to get focused.
Here are a few tricks I've discovered about "sitting down to write":
1. I like complete quiet. Or perhaps light background noise. (Right now, there are
birds getting settled in the trees outside — a "natural" ruckus that doesn't bother
me.) I'm having a little conversation with myself, inside my head, as I write...
sounding out words, voicing the sentences. Pure schizo behavior. I don't like
other noises interfering with the ones in my head. (I do know of writers who can
write at peak capacity in a loud airport They can just shut it all out It's a skill.)
2. Other guys like to play music. Stephen King likes AC/DC when he's writing
fiction. Studies show mat light classical music (without singing) helps the brain
solve creative problems. There's an entire niche in the music business devoted to
background music. I find it intrusive, because I love music, and I notice it.
3. Temperature is important. Studies show that keeping the room slightly cool
will improve focus. I think it's 68 degrees or something. I like it cool — hi fact, I
like to dress warm in a cool room to write, when I have a long session (two hours
or more). A warm room will make you sleepy, and drowsiness will murder your
creativity.
4. However... you can USE sleep to your advantage. I have found that I cannot
work effectively if I have any sleepiness hi me at all. So I am quick to take a nap
before writing. This, it turns out, is a good thing: While you sleep, all mat info
you've been pounding into your brain while awake gets reorganized and sifted
through. It's amazing. So I keep a notepad and pen next to wherever I'm
napping... because when I shudder awake, I almost always have a great headline
or idea or concept boiling over. And I have to write it down, quick, or it's gone.
The brain works in mysterious ways. Don't pass up ANY of the cool ways to get
the best writing done,
5. Relaxation in general will help your creative process. I get really terrific ideas
while taking long, hot showers. Very inconvenient. I've experimented with those
water-proof markers and such, but mostly I just rush out of the shower, shedding
water everywhere, and make fast notes on the nearest pad. Strangers who see my
office often shake their heads at the varied sizes of water-logged paper scattered
over my desk. Hey, whatever works.
6. And I mean it: Use whatever works for you. I used to wear "writing clothes" —
a specific shirt and pants and slippers and even a friggin' hat The idea was two-
fold: First, when I put on the clothes, I got in the mood to write, sort of like
Superman slipping into his uniform... and, second, the clothes were so ugly and
dirty, I wouldn't dare wear them out of the house. So I had nowhere else to go
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 25
except the desk, to write. I still wear "writing clothes", but not specific ones. I
just like roomy cotton stuff, comfortable and loose and warm.
7. Furniture counts, too. Pop for a good chair, with enough built-in ergonomics to
support your slouching ass. Your lower back will start aching after a few years of
sitting for too-long periods. Stay in shape. Walk a lot. Take frequent breaks -
set a tinier for 40 minutes if you have to, and get up when it dings and don't sit
down again until you've been up for 10 minutes or more.
8. Develop little fun activities you can do for 10 minutes at a pop. Like playing
with the dog, or fooling around with a musical instrument, or slugging a punching
bag. Move and stretch. It's important. There's a phenomenon called "writer's
slouch" — you get into your writing, and your shoulders slump, your head falls
forward, and your breathing becomes so shallow you get under-oxygenated. It's a
trance-like state. So do runner's stretches, some yoga deep breathing to get the
carbon dioxide out and good air in, and a few stomach strengthening exercises.
(Weak stomach muscles mean your lower back has to work harder and becomes
susceptible to strain more easily, which you definitely do not want to deal with.
Strong stomach muscles aren't that hard to maintain, and you'll look good in a
bathing suit.)
9. Andfmally... take real good care of yourself physically. Writing is NOT easy
on the body. Okay, it ain't digging ditches, but it isn't lounging around the
fireplace, either. Early on, I discovered massage. Everywhere I've lived, one of
the first contacts I made was with a professional massage therapist, and I've gone
once a week for an hour and a half like my life depended on it I would not eat a
couple of meals each week to keep those massages in my life. I'm serious about
this — your body really is your temple, and you cannot treat it tike shit and expect
everything to run smoothly. Your brain is tissue, blood, liquid and lots of tiny
electrical sparks. You get clogged up, you get sludgy and dense inside, you aren't
gonna perform at top caliber. Stay mega-healthy, loose, relaxed and fit. It does
make a difference.
1 also do not overdo the coffee — but I know writers who live on the stuff. I
prefer supplements like gingko, which boost your brain juices just enough to notice the
difference. If I'm tired, like I said, I take a quick nap.
Okay, that's about all I have to say on "Getting Good". Freelancing is a great gig,
offers you more freedom man any other career on the planet, has built-in allowances for
eccentricities (like sleeping odd hours)... and pays outrageously well.
And we'll get to the money part very soon. Right now... let's "Get Connected".Final note: There's a fifth stage to many writer's careers... but it's not for
everyone. It's the "major leagues" of copywriting — working for the Big Boys in direct
© John S. Carhon and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One ~ Page 26
mail, like Rodale, Boardroom, Phillips and the others. The companies who mail millions
of letters every blessed week.
The money is breathtaking. So are the deadlines. And the competition. There are
no rookies working in this stage.
I won't go over this stage very much... because, basically, I don't believe you
should aim for this upper level of ability. It's like learning how to play golf, and thinking
you're gonna be playing in the Masters next season.
Ain't gonna happen.
By the time you get good enough to go pro... you'll know, hi your heart, if
moving up to the "majors" is something you should shoot for.
Let me give you a taste of what that world looks like: There are only a handful
of writers with the chops to succeed with the largest mailers. Many try, and most fail.
The rewards for writing a winner can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars for the
copywriter ~ and that attracts the best writers in existence. These incredibly talented
writers slug it out like gladiators, one piece against the other. Sometimes three world-
class writers will compete at the same time.
Only one can win.
It's cut-throat.
And it can take a month or longer just to write the piece. It's brutal work — one
slip, and the other writer will eat your lunch. When I accepted a job from these behemoth
mailers, I knew I was out of circulation for five to six weeks. A huge box would arrive,
stuffed with data and reports and market analyses and copies of every other letter ever
written for the product.
Just plowing my way through the information was exhausting.
Actually writing the copy was like having an organ removed.
Why do writers suffer like this, just for a direct mail letter? Easy. The upfront
fees alone can equal the yearly take-home pay for an average American.
And the residuals — the royalties and per-piece-mailed bonuses — are simply
staggering. There's actually a movement among large mailers to eliminate royalties...
because the bean-counters are taking over the top positions, and they are more attuned to
the bottom line than to what's necessary for direct mail success.
It's a shake-up that I predict will continue to foul things up for a long time. I
worked for one such company - one of the largest mailers in the world — and had a fine
€> John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 27
standing deal with them: $25,000 up front just to do the job, plus a few cents per
thousand letters mailed. That few cents may not sound like much, until you realize the
numbers they typically mailed. For several years, I received magnificent quarterly
royalty checks from a single -winningpiece.
And yet.. I re&se to work with them anymore. And I'm not alone - there's an
informal "strike" by top writers all over the country going on.
Why? Well, many of these behemoth companies have similar histories: They
were started by individuals steeped in the specifics and truths of direct response. Most of
them were spectacular copywriters themselves... and understood clearly that...
Copy Is
King!
You can have the greatest product in the universe... but if you cannot write a good
ad to get the word out, you're headed for the dustbin of history, fella.
That's why top writers earn so much money. They're worth it Every penny.
Copywriters hold the KEY to creating winning ad campaigns. Not the designer. Not the
product manager. Not the CEO. And most certainly not the bean counters or lawyers.
The writer. If you were gonna take a company, and fire everybody who is easily
replaceable... the writer is the LAST guy you'd give a pink slip to. He's got the skills
that are hardest to replace.
He's the secret weapon in all successful businesses.
But people forget mat Writers are not thought of very highly among executives.
We tend to be anti-authoritarian, we're fall of quirks and eccentricities, and what we do
seems like 'Voodoo" to those who cannot write. They often suspect we're merely
performing "tricks"... and hey, if they had the time, they could learn to write, too.
Yeah, right
So here's the way so many big companies have evolved: They're started by a
guy with copy skills, someone with lots of salesman's blood flowing in their veins. They
get big, because their ideas are sound, and their copy is good, and they understand direct
response.
And then they get too big... and a larger and larger staff is needed. Soon the guy
who started it all is edged out, or retires... and the battle for control is on. Guess who
typically wins?
It's not the guys who understand direct response advertising. They're too busy
making campaigns work and bringing in results.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 28
Nope. The winners of the struggle for control... are the guys skilled at
bureaucracy and corporate in-fighting. These are bullshit skills, good ONLY for getting
your ass booted upstairs. You've heard of the Peter Principle, haven't you? It goes
something like this: In a corporation...
You Get Promoted To Your
LEVEL OF INCOMPETENCE.
That means... if you're a great middle-manager, the way you get rewarded is to
get promoted to manager of the entire department. If you're good at that, you get
bumped up to vice president If you suck at managing the department, you stay there.
You've hit your ceiling, just a little above what you're able to handle competently.
So most corporations are staffed by people in the wrong job. Worse, the skills
needed to take over the really high positions involve cheating, lying, stealing... all the bad
things clever humans are capable of. Blame the other guy, never put yourself in a
position to be held responsible for anything that goes wrong, and take credit for every
good that someone else does... while stabbing your competition in the back... ah, that's
the way to wrest control of a company.
You think I'm kidding? I'm not
One of the things I'm gonna try to drill into you is., as much as you can— deal
with people who understand what you're doing. I have seldom gotten large companies
to run the kind of advertising they SHOULD be running. Too many bean counters and
lawyers and sycophants have to piss on the copy (in order to justify their existence and
keep getting that paycheck)... so any decent sales message will get turned to mash before
it's allowed out of the building.
On the other hand... entrepreneurs and small businessmen who desperately want
to do what actually works - not what they think might work — will pay you handsomely
to deliver the goods. They'll run your copy intact And let the results decide if it's a
winner or not
Few, if any, people in large corporations are beholden to the bottom line. It's
always easier to say "no" than to risk being blamed for having said "yes" to anything.
People have kept high-paying jobs for a generation simply by never taking responsibility
for anything at any time.
All right., you still wanna test your chops with the Big Guys? It's not hard to
get an audience with them. They are starved for writers. Their one unending task is to
feed the bottomless stomach of die mailing monster. Talented writers are always
welcome... if you can hack the politics and hellish hard work.
We'll cover getting mat gig in the next section.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section One - Page 29
Step Two
The 3 simple rules of under standing your
own worth, getting your ego straight
about connecting, and working the
system for all it's worth.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 1
Step Two
N
The 3 simple rules of understanding your own worth, getting your ego
straight about connecting, and working the system for all it's worth
ow we get to the part where the rubber meets the road.
I meet a lot of people who study writing and salesmanship enough to get good at
it.,and they even occasionally find a job where they can get paid doing it
But they skip the part that creates true independence in a writer. They never
learn how to get CONNECTED with those people, institutions, publications, businesses
and organizations that will act as an army dedicated to:
1. Keeping you booked with work...
2. Keeping your name circulating (so your reputation stays red-hot)... and...
3. Keeping your bank account stuffed with cash from fees, royalties and
income.
It doesn't do you much good to be a world-class writer, does it, if no one knows
who you are, where to reach you, or how you can help mem,
So... a huge part of creating your career as a copywriter is to find that
"hidden under-current" in the business world where all the other big fish swim. I
call it "hidden", because it is invisible to outsiders. However, once you get a toe-hold in
it, you'll be astonished at how quickly you can become an Insider, with a capital "P.
It's a small world on the Inside of marketing.
There are a handful of big fish (the well-known "guru's" and the Hall Of Fame
marketers and writers)...
... a large population of middle-sized fish (the up-and-coming writers, the
marketers well on their way to earning jaw-dropping fortunes, and the printers and list
brokers and media experts and lettershops and web masters and other "clued in"
providers of services that make marketing work)...
... and a whole bunch of little tiny fishes (beginners just earning a reputation,
marketers in the middle of their first big "win", and the support staffs that make offices
and warehouses and fulfillment centers run).
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 2
And yet, put them all together... and it's such a tiny fraction of the population of
this country that it barely registers as a percentage point When you're on the Inside, you
will never want for lack of camaraderie. But from the outside, the entire under-current
may remain invisible.
Writers complain about this sometimes, because we are faced with constantly
needing to explain what we do. It would be a simpler world if all businesses understood
the power of direct marketing, and appreciated good, ballsy, personalized copy. They do
not And, in a way, this is an advantage. As you enter the ranks of veteran freelancer,
you will be one of a very few who have learned the keys to great marketing.
It's a mixed blessing, of course. But it is what it is.
So, all riglrfy then. Let's get busy making mis invisible world visible to you.
With...
The Three Rules
Of Successful Freelancing.
I have three rules I want you to carve into your brain as we cruise through this
section. I will start listing them on page 8 of this section. They are the roadmap I used to
become a successful freelancer.
But first... I have to...
Soften Yon Up
So You're Ready To Understand Them.
The first two rules are about your mindset. I'm going to take a long time
explaining these rules to you, because no matter how simple they may seem... most guys
get it wrong.
Your mindset is ALL IMPORTANT as a freelancer, because you're working
without a net. Sometimes freelancers hook up with each other for a while, because it's
good to have company. Sometimes.
The great ones almost always go back to working alone, however. (If you team
up on a permanent basis, you get closer to becoming a mini-agency. Which is fine.)
(And, even if you decide to actually join a real agency — or work in-house with any one
business exclusively — you're still going to need the sobering comfort of these rules to
keep your chops sizzling hot)
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 3
The nature of the freelance game, however, is working more-or-less alone. (You
may have an assistant, but the act of writing is a solitary occupation. Committees murder
ads.)
And, alone, you need to have your head straight about your value to the business
community. And about the reasons why you cannot afford to stop learning... or keeping
your connections stroked and nurtured.
It took me a long time to realize the worth of these simple rules. When I lost
track of them, I lost steam, made stupid compromises, sacrificed money I was due. Lost
the will to write, even.
When I was successful, I was following these rules, though unconsciously at first.
I've had several "dips" in my career — and it slowly dawned on me, as I climbed out of
the financial, mental and professional holes I created, that I was actually using a set of
identifiable rules to get successful again. When these rules finally crystallized in my
mind, I knew I had to write this course.
The first two rules, as I said, are about your mindset. Very important. The third
is hardcore information about getting connected. That's the rule most people will think is
the "money shot" of mis course, because it's all about numbers, actions, staff to do.
But you must remember that no career is a straight Hue from start to finish.
You're going to constantly encounter obstacles — clients die, the economy tanks and
causes a whole slate of your ads to fail, your computer crashes and you lose manuscripts
and miss deadlines.
The business world is a vast, bizarre land of wonders and terrors.
There are opportunities to ride the financial coattails of a client zooming to
success. Or see a check bounce because of bankruptcy or embezzlement. Federal agents
routinely storm offices and lock clients out when their accounting goes sour. The boss
may worship you, but the marketing V.P. may hate your ass with a vile vengeance,
sabotaging everything you do. (This happens a lot.)
You will encounter garden variety criminals and outright thievery by clients who
have had an ethical bypass. And you will meet some of the nicest people to ever walk
mis earth.
You will be ripped off. And you will be helped by anonymous friends who send
work your way and insist on not even being owed a favor.
It's a fiiggin' jungle out there. An amazing, exciting, dangerous and volatile...
Jungle.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 4
I can go on with the horror stories, you know. I've known copywriters who were
on top of their game, writing like a champ and hitting home runs right and left. And then
they got divorced, or discovered a cancerous lump somewhere, or lost everything in a
dumb stock market ploy.
Burnout is a common ailment among writers. That's why I spent so much time
talking about the physical side of writing in the last section. It's critical. Your career
depends on your brain — that lump of soft, spongy material in your skull where all the
thinking, pondering, solving and creating happens.
But your brain is dependent on your heart, and your heart is dependent on your
lungs, which breathe air from the outside world, where all sorts of things out of your
control will conspire to mess with your desire to simply write fabulous copy and make a
fortune.
That's why these three simple rales are so important, Bucko. I talk with a
vast number of Insiders, every day. There's a special camaraderie among us, because
ONLY another Insider can understand what being one is like.
Take the subject of deadlines. That can get us bitching and moaning for hours.
I've never missed a deadline in my life, but that doesn't mean meeting deadlines are easy.
Other writers consider my record almost criminal -- because most writers DO at least
occasionally miss deadlines. It's the most common screw-up hi the biz. (I strongly
recommend you promise yourself, right now, that you will never miss a deadline. We'll
discuss this in detail later.)
We talk about deadlines, because they are always hovering over us.
And we talk about dealing with difficult, stupid or just plain clueless clients, and
about banks that shut down merchant accounts for no good reason, and about printers
who screw up jobs, and office staff who lose files, and on and on and on. We talk about
this staff, and then, after we've blown off some steam, we get down to business.
Once I identifiedthese three simple rules, I saw how they were deeply imbedded
(though mostly unconsciously) in EVERY top professional I know. Sometimes we lose
sight of them. Sometimes...
Even The Best
Suffer From Doubt
Many years ago, I remember talking with Gary Halbert, one of the great legends
of direct marketing and a deeply-respected guru. He was in the dumps. Like most of the
geniuses I know, he was prone to bouts of self-doubt, to the notion that Fate had it out for
him.
© John £ Carhon and Marketing Rebel LLC Section Two - Page 5
He was entertaining the thought that he'd "lost it", lost the ability to write great
pieces, to engineer home run campaigns, to understand the market at all. I let him
complain for a while, and then I told him something he's never forgotten. "God damn
it," I said, "you're Gary Halbert. You have the best track record in advertising. You've
pissed away more money than most successful men can expect to earn in their lifetime.
Look at what you've accomplished." And that woke him up.
He was not an ordinary man. None of the top copywriters are. Over and over
again, through 40 years of advertising, he had encountered and defeated obstacles and
problems that might have killed an "ordinary" man.
But, like all of us, prolonged doubt led to a virulent case of defeatism. He just
needed a little boost to shake it off.
And he did shake it off. Boy, did he ever shake it off. In fact, he went on to make
more money than he had in the previous 20 years combined. And meet the love of his
life. Not because of me, of course. I just slapped him upside the head, and reminded him
who he was. He probably would have got there again on his own.
Probably.
But it didn't hurt to be reminded of what the right mindset can accomplish. (Gary
had the opportunity, years later, to return the favor to me. Thanks, pal Since then, I've
made it a habit to reinforce the confidence of every colleague I know. These "mindset**
rules are crucial.)
Drill this into your brain: Your hidden partner in your freelance career will
always be...
Mr. Confidence.
Make him real inside of you — and base bis existence on these simple rules I'm
going to share with you. Babe Ruth used to strike out eight times in a row in a double-
header. To shake out of any slump, he had to remember his own few simple rules that
applied only to hitters of his ability.
Rules like these:
•S He'd done it before...
S He knew the fundamentals of doing it right...
•S He knew things could go wrong...
V And he knew how to go back and correct what was wrong. And do it right again.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two — Page 6
He had his head straight about who he was, where he stood in the scheme of
things, and what he was capable of.
You have to get your head straight, too. If you follow my instructions, and get
your fundamentals down, and become a writer, and work the system... and get your head
straight about your place in the world... then, no matter what else happens, you will have
the skills to recover, and succeed, and thrive even in the midst of chaos.
God damn it, you're a copywriter.
So don't skip over these rales, wondering when we're gonna get to the "juicy"
stuff.
This IS the juicy stuff.
This is the foundation of great copywriting.
So listen up.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 7
Rule Number One:
Never forget that the entire business world
is starved for great copywriting!
Most small businesses, when it comes to advertising, are like men who can't
swim tossed into the middle of the ocean — they desperately need rescuing.
Most large businesses regard advertising as an occult science that chews up their
cashflow, yet they are terrified of not doing it (They have mixed feelings about
marketing because they're usually doing it wrong, not tracking response, not following
basic salesmanship rules.)
And, most ad agencies do not have a single staff person who really understands
world-class copywriting. (This includes the international agencies responsible for all the
multi-million dollar ads you see on TV.)
I want you to remember this rule at all times — especially -when you encounter
obstacles in your path to becoming a successful writer. If you follow the advice I gave
you in Section One ("Getting Good"), then you will be one of the FEW people in the
country who have taken the trouble to learn the fundamentals of great copywriting.
( When you talk about copy, you will be absolutely confident you're talking about
proven tactics. And, once you have a few winners under your belt, you'll be able to talk
from experience and numbers. And insist — with authority that comes from total
confidence — that they...
Dolt
F0«rWay.
This kind of authority — backed up with proven confidence — will allow you to
charge outrageous fees with, a straight face. Because what you provide is worth it
You're not pulling stuff out of your ass.
You're not re-inventing any wheels.
You're operating as part of the continuum of great salesmanship that stretches
back to when the first caveman sold a haunch of meat to another caveman. You're
using stuff that has been proven to work, over and over again, throughout history. You're
going to generate orders... increase the customer base... and sell the heck out of whatever
your client is flogging.
It may be mysterious magic to the rest of the world... but to you, steeped in your
fundamentals, it's just good, solid salesmanship.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 8
Even as you struggle to get clients, to earn larger fees, to get a reputation going...
just keep reminding yourself of this simple fact Every business in the world needs to
advertise... and...
Most Of Them Absolutely
SUCK At It!
This doesn't mean they will welcome you with open arms whenever you show up,
or that they will stalk you in hopes of hiring you at outrageous fees. Because the
astonishing general ignorance of salesmanship-in-print in the business community means
that most of them do not value great writing.
They do not know good advertising when they see it They do not know how to
test advertising. They do not "get" the enormous potential of direct response marketing.
Often, when you're dealing with clients, you will have to educate them as you
help them. Your first choice, always, is to work with clients who ALREADY know the
power of great copy, and who ALREADY are savvy about direct marketing and good
advertising.
In fact, for many years now, I have refused to work with anyone who questions
what I do. It's a perk of having a reputation based on getting results.
And even back when I was still taking on the occasional "clueless" client... as you
will have to do while you create your reputation... I had two fees: My "standard" fee
(which was high enough to cause the client to choke) that I charged when it was clearly
understood they would run or mail whatever I wrote... without causing any grief or
asking for endless rewrites because they were "scared" to run ballsy advertising.
And I had a "clueless" fee for the clients who had found me through
recommendations, who were not savvy about what kind of advertising really works... and
who would cause me days of frustration convincing them to run or mail what I produced.
This "clueless" fee was often TWICE the amount I charged sawier clients. (And
sometimes triple.)
I punished them financially, because long ago I discovered two things about
charging clients:
1. Giving a client a break on the fee will not make him grateful and easier to
work with. In feet,it will often make him harder to deal with. The few times I
felt sorry for a client who insisted he needed a "world class ad" to save his butt...
but needed a break on my fee because "he just couldn't afford the full price"... I
got royally screwed in the deal. Consciously or unconsciously, he saw my
kindness as weakness. And that obliterated my authority and my ability to force
him to do the right thing. Since he'd successfully negotiated my price,he figured
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 9
^
he could negotiate what the advertising looked like, too. It's a mistake I had to
repeat only a few times before learning the lesson behind it
2. Charging a fee high enough to make his hand shake as he writes the check
puts two important thoughts in his mind: (a) I MUST know exactly what I'm
doing, because I'm charging so much... and... (b) he'd better stay out of the way
and let me do what Ida best, and not argue or try to change things. He wants to
get his money's worth,
It's psychological gamesmanship, I know. But, as I mentioned in the last section,
there's an old saying among businessmen: "No good deed goes unpunished." I suppose
it's a cousin of "nice guys finish last".
Get straight on this: You do NOT need to be an asshole to get the job done.
You DO, however...
Need To
Be In Charge!
You are dealing with a world that doesn't understand what you're doing as a
writer. Trying to educate most businessmen about advertising can be like trying to teach
a donkey to change the oil in your car.
And until you get to the stage where clients are pursuing you and are willing to do
whatever you say... you're going to continually run into "clueless" clients who will want
to fight you every step of the way.
It will be frustrating. It will be difficult to get your letters and ads run or mailed
the right way. You will fail, often, at getting these clients to follow your instructions.
You will want to tear your hair out
And that's when I want you to remember Rule Number One.
The business world is STARVING for great advertising. You're the guy who
has trained himself to deliver it There aren't many of you out there.
So... don't get hung up on any one client who causes you grief. Give him a
chance — even several chances — to come around. Insist on "Gunfight At The OK
Corral" type tests — your way against his way - if you must Mail half a list with your
copy, the other half with the changes they've insisted on. Mail them head-to-head. Let
'em stand toe to toe and slug it out.
Get numbers back on how many sales or new customers or leads come from each
piece.
€> John S. Carltan and Marketing Rebel, LUC Section Two ~ Page 10
Do whatever you have to do to get your ad run, your letter mailed, your web copy
posted. (As we'll discuss in Getting Paid, you will sometimes even want to pay for the
test yourself.)
He may not believe you, may be in denial about what constitutes good marketing.
But it's damn hard to argue against actual figures. If you<;an get a test done, you'll have
figures. And you'll be able to...
Use Numbers And Results
As A Weapon!
And if he still doesn't come around... take the money you've earned, let him do
what he wants, and walk away.
Walk away from bad situations that threaten to destroy your self-respect
Walk away from bad deals.
And walk away from anybody who thinks writers are at the bottom of the food
chain. You're not.
You ARE The
Friggin'Food Chain!
When you get good at copywriting ~ even though many businesses will not
recognize your worth immediately — there are always plenty of other businesses who
will. In feet, they are DESPERATE for good copy.
Their business depends on it.
They will shrivel and die without it
And you're the guy who knows how to do it.
So stay calm. Keep honing your chops. Use proven salesmanship tactics, and
follow the advice of great writers. This ain't brain surgery.
But, to most of the business world, it seems like...
Magic!
And, because you know how the "spells" are cast, you'll always have something
to offer a client. That's a powerful thing to remember. It will help you stay focused.
Important note: In "Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets", Chapter 18,1 urged you to
put aside your "Screw Yon" money. This is enough cash to meet your nut for 6 months
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two ~ Page 11
to a year. Do not invest this money in anything riskier lhan bank CDs. Keep part of it in
small bills somewhere, like a safe deposit box.
This money is not an investment, it's not there to earn interest, not there to play
with. It's your back-up "partner", to be used only when absolutely necessary. As I tell
people, if you never touch this stash for the rest of your life, it's done its job.
Having this money hidden away changes your attitude on a basic level. You
don't need any job to pay the next month's rent If any client becomes a total jerk, you
can walk away, knowing you will never starve, because you've got that money socked
away. You can tell him "Screw you, I'm outa here."
But you know what? Just knowing you have the power to walk away changes
you at the cellular level. You DON'T need his measly fee. And clients sense mat You
won't have a whiff of desperation on you — and they will immediately sense that their
standard bullying tactics won't work.
Result: You are in charge from minute one. You're like the handsome guy in the
bar who refuses to play games with any of the women who want his attention. (Your
skills equal "handsome**, the clients are nice the yearning women.) Or vice versa, if
you're a woman reading this.
You don't have to play games, don't have to negotiate from hunger, don't have to
take any grief at all. You're in charge, because you HAVE to be in order to get the ad
run the way you KNOW it should be run. Because you're the expert. You have the
fiindamentals, the experience, the track record, the inside scoop on what works.
And if they don't like it... you can walk with a clear conscience and not a drop of
sweat over meeting your nut I put my "Screw You" money aside almost 20 years ago,
and haven't touched it I won't, either, if I don't have to.
It's my invisible partner.
It's the spine in Mr. Confidence.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 12
Rule Number Two:
Consider yourself a lifelong apprentice
of great advertising!
With an important caveat: You are willing to apprentice yourself only...
With The Specific Goal
Of Getting Connected.
Let me explain. First off, many people have forgotten what the word "apprentice"
even means.
Basically, throughout history, most professions had a three-tiered ladder of
expertise. You began as a raw rookie — an apprentice ~ and learned the trade under the
tutelage of an experienced professional ~ a journeyman. For a few journeymen who got
really, really good, the next step was to become the foreman, or boss.
This is important to understand, because this method of creating professionals has
pretty much disappeared in our society. Big shame, too. Civilization has suffered
because of it
But understanding this arcane process can be a HUGE boon to you.
It's the secret "key" to quickly entering the Inside world of advertising and
marketing.
Here's the short version of the story: Long ago, most skilled labor formed itself
into "guilds", which were tight organizations that acted a bit like modern unions. In the
ancient world, if you wanted to be a scribe (a writer), you had to enter a club that was as
secretive and mysterious as the cults that produced priests. This was because the skills
required to write required a long apprenticeship under the direct teaching of someone
who was already really good at it
By the Middle Ages, there were guilds for every type of skilled labor in existence.
If you wanted to be a brick layer, you had to join the brick laying guild. And suffer all
kinds of initiation rites, and swear on your life never to divulge the secrets of the art of
brick laying, and be a slave while you apprenticed and worked hard to earn the status of a
journeyman.
Today, however, even the concept of apprenticeship had pretty much vanished
from the American culture (outside of unions). Rookies now routinely have to blunder
their way through jobs without much formal training. The youngsters even scoff at the
idea of earning their keep, resist the efforts of the journeymen to teach them, refuse to
acknowledge they have a lot to learn.
© John S. Carltonand Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two ~ Page 13
The structure of apprenticeship, where an experienced, hard-ass journeyman was
assigned to teach the rookie the tricks of the trade, has been largely forgotten. Beginners
are now incredibly lucky to have anyone take them under then- wing.
The result is a business culture full of'Veterans" who don't understand their own
professions in any depth. High school basketball players skip college and head for the
NBA at 18. Kobe Bryant aside, most suffer and fail. Journalists go straight from class to
standing in front of a television camera... and learn to mumble as a bluff, so no one can
tell they haven't got a clue what incisive reporting is all about Rock bands go from the
garage to center stage. (One reason the Beatles were so damn good is that they logged
several years playing dingy bars in Germany before even entering a recording studio.
They earned their chops.)
And, nearly all ad agencies are staffed with clueless writers... who "learned" their
trade by watching television and being the class clown. Never worked with a real
salesman, never spent a minute learning the secrets of great marketing. And they laugh at
the idea they have anything to learn about advertising. After all, they're getting paid as a
copywriter, aren't they? What's to know?
I am increasingly coming to the realization that civilization survives in spite of the
human race... not because of it We are increasingly putting our culture in the hands of
younger and younger "know nothings" who couldn 't care less about learning their trade
( in depth. They don't know history, don't care about what went on before they were born,
consider the world a simple place to operate in as long as your attitude is cool.
Just like on TV.
So... what does all this mean for you? Two very important things:
1. If you ever get the chance to work with a veteran "Old School" direct
response copywriter, do it. Even if it's only doing "grunt work" for him -
researching info, writing up special reports, even monitoring the lettershop during
a mailing. The concept of apprenticeship rubs many people wrong... because their
ego gets in the way. These people seldom become wildly-successful, hi a few
pages, I will talk about "grunt work" apprenticeships that are invaluable.
2. If you think of yourself as an "apprentice for life" in advertising, you will
never get state. There are a ton of "experienced" copywriters out there who still
think it's 1962. Their mindset will not allow them to learn new things. You, on
the other hand, should never balk at learning something new. While the basics of
great salesmanship do NOT change, the tactics of advertising often do. I just
found a guy who lectured me for an hour on email auto-responders, and I ate it up
as if I were a raw rookie, taking notes and asking detailed questions. And the guy
was half my age. Had only been in the business world for a couple of years.
€> John S. Carlton ami Marketing Rebel, LUC Section Two ~ Page 14
Here is bow the "apprenticeship for life" attitude continues to work for me:
When I started out as a freelancer, it was just me and my typewriter against the world...
and I was doing pretty well. I had carved out a little niche in Los Angeles as a hot-shot
freelancer. (I'll tell you how in a minute.) Earned thousands for each job.
Yet, when I met up with Jay Abraham, I offered to do writing for him for FREE.,
on my own time... in exchange for just being able to hang around his office and
occasionally sit in on meetings. Astonishingly, he agreed. (If he'd asked me to sweep
up, too, I would have done it)
Through that "toe hold", I met up with a man named John Finn while in Jay's
office, who at the time was acquainted with several world-class copywriters. He had
convinced these writers that it might be worth their time to hire an up-and-comer with
serious chops like me to help them complete certain jobs... and, astonishingly,, they
Through John, I was teamed up with Jim Rutz — easily one of the greatest
copywriters of all time. (And a man I might never have otherwise been introduced to.)
Jim paid me a small (but very fair, considering) fee, spent a good deal of time telling me
what he expected... and men dumped the job on me. It was a sales letter for a well-
known "contrarian" financial newsletter out of Texas.
Jim expected me to slave away at this project, and not complain. I worked like a
fiend to come up with a first draft worthy of showing him... and he was fairly impressed.
But he tore it up anyway, and sent me back to the computer. No one had ever
done that to me before. I mean, I was an experienced writer. I had to swallow hard to
keep my cool. But I did it
And I went back to my office to start over on the piece.
The guy was a perfectionist, which I most definitely am not. He wanted every
damn word in that piece to be exactly right It took a full month to complete the job. I
forced myself to start thinking like a perfectionist, and figured out how to correct the
mistakes in my writing before he caught them.
I lost sleep, I lost friends, but I never lost focus on the prize...
Extracting Every Iota Of Expertise
This World-Class Writer Had To Offer.
I was exhausted and a wreck by the time he finally agreed that, indeed, the piece
now lived up to his expectations. It was Ms basic concept, but 90% of the writing was
mine — written and rewritten a dozen times under his sharp eye and relentless quest for
the perfect sales letter.
© John S. Ccaiton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 15
But I'd learned a thousand lessons about great writing during this "grunt
apprenticeship" process. And about making a piecework. That sales letter mailed for
almost 8 years. All the royalties went to Jim ~ I only received a little compensation on
the front end, with no back-end commission whatsoever. That was the deal. And it was a
good one. Jim didn't need me. He took me under his wing, and made my life hell for a
while... but I came out of it an infinitely better writer.
I did three jobs, I believe, with Jim. And then I was teamed up with another
world-class writer, Steve Barwick. Steve and I worked more like partners, with a lot of
back and form... but there was never any question that I was there to learn.
Soon after that, I had a chance to write up some special reports for Gary
Bencivenga. This was pure grunt work ~ I wasn't writing any part of the sales pitch, but
only writing up the "give away" material that was offered free with the main product
To an observer, it probably looked like a step "down" for me (since I was already
the author of successful pieces and "deserved" to be doing nothing but super-important
work)... but it wasn't Gary B. is, hands down, the most respected copywriter in the
world among the largest mail order publishers. Just the few days of work we did together
offered me amazing insights about writing I'd never realized before.
I also was introduced to new clients through these contacts — people it would
have taken years to have reached directly on my own, without an introduction. A whole
new world of possibility opened up to me.
And soon after that, I met Gary Halbert, and began writing for him. He also was a
harsh taskmaster... but after a year or so, he didn't have to "correct" my writing anymore.
I had arrived. I started partnering with him, rather than being just the grunt writer.
So, through hard work - and "luck" I created from that hard work -1 managed to
"apprentice" under some of the greatest writers in advertising... all within a period of just
a couple of exciting years,
I was humble, open to criticism, and eager to do an over-the-top good job at every
step.
More importantly, without even realizing it at the time, I was embracing each step
as part of a learning curve where...
I Couldn't Even See
Where The Next Step Would Come From!
Looking back, it almost seems planned out It wasn't. But, as I will explain a
moment, each contact held immense opportunity for other contacts. The advertisingworld is like a spider web — everyone and everything are connected, though it is almost
impossible for an outsider to see how this is so.
<0 John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two ~ Page 16
I have a world-wide reputation now. I'm a "guru", teaching other people the
mysterious art of copywriting. I have followers in Australia, Italy, Saudi Arabia, New
Zealand, Asia. Heck, even some Canadians are in the fokL Imagine that, eh?
And yet... as I just mentioned... only last week I spent an hour "apprenticing"
under the tutelage of a kid I met through a brand new acquaintance, who found me
through someone I'd only recently been introduced to from a friend I'd known for years.
And I listened to that kid because he knew things I was eager to learn.
Because, in my mind, lama lifelong apprentice in advertising.
I have a fairly big ego. I admit it, and even rejoice in it. It's part of having huge
self-respect When I've earned something, I feel damn good about it. I enjoy my
reputation. I enjoy being a teacher. Ain't no guilt on this puppy.
But I easily and quickly put my ego aside when I have an opportunity to learn
something new. Right now, we're in a vibrant period of change and innovation in
marketing. And most of the really exciting stuff is happening on the Web. The
salesmanship behind the writing isn't different... that will never change... but the way the
copy is delivered, digested by prospects, and the way orders are taken and followed up on
is often unique.
An apprentice for life. Remember that.
Be a sponge.
Now, I'm going to repeat myself here, because I want to be sure you "get" it:
Each of the apprenticeships I did created the opportunity for the next one.
Step One: First, I "self-apprenticed" myself at the library, and got cozy with the
fundamentals.
Step Two: Then, I took on every measly and pathetic job that came my way while
I worked through all the "rookie mistakes" I had to make. And learned how to meet
deadlines and deal with clients.
Step Three: I took my show out on the road, hitting the agencies and taking on
private business clients,
Step Four: By the time I met up with Jay Abraham, I had completed my
Shameless Whoring period, and was already a Lean And Mean writer on the "A" list
among several local ad agencies who used freelancers. (Be patient. I'll tell you in a
moment how to contact agencies yourself)
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 17
Now, I could have remained the hot-shot freelancer that agencies snuck in the
back door to do the work their own clueless creatives couldn't pull off. It was a good
paying gig. I was making more money that I ever had before in my life.
But - again, unconsciously., because I hadn't yet figured out exactly what it was I
was doing -1 didn't consider my career "completed". So I was always on the hunt for
opportunities to increase my worth as a writer.
Always.
And you have to look hard, too. Because sometimes these "connection
opportunities" cross your path as nothing more than whispers,
This one sure didn't arrive with blaring trumpets. As it turned out, a creative
director at an agency I freelanced for suspected she was about to be fired... and she had
taken to scouring the want ads for writing jobs. Now, I did that, too... but for some
reason, I missed a pretty good posting one day in the Los Angeles Times, and ~ as an
afterthought before I left her office — she casually brought it to my attention.
A guy in Palos Verdes was looking for copywriters.
It was a damn well-written ad, too. (Which she thought was too full of "hype",
but I instantly recognized as written by a fellow traveler.)
It was Jay Abraham. At that time, he was not as well-known as he is now. Had
yet to put on a single seminar. He was just building his reputation as "the marketing
genius who is afraid to fly". (Gary Halbert wrote mat "afraid to fly" ad for him, by the
way.)
This was, it turned out, a tremendous opening for me. And I almost missed it I
would have missed it, if I hadn't disciplined myself to constantly be on the lookout for
exactly these kinds of nearly hidden opportunities.
Take this lesson to heart. Keep an eagle eye out for otherwise overlooked
connections,
Step Four led to Step Five very quickly. Jay was honing what were, at the time,
some pretty cutting-edge marketing tactics — like extended guarantees, piling on freebies
(so the offer looked Bke you were getting a thousand dollars worth of stuff for $19), and
using endorsed mailings (where someone with a big list of happy customers introduces
you and urges them to buy your stuff).
And he was very successful at "translating" the proven Old School tactics of
Claude Hopkins to modern marketing. Attention-getting headlines, unique selling
propositions, long copy, urgent offers.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 18
And charging HUGE fees for doing it.
These were all revolutionary concepts at the time — though I immediately
recognized it as the "good stuff' from all my reading. This "old school" style of balls-to-
the-wall advertising is more common now, after a decade of seminars and newsletters on
the tactics... but it's still a fresh mystery to most businesses.
I knew in my heart this "good stuff* was the key to not simply making a decent
living as a freelancer... but to parlaying almost secret information into a. fortune.
Step Five: So I became steeped in what was called a "new" kind of advertising
back then (in the mid-1980s) — writing that seemed extreme because it was so long (the
letter I wrote with Jim Rutz was nearly 20 pages) and because the sales pitch was so
intricate and involved.
None of the agencies were about to risk the discomfort of their clients with this
new extreme stuff. But, instinctively, I knew it was the hottest kind of writing a business
could use to bring in customers hot and heavy. Screw the agencies, anyway.
So when Jim Rutz insisted on filling a pitch with so many details and clumps of
give-away info that the letter actually became a long special report, I didn't blink.
I knew it could work. (And it did.)
Step Six: By the time I was introduced to Steve Barwick, I was confident I could
craft winning copy inside of a hot, proven concept. I was confident because I'd already
done it.
Step Seven: I wasn't afraid of "backing up" and doing more grunt writing when
the opportunity to work with Gary Bencivenga came up. I knew I would learn critical
NEW things doing this. I knew it would open up other connections. I put Mr. Pride on
the back burner.
Step Eight: So, when I met Gary Halbert — at Jay Abraham's divorce party — I
felt ballsy enough to insist on working with him. I wasn't just cocky. I knew I had the
chops because I had proven it by writing winners. I had a track record... and I had taken
title time to learn the tricks of the trade and get good at them. (I would have never dared
to impose myself on him otherwise.)
Step Nine: And mrough Gary, I met up with various clients who have been
faithful to me — to the tune of a million smackeroos — for a decade. Plus, along the way,
I met up with savvy printers, list brokers, media buyers, web designers., and literally
hundreds of other high-quality people in the business of making advertising work.
€> John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 19
I took lessons from each experience, nurtured each new contact, and mastered
what I learned in order to "condition" myself for the next step. Very important It was
becoming clear, by then, that...
Each New Step Was
CONNECTED
To The Previous One.
Like I said, looking back, it appears as if my career followed a logical path. Yet
there was nothing logical about it.
I was just completely open to every opportunity that came my way. I in effect
took a HUGE pay-cut by taking time from each week to work with Jay Abraham.
(In fact, I did work for FREE for him that agencies would have happily paid me
thousands of bucks for.)
I didn't know he was destined to become so famous —I only knew mat what he
was doing was hot, and the results he got were stunning. This was the kind of writing I
needed to get into.
Like I said, none of the ad agencies I freelanced for were going to accept ballsy,
personality-based writing from me. I might still be in LA today, some fifteen years later,
/ working as a high paid copy-whore for the agencies... and making a damn fine living at it
Writing limp, gutless copy for insurance agencies and magazine renewal drives.
But it's not what I was after. I wanted to break into the TOP RANKS of
copywriting. So I kept pushing.
How wffl this "one step connected to the invisible one coming up" concept
help you? It's impossible to say. What was the path you took just to find me? Through
a friend... a series of web surfing sessions... or a mention in someone else's newsletter?
Somehow, you got here. I'm loading you up with tactics to move even fester
along. Your next connection may be the warp-speed one you need to quadruple your
income.
Now, please don't ask to apprentice under me. I already have too many writers
I've chosen to work with, and it will be years before anything opens up.
But then, that's why I'm writing this coarse. It kills me that I can't directly
help more writers... again, because the world is starving for good copy.
Through this course, I hope to get a whole new generation of writers — of all ages,
because great copy knows no physical limits — blasting onto the scene.
© John & Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 20
i Just by reading this course — the only one of its kind out there...
You Are Essentially
Apprenticing Under Me.
All this copy you're reading is exactly what I tell writers I work with personally.
(You're lucky, in a way — you don't have to sit there with an interested look on your face
while I repeat a long story for the third time, trying to make a point you've already
digested a month ago.) (Then again, repetition is the Mother of All Expertise.)
I realize you cannot follow the exact path I took. None of the top writers I
know took the same exact path to success.
But we all earned our reputations. Through apprenticeship (either alone, plowing
through books and mastering the art... or under the tutelage of veteran writers). Through
learning the fundamentals from the right sources and honing them to a wicked sharpness.
And through a disciplined focus on the prize of freedom and independence.
You cannot know how your path will play out. I can only tell you that, years
from now, when you look back, it will look like you'd planned it.
The path is there, because of that "spider web" of connections I told you about It
/" won't be a straight line, but as long as you treat each contact as an important step on your
v path... and treat it like the golden opportunity it is (even if it doesn't announce itself as
such)... I can guarantee that you will move along briskly in your career.
I'm gonna repeat this, because it's so important. You must...
S Take care of the things under your control (mastering the fundamentals of
great writing)...
S Hone your chops constantly, and insist on getting better with each new job...
S Never bristle when an opportunity to learn something new involves doing
something your precious ego may consider a "step down1*...
S Nurture die connections you make like your life depended on it (that's the
next step I'll take you through)... and...
S Have faith that the path is there, even though you cannot see it clearly.
All right I realize I went over these last points several times. I did this because I
know from sorry experience that you NEED repetition to make this stuff stick. When I
personally coach writers, I tell these same stories over and over, until I get the rolling
eyeballs.
0 John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel LLC Section Two - Page 21
And I'm merciless.
When I was learning these steps on my own, I gotta tell you... sitting down to
write a twelfth version of a diet letter, exhausted and pissed off and so ftiggin' bored with
diets and doctors and deadlines I could scream... these rules were my comfort.
Unconscious, sure, but a solid comfort.
For you, they will be conscious. That's a huge advantage.
So let's hear no bitching about my repetition. I'm not going senile. I'm trying to
share with you the secrets of the game. I'm trying to make this Stick.
Whew. Glad I got that off my chest.
Let's move on.
Tune for...
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 22
Rule Number Three;
Work The System
For All It's Worth!
This is what I call "doing the dance".
Each person you meet, from here on out, who is in "the industry" — whether it's a
marketer, printer, another writer, typesetter, designer, or anyone else even vaguely
associated with advertising — is to be treated with maximum respect.
And "mined" for every trace of connective gold he may have.
I'm just going to rattle this stuff off, in no particular order at all. Read this section
once to get familiar with it,, and then read it again to make sure it "stuck" with you.
Then — if you've got the blood of a true freelancer flowing in your veins - I'll bet you
feel an urge to read it a third time. And then a fourth.
When I was starting out, I devoured every sliver of insider info I stumbled across.
If I'd had a list like this back then... well, it would have shortcut my path to copywriting
stardom by a decade at least Maybe more.
Anyway, here's how I "work the system" myself. Included are tips I stole from
other writers, and snatches of cool advice I only became aware of as I counseled newbie
writers.
Let's get after it...
1. Buy yourself a big damn Rolodex — the kind that lets you add and subtract new
cards easily. I don't care how much you paid for your fancy handheld computer
thingamajig — you do NOT want to trust this new information you're gathering to
electronic bytes on some tiny-ass hard drive that could hiccup and lose it forever.
I still have, in a file near my desk, the same battered Rolodex I used twenty years
ago when I was starting out. That's how valuable the contacts I made back then are.
(Side note: Keep all your Rolodex's anyway... because, when transferring info to your
big, new Rolodex — I've had three, total, in my career, changing only when I needed a
bigger one — you're sure to miss some little tidbit that may become important later on.
Once, I lost all current numbers for an important contact. Only by scrounging up my old
Rolodex, and calling up old numbers, was I able to reconstruct a way to find this guy
again. Never throw them out)
Even if you defy me, and insist on using your computers for storing names and
numbers... make sure you also have a "hard copy" Rolodex where everything goes first.
Yes, it's ancient technology. It's also the best technology. Hard copies are 3-D*- you
can still read numbers you've crossed out, turn over the card to see what's changed since
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 23
you reversed the card last year because they moved, and you can staple multiple cards
together. Which gives you a physical sensation when you use that card — there's depth
that instantly reminds you how long you've been dealing with, changing and altering that
particular entry.
Computer databases are more limited. On my Excel spreadsheets, I can't look at
an entire line with scrolling to the right, and can't see how deep the list goes without
scrolling down. If I shrink it all to get a "feel" forthe size, it'stoo small to read. And
anything I delete is gone. In my Rolodex, I have crossed out the name of someone at a
company when they left, and easily uncrossed the name with an eraser when they were
hired back again a year later.
Best, for me, is the way I can hand-write in the margins of the card, sideways, and
tape a new card on so easily. You can't do that on a computer. They're too linear. We
all think in "scribbles'* and "piles" — our brains are NOT like a computer, all neat and
tidy and linear. That's why most creativepeople make notes by hand on paper ~ so you
can scribble, write upside down, connect ideas on opposite parts of the page with long
arrows, erase, rewrite, and erase again.
No matter how "high tech" your office becomes... your best Mends will always be
plain old paper and pencil.
Call this Rolodex ~ even if it's some other brand you end up getting — your
"Million Dollar Rolodex". (That's a term I coined almost fifteen years ago, and it's
been steadily ripped off ever since. You, too, will recognize when you hit on a winning
phrase, because you'll start to see it all over the place.)
You call it your Million Dollar Rolodex because that's what it is. The names you
put in there are your stepping stones to earning your first massive fortune.
Do not be stingy or too neat when filling out each card. Every time you make a
new acquaintance, write everything you know about the guy on a card. All the phone
numbers, the addresses, birthday, number and name of kids and spouse, notes on hobbies,
favorite Scotch, whether they like dirty jokes or think dancing is evil, everything.
You're doing it right when you often have to staple a new card to the old one to
accommodate fresh info. Don't get anal about this — it's okay to use different pens,
pencils, crayons, labels, whatever, to post information. Tape business cards on.
I'm a fen of the "a clean desk is the sign of a sick mind" workplace theory.
Your Rolodex should look like it's ready to burst at all times. Use it, and cherish it as
one ofyout primary tools of the trade. Just yesterday, I added six new names to my
Rolodex Six. Each one, I suspect, could be worth six figures in added incomeJust from
the information and connections they could provide down the line.
Work it, baby.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 24
Very important: Immediately write down the name of their secretary or
assistant These people will often be the MOST IMPORTANT part of the connection
you make.
Let me tell you a quick story: When I started freelancing for Los Angeles
agencies, I instinctively made it a habit to spend some quality time with the receptionist
It was always a "she", and she was nearly always stuck out in the lobby, alone, either
working her ass off for no recognition or bored out of her skull.
So I would talk to her. Not to flirt, or to talk about myself, either. I asked
questions about HER. No one else did that, all day long... unless they were hitting on
her. I listened to long stories about her kids, her hubby, her night courses, her car, her
cat the TV show she saw last night I was always super-polite... and always had a fresh
pack of gum or candy to offer her.
At some places, the receptionist's eyes would actually light up when I walked in.
I was a small bright spot in her dull day.
Why do this? I'll tell you. When I called in, I wasn't just another annoying jerk
looking for work. Nope. I would greet her by name, and she would remember me
fondly.
Result #1: I often got shot through to the people I wanted to talk to, even when
they were in "no interrupt" meetings, or biding somewhere in the building. Vice
presidents would shake their heads when I came in for face to face meetings, marveling at
how much the staff liked me... despite the fact I was only there for maybe an hour a
week.
Another person I got to know at several agencies... was the clerk who cut the
checks in the accounting department Always a guy ~ I don't know why this was so. He,
too, toiled in near anonymity in a dreary office. I would sometimes stop by just to say
"hi". And often I would stop by unannounced (because the receptionist brushed me
through security with a wink) 'just to pick up my freelance check."
Result #2: I often - often — got paid days before the VP had bothered to write a
purchase order for the work I did. That's because clerks, even at lower levels, are like
nurses in the hospital: They are treated as less important than the doctors, but they do
90% of the work, and often are required to make decisions on their own. (If you want to
get the real story on anyone's condition in the hospital, by the way, don't ask the doctor -
- ask the nurse. If s the difference between aloof and barely connected ideas... and hands-
on, in the trenches knowledge.)
I suppose it's dangerous to ignore protocol like this... but then, as I've said, I've
always had a weird thing about authority. I hate bureaucracy with a passion.
€> John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two -~ Page 25
But I LOVE people. Especially the "little people", who so often never get the
credit or attention they deserve.
Simple salesman's tactic: Listen heartily to people, and they will think the world
of you. Use this knowledge to your advantage whenever possible. You'll need it — as a
freelancer, you actually have almost NO real power in most businesses... other than the
power you TAKE CONTROL of early on.
2. Use this Million Dollar Rolodex as vonr "invisible assistant". There's a
delicate balance between being a good contact... and being a bothersome yahoo.
Please make sure you know the difference, right now.
If you don't know how to "work a room", learn. Best place to start: Read Dale
Carnegie's "How To Win Friends And Influence People"... and read it well. If you're
naturally friendly, you'll do fine. If you tend to cause people to bristle — either because
you're rough around the edges, or, God forbid, you're a total jerk — you need to change
your act pronto.
There is little room in the freelance field for assholes. Alpha males do fine, if
they're not abrasive. But in-your-face tactics don't work when the person you're
working for can fire you in a heartbeat
You need to learn the subtle arts of "bonding". I talk about this endlessly in
"Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrete", so I won't go into it much here. Basically, you treat
every contact you make with the same salesman's ability to win over a new customer:
S Listen to him...
•S Make him feel fascinating and droll, and...
•S Enjoy his views on what he does.
If a printer wants to show you the new press out back, go look at it with a child's
awe on Christmas morning. If a businessman wants to talk about his grandkids for an
hour, listen with rapt attention.
This gets incredibly less onerous than it sounds, very quickly. After you've been
around the block a few times, you can choose who you work with, and thus limit the
exposure to boring tales and tours around the lot. In fact, after you're established, you
can get by with the "insider's wink" — a nod and a short appreciative talk about the biz
that lets the other guy know you know how hard he works, you think he's tops, and you
could be a conduit for a ton of work down the line.
Small warning: Do NOT become friends with these people casually. Do not go
out drinking with them, unless you have the super-advanced skills of a guy who can
juggle a heavy social life without offending anyone. Because many of the people you
© John £ Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 26
^
meet will be starved for a buddy... and if you make yourself too available, you'll be
sucked into all sorts of horrible social events you truly can't afford to waste time on.
Now, yes, I count among my longtime Mends many clients, printers, list brokers,
writers and what all. But, early on, when I didn't know how to moderate my "bonding"
skills... I found myself being invited to the weddings of people I didn't know from Adam,
being begged to stop by stranger's houses for Thanksgiving dinners, expected to swap
presents with wives I'd never met on Christmas. One typesetter thought I'd make a fine
husband for his daughter.
You do NOT want to get trapped by these kinds of social obligations.
What you DO want is to get a reputation as a friendly guy who's...
v' Easy to work with (very important)...
S Understands the biz enough to respect deadlines (many writers cause problems
by missing deadlines and screwing up print schedules for months)...
S And who knows what he's doing.
Inother words... you want to be recognized as a...
Trustworthy
Professional.
Okay — that's the short version of "how to work the room". Specifically, working
your Rolodex will be similar... and just as important. Why?
Connections you can 't even see yet
A small businessman you do an ad for may know a printer who can offer
tremendous deals on small print runs. The printer can introduce you to a designer who's
been hunting for a writer to team up with for a few jobs at an agency. The creative
director at the agency can introduce you to other professionals, who will share leads and
talk about you in glowing terms.
And so on. And hey — even if nothing ever comes of your being nice to that
small businessman... you've just completed a little more practice at honing your "face to
face" chops with people.
Don't be shy about asking for referrals, or clearly asking him to spread your name
around as a favor.
3. Okay... let's talk about working with agencies.
<® John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 27
Most towns — yes, even small ones that barely register on big maps — have
advertising agencies. What I've found is this: Smaller agencies tend to have better
writers... because, often, the owner is also the writer. That means there may be a lot of
freelance work. Unless they have so much business, they absolutely need outside help.
As a freelancer, you offer the advantage of being an "independent contractor".
They don't have to pay your taxes or Social Security, or offer you benefits. You can
come in, write the job, and be gone.
Big towns ~ the ones that warrant a spot on the weather page in USA Today -
have a ton of agencies. My experience is that most agencies of any size MAY have one
writer on staff who actually has some chops. Most don't even have that The creative
director may know something about copywriting... but often, these days, designers get
promoted to head of the department Which is insane. They will insist that the "visuals"
are more important than the copy... and the ads will reflect that
And suck beyond comprehension.
Regardless of the town you live in, it's likely mat, among the agencies, very few
will be direct marketing savvy. Some will know how to mail postcards about monthly
sales events, or run big goofy ads with "bring this coupon to our store" gimmicks.
But they won't know the advanced techniques. Like making a direct sale in an
ad. Or generating a ton of leads, cost-effectively. Or, more importantly, working those
leads from cold to hot All the tactics I shared with you in "Kick-Ass Copywriting
Secrets".
This is your opening, of course. Since you are steeped in the fundamentals, you
will arrive like a shining White Knight to save the day.
You'll walk a fine line, however. No matter how good you are, or how much you
know, you have to be diplomatic, because...
v' They will almost never run what you write as you wrote it (since mere's usually
someone in the loop whose job it is to piss on everything)...
v' They do NOT want to be "educated" about advanced direct response tactics
(because they present themselves as experts to the community, and are in denial at
best and scared to death of using results-oriented advertising at worst)...
V And, no matter how good you are, they will not hire you without a portfolio.
Simple thing, a portfolio. For a writer, it's just a folder with six to ten samples of
the work you've done. I actually bought a nice faux-leather one, with a Tipper around the
outside and a dozen transparent protective sheets to hold my work in. You know — so the
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 28
pieces wouldn't get soiled by their filthy paws as they slammed my stuff around their
desk during the interview.
Of course, when you're just beginning, it's hard to put together six to ten samples,
isn't it. I had to cheat, to get the first couple of jobs.
Okay, I didn't actually cheat, per se.
I.,, um... elaborated on certain facts.
You see, in the first few months of my freelancing days, 1 actually presented
myself as a copywriter-slash-graphic designer. I thought being a one-man agency would
sell better.
After the first couple of jobs, I realized I could earn more money as a writer alone.
Graphic artists — also known as designers — really are near the bottom of the food chain.
Especially when you consider that most of the great direct response ads ever done had
almost no "art" to them at all. They were just solid columns of copy, with a coupon.
Designers must deal with all sorts of nasty details that never end. Like color
separation, print runs, getting the client to "like" what you designed, and being totally hip
with technical stuff that NEVER stops changing. When I started out as a commercial
artist hi the late seventies, we were still using Exacto blades and glue. Every single skill I
had perfected back then... is now completely obsolete. Computers killed design as I
knew it
But that's irrelevant. You aren't a designer. You're a writer, aren't you.
As was I. But when I was getting my first jobs, I was faced with the dilemma all
rookies share: How do you get those first jobs, when you need to have already done
some jobs to get mem?
Answer: Lie, cheat and steal.
Okay, don't lie. Stretch a bit And don't cheat—just make do with what you
have. And for God's sake, don't steal. The correct term is "borrow".
I admit it My portfolio, at first, consisted of three ads I "borrowed" from a good
friend, who swore she didn't mind one bit that I was passing off several pages of catalog
copy she'd written as mine. I didn't consider it cheating, because I really did know how
to do it myself.
It's just that no one had offered to pay me for doing it, yet.
And I didn't actually He. I never said it was my copy. I merely said the samples
were examples of the "style" I wrote in. It was true.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 29
It was also pathetic. The other three samples in my little fake-leather folder
consisted of a menu I did for a restaurant, an article I'd done for a small publication an
old girlfriend had put together... and a few of my cartoons from college.
But you know what? It wasn't the portfolio that counted, really. I was being
interviewed by marketing veeps who were under crushing deadlines, and all they wanted
was someone to come in and say they could do the damn job for the money offered, in the
time promised.
I never got turned away without some work. And the first six jobs I did went
straight into my portfolio — first as typed manuscripts, and later as finished letters or ads.
Which, of course, presents you with a totally HONEST way to put together a
portfolio, even before you have your first job. It's not as much fun, but you'll feel better
about doing it
Here's Hie secret: Type up six manuscripts. If you want to really get creative,
type up a short direct mail letter selling something the ad agency already sells. Tell the
interviewer that this is the kind of stuff he can expect from you.
Or, go through a newspaper or magazine, and type up ads selling all sorts of
different businesses and products you find there. A car ad. A lead-generating letter for a
retail store. A postcard for a realtor.
I never recommend that you lie. It's bad karma, first of all, and will come back to
bite you in the ass. But more important., it's not necessary. The interviewer really
wants someone who can do the job.
For the money available. (Or less.)
In the time promised. That means meeting deadlines.
You're going to be an "X-Factor" to anyone the first time out. No matter how
good your portfolio looks, or how nice your tie is... you're a mystery waiting to be
solved. Remember that Put yourself in your interviewer's shoes, and realize the
pressure he's under, trying to find an honest, professional writer who can meet a
deadline.
You're selling yourself, Bucko. Let him know you can do the job.
4. So... I don't have to tell you about wearing a tie and stuff, do I? Are you thathopeless?
After 21 years of freelancing, I don't much give a shit what people think of my
clothes or hairstyle. Heck, I seldom even MEET the clients I write for anymore. And I
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two ~ Page 30
refuse, on some principle I've since forgotten, to either shave or grown a full beard. I
like the week-old growth look. It sometimes startles young children and Republicans, but
if I can't look the way I want to look, what's the good of achieving fame?
The reason is results. I'm no longer an "X-Factor" to anyone. My record is out
there. Being a IMe eccentric adds to my reputation. I show up to speak at seminars in
jeans and sneakers and Hawaiian shirts. And the crowd eats it up.
But you 're not there yet. You still have to play the game... and you will, until you
earn a reputation that precedes you.
Again, you must EARN that reputation. I know a lot of writers who think it's all
about attitude. Which is bullshit. It's all about...
Substance!
After you've earned your reputation through results, you can dress and act
however you damn well please. I've known top writers who show up at client offices
with uncombed hair, smelling of vodka and wearing the clothes they slept in... and
they're treated like KINGS.
Because of the results they get with their copy.
So invest in a tie and sports jacket and slacks, shine your shoes, and comb your
friggin' hair. Present yourself as much as possible as someone the interviewer might
actually know from somewhere. You could be his neighbor, or a guy he's played Softball
with. Someone in his social class he can identify with.
Don't be a threat. Be the professional advantage he's been hoping for, who will
make his job oh-so-much easier.
5. Make sure he understands you know what he's looking for... and you can
DELIVER.
We're talking "service" here. And, used right, it's a way in the door to almost
any agency.
Quick story: One of the first "major" freelance jobs I got was with a medium-
sized agency just outside of Los Angeles. They were mailing a ton of letters for an
insurance company, asking people to check out their rates.
The agency worked solely with professionals, so I guess I looked like one when I
went hi to interview for the job. The VP glanced at my portfolio, without really looking
at it, and told me about the gig. It was mine if I wanted it Write a one-page letter from
the insurance company to cold leads, asking them to mail in a response card.
€> John S. Carhon and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two — Page 31
Seemed simple enough. But there was a rub: The insurance company had
rejected the first four attempts the agency had made. They had in-house writers who had
failed, and a couple of "usual suspects" freelancers, who had also failed. That's why they
were looking for fresh blood.
Okay, I thought First big gig, and I gotta do what experienced writers had
already failed to do. Fine.
The veep told me the job paid two grand, which startled me. I would have asked
for $500, which shows you I had a lot to learn about freelancing. (It also taught me to
keep my mourn shut and let the client initiate all discussions about money.)
Then... he asked me when I could get the copy back to him. They were under a
crushing deadline.
I looked at my watch. It was four in the afternoon. I imagined myself back in my
little apartment bedroom, which was also my office at the time, scribbling headlines and
typing up the manuscript for a one page letter. Didn't seem like a huge undertaking.
"How about tomorrow morning?" I said. "Maybe ten a.m.7"
The veep stared at me for a minute without blinking. "Okay," he said, finally.
So I gathering up the material he gave me, went home, took the phone off the
hook, and got busy. I was working with a cruddy typewriter, so it took several hours just
to create a clean, error-free manuscript page. That was after I'd figured out the headline
and body copy. I constantly referred to my little library of ad books for inspiration and
ideas.
I finished around dawn. Caught a few z's, showered, dressed, and was back in the
veep's office by 9:30 a.m. With finished manuscript.
He stared at me again. Then he read the copy, and smiled from ear to ear. It was
nothing special, to my mind. I just followed the Old School tactics of salesmanship — get
attention with the headline, be personable, and make the pitch. One page. No biggie.
What I hadn't realized, of course, was that / had just delivered the fastest
turnaround on copy the guy had ever seen. He would have given me two weeks to do
the job, if I hadn't offered the overnight version. He'd thought I was a nutcase... but
figured he'd find out one way or another quick enough to go hire someone else if I flaked
out.
But I didn't flake out hi fact, I had...
S Done tihe job, on a professional level that impressed him...
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 32
S Delivered it when I said I would... (actually, I delivered it half an hour before I
said I would, which had never happened to him before)... and...
S I had done it FAST.
Most freelance writers are flaky. They don't get into the gig because they crave
independence and big money, but because they can't hold a regular job.
You're gonna be different You will meet your deadlines, you will deliver good
quality work... and you will earn your money.
That "mistake" I made, by turning a job around overnight, created a buzz in the
agency. That buzz became an instant reputation when the insurance client LOVED the
copy — which, again, was just basic Old School salesmanship. (The writers who had
failed before me had tried to be cute, treating insurance like a joke. Dumb.)
On the next job I got from that agency, I asked for a longer lead time, and got it
But I realized I had stumbled onto something — once you understand the fundamentals of
good advertising, it shouldn 't take you forever to write anything. It's all about basic
salesmanship, and putting it into print
So I continued to meet deadlines earlier than expected. With top quality work.
That got my name passed around among the agencies. Almost instantly, I became one of
the top freelancers in Los Angeles.
Two side notes: My work with that agency showed me crucial lessons that have
stayed with me. First: The vast majority of in-house copywriters suck at their jobs.
They aren't passionate about writing, haven't taken any time to learn from the older
books, and — worse — have been mentored by clueless admen who couldn't write their
way out of a paper bag.
Once I started hanging around in-house writers, my confidence soared. As I said,
all that reading and research I did was meant to bring me up to speed with. them. Instead,
it put me light years ahead of them in knowledge and skill. Very important
Second: I was forced to establish my authority on the job I did.
The veep loved my copy. The insurance client raved about it It was accepted
where four other submissions had been rejected.
Success? Not yet. The veep introduced me to the freelance designer working on
the job, and left us alone in a room "to work it out". I didn't understand. I had written
the letter as a letter. It needed a letterhead and typesetting. Minimal design, if any.
But, astonishingly, the designer immediately told me I had to CUT several
paragraphs of my copy! Why? Because she had already designed the layout of the
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 33
piece, as a self-mailer that was full of dumb graphics. She had left a small area where the
copy should "fit".
And she was adamant
I was in strange waters. I was the new kid, on my first big job, dealing with an
experienced freelance designer who was out to take control. A voice in my head
suggested that I just go along with it. A weak, whiny voice.
Screw that A louder voice won the day. I stayed calm, but inside I let the anger
rise. This copy, I said evenly, was just approved by the client, after all other submissions
had been rejected. You don't cut copyto fit the design. You redo the design to
accommodate the copy.
This did not go over well, but I stuck to my guns. The veep was visibly upset that
we hadn't "worked it out"... but he had to agree with me. I was, after all, on the side of
the angels: Fundamentally-sound salesmanship.
Now, I was nice to that designer. I even sent her a couple of design jobs later on.
But I would not let her win that argument My ace in the hole was the client, of course —
if it came down to design vs. copy, I was pretty sure they would back me up.
It was a good, cruel lesson to learn early. I come from the designer ranks, and I
truly mean them no harm. But in the real world, the "artsy" desires of designers HAVE
to take a back seat to good advertising. Sometimes, the first thing I do when I consult
with a client, is to have him FIRE the in-house designer. If the guy has gotten much
power, his obsession with art will murder the marketing.
It's one of the reasons I knew I had to get away from working with agencies
exclusively. Designers were becoming creative directors, for cryin' out loud. There was
a growing sense, even among the agencies that called themselves "direct response
experts", that copy wasn't necessarily king. That design was important (It is not.)
I was driven to the ranks of entrepreneurs, because they had their OWN money on
the line when they advertised. So they weren't about to waste it on fancy art when art
doesn't sell anything.
Okay, I'm not going into that rant again.
Agencies can be a great source of freelance work. In fact, I highly recommend
you do it Just be prepared for an ongoing battle between advertising that "looks good",
versus the stuff that "sells good".
6. Agencies aren't hiding.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 34
I made a conscious decision to do early freelance work with agencies.
Fortunately, I lived in a big city, where lots of agencies resided. I roamed from San
Diego to north of Los Angeles (and even flew to San Francisco once). For a couple of
years, I was a real hot-shot writer specializing in agency freelance.
How did I find them? First, in the want ads. Yep. The Los Angeles Times want
ads, under "advertising", "copywriting" (not many ads showed up there), and "writing".
Just using the want ads connected me with large agencies — including some worldwide
agencies who had just opened new offices on the west coast — as well as tiny agencies
that consisted of a single team of writer/designer (usually a duo who had escaped a larger
agency to try it on their own).
I also met several agencies mat were, essentially, one guy with a secretary.
You can also simply hit the Yellow Pages, and start calling the listed agencies. If
they use freelance work, you'll get an interview. They're hungry for talent.
Another source was the industry publications, like Adweek and Ad Age. These
days, there is also a directory of agencies published by North American Publishing
Company. Check out www.napco.com. Also look at Target Marketing and Inside Direct
Mail (formerly Who's Mailing What).
Decide what your "area" is — what cities you're willing to work in, drive to, and
deal with. Get the info on the agencies inside that boundary... and start working them.
Okay... what do you say when you're talking with agencies, and who do you talk
to? If you're answering an ad, you'll be directed to the right dude. If you are referred by
someone else, you'll begin your interviewing process with whoever you meet first.
Agencies follow a loose hierarchy. In larger agencies, you want to talk to the
Creative Director. This person will not be able to sign checks for you, but is in charge of
entire projects. If you cold call, ask for the Creative Director. You may get shunted off
to someone else, but start there.
Smaller agencies often forget titles. It's just the owner, the designer, the writer,
the media buyer, a secretary or two. So, if you're cold calling, you start with whoever
answers the phone.
Here's a simple "contact" strategy that works: Write up a killer ad for
yourself, a one-pager, with a headline something like this:
© John S. Carhon and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 35
"Local Freelance Copywriter
Writes Simple Ads That Doubles The Customer Base
For 3 San Francisco Businesses In A Row!"
Dear Mr. Boweevil,
My name is Bob Jones. I'm an experienced local freelance
copywriter whose work you've probably seen around town... in the
newspaper, in the mail, the Yellow Pages, and inside of retail
stores.
I'm already working with XYZ Agency here in town — the
creative director there, Jack Jacobs (213-4444, extension 33),
will vouch for me. [Alternate sentence: I am currently working
with ABC Store across town — the owner, Joe Joseph, will be
eager to vouch for me. Call him at 213-3333.] I meet all
deadlines (especially the panicked, "need it yesterday" kind)...
I can write all the necessary copy for any project... and I can
handle research and brainstorming.
I'd love to show you my portfolio, and see if I can help
you as a freelancer. I have a sense of humor, I work well with
everyone... and I know my place when I'm freelancing. I'll be an
experienced option you can call on when your regular staff is
maxed out.
You can reach me or my voice-mail anytime at 213-5555. In
emergencies, my cell phone is 213-6666. Fax is 213-7777. Email:
BJ@freelance.com.
I'll call you tomorrow just to touch base, and if you like,
we can set up a time to meet.
Thanks.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 36
Work on this letter as if your career depended on it. Because it might
Do you understand what I did in this example? Very important...
S I used a headline that credentialed me immediately as a freelance writer...
who is local... experienced (very important word ~ creative directors deal with
inexperienced writers all the time, and it makes their lives miserable)... and has
actual results I can show you. It's a bold statement that a rookie writer COULD
NOT MAKE. This is a hot button with agencies - finding talent that has
PROVEN they can get the job done.
S I personalized the letter. That shows him I did some basic research to find out
who he was. You can do this by asking around (most agencies in any town know
the players at other agencies)... or by doing some simple detective work. Call the
agency and — gasp — ask the receptionist for the name of the creative director. If
you must play games, tell her you're trying to fax something to the creative
director, and need the correct spelling of his name. Then read off the fax number
for the agency that you have, and ask her if it's the right place to send a fax to the
creative director's attention. (Tip: Sometimes, agency heads will purposely
misspell their names in the phone book, and especially in listings
•S Finally, I got specific. With names, phone numbers, and details of what I can do.
Just as important.. I did it SHORT and PITHY. I showed I can get across ideas
without mumbling, in short, punchy sentences packed with info. In essence... I'm
selling him with a real damn ad! I offer service, I take initiative (by telling him
Fll call tomorrow, thus saving him the trouble), and I answer MOST of the
questions he would have about any new writer right up front In short...
I make his decision to say "YES"
very easy.
You will use this ad several ways:
(a) Minus the headline, it's the text for the first conversation you have with people
who are hi a position to hire you — a shorthand explanation of who you are, and
why they should even entertain the concept of using your services.
(b) It's a great letter to send out in a Federal Express envelope. Also try attaching
a grabber above the headline, like a lottery ticket (so you can say in a short
opening sentence that you may have just made him a millionaire) or a dollar bill
("I needed to get your attention right away, and I thought a dollar bill would do
the trick...")
(c) If you can get the exact email address of the person you're after,email it Just
pay attention to the all-important subject line — don't be cute, and don't be obtuse,
or you'll get deleted as spam. Work on the subject line as hard as you would a
© John £ Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two ~ Page 37
headline, cuz that's what it is. Best tactic: If you have an introduction from
someone known to the recipient, put that name in the subject line: "Jack Johnson
asked me to email you." Or, if you're answering an ad or a request to send
information, put "Here's the info on the new freelancer you asked for."
(d) Finally... I would fax it. You have less restrictions on your headline than with
email. Have a one-page cover sheet directing this one-page letter to the right guy.
Think of how it might be received, even if you fax it to the wrong department:
"Hey, here's a fax for Boweevil. Looks like an ad. Better get it to him right
away..."
Now, you'll notice mat I assumed you HAD success stories and a full portfolio to
show. That's because, if you do NOT have success stories, then you aren't ready to be
hitting the agencies. They are busy, always in a panic, and have zero time to hold
anyone's hand. Think of a front-line trench in World War I — bombs going off,
confusion everywhere, every man for himself.
It will be a little scary, at first... but scary in a good way. Exciting. Adrenaline
dump-city. Center of the universe kind of action. It can get addictive.
And, as a freelancer, you won't even usually be called unless something went
wrong. They're over their heads in some project, or someone quit or got fired, or the
client hates the first attempts, whatever. Again, you are the calm, experienced
professional who can walk in and do a high-quality job, on time, for the money available.
Side note: Many agencies will try to hire you outright, because they are hungry
for writers who can do the job, on time. It's up to you whether you take the offer or not
I was tempted, a few times. But working with an agency wasn't my style anymore. I
craved the action, freedom and bigger paychecks of the freelance world.
_ _ agencies.
The easiest way to get freelance jobs with agencies is to walk hi there with a
stunning portfolio of winning ads. You can point to them and say, "this one pulled five
times cost, this one brought in eight thousand leads, this one is still running profitably
after two years..." and so on.
That's Mr. Confidence in action.
Agencies can pay quite well. But if you go in there without a clue how to meet a
deadline, you're sowing an instant reputation as a flake. Don't do mat
Do your Shameless Whoring with...
Small Private Businesses.
© John S. Carbon and Marketing Rebel LLC Section Two - Page 38
They also advertise in the want ads.
And, they use search engines to find eopywriting help online. (I explain this in
detail in the update material with this course — I prefer to use updates, because online
"action*' changes so fast.) Everything I explain here goes equally well when you're
dealing with clients online.
Here's one great way to find a very large and very local source of potential
clients. In...
The Yellow Pages.
Either the hard-cover yellow pages with your phone book, or the online versions.
Just pick a niche. Dentists. Garage door repairmen. Landscapers. Attorneys. Pet
groomers. If you have any experience with a particular industry, focus on that Was your
uncle a plumber? Did you just quit as a chemical engineer? Do you know the restaurant
biz?
Remember, when you're starting out, you cannot focus on getting paid. What you
want are JOBS. You haven't proven to anyone — not clients, not yourself — that you can
meet a deadline, that you can sit at your desk and come up with good copy that sells, that
you can deal with clients on any level.
Get those first jobs out of the way. Jump in the pool and get wet.
I wrote menus for restaurants. Fascinating work, that. I went waaaay overboard
on the imagery ("moulhwatering slabs of prime beef, grilled with a magician's talent on
state-of-the-art stoves..." for a Mggin* hamburger joint). But I did the job. I worked out
the kinks. I met with the client, found out what he wanted, met the deadline. And got
paid $30. It took me a week to write it up the way I thought it should be done.
Find small businesses who have stupid Yellow Page ads. There's always one or
two who forget to include a phone number or directions to the store. Others have a big
photo of their front door, as if that had any sales value. Most are pretty clueless.
These will not be easy jobs. Call them up, tell them you're a freelance advertising
specialist who works cheap. This is the only time in your career the words "work cheap"
will escape your lips. You're busting your cherry here. Money isn't important Doing
the job is.
The jobs will not be easy because lite client will be clueless. He won't value good
advertising. He will only hire you if you work for almost nothing. Don't try to educate
him - just give him a basic ad that sells his business or service or product Use simple
direct response techniques and ask for some sort of action. Write a free report he can
handout.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 39
( Offer him the benefits of good salesmanship-in-print.
Tip: If you don't understand his business, get him (or whoever is the most
coherent salesman in the office) to give you their basic sales pitch on tape. You record it.
Transcribe it yourself. In that transcription, you will find the main benefits and the
Unique Sales Position. (If they don't have any benefits or a USP, they're probably not
gonna be in business for very long.)
The easiest job you can do is to get their sales pitch down on paper. Make it into
a letter, just as I describe in Chapter Three of "Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets". Show
them how to mail the letter to potential customers.
Finding local businesses who need basic advertising help... and offering it to them
cheap... is the single BEST way to get your Shameless Whoring done.
It's also a GREAT way to collect real clients when you're ready to launch your
career as a Lean And Mean Writing Machine.
When you can walk into a businessman's office and show him six ads you've
done for similar establishments... and quote the results to him... and show him
testimonials from satisfied clients... and photocopies of canceled checks you've been
paid... you lay down your own reputation, whether he's heard of you or not.
It's the largest UNTAPPED reservoir of potential pay ing clients in your town.
Every single business in town needs advertising. Most of them absolutely suck at it. You
arrive with the means to quickly give them ads that bring in results.
There are two strategies that work here:
(a) Specialize in one or two niches... and "go deep" in them, so you become
an honest expert. Know the lingo, the history, the details, the players in the
industry. Read the insider publications. So, when you walk into a business,
you can walk the walk and talk the talk... AND you know how to advertise.
You're a professional in their business. And the expert on advertising for
their particular niche.
(b) When you're confident you can create ads that will work... offer to run
the first test yourselfl Pay for me mailing, or for the newspaper ad. Help
them track response, so they can SEE the results. The deal is, they will pay
you handsomely if you can prove your ads will work. Not much of a risk,
actually, once you know what you're doing.
Think about it. Almost NO business in your town even knows how to capture the
names of customers. Or what those names are worth in a lifetime customer. They don't
know how to run ads that sell their product outright, using guarantees and free staff that
increases the "perceived value".
€> John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LUC Section Two - Page 40
They don't know how to run lead generating ads. Don't know how to mail to
those names and work them from cool to boiling hot
In short... they don't know ANYTHING about direct response advertisingor
marketing.
You DO know about it You've taken the time to get hip to the tactics mat work...
you've worked out your rookie mistakes... and you have proven (to yourself, and to other
clients) that you know how to write copy that sells.
You are GOLD to any business that needs new customers, increased sales,
more cashflow. And... is there any other kind of business in your town?
Now, you aren't going to get any jobs with Wal-Mart or Home Depot They have
their own in-house agencies, and they don't use freelancers.
But Joe's Hardware Store is a prime prospect. So is Anytown Pharmacy. And
ABC Auto Repair. And even the local plumber, dentist, veterinarian, baker and
candlestick maker.
Here's the strategy: You can use a version of the same letter we wrote for
( agencies. Headline, personalized (very important), lots of references to businesses they
might recognize, people they can call to check you out
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 41
"Local Advertising Copywriter
Writes Simple Ads That Doubles The Customer Base
For 3 San Francisco Businesses In A Row!"
Dear Mr. Boweevil,
My name is Bob Jones. I'm an experienced local "freelance"
copywriter whose work you've probably seen around town... in the
newspaper, in the mail, the Yellow Pages, and inside of retail
stores.
I am currently working with ABC Store across town — the
owner, Joe Joseph, will be eager to vouch for me. Call him at
213-3333. And I have written ads (which worked like crazy) for
DEF Plumbing, Bozo Banks, and Mom's Retail Store. I meet all
deadlines (especially the panicked, "need it yesterday" kind)...
I can write all the necessary copy for any project... and I can
handle all research and brainstorming.
Just let me know what you need, and I can have it for you
almost overnight. And you'll see an immediate boost in business.
I'd love to show you my portfolio, and see if I can help
you with ads that work like bring in new customers, increase your
cashflow, and keep your name and reputation hot. I have a sense
of humor, I'm experienced, and I work well with everyone.
You can reach me or my voice-mail anytime at 213-5555. In
emergencies, my cell phone is 213-6666. Fax is 213-7777. Email:
BJ@freelance.com.
I'll call you tomorrow just to touch base, and if you like,
we can set up a time to meet.
Thanks.
P.S. I've included some testimonials from other clients you might
find interesting.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two ~ Page 42
You'll notice I've changed it a bit. Most businesses aren't familiar with the word
"freelance". You may even have to explain yourself as an "independent one-man
agency" to them. (If you're experienced in getting stuff printed, stamped and mailed... or
in dealing with newspapers in getting ads inserted... you may want to offer those services,
too. I did, at first, but I dropped that option quick. Very time-consuming, very full of
grief. Let the client do the footwork. You're the writer.)
I wouldn't send a testimonial sheet to most agencies... but I would to regular
businesses. You're upping the salesmanship here. Most business owners won't even
want to meet with you unless they have a dire need for advertising help. (Agencies will
meet with you even if they can't use you, just to see what you have.)
So get testimonials. I show you how to write them up in "Kick-Ass Copywriting
Secrets". Short, to the point, one or two sentences max. Get across a major point - like
how you took their tired old ads and made them work again... or how you doubled
business overnight with a postcard... or how you created a Yellow Page ad that made the
phones ring off the hook.
Simply list these testimonials, one after the other. If you only have one or two,
put them in the P.S. of your sales letter. If the businessman giving the testimonial will let
you use his full name, with a phone number to call, so much the better. Some will so
ecstatic with the help you give them, they'll bend over backwards to help you (yes, even
after paying you a fat fee). If they're paranoid about "letting our secrets out", then you'll
have to dilute the testimonial by using initials and saying "local plumber", instead of
"XYX Plumbing". Use what you have. These are great credentials that say "this guy is
experienced and has success stories."
Send your letter to the head guy by Fed Ex... use it as the basic text when you
meet in-person... and fax or email it. Just like we discussed in the agency section above.
Remember that you are NOT imposing on him. Businesses need ads to survive.
Most of them suck at it You have the chops to help immediately.
You're gonna be the best thing that happens to him all year.
Last note: Does the idea of working on the come line (in other words, making
any money you earn dependent on the success of your work) make you sweat? You
should know that many top writers get NO FEE whatsoever up front They only get paid,
on a commission basis, once their ad proves itself as a winner. We'll talk more about this
in Getting Paid. They do this because... you're working with proven tactics here. If you
have your fundamentals down, you're aren't really risking much. Yet you are setting up
a dramatic way to make your client understand your worth. It's all about Mr.
Confidence.
8. Ask for referrals. And testimonials.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 43
You know what most small printers are printing all day? Flyers and ads and
business cards for small businesses. Most of those flyers will suck completely.
So, let the printer know you're a hot little copywriter open to working with local
clients who need some expert ads created.
List brokers are dealing with businesses every day. Who need to mail good direct
response letters to lists. Let the broker know you're a writer with a track record. Same
with lettershops. Photographers. Local newspapers and magazines. Real estate
giveaways.
Find the local freelance designers in your area, and introduce yourself. Run an ad
in the want ads describing yourself and ask for work.
Are you online? Find marketing bulletin boards, and lurk until someone asks a
question you can answer with authority. Do not try to sell your services — that will get
you spammed in a hurry. Rather, become the calm voice of expertise. Give away advice
and tips. Make sure you're easy to find.
That's a great secret among top writers, you know. We don't hold back anything
at all when we talk about our craft We just lay it out there. Anyone who can take good
notes will have the exact gameplan we would use if they hired us.
And you know what? They hire us anyway. Because, again, while great
advertising isn't brain surgery, it does require actually writing skills, and you only get
those by writing. What you do may look easy to an outsider... but to any businessman
who's struggled trying to create a good ad, your skills are vividly apparent.
Look — I don't know anything about the town you live in. If it's a big 'un, you
may have something Creative Guilds that meet every week or so. This is sort of a club
for professionals in the ad biz -- they meet for drinks and gossip and to spread the word
of their services. I belonged to the one in Los Angeles for a year or so. It didn't pay off
much in terms of jobs, but I got to "feel" like a pro for an evening.
There are gatherings called "lead groups" in most towns. They meet at hotels
early one morning each week (or every other week), and include all sorts of business
owners and service people. There's one here in Reno that includes several casino
owners, construction company owners, printers, ad execs, and marketing mucky-mucks
from several different businesses.
Is it going to be simple finding all these connections in your town?
It should be, if your head is straight. I know that, no matter where you live, you
could drop me there almost penniless, and within a day or two I will have made vital
connections that would lead to high-paying gigs.
€> John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel,LLC Section Two - Page 44
Get off your ass and get on the horn. Call hotels, and see what conventions are
coming up that are open to the public. See if lead groups meet there. Call printers, and
ask for a tour, and while you're there, leave a card. Work the town like you owned it
And when you do something the client loves, get it down on paper as a
testimonial. Keep it pithy: "I hired Joe Bazooka here to do my weekly ad for the
newspaper, and I can't believe how well it works! Where we used to get maybe five
people from our old ads, now we get dozens every day." Jack's Hot Dog Stand.
Side note: Don't be afraid to reward people who send work your way. In fact,
it's not out of line to offer up to 10% of your first fee to the guy who recommended you
to the new client It's not technically a "kickback", which is a deplorable Mafia tactic
where some middleman gets a cut of the pie. No. It's rewarding someone who
introduced you to someone you may have never met otherwise.
I do "joint venture" deals all the time with people who have lists I could not easily
get to on my own. They endorse me to their private lists (which they've built up over
years), and urge their customers to buy my manual. For this, I often give them a huge
share of what I earn — up to half. It's worth it... because, as I said, I could not have
otherwise reached this new customer base.
And, the endorsement of the main guy is worth a LOT — just his saying "this is
something you should buy" can increase sales to that targeted list by 100% or more.
Don't be penny wise and pound foolish.
9. Work the seminar circuit,
Every month, there are numerous seminars around the country on marketing,
advertising, and doing business within certain niche markets. Save up your bucks, and go
to at least one major seminar by a big-name marketing expert They can be expensive,
but they're worth it for the networking opportunities alone.
Get on as many email lists of the big "guru's" as you can. Most have free email
lists, and you'll be notified of upcoming events.
Don't be shy -- don't be pushy either, of course — but meet your colleagues-to-be,
and soak up all the insider info you can. The people you meet at these big seminars have
the ability to change your life with a simple introduction to someone who will hire you.
Also, if you decide to specialize in any particular niche — like, say, dentists — find
out about their main annual seminars. Both the "official" ones, by the professional
organizations, and the ones held by coaches and entrepreneurs. Get to know everyone
you can, spread your name around as a copywriter who knows the market
€> John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two ~ Page 45
This is where your understanding of "how to win friends and influence people"
will come in super handy. You'll be working the rooms for contacts and networking
opportunities.
10. Become an educator.
One of the bad things about knowing how to create great advertising... is that it
can be a vfiry lonely business. Very few people are pre-sold on the idea of long copy,
ballsy headlines, capturing names and working them.
One of the good things about knowing these secrets... is that you can stand up and
become a voice of reason and truth. With total confidence. Because you're not blowing
smoke up anyone's ass... you really DO have the secrets to making businesses wildly
successful.
Plus... you're a writer. So you can use your skills to spread your own fame.
Write a column about advertising for your local newspaper. This is great
especially in small towns, or in cities with neighborhood papers. Be bold — the great
secret is that most people out there are dying to be led. If you have the chops, stand up
and shout Make noise. Become the face of expert advertising.
If the local rag won't let you do a column (and offer to do it for free — it is, after
all, free advertising for you)... men buy space and create your own "bought" column.
Doesn't make any difference. This is a specialty of real estate brokers, who often buy
full pages and run editorial-style "advice" columns that give them the look of the Big
Guy On The Block.
Local talk radio in smaller markets may be ripe for a show. When you're ready to
give lectures, don't hesitate to offer your services at seminars. This is a whole unique
game, seminars... but there are so damn many of them these days that openings for new
lecturers keep opening up. It's advanced stuff, however.
Heck, I've even arranged to give my own little seminars locally. Just rented a
room in a hotel, advertised for a free seminar giving away incredible marketing secrets,
and let it ride. I tried to avoid risking too much money on these, however. High risk
business, even giving info away free.
If I did it again, I would target specific local markets... like, say, dentists, or
plumbers, or bar owners. Then I would mail them several pieces urging them to attend,
teasing them mercilessly with secrets. And have a special kit of information to sell them,
along with boilerplate ads they could take home and use for their own purposes. And, of
course, I would offer my services as an advertising writer and consultant
6 John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 46
It's a quick way to establish yourself as the "go to" expert in any given
industry. Just make sure you have the chops to back up what you promise. Again, when
you have results and experience, the world becomes your oyster.
Don't do anything that takes a lot of time, because you're basically just
establishing your name. You won't get a ton of direct business from this stuff... you'll
just be recognized more when you directly contact a business. That's the rub of PR.
But you get to "soften up" local businesses, by talking about results. About the
IX)ttOin MB& All Other columns and "experts" in advertising will talk about the ad, as if
that's the most important thing. It isn't The most important thing is the results any ad
can stir up. Nothing else counts.
Business owners will definitely perk up when you start talking numbers. About a
letter that brought in thousands of new customers.
Or an ad that consistently sells product through the mail.
About a headline change that tripled response rates.
About lead generating tactics that doubled the size of a local business.
Soften 'em up... while taking on the job of "local advertising expert". It works.
Side Note; Dan Kennedy, one of the sawiest marketers I know, once confided
that no client who had found him through any of the published things he'd written ever
asked him what his fee -was. They just hired him, because bis "credentials" were
established in print. And they paid what he demanded.
That's food for thought, ain't it.
11. Offer free consulting to businesses.
Run an ad, or do some direct calling to smaller businesses where you can actually
talk to the guy who signs the checks. Offer to stop by and do a special "10 Point
Marketing Evaluation" for them, free.
Do a real job, too. Ask to see all current advertising, what worked in the past,
what doesn't work, what goals they have. In your ten points, make five of them an
honest critical assessment of their current job. Don't be cruel, but be honest. If their ads
suck, be diplomatic but firm.
By the way - you really want to do this for businesses whose ads suck. Don't
waste time on companies where you would have to break your back to beat their current
efforts.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 47
( The world is crammed wim busmesses who know mey have to advertise, and who
spend a fortune doing it... with crummy results. These are the guys you want to court.
You can help them, easy. Fast. And the results should be so dramatic, you'll be a hero,
12. Offer "grunt" services to large agencies where you need to get a foot in the
door.
Maybe every agency in town is already overstocked with copywriters for a while.
Don't get mad — get busy. Offer to write the "fulfillment*7 stuff for them — everything
other than theactual ads.
I've done this for agencies (writing a booklet on learning to fly Cessna aircraft)...
and for large mailers like Phillips Publishing (writing special reports on financial advice).
It's not very exciting work, but it gets you in the door.
And when you do a great job, and meet the deadline, and show them you're a total
professional, it's easier to get the next freelance gig that comes up.
13. Keep your "sales pitch" circulating.
Never bother anyone with a "normal" resume. Resumes are boring and seldom
read. Plus, savvy businessmen know they're mostly lies, anyway.
No. Instead of a resume, write a killer one or two page letter or website that
actually SELLS your services. Don't be cute — be a salesman. Personalize the letter to
each person you send it to. Talk about what you can do for them. Credentialize yourself
with testimonials and results you've gotten with other gigs.
My best pitch had a California lottery ticket attached. Nice grabber. And I was
able to open the letter with the line "... I may have just made you a millionaire." The
lottery tickets cost me a buck each. The buzz they created was worth a fortune.
Get hi the habit of mailing your killer pitch out a lot, and follow it up with a
phone call. "Hi, I'm Jack Jones. I sent you that letter with the lottery ticket attached a
few days ago. Did you get it?"
Don't be pushy, but don't be shy, either. If you have to do some Shameless
Whoring with a new contact as a way to get in the door, do it Unless, of course, you're
making too much money sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.
14. Always have business cards handy.
Now, I don't have business cards. But that's because I'm in a position not to have
them. Unless you have something like a tattoo on your forehead, you do need a business
card to help contacts remember who you are.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 48
This is Hie ONE time in advertising you can actually be "cute". I once passed out
matchbooks with my name and phone number on them. Memorable.
Mostly, though, I just created simple cards with my name and numbers, and the
term "Proven Professional Freelance Copywriting" on them. When I got smart, I had a
second phone line put in the house, and often wrote it on the back of the card before
handing it over, saying I was giving them my "secret" phone number. Created a little
drama, a sense that they were special.
It worked,
Tip: Do NOT let a designer do your cards. He will make your phone number so
friggin' small, you need a microscope to read it Do the simplest card you can, using
plain old Times Roman typefaces (the kind I'm using in this body copy), and a type size
big enough for a squinty-eyed old geezer to read easily from arm's length.
I'll say it again: Design has almost NO VALUE in great direct response
advertising. If you do work with designers, make sure they are absolutely in tune with
this. The large mailing houses have designers on staff... but they are all taught that copy
is king. Their job — their ONLY job — is to create simple designs that make the copy
easy to read. They are at the bottom of the food chain, glorified assistant artists.
When they're good, they're worth a high fee... because they know how to make
the copy easier to read. You don't even realize you're looking at something that was
designed.
But they are NOT experts in direct response.
15. Offer "grunt* services to established writers.
We've already talked about this tactic. Basically, if you ever get the opportunity
to apprentice under a veteran writer or adman or marketer, do it.
Just make sure you have the chops to do right by him. No writer can use a helper
they have to baby-sit
This is very important: You must know jw«r.se^thoroughly. I get letters all the
time that go like this:
"Greetings, Mr. Carlton. I want to be your
slave. I'll do anything. I am not a good writer yet,
but I just lost my job, and my wife's having another
baby, and I just KNOW that if you would take me under
your wing and teach me everything you know..."
€> John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two — Page 49
Yada, yada, yada. This stuff makes me mad. You don't get ahead by groveling
and begging and hoping someone will take pity on you. Especially in this business,
which routinely eats meek people for lunch.
So, if you're weak on the fundamentals... or you're still wet behind the ears... or
you haven't really got anything other than your "hopes" to offer... don't bother the
veterans. We're all way too busy to take on anyone who can't get it together to even
work through the basic steps to get good.
It's an insult, really. But not as bad as the other side of that coin... which goes
like this:
wHi John. Listen, I'm the guy who can turn your
life around. If you'll just teach me everything you
know, I'11 give you the benefit of my amazingly high-
powered brain... and I promise not to become a better
writer than you for at least a couple of years..."
Yeah, right That's who I want in my life — a self-absorbed asshole who shows
the trustworthiness of a rattler.
So don't come begging, and don't come swaggering. The writers I choose to
work with are guys I've known for a long time... and this is important, because when you
work close, you for sure want the other guy to be agreeable and "in synch" with you.
You need rapport and loyalty. And talent that has been forged in real-world experience.
What works is basic professionalism. You get your chops honed, your
fundamentals sharp as swords, and you get some results together.
So when you do approach a writer you want to work with, you can say:
"My name is Jack Jones. I've worked with So-And-
So and Whatsisname, who I believe you know. I have
done over a dozen writing jobs that resulted in
winning controls, and I've written website copy that
has captured over a thousand email names in just a
week.
If there's anything I can do for you, I will
gladly do it free of charge, under whatever
circumstances you outline. I will leave my ego at
home. The chance to apprentice with you for even a
short time, doing minor work, would be exciting for
me. If you're interested, call me or email me at..."
Get the difference? No top writer is interested in saving anyone's life. Or pulling
anyone out of the gutter. But many top writers ARE interested in someone who can
make their life easier... by being a self-starter who can handle complex directions, get the
job done on time, with quality writing... and not expect to be paid.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 50
In truth, you probably will be paid by most writers you work with. But do this:
Insist that the first work you do with him is free. In exchange, you get the benefit of
learning something from him about writing. Let him lecture you, force you to do
multiple rewrites, whatever is necessary.
It will advance your career by leaps and bounds. It's a free education worth a
fortune.
Summary:
Get your head straight, about your worth to the business world and your place in
the scheme of things. Be willing to workyovr way through the rookie stages, until you
know the fundamentals inside-out, and have hands-on experience meeting deadlines and
dealing with clients.
Work your contacts, and have faith in the "spider web" of inter-connectedness that
exists in the advertising world. Be smart Be confident. Establish your authority. And
be wilUng to 5/6/7 6ac ,̂ if necessary, to get yom fundamentals right. No ego. Just a
burning desire to do what's necessary to succeed*
And, finally... get paid. That's the next section. Let's go.
€> John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Two - Page 51
Step Three
How the professionals parlay their
result-oriented writing skills into
cash on the barrelhead.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 1
Step Three
paid"
How the professionals parlay their result-oriented writing skills into
cash on the barrelhead.
ou like money, don't you?
Well... you can't do well as afreelancer if all you care about is money. You have
to be passionate about writing and advertising first If all you want are large paychecks,
get into selling real estate, or smuggling drugs across the border. Those are easier gigs
than freelancing.
However... if you got your hands on this course because you really do want to
write for a living... and you actually enjoy Working the system... well, the financial
rewards can be stunning.
There are three ways top freelancers get paid:
1. Flat fee.
2. Commissions or royalties.
3. Fee plus commissions.
You'll notice I did NOT include "hourly wage". I'm not exactly shocked when
rookies come to me and ask how much they should charge per hour... because I did it
myself at first.
It's just a stupid way to put a value on your value as a writer. When you're just
starting out, it may take you sixteen drafts over two weeks to craft a decent sales letter.
And a more experienced writer would still slaughter you after scribbling down a
fast pitch while waiting for a plane that's half an hour late.
Your brain doesn't work on the hour. It works on experience. When you come
across a job similar to one you've done before, you can draw on what you did. If your
previous effort was a huge winner, you can simply do the same thing again. If it needed
more attention, you probably now know where to fix it up and add some fire-power.
And you won't need to do the same amount of research.
In fact, as you get more experience, you'll see where an ad or letter you did two
years ago for some totally unrelated business is perfect for your current client And
you'll realize mis in a flash — so, essentially, you've just spent zero time figuring out the
concept.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three ~ Page 2
If you were getting paid by the hour, your warp-speed realization would have
netted you not a single dime.
So let's put aside hourly wages right here and now.
Side Note: If you get hired, by an agency or business with an ad department, you
may be offered an hourly wage. Or a salary. It's up to you whether you take what's
offered, or negotiate. If you have serious chops, and Mr. Confidence is behind you
grinning from ear to ear because the job is slam-dunk easy for you... why not ask to base
your salary on results'? Get a piece of the action. A smart business owner will
understand how this could motivate you to do better work. It's a win-win situation.
Why not ask for, say, 5% of the gross. After all the deductions and costs of
running a business are accounted for, 5% of gross can equal 20% of the net profit or
more. That's a damn fat equity position. Yet, unless there's a line outside the door of
proven writers waiting to replace you, you may be able to get it.
Or, if you're dealing with a company whose current marketing efforts are so lame
that you KNOW you can boost profits dramatically, quickly and easily... why not just ask
for 5% of the gross above what the company is earning now, before you've written a
single ad? As a bonus above and beyond your salary. They have nothing to lose,
because it's 5% of money they wouldn't otherwise see.
Say it's a two million dollar a year enterprise. You boost their cashflow to four
million — and there's no question it's due to your advertising prowess, because the
numbers don't lie —and that's a nice bonus. What's 5% of two million dollars? A
hundred grand. Not bad- Especially when you realize that a two-million annual income
is chicken feed for a decent sized company. If you have a ten million dollar a year
company who hasn't mailed to their customer base in five years, has no back end, and
runs confusing ads no one can understand... well, you 'd be the fox in the hen-house.
But, it's up to you, if you decide to go to work permanently for someone. You'll
earn more as a freelancer. You just won't have the benefits package, or the "security" of
a real job. (As if any job hi today's economy is "secure".) But you'll have more fun.
Up to you.
Okay — let's get back to getting paid for freelancing...
The tiling is, when you know what you 're doing, you can live solely off the results
of your ads. You don't have to, but you can.
So let's discuss the three payment options in detail:
0 John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 3
The Flat Fee. This is the easiest and simplest way to get paid. You don't have to
explain the concept of royalties and commissions, and it's a payment structure all
business owners will instantly understand.
Of course, you can still make their heart stop even with a flat fee. When you get
to the top of your game, you should do that routinely. Ask for an amount that makes
them turn pale. It puts you in charge, and gives you more leverage to at least get your
stuff tested if the client balks at what you do.
I have charged different amounts for fees over my career. When I started out, I
was taking jobs for $300 and $500... and happy to get them. The most recent fee I
received for a single direct mail letter was $25,000. Pretty big range.
A lot goes into deciding how much to charge for your services... and how much to
take if you feel like negotiating.
When I began working for local agencies, I immediately discovered there was a
"going rate" for freelancers — $2,000 per job. No negotiation. This was a fortune at the
time, hi the mid-1980s.
One page letter, four-step newspaper ad, telephone scripts, brochures — the
average fee I earned was still $2,000, I would try to get half up front, half on
"acceptance" of the work. This "half and half* arrangement was pretty standard, and still
is. You get half the agreed fee before you even begin the job -- which is why you must
earn the trust of people you work with, and also why agencies prefer to work with the
same freelancers over and over — and after you've made any changes they want, you get
the second half of the fee.
Most agencies and larger businesses will ask for two invokes -- one for the up-
front fee, another for the last payment
Here's a sample of how simple your invoices can be:
€> John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 4
Bob Smith
31 1 1 East Ave. #1 1 , Anytown, N V 89000
775-1 23-1 234/f ax: 775-123-2345
il: bob@smith.com
March 13, 2004
To: Sally Bohunk
Creative Director
ABC Agency
Re: Invoice for Job No. 7654-A (XYZ Insurance Mailing)
Dear Sally,
This will serve as my invoice for the first half of my fee
for copywriting on the XYZ Insurance Mailing project. The amount
of $7,500 is now due and payable to the above address.
Thank you.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 5
And, for the second one...
Bob Smith
3111 East Ave. #11 , Anytown, NV 89000
775-1 23-1 234/fax: 775-123-2345
bobsmith.com
March 13, 2004
To: Sally Bohunk
Creative Director
ABC Agency
Re: Invoice for Job No. 7654-A (XYZ Insurance Mailing)
Dear Sally,
This will serve as my invoice for the remaining half of my
fee for copywriting on the XYZ Insurance Mailing project. The
amount of $7,500 is now due and payable to the above address.
Thank you.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 6
You can get fancy and have your own invoice numbers up top. I do that
sometimes, when my bookkeeper gets on my case. But it's not necessary. It's
paperwork. Just be clear and to the point.
Now, there are not standard fees across the nation. You'll earn more hi New
York City «• usually — than in Des Moines, Iowa.
Just do the simple homework: Call around and find out what freelancers are
getting in your area. Do your detective work.
At the risk of getting a IMe ahead of myself here, let me illuminate you about the
ways fees are handled. It's very simple. Depending on the circumstances, you either...
(a) Take the fee offered...
(b) Negotiate your fee... or...
(c) Tell titem what it will cost to hire yon.
The circumstances are easy to figure out. If you're just getting out there, with no
reputation, you will — most of the time — simply be vying to get the job,and will take
what the job pays. I haven't worked for an agency in years, and it could be that the ones
in your town are STILL offering $2,000 for a basic freelance job. Maybe less.
A businessman may have a figure in mind of what your services are worth. Even
as a freelancer with not much of a reputation, you may want to negotiate that figure a bit
if he's so far below "market value" it's an insult. When you're still Shameless, of course,
you'll take it.
But, as a Lean And Mean Writing Machine, you will have developed a good idea
of what you should get
(Tip: Whenever possible, let the client put the first figure out. Don't offer to do
the job for any "standard" price until you've heard what he intended to offer you, first. It
may be higher than what you had in mind. Don't leave money on the table because you
can't keep your mouth shut.)
The best place to be is to have a solid reputation. And have the potential client
contact YOU, and ask if you can work for him. At that point, you simply tell him what
the fee is, and off you go on the job.
Another side note: Sometimes the client will hand you a contract, if he's had
experience with hiring freelance help before. This is the case with the large mailers.
They have a standard contract they use with most writers.
It's a "deal killer" to refuse to sign it... though you can negotiate the terms. I
have, successfully. But it took a long time and threatened to sink the deal, because
fourteen lawyers and six Veeps had to sign off on any changes, which took forever.
©John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 7
The changes I wanted were mostly to do with deadlines. Often, I would get a
contract late (because the large mailers are so damn big, they sometimes operate like a
federal bureaucracy... you know, like the IRS continuing to send tax bills to dead people
ten years after the funeral). Other times, the deal had gotten confused between the
agreement we made on the phone and the actual printing of the contract, and it had to be
changed. To cover my ass, I refused to start work until (a) I had a clear deadline adjusted
for any lateness on their part and (b) I had the first check in hand.
However, with private clients... even those who have worked with freelancers
before... if a contract is involved, it's up to you to present one. Or not. I've attached
contract samples at the end of this section. Feel free to add to them, or make them even
shorter, according to your paranoia and ability to trust the businessman you're working
with.
Bottom fine: Producing a contract is a way of establishing yaw authority in the
deal. If you leave it to the client, you'll end up with a 40-page document tossed hi your
lap. Try to keep the lawyers as far away as possible. We call lawyers "deal killers" for
just this reason. They can concoct a legal document so Byzantine and convoluted that no
sane person would sign it.
Twisted as it sounds... many lawyers out there consider it their DUTY to wreck
the deal. I don't know what they're teaching people in law schools, but it ain't good
marketing and advertising.
A lawyer will want you — the freelancer — to assume all "risk" in the deal...
meaning, all they can think about when reading ad copy is how some other asshole
lawyer could use the copy as a vehicle to sue the business. It's crazy.
Listen closely: You do NOT assume any risk for the ad. Not ever. Not no how,
not no way. You are merely "translating" a sales message for the client Your skills are
in taking information HE provides you with... and working that information into an ad
that generates sales. You don't manufacture the product, you aren't quality control, you
don't deliver it
You're "just" the writer.
On the other hand... you -want to "own " the ad outright. This won't go over well
with most clients... but if you can swing it, make the arrangement seem like he's
"leasing" the ad to use. This way, if he ever stops paying you royalties, you can legally
forbid him to use the ad anymore.
This is a small difference hi the way most people look at "ownership" of the ad,
yet a large difference in who's right when payments stop. You'll see how some writers
do it hi the contract examples attached at the end.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three — Page 8
Commissions And Royalties. Up until the mid-1980s, writers almost always
worked for a flat fee and nothing more. If there was any equity to be shared, it would be
in the form of bonuses, or making the writer an actual partner in the project.
What changed was the blurring of the lines between copywriter and businessman.
As testing became even more scientific among the larger mailers, the jaw-dropping
differences between what a so-so ad could puU and what a world-class ad could became
VERY apparent
And the top writers decided they deserved more equity in the projects they helped
make successful. It was a simple decision to most savvy businesses — give the really
great writer a piece of the spectacular profits, or go hire a mediocre writer and keep all of
the mediocre profits. Which would you rather have, as a businessman: 100% of
$100,000... or 95% often million dollars?
That's the sort of difference testing was revealing, too. And a lot of top writers
were saying, "Screw you. I'll go write my own ad for a similar product, and start my
own business." And they would.
And, with the superior copywriting they put out, they were in a position to
demolish the original company.
But running a business is so much lessfim that simply being a writer. So, when
savvy businesses agreed to share the profits with the writers, it became a win-win
situation. Businessmen got back to business, and the writers got back to writing. And
everyone got richer.
The very best writers, in fact, are so confident of their ability to write
winning pieces (either letters or ads)... that they don't want ANY upfront fee at all.
So, in essence, the business hires them for NOTHING... and only pays them when and if
what they write becomes a smashing success.
This is really ballsy in the Big Leagues. The top mailers in this country will often
pit two of the best writers available against each other in a project Each writes a piece,
and each piece gets tested, scientifically, against the other. (A decent test at this level can
consist of 25,000 letters mailed of each version. Statistically, you're supposed to be able
to get significant numbers with only 5,000 pieces mailed... but the big mailers aren't
taking any chances.)
Only one piece wins. That winning piece is called "the control". And it will
immediately get mailed to multiple-millions of names. When the writer is insanely
confident of his ability to win the control, he may eschew any initial payment, and
instead demand a larger share of the cashflow his piece brings in. Two common ways to
do this are...
1. Getting a percentage of the gross income generated by the mailing... and...
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 9
2. Getting paid for each letter that is mailed. In other words, it might two
cents per piece mailed... which would be $20 per thousand mailed, $2,000 per
hundred thousand mailed... and $20,000 per million pieces mailed.
It is not unusual for a good letter to mail to 20 or 30 million names (and more)
in the course of a campaign. Do the math. Top writers have become millionaires from a
single control.
Don't start salivating yet, Bucko. There are just a handful of writers of this
caliber in the entire world. And it took them years to reach that level of skill.
Plus... as a control, each time a new list is mailed, another world-class writer is
invited to try to "knock the control out". So just winning the first round is no guarantee
your control will survive the next one. It's cutthroat The mailers are trying to knock the
control out.,, because that means they just found another piece that works better. At that
huge volume of mailing, even a fraction of a percentage point can mean a fortune in new
profits.My first huge winner in this game was with Rodale — and I knocked off their
Number One copywriter (who was none too pleased about it).
That was my first time out for them, too. Took me a month to craft that letter.
And it mailed for over 5 years, despite attempts by other top writers to "knock it out"
on...
EVERY SINGLE MAILING.
That was a bitch of a good letter. And, because it was mailed several times each
year to new lists, I received a nice little check every quarter for the entire time it was the
control. Now, that's easy money.
So why, you ask, would I decide to leave that arena, where the money seems so
thick and heavy?
And I will tell you: Doing those jobs can take years off your life.
For me, it's just not worth it. It can take a month or more just to get the first
manuscript for one of those pieces ready. Then it has to run the gauntlet of lawyers and
vice presidents and a dozen other people who all want it changed at the cellular level.
That process can take another month, easily.
Sure, the money is good... if you win. But, remember, only one piece wins. I've
lost by a fraction of a percentage point in results... and it may as well as been thirty
percentage points. Because all my work was wasted, and I lost. My piece was not put on
a shelf... it was put in the trash. Along with all the other pieces by top writers who, for
whatever reason, were beaten by someone else who got the control
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 10
Bummer.
Now, as I write this, many of the top mailers are having serious (and very stupid)
second thoughts about paying royalties at all. This is because the accountants (bean
counters) have gotten too much power. It's like the HMO's deciding whether you can
have the medical attention you need, based solely on cost.
This re-examination of royalties has caused many top writers to tell these
companies to go screw themselves. Thus, there may be more openings than usual for
copywriters a step or two below "world class" to get a shot they might never otherwise
have gotten.
If your chops are tight and nasty, be my guest to go after one of these jobs. You'll
find the names of the top mailers hi Ad Age and Target Marketing publications. I am not
going to list them here, because frankly... if you have to ask who these top mailers are,
you 're not ready to work for them.
That's not being cruel.
That's being honest.
Okay, here's a hint. (I am so easy.) Rodale, Agora, Phillips, Boardroom. If you
can't take it from mere, you're not in the Big Leagues yet Trust me, when you're ready,
these guys will find YOU.
Back to royalties. Now, these top companies have never, to my knowledge,
offered anyone a piece of Ihe profits. For one thing, they want to keep their profit
numbers a state secret. For another thing, it can be an accounting nightmare. So at most
they will hand out royalties based on per-piece mailed.
But it can be easier to hand out profit sharing for businesses that mail smaller
amounts.
The large mailers try to put out products mat can reach incredibly broad sections
of the population. Like diets, which can mail tomorrow to 50 million names. Or general
health stuff— something like one third of the population of the U.S. over thirty years old
has arthritis, for example. That's 80 million names. Or music — those Time-Life oldies
collections can be mailed to every Baby Boomer on the planet.
Now, say you do work for a business that only goes to Ford Mustang owners.
That's still several million names. But not enough to interest the top mailers.
Or, say you work for someone who has a product he wants to run in USA Today,
which will hit six million people on Friday. But there's no mailing costs to divvy up.
O John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three ~ Page 11
The only number to get a piece of the action on, therefore, is the money coming in on
sales.
I like to work for a percentage of gross profits. Write down the word "gross",
and put it on your wall somewhere you can see every time you talk to a client. Gross
means, if an ad pulls in $100,000 in sales... the gross profit is $100,000.
Rookies at this kind of payment negotiation often agree to take a percentage of
"net" profits. Net means, if an ad pulls in $100,000... the business gets to deduct the
costs of the mailing, the cost of fulfillment, the cost of materials, returns, refunds,
overhead, rent, salaries... and maybe even the cost of sending his daughter to UCLA.
And, out of that $100,000, the net "profit" can be...
ZERO!
Don't ever get suckered into accepting a royally agreement based on "net"
earnings. To the IRS, to their ex-wives, and to you... the "nef' profits on every project
of a money-savvy businessman will nearly always be around zero.
One exception: I sometimes — sometimes, like when I trust my client completely
(or at least know where he lives) — accept a "modified" net to work the percentage from.
This means total money brought in... minus the cost of renmds. Nothing else is figured
in. That kind of "modified" net will make the project still woruiwhile. And it's fair,
because the client bears the burden of those specific costs.
And, once hi a while, it may make sense to deduct the cost of the mailing.
But you get into vicious accounting even there. I like to keep things simple.
That's why I like to work on a straight percentage of the gross. 1 write an ad, it pulls
$100,000 in November... and my check for the month is a percentage of $100,000
(usually 5%). I don't care what else is figured in by their accountant for taxes or
anything else. Okay, maybe they get to deduct refunds. But that's it
I like nice, round numbers. They're beautiful, man,
Side note: I like to receive my royalties monthly. But sometimes the client's
accounting department insists on quarterly. If you're okay with that, fine. If you're not
okay with that, insist right back at 'em that you need monthly checks. Let the accountant
work it out — it's his problem, not yours. I've even worked deals where I got paid
weekly. IMt was J^ but it was difficult to convince the client to do it Still, give ita
shot at least once in a while. Weekly checks are like frequent pats on the back.
Pee Plus Royalty. My fee structure has changed a lot over the years. The last
time I worked for one of the "big league" mailers, I received $25,000 up front as a
guaranteed "draw" against royalties of, I believe, two cents a piece mailed. If I got the
control, of course.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 12
If I didn't win the control, I walked away with the $25,000 for my trouble (which
was over a month of full-time sweat and grief). If I won, I would receive royalty checks
quarterly (every three months), starting the second my royalties equaled more man
$25,000.
A "draw" is an old timey salesman's term for commissions. You'll notice I use
the terms "royalties" and "commissions" here almost interchangeably. To tell you the
truth, I don't think anyone has ever bothered to really define the difference between the
terms, if there is any. Novelists often get royalties on each book sold in book stores.
Musicians get royalties on albums sold.
But the salesman at your local car dealership gets a one-time commission based
on the price the customer pays. Yet your investment broker also gets a commission —
sometimes on each trade, or sometimes an ongoing commission based on the monthly
amount in your account
Slippery terms. Doesn't matter. Most writers use the term "royalty", so you do
that, too. You're getting apiece of the action. And if you write a letter or ad that can be
mailed or run over and over again, bringing in hot profits each time... well, you're in for a
fat check every month.
Now, you can receive the "up front" fee in several ways. It can be a flat,
guaranteed fee that doesn't figure into your royalties at all. I've done that, and I like it
You receive all of it when you begin the job, and nothing more is ever said of it. Of
course, the client hasto trust you like his own blood before he'll agree to that.
Or, you can take mat up front money as a draw "against" royalties. Be careful
here. If you aren't in control of the contract, it could be written in such a way that it's not
a "guaranteed" draw... which means, if you don't write the control, you would have to
pay that up front money BACK to the client (I've never heard of this happening in
advertising, but it has been done in other occupations.)
You want to just get your up front fee, free and clear. It can be paid in two
installments, before you begin the job, and after the job is accepted by the client If it's a
draw against promised royalties, make sure it's a "guaranteed" draw... which means
that, no matter what else happens t you keep the up front money. If your piece doesn't
work or win the control — for whatever reason — you keep it If you do win, your royalty
draw begins when the royalties exceed your guaranteed up front draw.
Is that clear? Pretty simple, really.
So let me make it more complicated, just to let you see how the deal can mutate.
Here are three other options I've encountered:
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 13
1. Financial punishment for missing a deadline. Rodale has done this. In their
contract (which is several pages long and MUST BE READ before signing), it
clearly states that if you miss delivering your manuscript to them on the agreed
upon date, you get dinged a certain percentage of your fee. For every single day
you dally. If you're really late, it can eat up your entire second payment of the
front*end fee. If you're a complete Bozo and come in ridiculously late, they have
the legal right to come after any money they've already paid you.
The way their contract is written, I imagine they can even sue you for damages, if
you get pathological and NEVER turn your manuscript in. (Don't laugh — you must
know some procrastinators... and you must have seen how it can get so twisted that being
chronically late actually ruins their lives. Once, in college, I had a room-mate in a big
house who just could not bring herself to wash the dishes when it was her turn. It wasn't
a time thing — it was a passive-aggressive emotional problem. She pissed off all the
other room-mates to the point that she was ostracized from the group. All because she
created a "crisis" over washing a few nigging dishes. It almost ruined her life.)
I have never missed a deadline. Part of the vow I took — "business before
pleasure" — installed a voice in my head mat refuses to let me sleep if I get behind on
work. It's my duty to meet deadlines. And I never even negotiate with my self about it I
procrastinate on a lot of other things... but not work.
However, a LOT of writers do miss deadlines. It's ridiculous. But it happens.
And the large mailers have a fortune riding on deadlines. It can cost them hundreds of
thousands of dollars to miss a press date — meaning, if the copy is late getting approved,
it's late getting typeset and ready for printing... and if you've never seen the printing
presses required for massive tnafliiigg, you should do that. These monsters aze a city
block long, two stories high. Takes a small army of workers to keep them going.
And you don't tell a big printer "Oh, sorry, we're gonna miss our scheduled
printing date. That's okay, isn't it?" Because it isn't okay.
Thus the contractual effort to get writers to meet then* deadlines.
Now, the unintended consequence of this contractual handcuffing is... you, as the
writer, must demand that the client meet some deadlines of their own,
For example... I do not lift a finger to start a job until I have that first cheek
in my hands. I am not "understanding" about what the client has to do in accounting,
about how checks take two weeks to cut, about their "standard operating procedures" in
paying other freelancers.
Because they're not dealing with "other fieelancers".
They're dealing with me.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 14
So, I will handwrite in my own clause in any contract, that the deadline will be
pushed BACK a full day for every day they're late in getting me the information,
interviews, and other materials I require to start work. Including the first check.
This can make the client apoplectic, because he thinks he's supposed in control of
this thing. And here you are making demands on his cherished contract.
Stand your ground. You 're establishing authority,
I also make it clear that "meeting the deadline" means giving them my finished
draft of the manuscript If they need to put the copy through endless reviews and
meetings with attorneys, accountants and consultants, that's THEIR problem, not mine.
The large mailers understand this, but smaller clients who get cute with contracts
need to be reminded that the "process" of making the copy ready to mail can take longer
than just the time to write the first manuscript., especially if they insist on passing it
through committees. (I HATE committees. Another reason not to work with clueless
mailers.)
I happened to talk to Gary Bencivenga just before bis first project with Kodak.
Now, this guy is one of the best two or three copywriters in the world Understands the
language, salesmanship, mailing tactics, all of it, better man almost anyone else. Yet, the
verbiage in the contract he was sent confused him. Because it was written by lawyers,
who are NEVER forced to be clear.
Gary knows the "game" it can take to get even world-class copy approved in a
large company. So he wanted to be sure it was understood that the "deadline" did not
include the endless revisions he expected the layers of vice presidents, bean counters and
creative wannabe's would demand.
It simply wasn't clear in the contract
The lesson is: MAKE it clear, to everyone involved, what you will deliver, when.
for how much. You'll see how I have done this in the sample contract below.
2. Draw against tbe second half of your up-front fee. Don't panic — this isn't as
complex as it sounds. This simply means that you get the first half of your fee
fiee and clear. But the second half of your fee — payable after you've delivered
your manuscript on time — is "guaranteed against the draw" of your royalties.
Which means your royalty payments don't begin until after your draw on sales is
greater than the size of the second half of your fee.
So, if you get $ 10,000 for the job plus 2% royalties on the gross, you would
receive a check for $5,000 to start, and a check for $5,000 when you meet the deadline.
That money is yours no matter what. If you get the control, the first $5,000 of your
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, JJLC Section Three - Page 15
royalties due are considered "included" in that second check for $5,000. The second your
royalties exceed $5,000, you get fresh checks cut.
Got that? It's all part of the game clients play to rninimize the amount of money
they pay you however they can, while still keeping you motivated with moolah. Most
writers agree to these "draw against royalty" arrangements, because mostly they're fair
deals, and the money will still be good when the royalties kick in.
3. Refusal of second payment. Smart copywriters are what I call "optimistic
pessimists". That means, you're upbeat about the job... but you never bank on
any money you haven't got in hand.
Some clients will put a clause in their contract that allows them to withhold the
second half of your fee if your copy is rejected. It happens. The president may have a
bad attitude, or the creative chief may not like you, or you copy may just scare the living
shit out of all of them.
For whatever reason — including the fact you may have totally missed the mark in
what you wrote — your piece is not approved, and they don't even want to try revising it.
In this case, your second half of the fee may be withheld. I've only had this
happen once, about 17 years ago. The client was a total jerk, and screwed me out of the
second half of my paymentfrom sheer assholeness.
Taught me a good lesson: Don't ever count any money you haven't already put in
the bank.
Doesn't matter who you're dealing with, either. This guy was a born-again
Christian, for crying out loud. I guess he figured he was already forgiven for the sins he
committed against writers (and he went on to screw a LOT of writers).
I didn't get mad. I just chalked up the lesson, and stopped living in a fantasy
world where you can trust people without fear.
VERY 3GMDPORTANT: You should not be a smiling fool as a freelancer, happily
taking every client at their word. The world is full of con-men and crooks and just plain
garden-variety jerks who misuse their power.
Nevertheless... the "contract" I have used most often in my career is to simply...
Shake Hands
On The Deal!
I have several clients I've worked with - on a pure royalty basis — for over ten
years each. No written contract whatsoever. We just agreed to a gentlemen's deal, on
the phone. As simple a deal as we could agree on — I write stuff for them, and they pay
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 16
me a percentage of the gross. Minus returns. That's it That's the deal. No contract, no
lawyers, no accounting gimmicks.
And it's been a healthy marriage for many, many years.
Risky? Sure. But the fact is, if you don't at least somewhat trust the people
you're getting in bed with... you shouldn't be dealing with them.
Now, this isn't practical, or even logical. I highly recommend you get contracts
signed for every job. I have done contracts many times. They legally "cement" the deal.
Still... the startling truth about all contracts for freelancing is that... you really
can't enforce most of them. It would cost you more than the fee you got cheated out of to
prosecute.
And every second you spend in court is a second not spent on Operation
MoneySuck.
I'm not saying to turn the other cheek. I am, however, asking you to get real. To
exist in the real world... where people screw each other, and sometimes observe Hie
Golden Rule ("do unto others as you would have them do unto you").
There are two kinds of people in the world:
1. Those who have experienced our justice system firsthand...
2. And those who haven't
And those who haven't cannot believe the stories of those who have been in court.
It's not like television. The role of the courts is NOT to dispense "justice". It is
to settle matters. To make a legal decision that clears the docket of your situation.
Forget about what you believe is "fair" or "unfair". That's not how the world
works. What's absolutely, unequivocally, no-question-about-it fair to you... is horribly
and wrongly unfair to someone else. And vice versa. And the judge doesn't care a whit
about what you "believe" justice is about.
The unspoken truth about business is that the bigger, badder guy with the nastier
lawyer usually wins. You, as a freelancer, actually have little real power, no matter what
your contract says.
This doesn't make you powerless, however. Not in the least hi feet, you still...
Hold The Biggest
Stick In The Deal.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 17
You know what my secret weapon is, when dealing with clients? I can do things
they cannot They can't write to save their lives. They don't understand salesmanship,, or
direct response. They don't know how to craft a sales pitch, or a sales letter, or an ad.
When you know the secrets of world-class copywriting...
You Are Your Own
Best Insurance For Getting Paid.
Because they NEED you. That's why I like to form relationships with clients.
Work with them for years and years. They are super-motivated to keep me happy... not
just because I'm their "secret weapon" for making campaigns work... but also because I'll
continue to be their main weapon for future campaigns.
I scratch their back, they scratch mine. It's win-win.
And that's why I don't get a rash over the idea of not collecting all of my fee.
Like I said, I've only been burned once hi 21 years.
Still, I never "count" on any other money than what I have at the time. I charge
high fees because, in my mind, I'm only guaranteed to collect the first half of it So, I
make my fee so high that half is really okay money all by itself.
It's not what I prefer to happen... but if half is all I get, I can still sleep at night.
Now, don't get me wrong. That one client who cheated me paid dearly. I put the
word out on him, and he suddenly had a hard time getting even lowly rookie writers to
work with him. His name continues to be "mud" to this day, years later, to Insiders.
He's the butt of jokes, and bis business has suffered immeasurably. He got the Mojo put
on him.
Dude got what he deserved. Karma hi action. What goes around, comes around.
Me? I came away with only half the fee... but also with a super-valuable lesson
in dealing with clients.
My advice to beginners is simple: I suggest you get screwed, get fired, get
rejected and get insulted as SOON as you can in your career. Because it's gonna
happen. Better to get it out of the way right off the bat, learn your lessons, and become
stronger for it
You'll know how to deal with it like a pro the next time it happens.
Other Payment Options: All righty, then. We're almost done here. I'm gonna
list all the other payment options I have experience with, and then I'll give you a sample
of a couple of contracts.
© John & Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 18
And then, my friend, your lessons are done. I hope you found all this wildly
fascinating... because it's what your career will be about You should love getting good
at writing... and you should revel in getting connected with Insiders.
But you should REALLY love getting paid. It's how we keep score, you know.
Now, as soon as I put this down in ink, it may change... but right now, here are
examples of the fee structures I know many top writers are charging (and getting):
•S $5,000 for a "quickie'* ad that requires no research, no interviews, and no intense
brainstorming for a concept Say, a letter to a house list of customers explaining a
hot new deal. Many top writers can knock these letters out in their sleep.
</ $15,000 flat fee for an ad that takes a Ettle detective work, but doesn't mail
enough or produce enough revenue to warrant royalties. Say, an ad for a
consultant whose income, if you got a piece of it, would only be $15,000 anyway.
V $25,000 flat fee for several hours of consulting on marketing strategies, plus a
number of ads and letters. For a client whose total income does not warrant a
royalty. Say, you come up with the idea to use direct mail lists to find new
customers, and you structure the entire offer, including the information products
the customer gets. So you write a direct mail letter to prospects, plus a "stick"
letter that comes with the product, plus sales "scripts" for operators to use on the
phone to upsell or sell backend products, plus whatever "lipstick" letters are
needed to curb refunds or upsell.
•S $25,000 upfront fee plus (or against) 5% royalties on the gross income
generated in the above campaign. For a client whose income you generate with
your skills will be a fortune. You want a piece of the action.
</ Upfront fee of $5,000, $15,000, or $25,000 plus (or against) a per-letter
mailed royalty. With large mailers, you can negotiate half a cent per letter, one
penny per letter, on up to a fat five cents per letter. At half a cent per letter, you
get $5,000 per million letters mailed. At five cents, it's $50,000.
•S A flat per-letter royalty. When you're raging with confidence that you'll get the
control. It's easier to get a hefty per-letter royalty (say, five cents per) when you
aren't charging anything upfront. To the client, your efforts are free... until you
get the control.
•S Per-letter royalties (with or without upfront fees) that follow a descending
schedule. In other words, you get five cents per for the first ten million letters
mailed,three cents per for the next ten million, and one cent perforeveryfliing
after that This makes sense when the client is forced to mail to ever-colder lists.
The first lists will be hot, and the profits thick. Then it gets harder to make big
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel LLC Section Three - Page 19
profits. If you lower your royalty rate, it allows the client to mail your letter
longer, because at higher rates, the amount he pays you may make mailings not
worth it to him. So it's in your best interests to be flexible. Remember, your
royalty is a big expense.
V Above and beyond royalties. Get paid a percentage of what your efforts bring in
above and beyond the "normal" expected gross. This kind of offer is a Jay
Abraham favorite. But it's tricky. You can only do it with a client who has had a
stable income for a couple of years, and can predict what his income will be for
the coining year. That's incredibly tough to do in most businesses. One tweak:
Make this offer on a month-by-month basis. Take the last couple of months
where the "old" advertising has run. Then submit yours in a test Whatever more
you pull in, you get a huge chunk of.
S Retainers. When you work a lot with any one client, and form a trusting
relationship (I call it a marriage), you may want to dispense with all formal
pricing and just get a certain amount of money each month to "nurse" them along.
I know guys who are getting $15,000 a month just to write one or three ads or
letters, and be on the phone consulting an hour a week. Other guys get less, some
more. As long as it works, it's a great arrangement.
S Retainer as a guaranteed draw against royalties. Lastly, here's an
arrangement I really love. You get a percentage of gross profits each month. Say,
5%. If the amount due you for any given month falls below a set amount — say,
$5,000 — then you are guaranteed to get at least $5,000, no matter what the total
gross was. That's called a guaranteed minimum draw. When the percentage due
you is over $5,000, men you get the higher amount This means you're motivated
to work with the client even during "down" months, where not much money is
coming in. Because his "up" months keep your yearly income fat.
Final sidle note; Almost immediately, get yourself a good accountant and
bookkeeper. As a freelancer, you are considered a self-employed "independent
contractor", and you'll have to pay estimated income tax every quarter. (Actually not
exactly on the quarter. Estimated payments are due April 15, June 15, September 15 and
January 15. Unless those dates fall on a weekend or holiday, in which case it's the next
weekday. So even the simplest part of the tax laws are convoluted Get an accountant
He's worth the money.)
And please, please,please pay your estimated taxes on time. It's difficult to hold
your hand steady as you write the check, at a time when no one else you know is having
to write one to the ERS. Just do it
The biggest legal problem most businesses get into is not paying payroll taxes on
time, and then getting into a cash crunch where they can't pay them. Next stop; Audit
city, and maybe liquidation and jail.
© John £ Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 20
As a self-employed individual, you will also be in a high-risk category for
audits. The IRS just figures it easier for you to hide income, and so they often come
a'looking. They've given my returns a close examination two of the last three years...
and demanded additional payments of (I am not making this up) $6.47 and $4.01. So
watch your ass, and be honest.
Keep reminding yourself, the reason you're paying so much in tax is because
you're earning so much money.
Quarterly estimates, believe it or not, were created to make it easier on the self-
employed, so the yearly bulk of taxes are broken up. It's still a pain. But my advice to
give Caesar what is Caesars. I've heard of guys who don't pay any income tax at all.
And think they're getting away with something.
Screw that. A multi-millionaire once gave me a great piece of advice. "Pay your
damn taxes," he said, "and don't cheat. You'll sleep like a baby, and while other guys
are sweating it out hi audits and wondering when the phone's gonna ring, you can
concentrate on making more money. Consider it an HONOR to be paying so much tax.
It means you're a winner."
That's good advice, Bucko. Spend less time trying to finagle your way out of
paying taxes, and more time working at your career making money.
Sample Contracts: Here are a couple of examples of contracts I've seen used,
off and on, over the years. You'll notice the first is called a "Letter of Agreement" ~ just
to avoid the dreaded word "contract". The second is merely an "Agreement".
Now, let's be clear about this. I am providing these as examples only. You do
your own, based on whatever circumstances you have. The point of this is, you're just
trying to spell out what you will provide, for what money, paid when, under what
circumstances. Pretty simple, really. It's when me lawyers get involved that it gets
complicated.
I am not a lawyer, and I have not used these agreements myself. To be
honest, it's been so long since I've needed one, they're all long gone hi lost bankers
boxes. My current clients, as I said, are still operating quite honorably by the handshake
deal we made over ten years ago. And, in all other cases over the past few years, my
clients have either provided any contracts that they wanted, or I've continued to operate
on handshakes.
I do not recommend you do the handshake thing unless you feel 100% confident
about it It's worked for me... but then, I have a pretty practiced eye for honesty in
clients. And the one time I was ripped off... it was by a client who had made me sign a
long contract.
You gotta make up your own mind on this.
© John S. Carhon and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 21
Again, I have not used a contract in a long time. I have kept a file on "sample
contracts", however, for years. These, to my mind, are two of the better ones. They're
not perfect by any sense. There is still a lot of "lawyer-ese" language. And most clients
will balk at weekly payments (though Gary Halbert was justifiably famous for demanding
— and receiving — weekly payments).
Plus, it's not often worth your time to pore over the accounting documents. You
just want the right to do so. You're protecting yourself, as much as you can, against an
unsavory client ripping you off. Again — if you don't trust the guy you're writing for,
either get out of the deal... or just get a fat upfront payment and consider anything you get
as gravy.
So, all right then. Let's take a look at some agreements.
And I hope you enjoyed the course. Let me know how you do.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 22
LETTER OF AGREEMENT
To: <client name>
<company name>
<street address>
<city, state, zip>
Dear ,
This letter will confirm our agreement regarding our
business relationship. As we discussed on , these are
the terms:
1. I, Bob Jones, will provide with advertising
copy for a direct mail campaign to sell .
2. I also agree to provide, on an ongoing basis, marketing
expertise and consulting services for all aspects of this
promotion.
3. All copy will be provided in manuscript form. Client
agrees to handle all typesetting.
4. To begin this arrangement, client agrees to pay me one-half
of my initial fee of $10,000 with a $5,000 check. No work
will begin until this one-half of payment has been
received.
5. I agree to provide client with finished copy by the
deadline date of . Client may request revisions
at this time. After revisions are done, the second half of
my initial fee is due and payable with a $5,000 check.
6. Client agrees to test this ad to a minimum of 5,000 names.
If this ad beats the response of the current advertising,
client agrees to run it as the new control.
7. Client will pay me monthly royalties equal to 5% of the
gross income generated by my advertising, minus the costof
refunds. This royalty is due and payable on the 5th of each
month.
8. It is hereby understood and acknowledged by you that I, Bob
Jones, am relying on the accuracy of all information
provided by you or your agents for the creation of all
advertising copy I write. Furthermore, it shall be your
responsibility to carefully examine any and all facts,
representations and information in the copy, and to delete
any inaccuracies or untrue statements. You, as the client,
are solely responsible for the contents of all advertising.
Nothing in this agreement shall be construed to create of
imply a joint venture between you and me, and if anything
occurs regarding this advertising which may require the
services of an attorney, you are solely responsible for any
and all legal fees.
9. The provision of marketing expertise and consulting
services by me may be cancelled at the end of any month,
for any reason, with sufficient notice by either myself or
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 23
you, the client. If this occurs, all royalty payments for
advertising I create — regardless of minor changes done
afterward — will still be due and payable in full by the
5th of each month, and will continue to be due and payment
on that schedule for the entire time the advertising I
create is used to generate income by you, the client, or by
your agents or assigns. Should royalties be discontinued,
ownership of the ad will revert to me.
10. You, the client, give me permission to examine, at any
time, the appropriate accounting procedures and documents
used to record results of all advertising promotions.
If you are in agreement with everything set forth in the above
items I through 10, please sign where indicated and return this
copy of the letter to me, keeping a photocopy for your records.
Sincerely,
Bob Jones
Copywriter
123 Elm Lane
Anytown, CA 90990
AGREED TO AND ACCEPTED THIS Day of , 2003.
<client name>
<business name>
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 24
AGREEMENT
This is an agreement between Bob Jones, whose address is
123 Elm Lane, Anytown, CA 90990, hereinafter referred to as
"Bob", and _____ , whose
address is , hereinafter referred
to as "Client".
1. It is agreed that Bob will write one advertisement designed
to promote the sale of a product known as
2. It is acknowledged that Bob is not an authority on the
aforementioned product, and therefore will base the
advertising campaign on information supplied by the Client.
It is further acknowledged that it is the responsibility of
the Client to review all of the aforementioned promotional
material to make sure there are no misrepresentations
therein, and that the aforementioned product is honestly
portrayed. If any changes are required, Bob will make
them, and only after the client is satisfied that all
statements in the advertisement are truthful and honest
will Client allow it to be published and/or mailed to the
public.
3. Bob shall be paid a fee of $12,000 plus royalties of 5% of
all gross sales generated by the aforementioned advertising
or any advertising substantially similar* Terms of payment
are as follows: Six thousand dollars ($6,000) to be paid
upon signed acceptance of this agreement, and six thousand
dollars ($6,000) to be paid upon receipt of the manuscript
for the ad.
4. Bob's royalties of 5% of total gross sales are due and
payable on a weekly basis for as long as the aforementioned
campaign is run.
5. Client has the exclusive right to use any elements of this
campaign as long as payment of 5% of the gross sales
generated by the aforementioned campaign is paid to Bob on
a weekly basis starting from the date of publication of the
fist scheduled ad appearance in any type of local or
national publications and/or mailing.
6. It is further agreed that Bob has no right to use this
advertisement or any part thereof or cause it to be used by
any other party as long as Client continues to pay Bob the
aforementioned 5% royalty payment of gross sales.
7. It is understood that Client will provide Bob with the
following information on a weekly basis:
A. A copy of each insertion order or list rental order,
identifying the publication, circulation, ad cost, run
date and ad key code for each publication or mailing.
B. A copy of all reports from the order-taking telephone
service, each week, listing the total number of orders
received daily from each ad key code.
© John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 25
C. A weekly report detailing the daily activity of this
campaign, the number of orders generated, broken down
by ad key code, number of orders, the total gross
dollars received, plus any royalty payments due Bob
Jones.
8. Bob is an independent contractor and is not an employee or
agent of the Client.
9. Client agrees to let Bob or her agent inspect any and all
accounting records directly related to the sales of
, for which sales were caused by any and
all advertising created by Bob.
10. It is further acknowledged that all production costs,
including typesetting, paste-up, photography, color
separations, etc., are the responsibility of the Client.
11. Any dispute hereunder shall be arbitrated pursuant to the
rules of the American Arbitration Association of
, <state>, and any such ruling thereof shall
be binding in all counts of this or any such arbitration.
Dated:
S igned:
Bob Jones
Dated:
Signed:
<client>
<D John S. Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC Section Three - Page 26
m
marketingrebellicom
FREELANCE CAREER MAP SPECIAL REPORT
How To Use The Web To Find
A Starving Mob Of Clients
JOHN CARLTON INTERVIEWS HIS
STAR STUDENT, H A R L A N KILSTEIN
WARNING!
This material is unconditionally protected by international and domestic
copyright law. Do not copy, photocopy, or scan. The paper used reveals
evidence of attempts to photocopy. Any attempt to reproduce even a single
page is a violation of United States and international copyright law, and voids
all warranties and guarantees immediately. Copied material can be traced, and
violators of this agreement will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
We're not kidding.
© Copyright John Carlton and Marketing Rebel, LLC
INTRODUCTION
You're going to enjoy this interview.
Especially if, like Harlan, you're hot to get your new freelance copy writing
career going on full throttle as soon as possible.
Harlan Kilstein came to me just over a year ago. He'd never written a
direct response ad before, though he had some business experience. He stood
out because he took full advantage of everything I offered. Paid for a private
phone consultation. Asked questions. Bought everything I had.
Asked for more.
I didn't keep close track of him until, late in the year, I heard how well he
was doing. He had roared through his learning curve in record time, and was,
amazingly, an active and recognized presence on the Web.
He had devoured all my teaching materials, and even added some cool
tweaks. And it was paying off, in spades.
At year-end, he had racked up over $300,000 in copy writing fees.
Very impressive. He worked hard, did what he was supposed to do, stayed
focused, and went after his new career like a bulldog after a squirrel.
So, when it came time for me to update this freelance course, and include more
on how to use the Web to find clients, Harlan was a natural choice to interview.
He's just a damn savvy businessman, and realized that putting up his own Website,
advertising his services as a copywriter, was a much faster way to find clients than
the "natural" way of contacting ad agencies, printers, and businesses directly.
I have been using sites on the Web as "client bait" for a long time.
My blog, at www.john-carlton.com, is a clever but obtuse way of attracting
high-paying clients.
However, I haven't had to "fish" for clients for years, so I've been lazy
about putting up my own client bait site. I knew the potential was there,
but no one had taken full advantage of it yet.
So,to give credit where it's due, Harlan created his site without direct input
from me. It's a great site, and we have a version of it included with this package.
(It won't be the exact version you'd see by logging on right now, because it's an
"organic" site... meaning, he's constantly fiddling with it, and testing parts of it to
increase response. However, it's still an excellent example of a client bait site.)
Now, I still recommend that you explore all the "classic" ways of finding clients,
as well as fishing online. Why? Because the Wild Wild West climate on the Web
won't always be there, and you should NEVER rely on a single source for clients.
So, even if getting online works great for you, you should still get experience
working with local agencies and businesses who use direct mail, print and other
media for their advertising. Most of the dients you get online will want you to write
Website copy and related materials - email, welcome pages, Adword blurbs, etc
Stay diverse in your career. Learn to be a complete freelancer, with
experience in mail, print, radio and online. Your skills will never become
obsolete, no matter what happens to the economy, no matter what happens
to the Web, no matter where you live.
But don't pass up the opportunity right now to rake in some serious
money with your new writing skills... by finding a starving horde of clients
on the Web. The entire business scene is starving for good copywriters.
Stay frosty.
John
John Carlton: Hello, I am speaking with Harlan Kilstein, who is a friend,
a colleague, and ray first advanced student as a freelance
copywriter. I've asked him to submit to this recorded
grilling, because he has discovered a few things on his
own that, I think, will help any up and coming freelancer,
and he is also the Poster Child for freelance Success,
following my instructions in the Freelance Manual.
Harlan, say hello to everybody.
Harlan Kilstein: Hey, everybody.
John Carlton: Now, Harlan, what I really like about what you did, is that
you have one of the highest screaming arcs of a learning
curve I've ever seen. You started out as a complete rookie.
You even pissed me off, because you went so fast so
quickly, that I put the brakes on you a little bit there, and
you wound up in your first month, I believe, you made
over $30,000 in billings, and at the end of your first...
Harlan Kilstein: Not billings, cash in.
John Carlton: Cash in.
Harlan Kilstein: You've told me billings don't mean anything.
John Carlton: That's right. And, at the end of your first year, you cleared
$300,000, And, this is starting...
Harlan Kilstein: And, then some.
John Carlton: And, then some. And, this is starting with absolutely no
knowledge of even how to be a copywriter, let alone taking
your act on the road as a freelancer. And, as you've said, you
owe it all to me.
Harlan Kilstein: Well, the first time I heard you, was at Dan Kennedy's
last Copywriting Boot Camp, and you just blew me away.
I mean, Dan was great, and I took extensive notes, but
my jaw dropped when I was listening to you. And, you
invited us to become Insiders, but I didn't do it. And then,
maybe two months or so later, I saw you again at Gary
Halbert's Copywriting Seminar in Phoenix, and heard you
again, and liked it even more, and that was the time I said,
"OK, gotta do it," and took action, and signed up.
John Carlton: Now, at the time, you were just leaving another career,
isn't that right? You were...
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
I had a hypnosis office, and I had done some of the marketing
and the copy myself, and then when I started discovering
Kennedy stuff, and Halbert stuff, I just saw what the potential
was of my ads. Now, when I look back at those early ads
with what I learned from you, I understand why they worked
to a degree, but why they weren't as profitable as they
should have been.
Right, one of the biggest problems with mediocre ads, is
they'll just break your heart, because you know you're only
getting a fraction of what you should be getting. OK, great,
so you got good by ...in other words, just to clarify, you really
weren't thinking about becoming a freelance copywriter or
working for clients. You were going to marketing seminars
to find out how to become a better ad writer for your own
business, isn't that true?
That's correct, and then, I think the biggest takeaway that I
got at Gary's seminar was marketing to people with money.
Right.
And, that's the way he introduced it, and everything clicked
over that seminar, and I said, you know, instead of doing
this for a business, there's got to be an easier way. And,
Gary used the example of people with money, and you had
written People With Money for the golf market, and I said,
I'm going to develop a golf product.
John Carlton: I remember it well.
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
And, you slaughtered my early attempts. You were brutal.
I mean, I was just going on and composing them, this is
going to be the first time in history that a complete rookie
is just going to stun John with brilliant things, and I got
gonged on every letter. I would write something, and
you would rip it apart and go, "Harlan, have you ever see
someone play golf? It's just not realistic that someone's
going to hit a drive 600 yards."
Now, you brought up a good point, Harlan, which is that,
now, I don't think it's necessary to have a big ego to survive
in this business. I don't believe my ego is outlandish, though,
a lot of the top guys in the business do have large egos. I did
not purposely go after your ego, but one of the things that
I do when I give seminars, is I have everybody write down
on a piece of paper, "My ego," and have them crumple it up
and throw it in the trashcan.
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
I watched that on your Sweatshop, and that, to me, was
absolutely brilliant, because one of the biggest takeaways I
got...I wish I had learned that lesson so much easier, is that
when you're talking to a pro, and they are good enough to
give you feedback and advice, they're doing it out of the
goodness of their heart. Just listen to them, because they
know what they're doing, and if you listen to them, you're
going to make a pile of money.
That's right It's all about...when I wrote the Freelance course,
it very much was a map. As I saw it, it was a rocky map
for me, looking back on how I did it, because I had to go
down all these blind alleys, I had to make all the mistakes,
and I had to do all the stuff and muddle around quite a bit.
But, when I looked back, the actual path I took, if you don't
count the zigzags I took, I kept coming back to the same
path. And so, the idea was, I can give you a shortcut of how
to do this, and as you proved, you did in one year, what it
took me about five or six years to do. And...
I'm on track, by the way, already, to more than double it.
Oh, my God, that's great. Yeah, you told me you've had your
biggest month ever last month, so just keep going. Now,
we'll talk about some other stuff, because I had to warn you
about burnout, and Miller Time and a few other things.
The Freelance book, when that came up, I grabbed it
and ran. And, actually, I was so excited, I went to a hotel,
checked in for the night, so I could read the book, the
manual, without any interference, whatsoever. I didn't
take my computer, so there was no e-mail, I turned off
my phone, and I sat, and I read the manual in one night.
I just raced through it, and said, "I can do this!" And, that...
immediately, that same month, I scored $32,000 in gigs in
cash gigs.
Do you know how many clients that was? You weren't
charging much at first, right?
Well, you know, the interesting thing was, that I was
charging anywhere between $3,500 and $5,000 a sales letter,
and I got a big assist from David Garfinkle, who taught me
some really cool negotiating strategies for building up acopy contract. And, he actually negotiated one for me that
was over $12,000.
Great. And, you were able to make these clients happy,
too, right?
Harlan Kilstein: Oh yeah. They were real happy, they got results, and one
of those gigs was so happy, that they've become my best
individual clients, and I've hit a whole series of homeruns
out of the park for them.
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
That's great. Now, one of the ways you skipped the shameless
horror period..in other words, you condensed it, you actually
started getting paid for clients. Now, you had actually done
a lot of ad work for yourself, so you weren't a complete
rookie going into this, so you kind of had a bit of a head
start on the first stage that I talk about, which is the shameless
horror, but you were able to shortcut it by doing the other
thing that I recommend, which is amassing a huge swipe
file. And, if I remember correctly, you told me you were
using my stuff, primarily, when you got the swipe file going.
As a matter of fact, I'm still using your stuff, primarily.
Someone came to my office yesterday, and I had to do a
sales letter. And, I wanted to show how simple the process
was with using a Carlton letter as a base. And, actually, I
went to one of the sites where your letters are, grabbed
purely randomly to demonstrate it, "Hey, there's a letter,
let's take that letter," and I turned that letter into a kick
butt letter in about four to six hours.
Was the guy sitting there the whole time in your office,
watching this?
Harlan Kilstein: Well, he was watching me like race through the pages, as I
converted the letter, and I've shown that letter now to the
person I wrote it for, and to a couple of other people, like
Rich Schefren, and he just called me and said, "Great letter,"
but, of course, he didn't pick up the fact that it was a blatant
and shameless Carlton swipe.
John Carlton: Right, now, you've got to be careful trying this at home.
What you understand at a visceral level, Harlan, is the
effort that goes into this, because you did something else
during your wild climb from rookie to veteran pro. You
did something that most people don't do, and probably
won't do, and that is, you started attending a lot of seminars.
You got the seminar bug big time. So, while you were doing
this freelance career, you were also just burying yourself in
knowledge about marketing.
So, you weren't guessing whether these letters were right,
you actually started to recognize what I was doing in
the pitch, when I was bringing in the pitch, when I was
doing a takeaway, when I was doing the setup, how I was
constructing the hook, isn't that right?
Marian Kilstein: That is absolutely correct, and each of those letters is a
perfect model for what to do, when.
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
Right, and that's actually a very nice way of putting it
Yeah, when you learn how to break it down...a lot of people
look at a swipe file as still something that is mysterious,
and there's some magical quality, Most of the magic, if it's
there, is in the way the pitch slides the reader through.,.the
entire pitch down to the offer, and puts him in that trance,
where he actually takes his wallet out and orders. So, by
understanding that, and I try to break it down in "Kick Ass
Copy writing Secrets." Have you ever used that model that I
have in "Kick Ass Copywriting Secrets?" I think it's Section 5,
I broke it down, headline, opening, paragraph, bullets.
Oh, that was integrated a long time ago.
OK, so that's like unconscious now, that you're doing. OK,
I guess the point that I want to make, that you have made,
I want to reemphasize, being able to knock off letters to do
this, is a shortcut to doing this. Now, eventually, you're going
to get good enough, where you don't need to be knocking
off letters, anymore, because you start to install them in
your head. So, you could say, well, this needs a penny letter,"
or, this needs a wild if then type of approach, or something
like that. But, while you're working to that point where the
stuff is automatic, having a swipe file is not just a shortcut,
but an absolute necessity, especially if you're taking on large
numbers of clients.
You know, I saw they make these bracelets now that you
can put on your wrist that say, "WWJD (What Would John
Do)," and I've written and gotten critiques from you so
many times, I've listened to every product that you've put
out, and so forth, that when I write a letter, I have you in
the back of my head, and I know what you would say.
I hear the phone ringing. Your office has become a buzz
with action, and it's all because you've found clients, you
learned how to deal with the clients. Now, you and I had
some e-mail exchanges earlier on, where you were having
a little bit of trouble with clients and contracts. Isn't that
true? Have you smoothed all that out? Are you still using
contracts, primarily?
First of all, I'm using your contract, but you wrote something
to me. I'm not sure whether I want to share it over the
line, but...
John Carlton: Too late.
Harlan Kilstein: ...you wrote something to me about clients, and I have it
blown up, and it's sitting on my desk, written to me maybe
about eight to ten months ago.
John Carlton: Oh, yeah, go ahead and say it.
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Oops, it's late, I actually sent the last e-mail before replying.
"Look, when a guy says money is no problem, you can be
sure that money is a problem. When they tell you they're
easy to work with, they're going to be a nightmare. It's
almost like clockwork. Figure out the opposite of everything
anybody says, and then watch for it. Most clients suck.
That's where the burnout comes from. The only answer
is to become more powerful than the client, have more
money, don't need his job, you're willing to walk away if he
pisses you off. That's why I counsel you to put aside your
FU money early. Jay told me to do that 20 years ago, and I
haven't touched it yet."
Now, here, this was the case where the client took my copy,
and wanted to change it.
Right.
So, you wrote, "Set up in your contract that the client can
mail whatever he wants. He can change your copy, add to it,
draw little doodles on it, you don't give a damn, but he must
mail your copy in equal amounts as a test, because you're
the expert, he's hiring you to bring expertise to your game.
If he hates your copy, fine, but as long as you're factually
accurate, you've met the terms of what you promised you
would give him, he must mail your piece.
Think about it, if he mails it, and you're right, you shut him
up. If he doesn't mail it, he can't bitch about results, because
you can just shrug and say, 'Mail mine. I told you your
version sucked.' Approach this as a pro, not as a hooker
hired to do his bidding. Often I've had to force clients to
mail the right pitch. "When I've been weak and let them
botch the pitch and still mail it, I still get blamed for their
failures. Nobody said this was fair, it isn't. You've got to
think like the Mafia here. Box them in, so the only choice is
to mail your piece."
That's brilliant. I'm going to include that in this package.
That's an e-mail I remember writing to you, and I did not
copy that e-mail. I sometimes amaze myself.
Hit
Harlan Kilstein: Well, it's blown up over my desk, and other copywriters
who come in, look at it and go, "Can I have a copy of that?"
John Carlton: And, such a large part of dealing with being a freelancer
is positioning yourself in the market. Most writers, period,
write with what I call, write from their heels. In other words,
they're almost ready to bolt at the first sign of difficulty,
the first obstacle they come across. In fact, being a salesman
that's ready to just burst into tears if the first time the client
says, "Nah, I don't think I want to do that" "OK, fine."
But, to be a great freelancer, you have to be very...not pushy,
but you haveto be in a position of power. And, otherwise,
they will walk all over you. This is not because clients are
evil, it's because all clients suck. All clients suck because if they
knew anything about marketing, about copy writing, they
wouldn't need you, in the first place. However, the fact that
they don't know anything about copy writing and marketing,
doesn't prevent them from thinking that they do. You have
to come in as the expert, kind of like the plumber walking in,
and telling the husband, "No, you can't come in the bathroom
while I'm working here, I'll let you know when I'm done,"
because, having the guy in the bathroom with you while
you're doing the plumbing, isn't going to help anything, at all.
Harlan Kilstein: That's absolutely correct, and for people who are moving
into dealing with clients, it's not enough to just be a good
copywriter, you have to have the mindset. And, that's what
you give in every single one of your rants, and in every
single one of your critiques to me, and every time I hear a
presentation. And, let me just say it, I know this interview
is being done in conjunction with the re-release and the
revising of the Freelance Copywriter book, but if there's
somebody hearing my words, and they are not yet an
Insider, man, they're just wasting their time.
John Carlton: Yeah, I'm actually going to revamp the whole Insider thing.
I'm getting a little swamped with Insider, so that may a little
more difficult to do, but it'll still be available. Now, let's talk
about getting clients. Getting good is one part of this. As
people listening to this should know, the Freelance Manual
is basically broken down into three sections. "Get Good,"
which as we discussed, is all about getting your chops on
learning how to be a copywriter, and working yourself
through the stages so that you can go out and sell your
services to the world.
Iffisciifi
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Then, "Get Connected," and then, "Get Paid" The "Get
Connected" part is the thing that really kind of hangs a lot
of people up, and it's the basic question, "Where do I find
clients?" This is where you have really shined, Harlan, and
we are no longer on the verge of a brave new world We
are deep into the brave new world of the Internet
Now, the classic way still works, and the way I did it, was
I looked in newspapers, I met up with printers, and I met
people and actually got an agent, and worked a Rolodex I
called it my Million-Dollar Rolodex, and each time I'd meet
somebody, I would call them, I'd offer services, I'd ask for
referrals, I'd do this, and this worked very, very well, it got me
very quickly through the ranks of copywriterdom, working
with agencies, working with the largest mailers, things like that
Now, you did that a little tiny bit, isn't that true?
I did that a little tiny bit, but I, very rapidly, found that it
just wasn't necessary. By going to all of the seminars that
you talked about, it turned out that there were jobs there
that were just low-hanging fruit. And, the people who are
the Guru's of these seminars, people like Ken McCarthy,
John Reis, Alex Mandossian, Armand, Rich Schefren.
Dan Kennedy.
These guys are just really nice people. Yanik, you approached
them, and you talk to them about their stuff, and I mean, if
you're not there to bother them, but to talk to them and ask
them questions, they will welcome it with open arms. And,
pretty soon, they say, "Oh, yeah, we have a copywriter over
there." I mean, I was at a Jay Abraham seminar, and Stephen
Pierce walked around going, "I saw your copy, it's terrible.
There's Harlan right over there, you'd better go talk to him."
A little bit of bird-dogging goes a long way.
That's right.
So, the first way is the standard way of networking, in
other words, find people who are advertising for jobs,
network through people in the industry, use each contact
you have to further other contacts, kind of do it that way.
The second way...
Harlan Kilstein: And, that is huge.
John Carlton: Yes, and you need to know that, you need to understand
how to do that, however, the second way is to expand the
face to face network thing, which you did at the seminars,
and that idea of bird-dogging. I'm pretty sure I talked about...
if I didn't talk that in the Freelance Manual, I talked about it
in the rant, the whole idea of bird-dogging, which came out
of, originally, me finding a woman who used to go into bars
ahead of me and set things up, and that was quite good.
But, the principle holds for marketing, too. Somebody else
saying, "There's Harlan over there, he's a master writer," goes a
thousand times further than you walking up and saying, "Hi,
I'm Harlan, and I'm a really good writer." It's the whole idea of
third-party validation, and the power of a testimonial
So, that's the second thing you did, was the face to face. Now,
of course, there's a bit of investment there, because it costs
money to go to the seminars, it costs time, you've got to do
that, but for a concentrated market of people who are going to
need copy, you can't beat going to the seminars and working
the room, so to speak, at breaks, pressing the flesh, getting
people to know you, Did you pass out a business card?
Harlan Kilstein: I had business cards, and that worked
John Carlton: OK, good
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
I also followed on the suggestion that Gary did with his
friend, Possada, who has a two-sided business card.
Right.
He's always talking about that. So, on one side, I gave all
the contact information, and on the other side, I listed
everything that I would do, and web sites, auto responders,
direct mail, space ads, radio, you name it, I listed it there.
And, people liked having that right in front of them.
OK, and before I get to the next part, just out of curiosity,
are most people contacting you by the phone, or by e-mail?
Originally, by phone. Originally, by phone, and that got so
overwhelming, that I had to take that away.
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
OK. Nobody's had my phone number for the last 20 years,
and that's a good point to bring up. I'm not sure I covered it
in the manual. The phone can be an albatross around your
neck, it can be a real problem. It's impossible to have a two-
minute phone conversation with a stranger, with somebody
looking for information. It's impossible, it's going to be ten
minutes or longer.
Ten minutes, I wish I could have these ten-minute
conversations.
Right, so no matter how good you are...
In that period of time, what I try to do, is first of all, as
I look at their web site or their direct mail, I explain to
them why it's not going to work, or why it probably hasnt
worked, and then, I will point out to them anywhere from
five to ten things that they should be doing, either in their
copy, or I found out something, that most businessmen do
not have a clue about marketing. They just are absolutely
clueless. And, that's why your program is not only just about
copy, your first book, ifs not just about copy, it's really a
good, probably Master's level, course in direct marketing.
Well, I'm glad you noticed, Harlan. And, of course, when you
brought that up, when you were talking, that's an excellent
way while you're dealing on the phone with somebody.
Of course, you can do this by e-mail, too, just as easily, and
it's probably what you do, but the idea of talking to them,
explaining to them why it's not working, they wouldn't
be calling you if they were getting huge results. But then,
giving them a little bit of tease, you said five to ten points,
I think, didn't you say?
That's right.
Actually, five is probably enough, because what that does,
A, it proves that A, you can recognize bullshit when you
see it, which is a bad side. Two, much more important,
you actually have the skills to see what needs to be done,
andyou have the skills to make that happen. So, by giving
that, that is the tease. What you're doing is condensing a
mini sales pitch into a few points. Now, that's also the main
trouble spot for most people when they start dealing with
people on the phone. As those five to ten points become
20 to 30 points, become 60 points, become another phone
call, pretty soon, you realize, the guy doesn't need you,
because you've given him all these great ideas, and you
haven't made a dime out of the transaction.
Harlan Kilstein: Been there, done that. Not anymore.
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein;
John Carlton:
Right.
I learned to do...there's one place where Dan Kennedy
teaches how to give a pitch, and he talks about in your
pitch, tell them about what you're going to do, but never
tell them what it is.
Yes, you were talking about when he's speaking from the
stage, right?
Harlan Kilstein: Right, how to sell from the Stage.
John Carlton: Exactly, and that holds true, also. However, there's a little
caveat to that. I have discovered when I speak, that I can
go ahead and explain almost everything that I know, and
give away solid content and details, because no matter
how fast people take notes, they're not going to catch the
whole thing. And, really, what most people want to hear in
a seminar when you're talking to them...I can tell somebody
in five minutes exactly what to do, how to do it, what they
need to do, and what the process they have to go through,
I can give them all that outlined, so that if they took that
outline and ran with it, they would solve every single
problem they had.
However, the difference between taking that roadmap that
I give them, and actually solving it, in between, is a lot of
work, and a lot of sitting down and staring at a blank screen,
and writing copy, and things like that
And, what they really want to know is, can this guy do it
for me? And then, what they do, especially businessmen,
who are very busy and know, admit that they're not going
to be able to write the copy because they haven't done even
the basic research on writing copy, they're going to hire you,
because you, then, become an investment that will pay off
very, very quickly, because they know, if they get the copy
up, if everything starts working, then Operation Money Set
goes into high gear. So, you become the lynch pin between
them not making any money, and them making a fortune.
And, whatever you charge, then, becomes just a detail that
will be resolved as soon as the copy gets either run, mailed,
or put online.
Harlan Kilstein: Well, I tell them, "I do not cost you money, I make you money."
John Carlton: Right. Halbert had a great story about that, which was, he
had a client come to him, complaining that the ad that Gary
had written was making the phones ring off the hook, to
the point that two people quit in the office, and they were
just completely swamped by phone calls. And, the guy said,
"So, what are you going to do about that?" And, Gary says,
"Look, you didn't hire me to fix problems like that, you
hired me to create problems like that" So, it's kind of fun
if you sit back and realize, I am overwhelmed by orders
coming in. That's a fun place to be. That's a heck of a lot
better than sitting there in a room with five telephones
that aren't ringing.
OK, before I lose track, the third thing, the third rail, 1
guess, of finding clients, which you have taken to the
bank, and what I really wanted to talk about here, is you
have gone online and used both the Google, Pay Per Click,
Opportunities of Google AdWords, and the whole online
experience, to find clients, to bring them into your web, and
to work the whole deal So, you are now in the position where
you're not only not meeting your clients, which I haven't met
a client in years, you're not even talking to them, because
you're working on e-mail the whole time, right?
Harlan Kilstein: That's correct. Generally, I close the deal on e-mail, and then,
when they get the final copy, very often, they'll have a
question of, "OK, how do I select a list, how do I mail it out,
etc?" But, generally, most of it is done through e-mail.
John Carlton: OK, just talk for a few minutes about how you went from
realizing that having an online presence was going to help,
to actually putting up...and, we have a copy of your site with
this package, which I think is just excellent. Also, be sure to
mention the Samples page, which you said is a very crucial
element But, kind of walk us through the basic thing of where
you went from the realization, the aha experience that having
an online presence could work, to making that thing work.
Because, it took you about three to six months, didn't it?
Harlan Kilstein: That's correct So, what happened was, first of all, I got in when
Google AdWords was a relatively new phenomenon, and the
first site I put up, I did it, myself, and let me tell you, it was
ugly. But, I discovered something, that ugly and profitable
really dont have anything in common, in other words...
John Carlton: It was good enough, it was good enough.
Harlan Kilstein: It was the words that sold. I didn't have any fancy graphics,
I didn't have any pictures, I didn't have any tables, or colors.
It was the words. And, the early days, the call to action was
pick up the phone and call me, and boy, did people pick
up the phone and call me. People would call at all hours. I
called the business, Overnite Copy, and people would call at
all hours. They would talk to me on the phone, and pretty
much within a day or two, I'd be getting Fed Ex's with
checks in them.
John Carlton: Did you list your prices in the first online posting?
Harlan Kilstein: Not then, and not now...
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
OK, no pricing.
...but one thing I did do, was that I put...and, actually,
experience told me, I had to start building this in, was I had
to write several times, "Look, if you're looking for a bargain,
if you're looking for the cheapest copywriter on the Net,
you are in the wrong place." And, sometimes, when someone
will come and take up my time, in the old days, they were
prepared...they wanted an entire web site, an auto responder...
John Carlton: For $500.00 bucks.
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
Yeah, $500.00, I've had people go, "Oh, I didn't know it was
going to cost anywhere near thatf And, that whole sub-
culture, I'd actually send them, "Why don't you go to Elance?
Why don't you go to Scriptlance, or Guru.com, and get
somebody to bid, and maybe you'll find somebody to do
your web site for $25-00 to $50.00."
Now, just a small tangent, you tried Elance...for people
who don't know what Elance is, it's HYPERLINK
"http://www.Elance.com" www.Elance.com. The whole
idea was to have a kind of a bazaar or marketplace of
people who would bid for your job. And, that's great for
somebody who needs a job done, because that's how you
found the transcriptionist, right?
I found the transcriptionist there, and I found other things
there, but I found in the world of copy, that one could not
make a living there, because everybody who goes on Elance
does the $2.00 hooker routine, and will take something
that takes hours and hours of work, and bid it down...the
opposite of eBay, where you bid up. Elance, you bid down.
And, they'll do hours and hours of work for some ridiculous
prices. And, there's no money to be made in working for
hours and getting paid peanuts.
John Carlton: That's right, and as a freelancer, especially in copywriting,
Elance is like starting out your career as a hooker on 4th
Street, underneath the bridge doing it for bottom dollar. You
don't want to do that. But, I think it's interesting that as part
of the takeaway, you actually send people to Elance.
Harlan Kilstein: I said, "Go to Elance, you'll find people to do it at your price.
English may not be their first language...."
John Carlton: Right.
Harlan Kilstein: And, I'm sure you'll get it done cheaply. I can't guarantee,
though, that it'll be effective. Ultimately, you'llcome back to
me when you need it done right.
John Carlton: That's right, I'm actually surprisecLare you getting a high
percentage of people who go to your online site, who then
contact you, who actually become clients? Do you have a
high percentage?
Harlan Kilstein: Oh, yeah.
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Really? I find that astonishing, because I'd think you'd be
turning more people away. Probably, as you move along, I
would predict that you'd start turning more and more away.
Oh, well, now, first of all, I've started quoting higher and
higher prices, and it's really the way that you have the guts
inside to quote the prices, either they're by the phone or
online, of not blinking when you quote the price, and say,
"This is what it's worth."
Right.
And, when you believe that it's worth that, because I've seen
companies use my copy and make millions and millions of
dollars out of it.
That's right, and that's where it's at, getting back to that
whole idea of positioning yourself. You're not a vendor,
you're not coming in to paint the bathroom. You're coming
in to be the lynch pin between them not breaking the code
on making money, and just having the vaults opened wide,
and the money coming in in bucket loads. That's what
happens. Nothing happens until the copy gets written. You
are not an adjunct to the marketing, you are the marketing.
OK, so I interrupted you. Get back to the process that you
went through, and go through Pay Per Clicks, too, real quickly.
com
Harlan Kilstein: So, I started with AdWords.
John Car It on: Let me clarify, so I don't have to write anything about this,
if you don't know about Google AdWords, real quick, go to
HYPERLINK "http://wwwgoogle" www.google, and when
Google comes up, write AdWords, one word, and then hit
on Google AdWords on the link, and that will take you to
a site where if you don't know where Google AdWords is,
there's a tutorial. You can jump on there, and that will take
you all the way through it.
Harlan Kilstein; They even have videos today.
John Carlion: And, videos, and who knows? I can't pretend to be current
with this thing, because tomorrow, a lot of things may
change, but Google's going to be around This AdWords
thing is just taking off. There are some restrictions you need
to know about, and there's things you need to know about
how to work it. The tutorials will explain all of this. Get
involved now. Basically, though, what you're doing, when we
say Pay Per Click, you are saying, "Hey, Mr. Google, I would
like to have my little lead-generating ad pop up whenever
somebody types in, *How do I write an ad?' into Google."
So, somebody comes there and says, "I have a business,
I need an ad-writer." I'll try Google, and you'll say, "How
do I find a freelancer?" Or, "I need copy done? How do I
write an ad?" And, the list of sites will come up on Google
for that, your little paid ad also appears there. And, there's
various ways to get it higher and lower on the totem pole
there, but what's important is that you only get charged by
Google when they click on your little ad and go through to
your web site, that's why it's called Pay Per Click. So, you're
not paying for the privilege of being on that page, you
are paying only when somebody actually clicks through.
Therefore, you're only paying for somebody who actually
says, "Yeah, I want to find out more about this."
Harlan Kilstein: And, if your ad generates yawns instead of dicks, Google
will put you on a back shelf someplace, and nobody will
ever see it again. So, all the lessons that you have in writing
copy have to be applied in writing a Pay Per Click ad If
you're not using power words, you shouldn't expect clicks.
When I write my Pay Per Click ads for golf products that I
have, it's, "Explode your drive," or something like that.
John Car It on:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Sure, so yeah, it's a great little...the difference with writing
online, and writing for all other media, is the limits on the
words in the keyword, in the source code, and in the Pay
Per Clicks. That's really the difference in writing for the
web. There are restrictions to how many words you can
actually fit into some of these things. In the newspaper, you
can fit as many words as you possibly physically can by
lowering the type size. So, you can buy a little 8th of a page
and fit in four pages of copy, but it's down to four point
type, but you can fit it ia
Online, you can't do that. They actually have a number of
keystroke limits, so that's what Marian's talking about when
he's talking about using power words and things. This is a
whole other report I'm going to get into, but the idea is, you
need to be pithy, you need to have a hook, and you need
to get your message across using action, verbs, and power
words that have meaning, that get people to go, "Whoa!" and
check on that. And, then, once they get to your site, you're
off to the races, because your site has got to be at least 12 to
16 manuscript-typed pages long.
Yeah, probably. Probably longer.
Even longer than that, well, counting the samples thing, yeah.
Harlan Kilstein: I wasn't even count the samples at all.
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
OK, I interrupted you, so to kind of rope this in, get on
Google Pay Per Click, that's very important, but the big thing
was getting on your site. You found a way ...it's essentially,
your calling card, your online site becomes the equivalent of
a card that's handed out, yet it's a card that, in the physical
world would actually open up and be 20 pages long.
That's right. I actually have to figure out some way of doing
it, and maybe put it on a CD that they'll just plug it in, and
my site will open for them.
Right
Make that a new card. But, I started analyzing the keywords,
and you have to learn a little bit about keyword research,
because, otherwise, Google will drain your bank account
pretty darn fast. Words that are absolutely worthless
are "copywriter." It doesn't tell you anything, it may be
somebody who's looking to buy a copywriting course.
John Carlton: I always get a call every once in a while..Jiot a call, but an
e-mail every once in a while from somebody who wants
to copyright something legally. They confuse copywriter
and copyright.
Harlan Kilstein: Every once in a blue moon, I get one of those.
John Carlton: OK, go ahead.
Harlan Kilstein: "I'm going to copy write a bumper sticker."
John Carlton: Right.
Harlan Kilstein: "OK, you're selling it wrong." But, when you get the right
keywords, it generates a pretty constant flood of traffic to
your site. Once I started this, the traffic on my site has been
fairly continuous, so I'm getting solid leads, certainly every
week, but I mean, solid leads, and very often, depending,
seasonally, almost every day.
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
OK, great, so you have not only shortcut the client-getting
process, you put it on steroids by using the available
technology online.
This goes back to something you taught me. When I had my
business, I hired you for a couple of consults, and I would
ask you a question about how often should I rotate my ads?
And, your comment was, "Harlan, marketing is an endless
parade of clients." That may have been an approximation of
your term, but in other words, the market is always going
to be out there. And, I realized that on the Internet, it's not
that you're going to run out of clients, because every day,
someone says they want to go online, they throw up their
own web site, and they sit there waiting for action to hit, and
they can't attract any attention. Or, when people come to
it...gosh, somebody called me today, and I looked at his site,
and he's all proud of his site except nobody's doing anything
there. I said, "You haven't asked anybody to do anything.
No call to action.
There's no call to action. You have all of your stuff hidden
away, so they have to click all over. You didn't eventell
them, "Click here, look here, go there, nothing. Plus, you don't
tell them what you do for them." And, so when someone has
a site like that, it's pretty easy to get them as a client.
John Carlton: This is just beautiful, you're bringing tears to my eyes just
thinking about this, the easy way of contacting.
Harlan Kilstein: It wasn't around when you got started.
John Carlton: No, it sure wasn't. I don't envy you the piles of work. My
input here, would be to quicker, rather than slower, get to
the point as I have, where you're turning down nine out of
every ten clients.
Harlan Kilstein: Well, that's what you've been trying to get me to do, teaching
me about Miller Time, and making time for myself, to avoid
copywriter burnout And, Fve been trying to reconcile that with
my juvenile desire to squirrel away as much cash as possible.
John Carlton: And, God bless you, the reason I talk about Miller Time so
much, and again, I think I cover that in the course. If I don't,
very briefly, when we talk about Miller Time...yeah, I do talk
about that on the course...you've got to reward yourself. You
can't just work, and work, and work, and work, and work.
You have to have focus, you have to have goals, you have
to have an idea of when this isn't fun, anymore.
And, the reason I drive that home so often and so hard,
is because every single writer, professional writer that I
know...and, I'll repeat that, every single professional writer
that I know has burned out at some time in his career.
They dropped off into alcoholism, they've had nervous
breakdowns, they've quit the biz. I quit the biz for two or
three years, and went off, and wrote novels, and played in
rock and roll bands. Or, they had various other ways that
they just collapsed.
And, it is my belief...there's no scientific backing in this...it's
my belief that doing copywriting, and working with clients
activates two different parts of the brain that you cannot
build up with use, much like Arnold Schwarzenegger did by
lifting weights. You don't build it up, you tear it down.
So, you could have a long career of your entire life if you
know how to space things out, and that each job becomes
kind of a wonderful thing to do, and there's rewards at the
end of it that you give yourselves, and you understand
you need down time and things like that. That's a very,
very important subject, and so, when I saw that Harlan was
working very, very hard, he was still enjoying it, but I had
to drive the point home that if at any point, he sits back and
says, "This isn't fun, anymore," that's a red flag going up that
you're working too hard. And, he actually came back to me
later, and said that red flag had gone up.
John Car It on:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan, we're going to pause here for just a minute I'm
shutting this off, and I'm going to turn the tape over. Hang on.
Harlan, -we're going to pause here for just a minute. I'm
shutting this off, and I'm going to turn the tape over. Hang on.
We're back. Harlan, I want to give you credit. I've known
for a long time that the Web is a great marketplace to
advertise freelancing services, but you have really taken the
bull by the horns and figured out how to do it in the most
effective and least painful way possible. That's why, when
I decided to update my freelance course, I asked you to do
this interview. Hearing it from a guy smack in the middle
of doing it... and doing it right, after testing doing it wrong-
is just invaluable. What you've done is spend serious time
creating your ad online, your personal website. And you
have a Google adwords campaign that finds people looking
for freelance copy writing services. In fact, your first terms
were my name, John Carlton, and Gary Halbert, and your
lead generation ad read something like "Carlton-trained
writer ready to write for you" or whatever.
OK. Well, that also got me into trouble. I don't want to remind
you of it, but man, did I get you and Gary pissed at me.
Well, I was shocked to find anyone else buying leads off
searches for my name. And you were still in the raw rookie
stage, I seem to recall.
It was very early, it was also very early in my work. I
wrote an ad that said John Carlton trained or Gary Halbert
trained copywriter.
And my reaction was, like, no, the guy's been studying
my material for just a couple of months. I don't take any
responsibility for him. I got a call from Gary and he said,
Hey, take a look at what comes up when you type your
name into Google.
Hey, well Gary only sat and clicked on my ad about
200 times that night.
Yeah that sounds like Gary
It ran up a bill of about $200 but Google refunded me.
So what are the most important keywords for Google:
copywriter, freelance copywriter? What really works?
Harlan Kilstein: All of the above. Remember, a lot of the people...gosh, we
should do something to legally change that word because
people don't know what copy means. I've seen sometimes,
where people will just start talking about copy, and nobody
knows what it is.
John Carlton;
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein;
John Carlton:
So is "copywriter" the best keyword?
That does well, but the best ones are things like direct mail,
and I think the all time best keyword, at this point, I'd have
been happy if somebody else steals it, would be, "Improve
your business."
And they click on one of your pay-per-click ads and you get
business. Does your pay-per-click do the selling or is there
another step?
Well, actually what happens, is that the web page does
the selling.
And your web page went through some drastic changes,
didn't it? You were working without a net, and without
precedence, making it up as you went.
And, there are things that I didn't do early on, that perhaps,
I should have done. I think the modern equivalent to your
Million-Dollar Rolodex, is the auto responder. And, where
instead of you calling people, you just shoot them an e-mail,
or explain your services, periodically. And, that's an easy
thing. I don't see many copywriters doing that.
What else have you learned about your pay-per-click
experience?
Harlan Kilstein: Well, one of the saddest things, when they go over here,
but one of the saddest things I saw on the Internet, was
somebody bid for the word, "copywriter," and just for that
one word, copywriter, it was about $2.00 a click. It may
even be higher now. And, this guy talked about how great
he was. He had no testimonials, and that he charges $2.00
a word. He said, "Here's my address. Just tell me what you
want me to write, and give me three-quarters of the number
of words, and I'll send you back the thing." As if somebody
who was hiring him would have an idea, "Well, I want 4,212
words." It made no sense, whatsoever. He was up there for
about a month, and I'm sure he had a credit card bill of well
over $2,000 at the end of the month, because he paid to be
in the top position, and nothing to show for it, but stupidity.
IfDcont
John Carlton: So how did you come along so far, so fast in the field of
copy writing? I remember you ordered the Freelance Writing
book and the next thing I know, you're emailing me that
you're having $30,000 months. How did that happen.
Harlan Kilstein: Well, your course made it easier than connecting the dots.
John Carlton: Well, I had to figure everything out as I went, because there
were no guides or maps back then. Working through all
those problems made me hyper aware of what was needed,
how to short-cut the processes to get clients, make them
pay you, and make your copy work like crazy. So when I
decided to teach, it was pretty easy.
Harlan Kilstein: And, you have the uncanny sense that you can look at a
piece of copy and say, "You know what? The copy is fine,
but I just don't think this is going to sell."
John Carlton: That's the big thing about successful freelancing, knowing
what all the basic steps toworld-class marketing are Knowing
how to write the words is just part of the necessary skill set
- you also need to understand how to deal with the client,
especially if they're going off half-cocked in the wrong
direction You did shortcut your path to becoming well-known
and getting big paychecks, by using the Web, and it's a great
way to use this new technological opportunity. But you still
need to master all the other aspects of freelancing. You're
just learning them as you go, and you're comfortable going
100 miles an hour. For most rookies, I still suggest going
through the steps I've outlined, one-two-three. In the course,
I leave lots of wiggle room for going faster when you feel
you're ready. It takes a while to get a good feel for what is
needed in any given marketing campaign, and you get that
feel through experience. There's no substitute for experience.
People need to understand that you jumped into the game
full bore, full of piss and vinegar, and started racking up
experience immediately, and learning fast from your mistakes
and wrong turns. And you still come back to me when you
need advice that only long-time pro's have. That's smart.
You've done a great job.
So Harlan, you've been sharing your strategies and even
actual keywords here that have brought you oodles of
clients and a ton of cash. Aren't you afraid of competition?
Harlan Kilstein: Well, the last thing that I would say to people is if people
have a scarcity mentality, it's the wrong thing. There are
so many people who need this business, especially with
the Internet, with direct mail booming. I see that your
old friends at Boardroom are actually getting together in
something I think they're doing for the first time. They're
having a training session for copywriters. There just
aren't enough, there aren't enough A-class, or even B-class
copywriters out there.
John Carlton: That's absolutely true. And with the explosion of the
linternet, there is going to be an even greater need in the
future. It's just dumb to have a scarcity mindset in this era
of plenty. Any last words for people who are just getting
started, as freelancers using the Web?
Harlan Kilstein: There's one more thing that I want to add for the people
who are getting started in writing copy, is that there are
going to be downtimes, there are going to be times when
the business isn't there, and every time there's a downtime,
I throw up another web site of my own, and sell another
information product with Click Bank, so I don't have to do
anything, but the thing just runs itself. And, I will probably
clear $60,000 this year, just off of Click Bank products.
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Let's wrap this up, though. So, Harlan, you went very
quickly from rookie. You did go through a shameless
horror period, but you shortcut it, and again, I want to say
a warning. I do not recommend that everybody shortcut
this like you did. What you did that most other writers do,
is you committed yourself wholly to this. In fact, you quit
your other business, didn't you?
I shut it down completely, put a gun to my head, using
your philosophy, and said, "I'm just going to make it,
there's no other option."
Right, but you had a little bit of investment money to use,
which a lot of people don't, because you were able to go to
seminars, and you had the wherewithal to go to these seminars
and do this stuff. So, a lot of your face to face stuff worked.
However, from what you've described, this online thing, this
brave new world we're in, of the web and the Internet, has
opened up just vast panoramas of opportunity. Also, there's
going to be a lot of snake pits. We haven't seen them all yet
So, one of the things I would like you to talk about, just
very, very briefly, is getting paid Now, when you're dealing
with people online, I havent dealt with clients in my same
hometown for 15 years. So, in my book, I talk about getting
paid. You've got to make sure you get half up front
Harlan Kilstein: Actually, I insist on payment in full in advance, and I have
to tell you, I get it every time, The only time that I did not
get paid was when I did half down, half afterwards.
John Carlton: And, you didn't get the second half.
Harlan Kilstein: I never got the second half.
John Carlton: That happens, now...
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
And so, what I did, I just adopted the policy of payment in
advance I won't do a stitch of work until I've been paid.
Now, the obstacle you're going to run across, which I'm sure
you've already fixed, is that the person's going to say, "How
do I know I'm going to get what I need from you, since
you have my money now?" That puts them in a position of
much less power. And, the answer, of course, is you're going
to rely on your testimonials, on your track record, on your
reputation, and you counter that objection, "Why should I
pay you up front for this?" "Why? I have dealt with a certain
number of clients in the past that are all happy. You can
read their testimonials, I do this, I'm a professional, I will
meet my deadline. Here's the deadline. You will have your
copy at this point," blah, blah, blah. And then, you go ahead
and go through with that.
Harlan Kilstein: Or, you could go on Elance, and they'll invoice you after the
copy is done. I have no problem sending them there, but the
truth of the matter is, it's just not a problem. I routinely get
checks in for thousands of dollars in my office every day. I
don't do any billing. Sometimes, when they're really excited
or they want to pay by .credit card, and I don't take credit
cards, they can PayPal me the money, whatever they want,
they just have to get the money to me.
John Carlton: PayPal's a great idea, because that gives them the feeling
of control, because they can go to PayPal and dispute it, if
they absolutely have to. They shouldn't, you may not even
want to point that out, but there's the illusion that they can
dispute that, if they need to.
Harlan Kilstein: Well, this qualifies.,.1 hate to break any...I hope the clients
aren't listening to this, but if it's a service on PayPal, for a
product, PayPal will reverse charges, but, if it's a service,
they won't.
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Ooh! OK, good, that's good for PayPal, that's a good policy
to have. So, you are dealing with...now, I need to clarify this.
If and when you start dealing with the large mailers, such
as we mentioned Boardroom, or things like that, you are
not going to get paid up front. They have policies, and they
have bean counters that have risen quite high in the system
there. However, when entrepreneurs, when you're dealing
with them, and a lot of times, correct me if I'm wrong,
but you're dealing with people who are hiring their first
copywriter when they hire you.
Most of the time, yes.
So, you're dealing with what I would call rookie
entrepreneurs. Even if they're making a million dollars a
year, they're still more or less rookie entrepreneurs.
And, the worst client is the person who said, "Oh, I used to
be a copywriter."
Oh, God. All clients suck, so it's just various stages of sucking
there, too. And, remember, even if you're your own client,
you still stuck. OK, so that's a good piece of advice. When
you're dealing with people who are not sure about billing
and things like that, go for the jugular, go ahead and get
paid. However, shame on you if you start missing deadlines.
Harlan, in this year, have you missed a deadline?
Not that I can recall. If a deadline was missed, it was only
because the client didn't get me testimonials, or materials,
or did not get back to me.
That would be a soft deadline, so any hard deadline,
if a thing absolutely had to be there.
Never. I usually try to break it much earlier.
Right, and that's something I try to bring home during
the course. Your reputation is going to live or die on
your ability to meet a deadline. And, most writers,this is
something else that people should understand very clearly,
most writers miss deadlines all the time. Halbert has said it's
criminal that I have never missed a deadline in my 20-year
career. He said that makes everyone else look bad. He's
missed several deadlines. But, for me, the whole rep thing
was based on the thing that I'd meet the deadline, I'd meet it
with quality, world-class stuff, and be ready for the next job,
so that people can plan out their marketing and get it going.
And, just to remind people, a soft deadline, when I take the
job, or Harlan, when you take a job, you say, "OK, you need
to send me testimonials, and this material about the product,
and we need to have an interview, call or something else.
We'll do this on Friday." Friday becomes a soft deadline.
That means if it moves or something happens, it's not going
to affect the main deadline, which is, "I will get you your
copy on the 5th of next month."
Harlan Kilstein: So, I've actually built that into the contract that you have in
the back of your book. Where it says the date, I'll put it in.
It will be X number of days after I have received...
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Good, that's very good. I wouldn't want to lock myself in
like that I would say, "contingent on me receiving all the
materials needed to get it done, which include testimonials
and interview with you," not your secretary, things like
that. But, both those work fine. OK, I think we've covered
about all of it. Again, great work. You're my first and
favorite advanced client...not client, student. And, just to
remind people Harlan has said that he's on track already to
double what he made last year, so he's off to the races. Now,
that may be mitigated if he starts taking more royalties, as
opposed to taking more fees. You can take on 15 clients for
certain fees, and you'll get 15 times that fee. You can take
on one client, have a back end tied into it, in which case,
every time he runs his ad, or as long as he runs his ad, or
whatever amount of money he brings in from your ad, you
are getting a piece of that action, say five to...
One of my clients basically gave me a significant piece of
his business, because I doubled his business last year.
Oh, so, he did this after the fact, it wasn't part of
the agreement?
No, because he wanted me to do more for him, he wanted
to lock me up. He basically bought all of my time.
There you go, and I actually talk about that in the course.
You will get these offers all the time. Make sure that you
do the math, because a lot of times, when you get locked
in, your income will go down. However, being locked into
the right position means that everything you write, then,
you don't have to pretend that you're part of the business to
write a great piece, you are part of the business to write
a great piece.
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
A friend of mine said, oh yeah, someone contacted them,
wants to give them a half percent of the net.
And, as I told you, the net for a lot of businesses is zero.
Just like in the movie business.
That's right. Actually, it's almost every business. You want
to make sure you're working off of the gross, not the net.
But, again, I talk about all of this stuff. Harlan, you've made
great strides. You actually taught me something with this
online thing. I've known about the online thing. That's what
1 wanted to talk about in my update of the Freelance, and
you made it very, very easy to do because as a student,
you went ahead and did all of the things in the map that
I provided, and you went off on a little tangent there, and
found your own way through to the online community.
And, I think we will have a copy of your current site,
which I imagine will change again, probably...
Because I'm testing.
Because you're testing, and it is also an organic, living piece.
Things change. You stop taking certain clients. You want to
keep refining the kinds of clients that you want to have bite.
It's kind of like fishing in a very, very crowded pond stuffed
with different kinds of fish, that at first, you're really excited
and every time you throw the hook in, you come up with
a fish. After a while, you get bored, and you're really tired
of throwing back half the fish because they're not edible.
So, then, you start finding parts of the land and finding the
right kind of bait to bring in only the fish you want to keep,
and then, you're only fishing for an hour or so a day, and
pretty soon, you only go out fishing once a month. And,
sometimes, you go out fishing once in a blue moon to bring
in the quality fish that will feed you for the rest of the time.
"Well, in the whole time that we've been on the phone, you've
probably heard my phone ringing in the background.-
John Carlton: That's good-sound effects.
Harlan Kilstein: ..and those are clients, those are clients. Those are people-
John Carlton: So, you've still got your phone on the site, then?
Harlan Kilstein: I have my phone number on the site, but it's my office
phone, because normal hours, my secretary fields all of
those, and will tell people, "OK, you can have time talking
to him," and schedule, them, generally within a couple
of days. Gosh, we're going on, but I firmly believe in the
Halbert porcupines in heat theory.
John Carlton: Porcupines, for people who haven't heard that, only come
into heat once a year, and in that once a year, they run
with everything they can find that has sticky, pointy things
coming out of their back. As Marian's referring to, in the
market, most people, even businessmen, decide they need
a copywriter, want to get after a copywriter, doing all that,
they will do it only for a short period of time. They will
obsess on this, and do it obsessively, but once they're out of
the mood, they will not go back to it.
Harlan Kilstein: And, that could happen within hours.
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
OK, two other quick things. What does...do you have a
recording that comes on. What does your recording say?
My recording, yeah, I use an audio generator recording on
my site. It basically introduces me, repeats some of the stuff
I've said on the site, and invites them to pick up the phone
to call me.
OK, and on the phone, when your secretary's not there,
what do they get?
Harlan Kilstein: They get voice mail saying, "We're not here, we're dealing
with clients. Leave your message, and we'll get right back
to you."
John Carlton: And, it doesn't identify you?
Harlan Kilstein: It does, but because I have so many things going on, all of
my own businesses, I don't talk about copy.
John Carlton: Gotcha. Now, the last thing I want to do, I've always worked
out of my house. I always get a house with a separate
bedroom, turn that bedroom into an office. Right now, I have
three bedrooms as my offices. You did not work at home,
and you actually have an office, and you have a secretary.
Harlan Kilstein: I have a secretary who can find anything in my office.
When I say, "Hey, I'm doing a biz op letter, so pull my swipe
files on 'Make money letters.'" She pulls a huge folder, puts it
in front of me, and I go to work.
John Carlton:
Harlan Kilstein:
John Carlton:
So, did you have the office already before you decided to go
as a freelancer?
I wanted to go. I kicked around the idea of doing it in the
home, and then, I decided I wanted to be out of the home.
So, when I'm home, home is family time, and office is
business time,
OK, that's good. I actually do that at home. I have a door
on my office, and when that door closes, I'm home. When
the door's open, I'm in the office. So, I'm able to do that
separation, but I also, I don't have people living at home
here. My significant other's off working during her day. So,
what I want to do is I want to make clear that people don't
need to think they have to go out and have a secretary to
handle this, however, at a certainpoint of volume that's
coming in, it makes a lot of sense to have an assistant. And,
I have an assistant that comes in a few hours a day, four
days a week. And, I've been very careful to keep that to
the absolute minimum, because I like to work in absolute
silence, and I like to be alone working here. However, she
comes in and takes care of the stuff that needs to be taken
care of, frees me up from filing, and having to take care
of that stuff.
So, you don't need an assistant, but until you get one, you're
going to be your assistant, so you've got to take care of that
stuff, take care of the filing, and know where the swipe files
are, and at a certain point, it makes sense to bring somebody
in. And, Harlan, I don't want to know exactly what you're
paying her...that would be a violation, but in a roundabout
way, are you paying her a lot of money?
Harlan Kilstein: No, relatively not
John Carlton: But, comparable to what a secretary would get, or what a
receptionist would get?
Harlan Kilstein: A receptionist.
John Carlton: OK, that's a good thing to know, and it's an option. How
about the office space? Did you look for anything special in
office space?
Harlan Kilstein: Very inexpensive office space. It's not huge. We're actually
figuring about putting the shelves just underneath the
ceiling for all the books that I have, just to get stuff out of
the way, the books, the audios, the DVD's.
John Carlton: Do you have piles of stuff around your office?
Harlan Kilstein: I have piles on top of the piles.
John Carlion: The current path I have to get from my desk to the door
is not quite big enough for two feet at the same time, so I
have to walk very...
Harlan Kiistein: But, only my receptionist knows where everything is.
John Carlton: And so, she quit-.we won't even get into that. OK, Harlan,
I'll let you go. That takes care of it. Great interview. Really
glad you recorded the back-up of this. You made your point
about the digital thing, and I'm going to toss this thing in
the trash. It's working again, by the way, it was just stuck. It
was the physical nature of the tape that got stuck, and that's
what happened
Harlan Kilstein: OK, great.
John Carlton: Brave new world. Thanks again, and I'll be talking to you.
Harlan Kilstein: Bye bye.
John Carlton: Bye bye.
I N T E R V! E
ing with >
Posting
Online "Client
SPECIAL UPDATE eomif
IOR THE IREEUNCE COURSE
From: John Carlton
Howdy...
In the interview with Harlan, I promised to reproduce a version of his "client bait"
website (it's in Section Two here), as well as some of the "clarifying" emails I sent him
over his first heady year of freelancing.
The version of the website here may not be the one currently online, because
Harlan (like all good marketers and freelancers) is constantly testing and changing it. But
it's still a prime example of how to construct an online "magnet" letter that attracts
potential clients and gets them to call.
I still recommend that you strive to become a well-rounded copywriter, and
follow the other tactics in the course to find local clients, and also to work with local
agencies. In my long career, I've noticed that every writer who concentrated too much
on one source of attracting clients eventually got burned.
But using the Web is too easy to pass up, both while you're gaining experience
and after you've "arrived" as a real writer. Simply stand in front of the vast parade
moving through the search engines, of people and entrepreneurs and businesses who need
help crafting online sales messages.
There are millions of opportunities online -just like the off-line world, online
businesses are starved for writers who know how to sell.
Still, you want to at least get familiar with all the different ways there are to find
and attract clients. And learn to write for all the different ways that sales messages are
delivered: direct mail (which is still the "granddaddy" of all ways to sell — even top
online marketers snail-mail to their lists when they want to guarantee huge results), radio
and television, print ads, and of course online (including email blasts, multi-tiered
websites, e-reports, and the new "mobile networks" through cell phones).
Once you establish a reputation, clients will start to find YOU... but until then,
learn to work the system. The entire system — local, statewide, national, and online.
The Web is a powerful and easy way to widen your net, instantly. And get
flooded with clients right off the bat.
Just don't get fooled into thinking that things are somehow "different" online.
You still need to learn to deal with clients. An online client is no different than a client
operating across the street.
When I started out, I first worked the Los Angeles area - with agencies, with
small entrepreneurs, with businesses. Soon, however, through connections, I got hooked
up with clients all over the country.
There's a subtle shift in dealing with clients that happens when you go national
(or international)... because in most cases you will never meet these far-away clients
faee-to-face.
Sometimes, however, there will be pressure for you to fly out and have a
"meeting" with them. In the "old days" — before the Web changed the business
environment — many clients actually resisted working with freelancers who refused to fly
out for a meeting.
I hopped on just a couple of planes before I realized what a waste of time it all
was. Meetings, even with local clients, are often a complete crock. For the majority of
my career, I NEVER met with my clients at all. We didn't know what each other looked
like — we only knew the sound of the other's voice.
Using overnight delivery services, fax, and email simply eliminates the NEED for
either you or your client to spend any time traveling to a meeting place. You do lose a
few interpersonal tools by not speaking with someone in person -- you can't use facial
expressions, for example... and you cannot see if the other person is smiling or frowning
as you talk... and you can't see if they're frantically exchanging notes.
This, of course, is why it's so important for you — as the hired gun — to enter the
relationship from a position of being "in total control".
While searching for the emails Harlan and I discussed in the interview, I also
found a few others that are relevant. They are included in this bonus report.
Harlan framed the emails I sent him and put them above his desk — they were that
important during his learning curve. (And everyone who visits him and sees the emails
begs for a copy.) Dealing with clients, and establishing yourself in the relationship, is
one of the hardest things for a freelancer to do (after learning your chops as a writer).
There's a delicate balancing act to master - as a freelancer, your natural
inclination is to be a nice guy, and do anything you can to help. And that's fine, and you
should have that attitude... but only AFTER you've established yourself as being in
control.
Otherwise, you will get walked on. Remember: Most clients do not naturally
value copywriting — they consider what you do to be "voodoo". Tricks, sleight of hand,
stuff that they suspect isn't all that difficult.
It's up to you to MAKE them value it. To the point they not only pay you
outrageous fees, but also to the point that they do what you tell them to do.
If you've gone through my courses, and done your due diligence, then you will be
in the position to tell almost any new client exactly what he needs to do to use your copy
successfully. He shouldn't mess with what you've written, or have other people screw it
up, or do ANYTHING different than what you intended.
As a freelancer, you know the simple drill: Gather information, create a killer
sales pitch, write it out in a form that will get read... and then get it in the hands of
prospects.
Clients are muddled about this simple drill. That's why they hired you.
However, unless you force them to follow your instructions, that muddled
thinking will wreak havoc on your work.
So pay attentionhere.
Very important material here.
Section One
"ADVANCED TACTIC* FOR
DEALING WITH CLIENT!'
Critical advice from the front lines on how
to force clients to bend to your will, so you
accomplish everything that needs to be
done, gain the respect you deserve,
and get paid.
Email Number One:
From: Harlan Kilstein
John, the only difficulties in writing for clients, so far, has been working with clients who
claim they "know copy". They always tell me up front how smart they are and how great
their own copywriting skills are, etc.
Then, when I complete the job, they immediately attack it without offering any specifics.
And then they redo the entire piece themselves. Do you have suggestions for dealing
with these kinds of know-it-alls?
Reply from John Carlton:
Look... when a guy says "money is no problem", you can be sure that money IS a
problem.
When they tell you they're easy to work with, they're gonna be a nightmare.
It's almost like clockwork. Figure out the opposite of everything anybody says... and
then watch for it.
Most clients suck. That's where the burn-out in this gig comes from. The only answer is
to become more powerful than the client — have more money, don't need his job, you're
willing to walk away if he pisses you off. That's why I counsel you to put aside your
"Screw You" money early. Jay Abraham suggested I do that twenty years ago, and I
haven't touched it yet It's still the basis of my Mr. Confidence.
Set up, in your contract, that the client can mail whatever he wants. He can change your
copy, add to it, draw little doodles on it, you don't give a damn. BUT... he must mail
your copy, in an equal amount, as a test. Because you're the "expert" here... he's hiring
you to bring your expertise to the game. If he hates your copy, fine. But... as long as
you are factually accurate, and you've met the terms of what you promised you would
give him... he must mail your piece.
Think about this. If he mails it (or posts it online, or however it's going to run), and
you're right, you shut him up. If he doesn't mail it, he can't bitch about results. Because
you can just shrug and say "Mail mine. I told you your version sucked." Approach this
as a professional, not as a hooker hired to do his bidding. Often, I've had to FORCE
clients to mail the right pitch. When I've been weak, and let them botch the pitch up with
changes and then mail it, I STILL got blamed for any failures.
Nobody said this was going to be fair. It isn't. You gotta think like the Mafia here. Box
them in — so they ONLY choice is to mail your piece.
And, again, only count the money you get upfront with new clients. I haven't been
stiffed on the second half of my fee in 19 years (the last guy to screw me was a born-
again right wing Christian, too... spouted piety, practiced evil)... but I still expect it
every time. The royalties are gravy.
Harlan, you're learning. You're in the middle of your learning period. Don't try to
shortcut it. Enjoy it. You're one of the Brethren OfThe Pen now.
Did I say most clients suck? I meant ALL clients suck.
Even when you're writing for yourself. I'm my worst nightmare to write for.
Email Number Two:
From: Harlan Kilstein
I need some pricing suggestions and tactics to avoid spending an hour on the phone with
someone who milks me for ideas but doesn't have two cents to rub together. My wife
thinks I'm insane to spend so much time talking with them when they aren't paying
clients yet Your thoughts?
Reply from John Carlton:
Good question. Not a difficult answer, either. Any time you have an objection that you
clearly can identify... bring it up early. As you know, I mention my fees early and often
in my pitches. So they're out there, floating in the either. I position myself as an
obscenely-paid writer. Non-negotiable, etc. The trick is, you gotta have the chops to
back it up. The only arrogance that works... is arrogance backed up with vicious skills.
And a track record of success.
Your wife is right. I will talk a BIT with a prospect... but I'm doing most of the talking,
and I'm not giving away the store. I'm telling him what the deal is going to be. Do NOT
answer questions — it is COMMON for people to grill and bleed writers for ideas and
concepts on the phone... and then not hire them.
Reposition the way you think about these calls. You aren't "selling" yourself... you are
clarifying the terms. Bring up the price right away... and casually mention that they will
make it all back the first week, or month, or whatever. Heck, have a guarantee if you
want — if what you write doesn't work, they can keep the second half of the fee, or
whatever. (I know one guy who did this by charging twice what he normally charged,
and never expected the second payment.) (He got it, most of the time, anyway... and
now he's worth twice what he thought he was.)
It is NEVER about the price. It is about the belief system of the client - what he thinks
copy is worth, what he thinks you're worth, what he thinks his investment will yield, etc.
When clients call me, they are already sold on my services. Now we're just trying to find
a way to make it work, deadline-wise. (In other words, can I even fit them in?) For you,
at this stage, you still have to do some selling... but let your testimonials do more work.
Say "I've done several jobs just like you're asking about already. Here are the results..."
Your job is to give the prospect a reason to say "Yeah, okay. I'll send you a check."
Until you give him this reason, he will balk.
This is about salesmanship. Don't pay any attention to what other writers get. It's
irrelevant, and they may have percentage deals... or they may just jamming out copy
without editing, like an assembly line. Do what you do, well.
Does this help?
Email Number Three
From Mark Landstrom:
John, I found these notes, which I scribbled down during your last few pep talks with me.
It's good stuff:
1. Always stick to the "how, what, why, where, when" format when gathering
information from a client. Relentlessly ask questions. You'll get exactly what
you need faster and keep the interview focused. It directs the client deeper into
the subject at hand, connects the dots, and leads to the "hook" with less bullshit
and fewer detours. YOU are in control of the interview process, not the client.
Establish client respect for what you do from the get-go.
2. The client has to "go to work for you". He gets you all past ad campaigns, all the
manuals and books you need, detailed product information, introductions to other
people to interview... everything you need for being a Sales Detective. You're
training him to follow your advice and directions. You don't begin writing the
piece until you get everything you ask for. Don't compromise or back down from
demands, because it will end up sucking your time or sabotaging the job. You are
the one who suffers from client laziness. Make him dance.
3. Don't ever work for "free". Always ask directly for a half-down, non-refundable
deposit for a job. At the very least. Or the entire fee. There are two reasons for
this: First, you want the client financially INVESTED in this job. So he works
with you. Second, if he flakes out or the job goes dead in the water, you still have
something to take to the bank. Never forget that your time is worth money.
That's what you're offering -- your time and expertise and talent, in exchange for
money. That's the job.
4. Stay current with "the culture", both mainstream and underground... and write
down all buzzwords that can make your copy sizzle. Start your own archive of
Power Words and niche-culture phrases. This will help you deal with clients,
who may not even be current within their own niche. You appear as the uber-
knowledgeable expert, with insight and experience far above anything the client
has in his niche.
5. If you make a deadline with a client... make good on it at all costs. Extreme
circumstances may excuse you once or twice in your career... but don't get into
any "the dog atemy homework" routine. Too many writers routinely flake out on
deadlines. This is Career Suicide.
6. Don't be afraid to dump your work to date.., and start completely fresh if you
need to. It's rough, at first, because you never want to erase hours of hard work...
but it will quickly hone your skills and push you into quality work. Don't let the
client see your notes, or early drafts, EVER. ONLY show them finished work.
7. Finally... reread the "Masters" of marketing and advertising on a yearly basis.
The rules don't change, but they can mutate in your memory. Keep the really
good stuff current hi your mind. BE that expert the client believes he's hiring.
Email Number Four;
From Harlan Kilstein:
John, you gave me four pieces of advice that just rocketed me out of the starting gate:
Your first piece of advice is the same that you demand at all your seminars: Lose your
ego.
Second: Suck up all the great marketing advice out there, (I urge everyone I meet who
wants to write copy to join your Insider's Club immediately — the personal critiques you
offer are just pure gold.)
Third: Get connected. Network your ass off. This helped me more than almost anything
else.
Fourth: Write your own "client bait" site, post it... and use pay-per-click to drive search
engine traffic to that site.
Email Number Five:
From "M.L.":
This last client of mine is driving me nuts. He calls all the time, wants to spend hours
going over copy and new ideas, and he's just abusing my time and good will. I can't
shake him, either.
What do I do?
Reply from John Carlton:
This is easy.
1. Every time you do anything — from setting up a new business, planning a
seminar, to taking on a new client — decide first what you're willing to do.
2. Then, do ONLY those things. As you gain experience, you'll be able to list all
the "bad" stuff about dealing with clients. Top of your list, right now, is that once
they pay you, they feel entitled to call all the tune and take up your time whenever
they feel like it. Guess what? You don't have to put up with that If you have to,
explain that once you've written copy, any further advice they want becomes
CONSULTING... and requires another fee. People will push until you resist. It's
that simple. Establish control immediately.
3. Do NOT get into a "pen pal" kind of correspondence with any client. They
LOVE talking about their business and their projects. You, as the expert, enjoy
tackling challenges and stuff... but that's also how you earn a living. Keep all
your contact professional, brisk and laser-focused on the point at hand. BE "too
busy to talk". Otherwise, you're like a whore who's too shy to insist on getting
paid for your services — and I mean that exactly. What you have to offer is
powerful stuff that can change a client's life. Don't give it away free. If he needs
consulting, that's great. But make him pay for it.
4. As for the copy... at this stage of your career, you should have a gut feeling for
how good your stuff is. If what you've written is what the client needs, then all
conversation about "changes" ends when you know you've delivered what you
promised. It's not your job to educate him on what will work — that's what
testing is for. Put it into your contracts if you must — but let the real world and
the existing market out there "decide" who's right. Have him test your copy
against anything else he wants to throw out there, including his own feeble
attempts. You will encounter this a LOT, until you learn to control the situation.
Almost ALL business owners secretly believe they could write brilliant copy, "if
only they had the tune". It's bullshit, of course, but it's also NOT YOUR
PROBLEM. Encourage them to write their own ad... and then test it against
yours, I assure you, the long "what if conversations will end abruptly, once the
results come in.
Don't be a hostage to ANY client. They will suck the life out of you, as well as every
free idea they can, and stop bothering you the second you bring up more money. Some
will, anyway. The golden ones — the ones you want as long-time clients — will
immediately recognize your value to their success, and will WELCOME the opportunity
to pay you for consulting.
So stop whining, already. This "pen pal" stuff is happening only because you've allowed
it to fester. You have the power to stop it. As a pro, it's your duty to establish the
boundaries of your relationship... and to enforce them.
Now go back out there and start controlling things.
Email Number Six;
From Michael N.:
John, with what you've taught me, I know I can write better copy than what is found on
all but a few websites out there. But I'm in a part of the world where there are few
agencies, and none understand direct response, or care. Same with local businesses.
Can you tell me how to get local copywriting jobs, and also jobs online?
Reply from John Carlton:
Basically, you set up your own website... attract traffic through Google Adwords, and
close the deal.
If you still want local clients, go ahead and DO the "image" ads that the clueless agencies
want. It won't kill you to write stuff you know is bullshit, and you'll still be getting
experience dealing with agencies. Every scrap of experience is worthwhile. Eventually,
after you get a reputation, you may even want to go back and force those agencies to bow
to your expertise, and run a real direct response ad.
I also know there are direct response-savvy businesses in your country, because I have a
rather large number of people from there in my Insider's Club. And the other guru's tell
me the same thing. Those direct response-savvy biz may be hard to find, but they exist.
Keep after it. Contact printers who do direct mail, like I suggested, and tell them you're a
direct response writer. Do whatever ads local agencies and businesses want. I have guys
in the UK and Europe making this work, using nothing but my Freelance Course. And
direct mail is brand new over there.
10
Heck, I have a young kid in Japan who's just tearing up the entire business world over
there... using NOTHING but my ads as templates for everything he does. They've never
seen anything like it before. Lots of shock and complaints... but much MORE sales.
He's cleaning up.
You need to sell yourself. You need successes to do that. Use your own ads, for your
own products, as examples if you must. I NEVER tell writers to attempt to sell anyone
on the value of direct response-style advertising. It's a disaster to even try. Don't
educate at all. Just write ads that work. Direct response works great with retail stores,
for example — the call to action is merely the act of stopping by the store and using a
coupon. You get the reader to ACT.
Basically, your attitude sucks. You're giving up. That's fine, but it's bullshit. Ad
writers are thriving all over the world right now.
Look — if you try to sell something, and it's not working, then you need to either quit,
find a new product, or CHANGE YOUR SALES PITCH. It's not "I write direct
response copy, do you want it?" Rather, it's "I know the secrets of doubling your
customer base, increasing profits, etc..." You sell the BENEFITS of what you offer.
Don't even call yourself a direct response writer. You're a freelance copywriter, period.
If they want bullshit ads, at this early stage of your career you GIVE them bullshit ads.
You're still in your Shameless Whore stage. So be shameless.
Shake yourself off, and get back out there with a better pitch. And hit the online
community. If you've written a single online ad that works (and I know you already
have), you have a success to tout.
Put up your own website, and send traffic to it. Google Adwords is simple — to go to
www.google.com, type in "adwords", and go from there. The tutorial is fast, easy and
free. You aren't out a cent signing up - charges start ONLY after you've told them what
kind of terms you want to snag. (And, you get to put absolute limits on how much you
spend each day, or each period. So there are never any surprises.)Or work joint venture deals with other lists online. If you know someone who has a
database of clients who might be able to use your services — even a small amount of them
— then cut a deal with the guy. Send out an endorsed email touting your copywriting
services.
Network. Get connected. Don't lose sight of the target, which is a reputation that causes
clients to begin seeking you out. It's all worth it, in spades.
Stay with it. I'm here if you need me.
11
Section Two
"AN EXAMPLE Of AN
ONHNE CLIENT-BAIT
fITI*
Writing the pitch that attracts clients online
will be one of the most important pieces you
ever work on... and here's a great template
to start with.
12
A Word On Setting Up Your Own
"Client-Bait" Site
I wrote my first ad for the Web back in the "Internet Stone Age" - around 1992,
before DSL and Broadband and the souped-up processors that now make your average
laptop more powerful than the mainframes NASA used for space shuttle launches.
That ad did very well, but driving traffic to it was embarrassingly primitive. I
simply wrote a space ad that ran in the back of one of the geek magazines. That was the
entire marketing plan. There was no Google Adwords. In feet, few "average" people
used search engines at all... the technology was seen as an aid for academic research,
mostly.
The influence of the World Wide Web on our lives has steadily increased, but it
turned a comer in the last couple of years. I knew the entire world had changed forever
when my 85-year-old father started sending me long emails from his home computer.
Even more telling, he was ordering prescription medicine from a New Zealand
site... and felt comfortable giving them his credit card number. My father is not a man to
take such things lightly — this was a HUGE shift in consciousness. And the entire planet
was getting in the groove right along with him.
This shift means a lot to freelancers. Before this shift, it was up to you to find
clients, or at least to make yourself known in the circles of agencies and businesses and
entrepreneurs that used freelancers.
Now, you can use the Web's new ascendancy as "Search Central" to simply and
easily put yourself in a position to be searched out by new clients.
This is huge.
And it's REALLY huge for the few freelancers who understand how to use this
new power effectively.
The weakest way to use the Web is to shackle yourself to the fee-hell of places
like www.elance.com. Visit that site if you haven't already. There, scores of wannabe
copywriters lobby against each other to get jobs posted by clients... and the winner is
almost always the freelancer who says he'll do the work for the LEAST amount of
money.
That's the opposite direction you want to go. Real professionals wouldn't be
caught dead bidding their price down.
It's also completely unnecessary. I've been advising freelancers to put up their
own sites for several years now. At its most basic, your site will serve as an enlarged
13
business card — a one-stop place to show off your availability and your contact
information.
However, at its most effective, your client-bait site is a pure sales letter — selling
your services. You want to spend a LOT of focused time working on this site -- it is, in
fact, the most important piece of writing you will do in your career.
The only difference between this site, and most other sales sites you work on... is
that YOU are the product. So you don't need an order page, and you don't need a
merchant account. The "action" you ask for will be to contact you — either by email, or
by phone.
Pretty gosh-darned simple.
Pretty gosh-darned effective, too.
I advise you to approach this "selling" of your services the same way you'd sell
any other "high ticket" item. Have a killer hook in your headline, start the "greased
slide" of your pitch right away, support your promises with testimonials, establish your
credibility with endorsements... and even include samples.
Put yourself in the shoes of the prospect reading this site. He's in a position
where he needs a copywriter — probably desperately. What can you tell him to convince
him to contactj/ow?
And how can you tease his greed glands so he doesn't faint when you reveal your
fee?
It all gets back to the basics. No matter how good his product is, he can't sell it
without ads and marketing. You are the one to create those ads and marketing. You are
the gateway to success.
Sure, there are other freelancers out there. In fact, there are mobs of ones at
places like www.elance.com that can be had for CHEAP.
My friend Harlan (whose example of a good client-bait site you are about to see)
handles it exactly as he should: If anyone balks at his prices, he SENDS them to
elance.com. With his urging -- if cheap writing is what you want, there's the place to
find it.
Of course, this is classic "take away" salesmanship. In many areas of life,
substituting what you need with the cheapest bargain you can find may not hurt you. In
business, however, going cheap with your marketing will murder your bottom line.
14
Remember the job of Mr. Confidence in your career—you are providing the
engine for all the success your future client is going to experience. If he insists on
seeking out the cheapest route, let him go.
The smart ones will be back as soon as they see what kind of miserable results
inferior copywriting produces for them.
And they will then gladly pay whatever fee you ask.
Because -- if you've done your due diligence, and studied the Freelance Course
and Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets like you should — you are going to provide the REAL
THING to your client. Honest, hard-hitting, result-getting advertising that brings in the
bucks.
Now... how do these prospectsy/nrf you online?
That's the beauty of the Web today.
Clients from every strata of the business world — small entrepreneur to corporate
behemoth — are now using search engines to FIND copywriters.
Therefore, merely partaking of Google Adwords can put you in the white-hot
center of the pipeline. Test and experiment with search engine terms like, oh,
"copywriting" and "help your business grow" and "get your ad written". Find that river
of interest, and wade in.
Plus, ride the coattails of established writers. When you Google my name, or
Gary Halbert's, or Jay Abraham's, or any of the well-known marketers and writers, you
will also find a slew of ever-changing paid positioned ads from other writers.
This is where your advanced knowledge of the Hook and the Tease come hi
handy.
Try it out. If you've never used Adwords, you're in for a revelation. Just go to
Google.com, type in "adwords"... and hit the link. Follow the directions, and you're off.
The tutorial is free, and you can sign up for free. You ONLY encounter charges
when you actually set up a campaign asking to have your mini-ad (which sends prospects
to your client-bait site). And you control the amount you spend completely. You can
budget any amount you like for each day's "fishing" for clients. As little as ten bucks, or
as much as $500 or more.
You only get charged when someone reads your mini-ad... and GOES TO YOUR
SITE. That's an amazing thing. You get qualified leads, directed to your killer ad, for
chump change. There is no other marketing system like this in the world right now.
15
Once they're at your site, it's up to you (and your advanced writing talents) to
grab them and get them to contact you and offer you jobs.
Side Note #1: You do NOT need "geek" skills to get your site up. If you're a
real go-getter, you can learn Front Page in an afternoon. And put up your own site. Get
your domain name at www.godaddy.com or www.register.com... find a host (you can do
this locally by looking up "web site services" in your Yellow Pages, or hop on Google
again and search)... and you're off.
I'm too busy for that kind of detail. It's just not cost-effective. Every hour I work
as a copywriter brings in thousands of dollars... and I can find an experienced "geek" to
do all this for a few hundred.(And I use the term "geek" with all due affection and
respect. It's just another glaring example of how POWERFUL the ability to write sales
copy is. You can go to school for years getting tech-sawy... and still not make a fraction
of the money a high-school dropout can earn as a freelance copywriter.)
In fact, you can bid out the technical aspects of getting your site up on
www.elance.com... and dozens of experienced web designers will outbid each other to
do your job for the least amount.
Side Note #2: It's important to be FLUID with your efforts to find clients online.
Don't just hack together an Adword campaign and then forget about it. Update every few
weeks ~ find out how each of your chosen terms are doing (Google gives you amazing
stats, free), and cull the bad ones while you test new ones.
The Web is ever-changing. You've got competition out there — there are oodles
and oodles of people now calling themselves "freelance copywriters" online. The sheer
demand for sales copy has spawned a fresh "growth market" for writers.
However, 99% of these writers SUCK. Never forget that Like agency
copywriters, most of these new writers have shortcut their education to the point that they
know little or nothing about how advertising actually works.
This is your biggest advantage, if you find yourself in a crowded pool at any time.
Just hold firm with your continued honing of skills, and keep accumulating success
stories.
While the others mumble and brag and equivocate (because they don't HAVE any
results or success stories), you will be able to use your actual reputation and results to
demand (and get) high fees for the best jobs.
The secret to a lifelong career as a professional freelance copywriter is to have a
DEEP bag of tricks, and a solid-gold reputation.
If you follow the career-map in the Freelance Course, you'll get it.
16
Side Note #3: As you will notice, Harlan has a dedicated phone line. He
WANTS prospects to call him. He has an assistant handle all incoming calls during the
day, and allows his message machine to handle after-hours traffic.
This is a conscious decision on his part.
I have an assistant, but I don't want her tied up on the phone. So I have NEVER
had a listed phone number. While I was an up-and-coming freelancer, I made sure the
"right" people knew my phone number... but I also made sure that phone number was a
big damn secret to everyone else.
I value my privacy. Maybe more than most people.
I also don't like to be disturbed during the day. I often sleep late, because I work
late. Anyone who gets my phone number knows to never call before noon. They also
know I work out of my house, and that when they call, the phone is ringing next to my
bed.
Many of the professional freelancers I know work hi home offices, like me. Just
as many purposely have an office outside the home ~ they need to get away from the kids
and disruptions, or they just enjoy keeping then- professional and family lives separate.
Me? I revel in the fact I can wake up, stagger over to the coffee pot, and start
checking email and getting my business day going while still in my pajamas. The whole
idea of freelancing, for me, is about NOT having an outside office.
But, it's up to you.
I have found that using email as your primary contact source works very well. No
one, to my knowledge, has tested how having a phone number may or may not bring in
more prospects than just having an email contact.
If you test and find out anything dramatic, let me know, will you?
Side Note #4: Reread the section in the Freelance Course about getting paid.
You will likely never meet your clients gotten online, and there are all sorts of inherent
problems with this anonymity (like making sure you get paid)... especially if you go
directly to the Web to find clients, and skip the more "personal" steps I suggest, like
working with agencies and local businesses.
So, be prepared. Don't be a babe in the woods here. Insist on upfront payment ~
at least half, all of the fee if you can swing it. (Harlan tells me he has little resistance to
getting the entire fee upfront, which amazes me. However, online, you are often dealing
with less-savvy entrepreneurs, who aren't aware that the "normal" way of paying for
freelance work is to pay half up front, half on acceptance. Whatever. Do what's best for
you... the clients will catch up, or not, as they mature.)
17
You have a few options to get paid that aren't available off-line. For example,
you can get paid through PayPal, which is immediate. Set up your account at
www.paypal.com — very easy. It's owned by eBay, so it's an accepted and acceptable
alternative to using "real" checks or credit card billing. There are other online payment
services, too... if you use a new one, make sure you're up-to-date on how it works, so
you aren't raped by high fees or forced to wait for your money while they process your
account. (Some payment sites keep a percentage of your money for MONTHS, as a
"reserve". Get hip to the fine print.)
If you get a check, make sure you cash it IMMEDIATELY. You do not want to
learn that your new client is floating checks after you've already put serious time into the
job.
Remember — the deal isn't done until the check clears the bank. Don't get
burned. You're a professional. Act like one, and get the payment thing out of the way
fast and efficiently. Then, concentrate on the job and deadline.
Alright. Time to study this "client bait" site. Remember that this is unlikely to be
the current example Harlan has online... because he is constantly toying with it and
changing it, to stay effective. And to update his testimonials.
This is simple software, and a site like this is easy to mimic. The key is, and
always will be, your ability to sell yourself. By establishing your credibility, and backing
up your promises with proof and testimonials.
Check it out. It's a brave new world, and those of us who are hip to the cutting
edge ways to USE the fresh technology will continue to eat everyone else's lunch.
18
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I ran a successful counseling business and noticed that my leads began to dry up. Ads that
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I connected with the top minds hi the direct marketing business and I tapped then* secrets.
And let me tell you something. It was a whole new world. I learned...
• Why your headline can ruin your ad or make
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• Why everyone who reads your ad loves it but it
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need to do to produce consistent winners .
• The one thing that is missing from almost
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this piece is added, your sales skyrocket.
• How your marketing can become consistent
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• Why letting your newspaper design your ad
could be the most expensive mistake you ever
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• Why the font you use affects your ad
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I scrapped everything that I believed about marketing and began to use my new found
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knowledge. I began writing my own ads and my phone rang off the hook. It seemed like
magic.
But it's not magic at all!
You see, what my clients learn is what the great copywriter and direct marketing wizard,
Gary Halbert once said, "You are only one sales letter from success.." I quickly and
effectively write hard-hitting, take-no-prisoners, kick-ass sales letters and - as a result - your
business improves overnight.
My name is Dr. Harlan Kilstein and my ads, direct mail letters, web-sites, and radio ads have
made hundreds ofthouaanda millions of dollars for my clients. People call from all over the
world just to get me to write ads for them. People routinely pay me thousands of dollars to
create ads for them. I've taken the most distressed businesses and turned them around
overnight.
Now, I know you probably never heard of me -1 was content to stay in the background with
my small but elite group of clients. That's when I discovered something. The average
business has absolutely zero-chance of getting one of the top people in direct marketing to do
their copy for them. They are booked for months - even years - in advance.
Even more frightening. Even if you pay one of the big names the staggering amounts of
money they ask for, there's no guarantee that they will actually personally do the work for
you. They won't tell you this but chances are, some flunky is actually going to do the work
for you and the big name you pay is only going to review it and make a change or two.
Almost all the leading copywriters farm their work out. So you pay Rolls Royce prices and
get VW quality.
The way the big copy guys work is they charge are large up-front fee, typically $15,000-
25,000. And that's just for starters. Then they want a piece (often 5%) of every dollar you
make.
But the truth is. Most of these guys no longer work for guys like you or me. They work for
the big mailers like Boardroom, Rodale, Phillips, and Agora. Many of the big names have
decided to use their talents and promote their own product lines. Rumor has it that at least
four of the copy writing superstars are leaving the field this year. So, in the meantime, they
want to sell us their courses on how to write our own copy. Big Mistake.
Seriously, have you ever cut your own hair? It may look good in the front, but you can't cut
what you can't see. And you can't write effective compelling copy unless you know the
triggers that make people salivate for your product.
But there is nothing a little guy can do.
Until now...
Here's how I discovered the secret to success... and you are the winner.
I have paid tens of thousands of dollars to study with the top experts in direct marketing
Copywriting Direct Mail Internet Overnight Results Guaranteed Page 4 of 15
including such experts as:
• Jay Abraham - the legendary king of marketing.
• Gary Halbert - the Prince of Copy
• Dan Kennedy - the no B.S. marketing genius
• John Carlton - the copywriter's secret weapon
• Carl Galletti - who wrote some of the hottest copy for some of the biggest
names.
• Kenrick Cleveland - the world's leading expert in sales and persuasion
• Bob Bly - one of the top teachers of direct mail copy today
• David Garfinkel - an absolute master of Direct Response copy
• Michael Masterson - the legendary copy master instructor from Agora
Publications
And after weeks, months, and years of slaving away at copy, I struck the mother lode of gold.
Letter after letter that I wrote was producing serious money for my business. I set a sales
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Everyone wanted me to "give away" all my secrets.
And at first, I was more than happy to do so. I shared my secret success formulas with others.
I gave them my full page newspaper advertisements, my direct mail letters, my radio
commercials, and my sales scripts.
It soon turned out that my ads were becoming more popular than the franchises own ads. So
they pulled the plug. I was not allowed to share my marketing secrets with anyone else in the
franchise. Even though I wrote some of the most successful ad campaigns in their history,
they didn't think it was right that I was doing this for others when they had a big fancy ad
agency that they were paying at the same time.
So, now I can't share my work anymore with my friends. It's against the rules of my
franchise.
But they can't stop me from working with you.
When I decide to accept someone as a client, I totally immerse myself in their business. I
want to understand it inside and out. And only then do I begin to write. As a result, my copy
reads as if their best friend is talking to them.
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remorse.
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Copy writing Direct Mail Internet Overnight Results Guaranteed Page 6 of 15
When you hire me to work for you, in as little as 24 hours after you start using my copy, your
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skill... and... sit back while your bank account swells in size
almost effortlessly!)
• What you must pay attention to if you want to make maximum
money from your online business! (It's the most important
element... and... you must know it before you write even a
single word.
• The "one" word at the core of your online business. If you
don't live by the word, you're not really in the game... and
you're making 1/10 the money you could be!
• The reason most websites fail! If you don't know this
ingredient, you might as well turn hi your domain name and
give up your dreams of success.
• How to hit the passionate "sweet spot" of your reader and
literally whip him into a buying frenzy even if he has to max
out his credit card hi the process!
And so much more! Sign up now!
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your email address.
Overnight-Copy Becomes Your Overnight-Success
In the copy business, the top names are booked months (or years) hi advance. So if you want
to hire someone like Gary Bencivenga, who is widely considered to be the top copywriter in
the country, forget it It's not going to happen. Gary has retired.. He will only promote his
own products. So here are your choices:
Go after one of the top names in copy and wait for them to produce for you. (It
could be months or years - if they even agree to take your business.)
Hire one of the top names hi copy and pay top dollar to have some flunky write
your copy for them. (You'd be shocked at which top copywriter hasn't written a
word of his own copy in years!)
Copy writing Direct Mail Internet Overnight Results Guaranteed Page 7 of 15
Get one of these guys to work for you when they start at $15,000-25,000 or $2
each word. (It sounds cheap until you figure out that doing it that way makes the
15 grand sound like a bargain!)
Buy some do-it-yourself copy program to save a few bucks but then discover
that the author of the program hires other people to write his own copy!
Or, the single worst mistake you can make - doing it yourself. Look, everyone
wants to save a buck but you wouldn't dream of stepping into an operating room
after watching General Hospital. The difference between hiring a pro. and doing
it yourself will pay off immediately. When you hire a pro you learn...
Now, there's another way to make some serious money!
I am going to shamelessly bribe you into action ...
and guarantee you will get results tike these:
"The first advertorial that Dr. Kilstein wrote brought in
hundreds of customers and tens of thousands of dollars. The
ads only got better over time."
James Arthur, Edmonton Alberta.
"My ad response in the Daily News went up when I started
using Dr. KJIstein's ads. My phone lines were overloaded with
new clients."
R. Seheffren , New York.
"When we ran Dr. Kilstein's radio commercials, we couldn't handle
the calls. Our sales staff was booked for weeks in advance."
Helen Marie, Calgary, Alberta.
"I begged Dr. Kilstein for one of his radio commercials. When I
began to run it, he beat all our controls"
S. Thaler, Florida.
What the Pros Say About My Work Guarantees Your Results!
"I think you guys did a great job - better preparation than anyone."
- Jay Abraham
Jay Abraham now recommends Overnight-Copy to all his clients.
Copy writing Direct Mail Internet Overnight Results Guaranteed Page 8 of 15
Marketing Genius Jay Abraham hires Harlan to write his copy!
"Harlan is one of the few people that I see as an expert at persuasion. His
unconscious skills are extremely powerful."
- Kenrick Cleveland
"You have extraordinary talent!"
- David Garfinkel, Master Copywriter
"The copy is slamming! Excellent job. I can't believe you sat in front of your
computer for 12 solid hours cranking it out. I just want to thank you personally for all
the help you are providing us."
- Stephen Pierce (Author of The Whole Truth)
"The difference between a master copywriter and one who is just fluid in copy writing
techniques is similar to the difference between an writer who knows how to write and
a novelist who sells millions of copies. Harlan can find the big idea and bring it to
life. He finds the emotional hot button and pushes it like crazy. If you really want a
master to write your next marketing piece. Visit his site: http://www.overnigb.t-
copy.com It won't be cheap. But if you understand the massive return on investment
from well written copy with a BIG IDEA then you will gladly pay the price. Lesson
to be learned: If you want a best seller, hire a best selling writer."
- Christopher Tomasulo - Master Persuader
"Harlan has displayed extraordinary energy and talent in his copy skills, and he's a
writer to watch out for. A client would do well to hook up with him before success
goes to his head."
- John Carlton - Copywriting Superstar
My Track Record in 2004 (A small selection)
• A website I did this year set an Internet record for a
teleconference. My copy brought in over $600,000.
• A new website and email campaign brought in $750,00'
less than a month.
'in
Copy writing Direct Mail Internet Overnight Results Guaranteed Page 9 of 15
• A single email brought in nearly $150,000 in product sales.
• An email for an unknown writer had a 15% sales rate. The
client is still in shock.
• An email campaign brought in nearly $100,000 for a
seminar.
• An email campaign sold out a coaching program.
• Newspaper ads that bring in hundreds of thousands of
dollars.
• A B2B letter selling a software product had a 47%
response rate using a secret technique.
• And... an email campaign so successful that 1 out of every
2 people who opened it, bought the product.
Every campaign has been a winner. Aren't those the results you want for your business?
I've written successfully for alternative health, fmancials, business opportunity seekers,
personal development, financial advisors, mortgage brokers, and a long list of B2B and B2C
customers.
Warning: After I write for you once, you will never let anyone else do your copy.
Free Consultation
I select four jobs to do a month. That's all. I don't farm out the work. I do it all myself. But
that means I get to be selective about who I work with. January is gonel. Three jobs are
already reserved in February and March is going to be exceptionally busy.
If you recognize the price I charge is immaterial because you can make it back the first day
you use my copy, I invite you to call me. But if you're price shopping, I'm not the one
for your business. Please don't call me if you are price shopping.
Every creative job that I do is completely different. I don't have a one price fits all service.
Here's the way it works. You email me resuIts@Qyernight-copy.com with the specifics of
the job as you understand them. Leave me phone numbers (day and night) where I can reach
you. Please tell me the time zone you are in and when I can call. We will connect by phone
and talk.
Click Here To Listen To a BriefMessage:
Copy writing Direct Mail Internet Overnight Results Guaranteed Page 10 of 15
If you are really in a rush, call me in my off at 954-429-0888 and we can hook-up right away.
We will spend some quality time talking and I will freely share my expertise with you. You
may discover the reasons why your marketing or copy hasn't been working. It's a fascinating
call. You may want to have a tape recorder ready because I will give you so many ideas, you
may not be able to write them all down.
First I want to understand what your business is. What's working and what the problems are.
I am going to want to see copies of what you have been using. I want to know where you
want to take your business. What's the next level?
I want to clearly understand what your real needs are. My questions will quickly get to the
heart of the problem. You will have a clarity about your business that you lacked.
And then and only then will I make a proposal to write for you and turn your business around
- literally overnight. And once you use my copy, you are just hours from the greatest
business turnaround you have ever experienced.
If you need a newspaper ad, give me the exact dimensions of your ad and I can deliver your
finished product in Word, Quark, or PDF. For no extra charge, once you have approved the
ad, I can even submit it to your newspaper electronically.
If you need to convert visitors to your website into buyers, not only can I write hard hitting
compelling web copy.. 1 can also help you create a high impact Google adwords campaign
that will bring paying customers to your site in droves for just pennies in a few minutes. And
if yours isn't working as well as you'd like, maybe you'd like my secrets. (And even the
experts in Google Adwords (like my friend Perry Marshall - Mr. Google Adwords) use my
work as an example.)
I will write and direct your complete marketing campaign and bend over backwards to turn
your business around.
Or, you may have a project that just needs to be tweaked a bit. Sometimes, just a small
adjustment is all it takes. If s not about charging you high prices. It's about getting you the
results you deserve. You win either way because...
Copywriting Direct Mail Internet Overnight Results Guaranteed Page n of 15
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Here's who should not call:
1. You want to send SPAM emails.
2. You are promoting something illegal or mis-representing your product.
3 . You want Rolls Royce results at Matchbox car prices.
Extra Bonns: One Year Follow-Up Access!
I'll give you a secret e-mail address no one else gets. Being able to drop me an e
You 11 have the best advice money can buy, from one of the most respected and fastest
Copy writing Direct Mail Internet Overnight Results Guaranteed Page 12 of 15
thinking direct marketers on the planet. You get the same attention my regular paying clients
do.
Now I plan to select exactly who I work with. Right now my business is by referral only. So
if I don't feel that I can skyrocket your sales, I'll tell you up front. Otherwise, hang on for the
most exciting ride of your life.
Your marketing partner,
Harlan D. Kilstein EdD.CHL
P.S. — If after using Overnight-Copy, you don't think it is the most powerful marketing
advice you've ever encountered in your business... if you're not certain that you'll be able to
lower your cost per lead and convert more of your prospects... you let me know and I will
totally rewrite from scratch your ads, letters, or web-site at my expense.
P.P.S. — Remember... when you hire me, I get you results immediately. While other
copyists are still deciding whether or not to work for you, my results are making you serious
money right away.
P.P.P.S.—Things have been crazy since Jay Abraham stood up at his recent seminar and told
everyone to use me for copy. Reserve your spot early.
Get a Free instant review of your website or marketing piece by Overnight-
Copy.
Name
Company
Address
City, State, Zip
Telephone
Fax
Email
Website
Type of Business
1. List your major
products/services and
prices/fees (or fee range) for
each.
Copy writing Direct Mail Internet Overnight Results Guaranteed Page 13 of 15
2. What types of customers
do you now have?
3. Who do you want...
more of? less of?
4. How do you get business
now? (Check all that apply.)
5. Imagine you had an
"automatic system" that
would get customers to
call/visit/write you.
• Cold Calls D
• Referrals/Networking D
• Repeat Business from Old Clients D
•YellowPages D
• Direct Mail Letters D
• Advertising D
Where?
• Seminars That Your Customers Attend d
• Your Sales Force Provides Leads/Customers
• Trade Shows D
• Other D
a) Who would those people be? (describe them)
b) How would they contact you to let you close the
Copy writing Direct Mail Internet Overnight Results Guaranteed Page 14 of 15
sale the fastest and easiest way possible for you?
(check all preferred ways)
• phone D • visit D • fax D
• email D • other D
Business Growth Scenarios - choose one or more of these four:
6. Would you like more customers/clients per month paying the same amount most of your
customers/clients pay now?
• Yes • No
7. Would you like the same number of customers/clients per month paying a higher amount
than your typical customer/client pays now?
• Yes • No
8. Would you like the same level of business (same average payment size, same number of
customers/clients) you have now, but more profit per customer/client?
• Yes • No
9. Would you like more of a certain kind of customer/client but not all types of
customers/clients?
• Yes • No
Current Marketing and Sales Activity
10. Please rank, in order, the
sales and marketing activities
that take the most time
and/or cost the most money
each month. Start with the
largest-investment sales
and/or marketing activity.
11. Which activities are the
most effective now in terms
of return on investment?
12. How do you know?
13. Which activities are the
Copy writing Direct Mail Internet Overnight Results Guaranteed Page 15 of 15
least effective now in terras
of return on investment?
14. How do you know?
15. On a scale of 1 to 10(1=
not ready, 10 = ready right
now), how ready are you to
invest in a customer-
generating marketing system
that will lower your
marketing costs and increase
the growth of your business?
If a question truly does not apply to your business, feel free to skip it.
Thank you for completing this survey. All information included will be considered
confidential. Please send by email click here
Send To Overnight-Copy
Email me now for fast results: res!jjts@overm'ghttcopy,com
or call 954-429-0888
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