It will be violent… relationships will crumble… and money will be turned away.  But…

I’ll feel a helluva lot better.

And those good vibes will spread throughout my family, friends and anyone else who puts up with me on a daily basis.

Over the past few months I’ve come to realize that it’s WAY more important to enjoy the people and projects you work with, than it is to stuff fat checks into your bank account.

(Curiously, when you really do get a kick out of turning up to “work” each day, more money is generated as a by-product.)

So if you’re a copywriter, freelancer or any kind of service professional… ask yourself if your working relationships are harmonious AND profitable.

Life is too short to suffer folks who don’t appreciate or value your skills.

Ok, off to pull the trigger…

Peter Buck -- Copywriting Guru?

Those three bands were tailor made for an adolescence spent in Nowheresville, Suburbia.

And I always remember an interview with R.E.M.’s guitarist Peter Buck.  I have no idea why this sticks in mind.  But over the past few months its become increasingly relevant to me and my work.

The exact quote I can’t find it anywhere online, but Buck reveals how the band spent 7 albums becoming more complicated  melodically.

They added more and more ‘layers’ and complexity because they figured it would improve the music.

But when it came time to record ‘Automatic For The People’ Buck realized the key was to strip everything back and simplify.

That made the music connect more directly with the audience.

And anybody who’s heard Everybody Hurts would probably agree it’s their most direct and affecting song.

So what’s my point?

Recently, I’ve seen way too much copy where the copywriter is drawing attention to himself.

Fancy metaphors, analogies and ‘word pictures’ get used so often they suffocate the copy and lose their power.

So if I ever find myself getting too “flowery” with my copy…  starting to fantasize I’m more novelist than copywriter…  I strip back to the essentials.

Let the copy breathe and it resonates that much better.

Thanks Peter for writing Man On The Moon and giving me a virtual kick up the behind in my everyday writing

In Malcolm Gladwell’s thought-provoking book, he puts forward the idea that our best decisions are made instantly.

And you better believe when prospects visit your webpage you have SECONDS (often less) to make an impression — good or bad.

Your graphics, sales copy, video opener, even your domain name all contribute towards that crucial first impression.

Bundle those in with any preconceived ideas your prospects may have about you or your product… plus the competition of 8 other tabs open on their browsers…

… and you’ll see why sales can be lost in the blink of an eye!

First impressions count.  And nowhere more so than online where dozens of distractions vie for our attention 24 hours a day.

It’s probably… along with, say, weight loss and dating… the most profitable niche in the world.

At least, there’s a ton of money floating around and folks happily snap up new releases even if they already have a bulging hard drive or overflowing bookshelves of unread courses.

(We’ll get into the “how” and “why” of that in another post. I’m not in the mood for grim insights into human nature today…)

But because I work in this field and because it’s so damn competitive…

Every single sales letter has to be polished to perfection, tweaked to within an inch of its cash-pulling life and… crucially… stand out from all the rest.

So I work extra hard to make sure my work feels fresh and new while still contained within proven, time-tested copywriting techniques.

But you know, sometimes you just have to come out with a “Who Else…” style headline or an “If… then” lead-in. (Trust me these are copy cliches of the highest order).

Because, although I believe writing copy is a mixture of art and science, sometimes you have to dispense with the fancy-pants artistic self-indulgence and stick with what’s proven.

Gary Halbert said it best…

I think it was his last ever seminar where he’s creating a letter live in front of the audience.

His pre-head is something like “Who else wants to slash strokes from their golf game in 24 hours flat…?”

So he asks the audience (and I’m paraphrasing here)… “anyone know why I used ‘who else’ in my pre-head?”

A few shout out… “because it gives the impression others have tried it…”

And… “it makes it more inclusive” there’s a lot of discussion and all the comments are correct.

But Gary replies…

“I used it because it’s been proven to work in 40 years of copywriting.”

He goes on to point out if those two words are proven and time-tested why come up with something new and risky?

Like the man says…

“Business is tricky enough as it is…”

Of course, with an online sales letter or a direct mail piece, there’s no way to know exactly who’ll be reading your sales pitch. So…

It’s vital you conjure an image in your mind of the specific person who would most benefit from your product.

And I don’t mean some vague picture of ‘a guy in his 30′s who hates his job’. More the kind of guy who…

“Slumps into his office chair and stares at the same pile of paperwork he dreads each day.”

Get a vivid image of who you’re writing to and have a conversation with him…  the sales copy will take care of itself.