RE: My apologies about this morning's email...
Published: Mon, 12/21/20
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My apologies but the links in today's message were broken. Yikes...it happens. I just didn't think it would happen to me. Again, please accept my apologies...How to Break into Financial CopywritingDear ,As you know, the big money in copywriting is made selling investment newsletters and financial advisories. Publishers will pay top talent fees from $10,000 to $25,000, not to mention royalties that could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Despite what you may read on other Web sites, breaking into this field is not easy. Yet it's not as hard you may think. You can get into this field with a little preparation and confidence. When I say preparation, I mean it. Especially if you don't have any written sales samples or results in this field. Here's what you must do before you contact a soul. 1. Bone up on investing and investors. If you plan to sell investment advice, you must know something not only about the many facets of investing but also about how investors think. 2. Get a feel for the stock market. As I write this, the market continues to hit new heights based on growing earnings and first deliveries of the COVID-19 vaccine. At the same time, oil prices are tumbling on travel restrictions as tech stocks continue to pile on the profits. You must not only know how to sort out this mess are BUT ALSO what these actions means to investors and to stocks. 3. Think like a stock analyst. Most investment advisory promotions are driven by stock recommendations. As a result, you must be able to understand how investors are feeling in relationship to the market and then connect the dots to a stock and then to the publication. You'll need to know what a contrarian is...the difference between dividend and growth stocks...if tech stocks are good buys now...the difference between oil drillers and integrated oil companies. You'll also need to know how a falling dollar affects exports and travel... why retirees' greatest fear is running out of money in retirement. This is really just the beginning of what you should know. But the payoff can be quite huge when you break into this business. The checks can be mind-boggling. It all begins by gaining knowledge of the subject and of how investment cycles work. My Big Break If you heard my interview a few years back with Clayton Makepeace, then you know I caught a huge break in 1992 with an assignment with Phillips Investment Resources. My first package was for The Retirement Letter. It was called "The Great Retirement Betrayal." When it finally fatigued, the company had mailed more than 20 million pieces and I had received--hold on to your hat--more than $250,000 in royalties. What I failed to mention in that interview is that I would have never been able to write that piece if I didn't spend a year working as contract writer at the Ruff Times, the largest investment newsletter of the 1980s. It was there I learned about the stock market and investors and began honing my writing skills. Of course, nothing I created there had the impact that my first piece for Phillips did. Yet it was this training ground that helped me to gain the insights and understanding that I credit for much of my success today. So in order to break into the financial copywriting niche, you must add this critical knowledge to your background before you write one word. In many ways, it's like training for a sport. Not only do you need to practice before you can play, you really need to know the game. How to Get Up to Speed on the Financial Markets First and foremost, you're going to need to read the Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Seeking Alpha, and articles other investment related websites. The reason is simple. You need to read what investors read and know what they know. That way you can tap into their feelings and emotions. (By the way, if you're not interested in writing for the financial markets, this is good advice for whatever niche you specialize in.) Once you begin to get a feeling for the financial markets and investors, you'll read through other direct mail and email packages with a whole new eye. You'll see how they tap into not only the mass knowledge of investors but also the individual feelings that investors have. A great way to learn this business is to study other people's work. Creating a swipe file is great way to do this. Just be sure you're grabbing the right pieces. If you're looking for winning ideas, you'd better be looking at winners. As you've undoubtedly discovered, some really great pieces you've read may not be controls at all. So you want to make sure you know what's working and what isn't. The reason is simple: so you know which ideas and themes are working in the marketplace and which ones aren't so you can avoid them! Because I've seen more split-run copywriting tests that most copywriters, I've been able to avoid what doesn't work while many of my competitors work their fannies off developing ideas that will ultimately go nowhere. So you better believe there's promotional gold in knowing what doesn't work and what does. The key, of course, is to know the difference. How to tell? Easy. If you've received it more than one time more than likely it's a winner. If you receive a different piece from the same source, chances are it's not. Once you've separated the wheat from the chaff, your real education begins. How to Study a Financial Promotion You'll notice I said "study" and not swipe. You can't simply swipe your way to success in this business. The A-level clients I work with have more than 30 years of experience in this business. They have seen all the promotions, since they are renting their lists to other companies. So what you must bring to the table is something original and unique. How to do this? By studying other people's promotions. I mean studying. When I started out I would not only count paragraphs between arguments, but also look deep into the arguments. That's where the gold is. If you can hit your prospect with the right idea at the right time with the right reasons why, the result can be the equivalent of owning a broken slot machine. All this circles back to knowing the market, the product, and your end customer. The Secret to My Success Unlike most direct response copywriters, who may see a few hundred or so split-run copywriting tests in their lifetimes, I have been privy to the test results of thousands of split-run tests. And not just tests on a small scale, but creative tests conducted for the top direct marketers in the country.
The $350 million in test results that I have seen over the years have made it possible for me to not only avoid obvious mistakes... Over the years, I have been privy to the test results of close to 1000 split-run, head-to-head email and direct copywriting tests, which has allowed me to boost my batting average to one of the highest in the industry. (I realize that 1000 split-run tests may at first sound too high to be believable, but not once you consider the number controls that I have, how frequently they are tested via email, and the number of lists they go to and that I've been in this business for more than 30 years.) Frankly, no other direct response copywriter whom I know has seen as many split-run tests as I have. Nor does any spend as much time evaluating results and drawing on this knowledge to create new promotions. This is why my four-point system continues to help me create more profitable and more powerful promotions than many of my competitors. A few of my successes to date include: GameChangers, 2-Day-Trader, Forecasts & Strategies, Intelligence Report, Fast Money Alert, Bullseye Stock Trader, Cash Machine, High-Tech Trader, Blue Chip Growth Letter, Quantum Growth Letter, Global Growth letter, Profitable Investing, Trader's Advantage, Cabot China & Emerging Market Report, Biotech Breakthroughs, Forbes, Explosive Mine Stocks, Tech Investing, The Complete Investor, Utility Forecaster, Wall Street's Best Investments, Cabot Marijuana Investor, Asia Edge, China Strategy, Value Authority, Turbo-Trader, and many many more. It is precisely for this reason that I continue to test and refine key principles of direct response copywriting... This scientific approach has become the vortex of my success--proving beyond doubt that words alone do not make the foundation of a winning promotion. All four principles of my copywriting system have been scientifically developed to identify what customers want, the offers that most attract them, and the themes they find most appealing, in combination with what is going on in the market now. So before I write one word, I spend a minimum of 40 hours of analysis and research using not only my four-point system as a guide... ...but also the knowledge accumulated over the past 30 years of witnessing thousands of split-run copywriting tests. By simply eliminating what has been tested and proven not to work, I've been able to not only avoid the unwitting mistakes most marketers make... ...but also develop some of the biggest breakthroughs in the information publishing field, a niche I have specialized in for three decades. My widely mailed and emailed control packages for InvestorPlace Media, Eagle Financial Publications, Lombardi Publishing, Forbes, Prevention Health Books, Cabot Heritage Corporation, and KCI Communication are the best proof I can offer that my approach works. My instructional DVD, How to Write Long Copy that Makes Money, explains my system, how it works, and how you can profit from it. Everyone who writes copy or manages copywriters owes it to himself to watch it. If you are sincere in your desire to improve your copywriting success, I will send you a risk-free copy to watch for 30-days. Once you see it, you'll understand not only why my approach has helped me beat the control nearly 7 out of 10 times over the past 20 years... ..but also help you write more effective and powerful promotions for your clients as well as your own products. What You'll Learn in My
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