Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Benefits of Bullets
Yesterday I did something I've been wanting to do for weeks.
I spent the entire day copying bullets.
I'd had the feeling that my bullets were not strong enough. I heard
someone tell a story about a woman who spent one day with Gary
Halbert to learn how to write good bullets. For whatever enormous
sum he charged her, he had her copy bullets all day. And she's now
a highly paid copywriter in the Christian market.
Sounded like a good plan, and I didn't even have to pay Gary
Halbert a zillion dollars!
I pulled out my notebook of John Carlton letters, since he's
often rated the best at rating strong bullets, and started
copying. I copied each bullet 3 times. After I'd spent hours
copying Carlton bullets from weight training, martial arts,
golf and motocross letters, I switched.
Harlan Kilstein. Maria Veloso. Jeff Paul. Michel Fortin. Joe Vitale.
Clayton Makepeace and others I found in AWAI's Monthly
Copywriting Genius.
I did take breaks, but kept at it off and on until Midnight.
I now see that I had been writing poor bullets based on others,
such as: 9 ways to take off fat. Short, with specific numbers.
That's not bad to start with, as long as the number is for
a benefit -- but all the writers I mentioned above went way
beyond that, to emphasize and explain the benefits and make
them emotional to the reader.
I noticed that Clayton Makepeace's bullets had a format that
I'd never noticed before (one of the benefits of copying out
letters instead of just reading through them) -- they led
into each other. They ended with an ellipsis ( . . . )
and introduced the next bullet. That may be a format he found
useful since the bullets were about a specific report that
was part of his package for Weiss Safe Money Report.
persuasion resources for copywriters
I spent the entire day copying bullets.
I'd had the feeling that my bullets were not strong enough. I heard
someone tell a story about a woman who spent one day with Gary
Halbert to learn how to write good bullets. For whatever enormous
sum he charged her, he had her copy bullets all day. And she's now
a highly paid copywriter in the Christian market.
Sounded like a good plan, and I didn't even have to pay Gary
Halbert a zillion dollars!
I pulled out my notebook of John Carlton letters, since he's
often rated the best at rating strong bullets, and started
copying. I copied each bullet 3 times. After I'd spent hours
copying Carlton bullets from weight training, martial arts,
golf and motocross letters, I switched.
Harlan Kilstein. Maria Veloso. Jeff Paul. Michel Fortin. Joe Vitale.
Clayton Makepeace and others I found in AWAI's Monthly
Copywriting Genius.
I did take breaks, but kept at it off and on until Midnight.
I now see that I had been writing poor bullets based on others,
such as: 9 ways to take off fat. Short, with specific numbers.
That's not bad to start with, as long as the number is for
a benefit -- but all the writers I mentioned above went way
beyond that, to emphasize and explain the benefits and make
them emotional to the reader.
I noticed that Clayton Makepeace's bullets had a format that
I'd never noticed before (one of the benefits of copying out
letters instead of just reading through them) -- they led
into each other. They ended with an ellipsis ( . . . )
and introduced the next bullet. That may be a format he found
useful since the bullets were about a specific report that
was part of his package for Weiss Safe Money Report.
persuasion resources for copywriters
