Last Day To Get Your Hands On This: What Others Are Saying:

In my earlier e-mail, I forgot to mention about this month's Audio Success CD interview, which you get with your Seductive Selling Newsletter. This month, I interview one of the members of my Mastermind group -- an entrepreneur and owner of a very successful software company in Australia.

A few years ago, this fellow was making $13.50 an hour. Three months ago, however... he made a hair over $70,000 in three weeks! Inside this interview he reveals:

* All about stepping up to the plate and creating your own identity and how vital that is in your marketing. Why differentiating yourself from any perceived competition is SO important!

* The sneaky details behind his MONSTER three week earnings blitz!

* The most important lessons that keep you from getting sidetracked and making mistakes with not only your business, but your life!

* And... loads of other information inside this 78-minute blast of marketing strategies!

Here's just one comment we received about it:

"I wanted to say thanks for the Seductive Selling Newsletter and the CDs - all very helpful and usable advice. The CD in this month's issue was spectacularly good - it was like having a private seminar on how to build your business. Excellent!" Charlotte Fleming, Freelance Writer - Guthrie, UK

And... this comment from best-selling author of Gravitational Marketing, Jimmy Vee, out of Orlando, Florida: "King, Great issue of SS newsletter this month! I love breakthrough advertising and those stages are super powerful. It was so powerful when I read the book and I'm glad you're bringing that to others... That's the serious stuff for serious marketers."

Remember though, this is THE last day you can get your hands on this month's issue, so get on this, NOW, and test-drive Seductive Selling AND get 15 bonus gifts, absolutely free for 30-days! Get your free 30-day test drive of the newsletter, and get 15 bonus gifts (REAL gifts that are genuinely valuable - just watch the video), right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Remember, today's the last day to get your hands on all this, so take your free test-drive right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, leave them here on my blog -- it's important you let me know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

Important: Last Day To Get Your Hands On This, Plus A Goofy Video

Today is the last day to get your hands on this month's issue of Seductive Selling. Last month was a record month for us -- we added more new subscribers than in any other month since we started publishing, almost 2 and a half years ago, and we now have readers in 12 different countries. This month's issue packs a wallop -- here's just a small sampling of what's inside:

* A critical mistake you should NEVER be lured into making, in spite of all the temptation around you. This mistake renders your ads virtually useless, regardless of how good your sales copy and your offer is. The scary thing is, it's so easy to make this mistake -- I've even made it myself!

* The Four Stages of the "Sophistication of your marketplace," as defined by Gene Schwartz in Breakthrough Advertising -- and... how to use them in your business NOW!

* The secret of "cottage cheese wrinkles" and when they'll help you sell!

* The right way... and the wrong way... to use sub-headlines in your ads and sales letters! This one's much easier than you think, and yet almost everyone gets it wrong. At last, find out why!

* How to create proprietary analogies that show your buyers the exact value of what you're offering them! If I'm an expert at anything, this is it, and you'll see why, along with 5 different examples to mirror!

* Discover a display ad I ran that pulled like gangbusters -- and yet, oddly enough... you'll also find out why I'll never run it again!

* SEVEN ad examples for you to review, including THREE ad re-writes I put together for you!

* How to use the "Bermuda Triangle of emotions" if you're selling any kind of financial services! You simply MUST push each of these three emotional buy-buttons to succeed!

* Why positioning yourself as anything less than "Number One" is costing you, big time! And... a simple technique for you to use, to immediately change this!

* In this month's "Little-Known Copywriting Secrets" column, you'll discover "How to keep yourself focused on benefits to your prospect, even over a multi-step marketing campaign!"

* In this month's Weekend Update: What Google wants... Why online shoppers leave your site... What online shoppers REALLY want out of your online video information... Cool url's... and why worrying about the number of "hits" your site gets, is nothing but a waste of your time!

* Read all about "A Valuable Lesson" I learned, and how allows you to avoid getting bogged down or consumed with all the "trash talk" that goes on inside your head. If you ever procrastinate or if you know you should be doing better, then you MUST listen to this!

Get all this and much much more, plus... now it's FRE.E! Yes, you can now test-drive Seductive Selling AND get 15 bonus gifts, absolutely free for 30-days! Get your free 30-day test drive of the newsletter, and get 15 bonus gifts (that are genuinely valuable - just watch the video), right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Remember, today's the last day to get your hands on all this, so take your free test-drive right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, leave them here on my blog -- it's important you let me know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

Why buyers ignore when you serve too much jam...

I have the patience of a gnat.

On a good day.

On a bad day (and fortunately, there aren't too many of them), I'm as patient as a starving grizzly bear.

So being decisive comes very naturally to me, simply because the pain of waiting around is far greater than the pain of trying to "figure out" what to do.

Do I make mistakes?

Sure, but not often. And for the most part, nothing I'm deciding on is life-threatening, ANYWAY, so it really doesn't matter whether I make a mistake or not.

For someone like me, having more choices doesn't necessarily make me happy, because it delays the outcome. And whether you believe it or not, most people feel the same way, although probably not for the same reason.

Here's the deal: A while ago, I read Malcolm Gladwell's excellent book, Blink. One of the many really cool things Gladwell discussed, is an experiment conducted by Sheena Iyengar, a Professor of Management at Columbia University.

Iyengar wanted to see whether the number of choices consumers have, makes any difference in their purchasing patterns.

And boy did it!

She set up tasting booths at an elite grocery store in Menlo Park, California, called Draeger's. Sometimes these tasting booths contained six different jars of jams, and other times it contained 24 different jars of jams.

Conventional wisdom will tell you that the more choices people have -- even if they aren't as impatient as I am -- the more they'll enjoy their buying experience. But like I always say, "Never bet the farm on conventional wisdom." (I really do say that a lot -- it's in many of my sales letters, actually.)

And here's what actually happened: 30% of the people who stopped at the booth with six choices, wound up buying some jam, but... only THREE percent of the folks who stopped at the booth with 24 choices, wound up making a purchase.

That's a TEN TIMES differential!

This isn't surprising at all. The truth is, when you (and your prospects) are confronted with having to make too many decisions, there's always a disconnect.

And as you can see in Iyengar's experiments, disconnects in the lab... equate to disconnects in real life.

So while it's important to have variety, it's equally important to not have too much variety.

This is also the reason why, when most people go to restaurants with incredibly diverse selections, they always wind up getting the same thing they order at a restaurant with few selections. Their "old standby," if you will.

Just like too many cooks spoil the broth... too many choices spoil the entire dinner.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. "It's the BEST ten bucks you'll ever spend!" If you benefit from these kinds of selling strategies that deal with human nature and how to leverage your understanding of it, then check out Scientific Advertising -- the two bonuses alone that I give you, are worth ten times your investment! Grab it at http://www.kingofcopy.com/hopkins NOW!

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

This way to the dermatologist ---> (The Tao of headlines)

When I was a kid, my family took one or two long trips to Florida -- by car. We drove from The Bronx to Florida, and I loved it.

It was my first time getting far out of the city, and it was interesting meeting people from new places. Funny but one of the first things you notice is that you think people are going to be different, and they aren't. Maybe how they sound is different, or the things they regularly eat may be different, or maybe they have college team logos on their baseball caps instead of pro teams, but basically, we're all the same.

And of course, from a marketing standpoint, this is great. Because if we had to figure out 8 million different ways of speaking to people, instead of let's say, "eight...", frankly we'd be screwed.

One of the things I enjoyed most about those trips were the billboards you see for a tourist place called "South Of The Border." South Of The Border is a tourist destination just south of the North Carolina/South Carolina Border.

You start seeing these billboards literally hundreds of miles away, and they talk about a character called "Pedro," who you can meet at SOTB.

The suspense and curiosity on the billboards is really exciting, and I'd bet few people can resist at least pulling over and spending a few bucks on trinkets at SOTB.

But billboard advertising is one of the most expensive and most wasted sources of advertising dollars around. If you think people screw up display ads and direct mail -- that's nothing compared to how they screw up billboards.

For instance, not far from me is a billboard with today's subject line on it, as a headline. Yes, it actually says, "<--- This way to the dermatologist." Then there's a picture of presumably, the doctor himself. (Did you know, apparently it's NOT a problem if you run around calling yourself a doctor even if you aren't one -- at least here in Florida, anyway? A police officer recently told me this. I had no idea! I think there's only a problem if you start acting like a doctor and prescribing treatments, but if you're a landscaper and call yourself a doctor, it's not illegal! This was surprising.) Anyway, of course this billboard is a complete waste, and unless someone's driving buy this billboard and they happened to wake up that morning with a zit on their face the size of a golf ball, or if their untreated eczema is killing them, then MAYBE they'll go "That way" to the dermatologist, but otherwise, this billboard is ultimately probably a $6 or 7 thousand dollar a month waste. That's a lot of zits the doctor's going to have to burst to pay for this ad, isn't it? The reason it's so ineffective is because it violates the two rules of headline "musts" -- your headline must either provoke curiosity or promise reward. And since the definition of a good headline is simply "a believable promise to the right audience" -- it also violates the "right audience" rule as well. Cars driving south isn't necessarily the right audience, and even if it was the right audience, you'd be far better off using direct mail to engage them at a much more intimate level. So keep these rules in mind and if you have any questions, then... Just ask Pedro... Now go sell something, Craig Garber P.S. Bonus Audio Now Available! Want a TON of other ways to engage your prospects? Check out "22 Ways To Completely Eliminate ALL Your Marketing Headaches... Right NOW! - now comes with a bonus audio so you're getting close to 3 HOURS of recorded material! Find it at http://www.kingofcopy.com/22ways today.

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

Another dreamer's fish tale... or maybe not?

Almost every morning I get up somewhere between 6 and 7 o'clock. No matter how much I'd like to sleep in, for whatever reason, most of the time I'm upstairs in my office with a fresh cup of coffee at my desk just when the sun's coming up.

I live on a lake, literally. My grassy backyard slopes down into a beach that's less than 50 feet from my door. And in one of the shallow beds of sparse grass, about two feet into the water, and 20 feet away from my boat house, every single morning a large fish (say, 18 inches long) gently flips and flops around in about 8 inches of water, sometimes for up to 20 minutes.

I don't know what kind of a fish it is. It's too light in color, and too narrow in width to be a bass... and it's way too small to be a carp. It actually looks like a small gar, because of what looks to be a pointed snout, but I don't think it's a gar, either. I haven't seen any of them in this lake, although you will catch a mudfish once in a while.

Because it's always there, if I was one to live in fantasy-land, I'd say the fish is coming to see me, or trying to deliver some sort of a message to me. A harbinger of some sort.

Although I have to admit, some days I miss the fish, because I am deep into my work and I didn't glance out through the doors into the lake, at the precise moment the fish came over, and I wonder if he was upset I didn't see him that morning.

Sounds bizarre that I'd even consider that, doesn't it?

That's because human nature is all about habits. What you think about, you usually do... and what you do, over-and-over again, becomes your habits. And your habits become who you are.

That's the simple structure of human nature, so memorize. Thoughts turn to actions, actions turn into habits... and habits define your essence.

So for example, because I'm so used to seeing this fish every single day (my habit), when I don't see the fish, it begins to feel strange -- out of the ordinary and unusual.

Here's one way to leverage the habits of human nature in your marketing, and in your sales copy.

See, when you're selling someone something that's going to cause them to "break" their regular habits, their conventional ways of thinking and doing things -- you're looking at an uphill battle.

That's why your best buyers aren't people who "need" what you're selling, they're people who've already demonstrated a propensity to WANT what you're selling, by having bought similar products before.

This is why most inventors don't make much money. They are so consumed with coming up with the next iPod, or eBay, instead of, perhaps... just stopping that noise the toilet makes after you flush it, or quieting your computer's printer, or making the grass greener in your front lawn, or something like that.

Selling to an existing marketplace is FAR easier than trying to create a new marketplace. Your likelihood of success is much higher this way, and you're enhancing existing habits, instead of trying to create new ones. Trying to create a new habit, for the most part, is like trying to move a mountain.

Making things run easier, faster, smoother... giving short-cuts, avoiding headaches, cutting through red-tape... and eliminating existing anxiety and frustration is far easier to sell, than coming up with a new "vertical" bed to sleep in -- even if it does reduce spinal cord stress.

Use the existing habits of your prospects to HELP your sale, not hinder it. Play to them and you're chances of success goes up, dramatically.

Oh, before I forget, I just want to say "Happy Birthday" and "I love you," to my oldest son, Nick. He turns 18 today and we all wish him nothing but the very best.

Gotta go.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. "Attention Women: Want to eliminate embarrassing "Cottage Cheese" wrinkles?" That's only ONE of the 7 examples of ads and re-writes of ads in this month's Seductive Selling Newsletter. Take your Free 30-day test drive and get 15 REAL Bonus gifts right now, just for doing so, at http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl -- make SURE you watch the goofy video of me on this page.

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

What's fair is fair, right? WRONG.

One of the issues that's constantly coming up in many of my coaching groups, is "money." Not as in "making it" or "spending it," but as in "deserving" it.

After all, most people have been programmed or are somehow predisposed to think, "enough's enough" when it comes to money -- after all, why should you want or need more than your fair share?

Right?

Wrong-o, daddy-o.

See, the first problem with this kind of information is that it's usually given to you by people who have NO money to speak of, so it's actually coming from a bad or misinformed source.

And if you can understand that this information came from a misinformed source in the first place, then perhaps you can just as easily dismiss it as well-intended, but mistaken data you should probably pay no mind to.

After all, you wouldn't ask your plumber of your landscaper about your heart condition, right?

So why would take advice about money, from someone who's not wealthy?

Make sense?

This simple, common-sense concept is so easy to swallow, once I realized this, loads of issues I had about money, almost immediately vanished, and my life changed shortly after that.

Understand that the big problem with the "enough's enough" advice, is... it implies that if you have more than "your fair share," this means someone else is getting cheated out of their "fair share."

And this makes no sense because d in reality, there's no fixed supply of money. Money's abundant. The more value you generate value, the more you get -- it's kind of like love. The more you give, the more you get back.

See where I'm going with this?

Can you understand now why the entire concept of "having enough," is flawed?

The problem is, "being greedy" is a mutually exclusive issue, but when it comes to this topic, most people foolishly believe that if you want "more than your fair share," (which again, doesn't even exist because there are no "fair shares"), it means you're being greedy.

Wanting more cash doesn't make you greedy any more than wanting to get in better shape makes you greedy in the sense that other people won't be able to get fit if you're in better shape than "you deserve to be."

The bottom line is that YOU get to define your parameters, your limitations, and your lack of limitations on all these things, not some sort of ethical financial regulatory association.

This is serious stuff here -- make no mistake, you only get one life to live, so choose wisely.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Learn "A Valuable Lesson, Indeed" in this month's Seductive Selling Newsletter. Only 8 days left to get it, so take your Free 30-day test drive and get 15 Bonus gifts right NOW at http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

Re: Business Credit Infusion finally goes LIVE:

Here's what I promised you about an hour ago: A couple of weeks ago, I introduced you to the 25 year-old wonderkid in my Mastermind Group -- Dustin Mathews - who's created several fool-proof ways of raising cash.

Apparently, the online seminars and teleseminars Dustin has been putting on were incredibly effective. See, in less than 3 weeks, he's now built up a list of over 12,000 names, which goes to show you that in the end, nothing can take the place of great content.

Well, in less than 60 minutes -- at 12 Noon Eastern time -- Dustin is going to be releasing his Business Credit Infusion.

And since there is some hand-holding in his program, he is releasing only 503 copies of this program. He's been studying his business for some time and based on his time and motion studies, this is the number of people his staff will be able to service. You couldn't come up with a kooky number like this any other way.

Here's the link for all the details on Business Credit Infusion:

http://www.kingofcopy.com/dmathews

Look, if you are thinking of getting into business, or if you want to expand your current business or do more deals, then you MUST give this a look. So click this link and check it out, right now while it's fresh on your mind and before anything else comes up:

http://www.kingofcopy.com/dmathews

Reality is, if I had something like this when I first got started in business, it definitely would have made my life a lot easier.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Remember there are only 503 copies available and based on what Dustin's told me, they will ALL be gone soon! So go to http://www.kingofcopy.com/dmathews

Wax nostalgic? Use the "J. Peterman technique"

First, in about an hour I have a special update for you so pay close attention.

O.K., so here we are with our fourth selling strategy, giving you some alternative ways to sell individual items. If you remember, this initially started when I came across this description of a single malt scotch I recently bought:

"This is a toffee gold dram from a refill butt and is very mature for its age. The nose delivers pencil shavings, ripe fruit, nutmeg, flowers and orange toffee. At full strength, the taste was extremely agreeable and longreaching, with flavours of sweet bread dough, coconut and cherry coke. Once diluted, the nose had pepper and sugared violets (much later perfumed soap), while the palate was orangey with caramel creams and some dry pepper in the finish. Very sophisticated and easy to drink."

Oh, and someone e-mailed in something to the extent that people who drink this stuff are sort of snobby and "like" these descriptions.

That is a misconception. I drink this stuff and not only don't I like these kinds of descriptions, but I've never bought a bottle of scotch because of them. What winds up happening is you look at the category the single malt is in, you choose one, and then you're literally playing "darts" at that point.

Seriously.

And I'd bet almost everyone is doing the same thing. No one drinks this because the description says it tastes like "pencil shavings," unless a rat is ordering. And I mean literally, a rat - as in a 4-legged furry little thing like "Ben," or something like that.

Anyway, today's strategy is simple: we're just going to use a bit of Nostalgia to describe the scotch. I've talked many times about how effective nostalgia is, when it comes to selling (and I have an entire chapter devoted to it in the Seductive Selling System at http://www.kingofcopy.com/seductive ). If you want to see a company that does a fantastic job of selling using nostalgia, make sure you check out J. Peterman's catalog or online website at jpeterman.com. Here, see how you'd use nostalgia in a situation like this:

"Remember when Sherlock Holmes used to sit down at his desk to pause for a moment and basically "put together" the puzzle? Well, this is the brain-food Holmes used to solve these cases."

Or... "Your father probably had a bottle in the back of his liquor cabinet, that he rarely pulled out -- and absolutely never pulled out, especially when his friends came over. It was the one covered with dust, and because he never wanted anyone to take notice of it, he made sure to never wipe that dust off. It's not that this scotch is the "thinking man's" drink -- it's simply "a man's drink." It's a quiet dram that's dark and somewhat oily, which creates an intense aroma and deep scent of musk..."

See how you're able to weave good memories from the past into your description? This is a great way to make your buyers receptive to what you have to offer, and to you, in general.

O.K.?

Good, so let's summarize: You can either bore someone to tears, or you can use one of these four other selling strategies I've given you over the last few days, instead:

* Telling your prospects who shouldn't buy...
* Selling using stories...
* Just describe simple details about what you're selling...
* Using nostalgia.

Although there are several more methods we can go through, we're going to move on tomorrow, since I can't stand having to go through the original description of this scotch any more. It's like going through an old photo album and looking at shots of me and my ex-wife, if you know what I mean.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Take your Free 30-day test drive and get 15 Bonus gifts right NOW at http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl -- this month you'll get the answer to the question, "How do you keep yourself consistently focused on what your prospect wants over the course of a multi-step campaign, and how do you let them know this in your copy?"

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

Tastes like chicken, but doesn't everything?

Here we are with selling strategy number three, about selling individual items. We're still in the process of trying to figure out ways to avoid "saying too much," because this description about a single malt whiskey I recently bought, was FAR too wordy:

"This is a toffee gold dram from a refill butt and is very mature for its age. The nose delivers pencil shavings, ripe fruit, nutmeg, flowers and orange toffee. At full strength, the taste was extremely agreeable and longreaching, with flavours of sweet bread dough, coconut and cherry coke. Once diluted, the nose had pepper and sugared violets (much later perfumed soap), while the palate was orangey with caramel creams and some dry pepper in the finish. Very sophisticated and easy to drink."

Today's strategy is simple: we're just going to describe what the scotch tastes like, but we're not going to go through every single adjective in the Oxford Dictionary to do it. Here, check this out:

"This is a solid scotch - probably one you'd want to drink before dinner as your evening is just getting warmed up. It's not particularly overwhelming -- it's more like a light roast coffee instead of a dark roast -- but it's got an unusually floral taste, which minimizes the "edge" even some of the best single malts tend to have. This is a winner in my book, great for every Friday night you're ready to entertain."

Or simply, "Tastes like chicken."

See, most people feel they have to use every adjective in the book to describe something, but all this does is confuse your prospect and makes them disconnect from your copy. I mean, can you ever imagine saying to someone in person, "At full strength, the taste was extremely agreeable and longreaching, with flavours of sweet bread dough, coconut and cherry coke. Once diluted, the nose had pepper and sugared violets (much later perfumed soap), while the palate was orangey with caramel creams and some dry pepper in the finish..."

Yikes! I'd be sleeping at "longreaching," and I think most people would be bored silly as well.

Remember, when you write copy, you're talking to the common man, always. And we are all common men, regardless of income, location or occupation. We all get dressed in the morning, crap over a bowl while sitting down (at least, hopefully), and dribble coffee on our lower lip when we're in a rush.

Keep this in mind, always. You're not writing to "Lord Dunbar," even if you are writing to Lord Dunbar. You're writing to John Dunbar -- a husband who occasionally argues with his wife, a father of three kids who drive him nuts, and the guy who's got to pick up the crap when his dog goes on the lawn.

O.K.?

Good, so where are we at with all this?

So far, Option A is to bore someone to tears, or you can use one of the three other selling strategies I've given you over the last few days, instead:

* Telling your prospects who shouldn't buy...
* Selling using stories... and
* Just describe simple details about what you're selling.

Next week we'll take a look at a few more. If you're getting bored of this, let me know and we can shift gears -- that's O.K., too. Have a good weekend.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Are you prepared for this? "Why the hottest women go completely nuts... over their newest and sexiest-looking butts!" Read all about it and see how to sell vanity products WITHOUT looking like an idiot like the person who wrote the headline I just mentioned, in this month's Seductive Selling Newsletter. Take your Free 30-day test drive and get 15 Bonus gifts right NOW at http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

Here, pull up a chair and listen to this:

We're still in the process of trying to figure out ways to avoid "saying too much." Clearly, this description about a single malt whiskey, was FAR too wordy:

"This is a toffee gold dram from a refill butt and is very mature for its age. The nose delivers pencil shavings, ripe fruit, nutmeg, flowers and orange toffee. At full strength, the taste was extremely agreeable and longreaching, with flavours of sweet bread dough, coconut and cherry coke. Once diluted, the nose had pepper and sugared violets (much later perfumed soap), while the palate was orangey with caramel creams and some dry pepper in the finish. Very sophisticated and easy to drink."

Yesterday we talked about one strategy you can use to sell something: Telling your prospects who shouldn't buy the product.

Today we'll talk about another strategy, selling using a story. Here's an example of this...

"If I had to go back over the last few years of my life and think of all the most meaningful gatherings I've had with close friends, this would be the scotch I'd want to enjoy during most of those times. This is a fun scotch -- one that's going to leave an exciting taste on your tongue -- maybe like wild flowers combined with a strong sense of boldness -- but it's mostly a scotch you won't forget..."

Stories like this get your prospects engaged with your product, and they also put your prospect in a very receptive mind to buy. The emotional buy-button of nostalgia is a powerful one, and this kind of a story taps right into it. You want to make sure, though, that when you're asking your prospect to go back into the recesses of their mind, you take them through all the positive "feel good" stuff -- not back into their dysfunctional childhood or anything like that.

Anyway, so far, instead of rambling on like a drone, which is what the original ad did, we now have two alternatives:

• Telling your prospects who shouldn't buy, and..
• Selling using stories.
  

Tomorrow we'll look at another cool technique you can use.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Want to see the other 46 Emotional Buy-Buttons you can push, and find out exactly HOW to push them to make your prospects say "Yes!"? Then check out The Seductive Selling System at http://www.kingofcopy.com/seductive

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

Who should NOT buy your stuff:

Yesterday we talked about "saying too much." Clearly, this description about a single malt whiskey, was FAR too wordy:

"This is a toffee gold dram from a refill butt and is very mature for its age. The nose delivers pencil shavings, ripe fruit, nutmeg, flowers and orange toffee. At full strength, the taste was extremely agreeable and longreaching, with flavours of sweet bread dough, coconut and cherry coke. Once diluted, the nose had pepper and sugared violets (much later perfumed soap), while the palate was orangey with caramel creams and some dry pepper in the finish. Very sophisticated and easy to drink."

Over the next few days, I want to show you some different strategies you can use in a case like this -- where you've got a number of similar items, and you want to find some way to differentiate each one from the other.

Today we'll talk about one one technique, which is... tell your prospects who shouldn't be buying your product. Like this:

"Not for newbies: If you're new to drinking single malts, then this isn't the scotch for you! This one's for the seasoned Scotch drinker who's looking for something new and exciting -- a new frontier to conquer and a new taste to enjoy. This isn't your usual bottle of Islay... it's got that same peaty taste, only because of the fertile green valley of the location, you're also getting a more earthy taste as well, which balances the strength of the peat in a very unique way..."

Now of course, telling your customer what they can't have is like telling your teenaged daughter she can't date that guy -- it increases demand even more.

And this sure beats the endless drivel that was originally used, right? Let me know if you agree or disagree.

Tomorrow I'll show you another strategy you can use.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. "Like the Consumer Reports of direct-marketing." That's what one person said about the "Magic Marketing Research And Resource Guide." Discover what to read and what to AVOID reading, if you want to learn more about emotional direct-response marketing: http://www.kingofcopy.com/magicmarketing

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

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How do you know when you've said too much?

There's always been somewhat of a debate over whether long copy sells better than short copy.

I can tell you now, the only people debating about this are the folks who can't write long copy, because the rest of us have already proven to ourselves that long copy is far more effective.

But once you're sold on the "long copy is better"... the challenge then becomes, "How do you know when you've said too much?" Simply put, how can you tell when enough is enough?

Well, let me give you an example of "too much," and perhaps you can start making sense of this.

About 8 months ago, through a series of events, I got introduced to the world of Single Malt Scotch. I'm not much of a drinker, but when I have a drink, I've come to enjoy Single Malts, and I've also started reading up on the history of SMS, and how it's produced.

Very interesting, and apparently, a popular pastime as well.

There are dozens of independent small producers of SMS, all throughout Scotland. The other day, I received a bottle, and on the side of the bottle, this was the description of how the Scotch tasted:

"This is a toffee gold dram from a refill butt and is very mature for its age. The nose delivers pencil shavings, ripe fruit, nutmeg, flowers and orange toffee. At full strength, the taste was extremely agreeable and longreaching, with flavours of sweet bread dough, coconut and cherry coke. Once diluted, the nose had pepper and sugared violets (much later perfumed soap), while the palate was orangey with caramel creams and some dry pepper in the finish. Very sophisticated and easy to drink."

This is WAAY too much for most people to handle.

Plus, to me... after reading this it sounds like this stuff is going to taste like a mixture of all the sledge lying inside the bottom of my trash compactor in the middle of my sink.

After all, does a mixture of bread dough, cherry coke, and pencil shavings sound like something you want in YOUR mouth?

You might as well be licking the bottom of a used ashtray, for goodness sakes.

The reason people do things like this, is because they are trying to separate one item from another, typically when they are selling loads of similar items. They feel a compelling need to differentiate between them all, but in doing so, they tend to dig so far deep into the small details, that only a few die-hards "might" still be with them by the time it's all over.

The other thing this does, is when you're talking about things on such a minute level, there's an air of sophistication that's supposed to be implied here.

Bad move.

The common man, which is who you're really selling to -- because this is all of us, no matter what you're selling -- isn't going to be moved by this, and so ultimately you lose.

This is far too much of a description for almost anything. I mean, you can try and be as uptight and highbrow about something as you want, but this is just a bottle of Scotch, right?

Or wrong?

Tomorrow I'll give you a few ideas you can use that show you other ways of selling in situations like this, that open up the lines of communication much more effectively, attract more buyers, and are a lot more fun.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Think And Grow Rich is BUNK! Sure, Hill's book is important. But the book that's made the biggest impact in my life is a little-known book written in 1911 by a genius named Wallace D. Wattles. Wattles showed me why making a ton of money isn't only my right, it's my duty! He helped me eliminate any "undeserving" or self-sabotaging feelings I used to have, that had been implanted into my thick skull, from foolish and ignorant messages I received as a kid. Check out the book for yourself -- it'll be the best $10 bucks you've ever spent. Plus, I'll share a story or two about my own background in it, as well. Get it now at http://www.kingofcopy.com/science

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

Here's the secret to upselling, and it's not what you think.

First, if you want to be on the early announcement list to get your hands on my published book, sign up for the list right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssbook -- you'll also get periodic announcements regarding where I'm at in the process. The book is done and just waiting for me to go over the edits made, and it's an outstanding read, filled with close to 300 pages of great information, loads of strategies and techniques, and more than a fair share of entertainment and personal anecdotes. So go to http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssbook and get on the early list for it now.

I want to wrap up our conversation talking about some of the cool strategies amazon.com uses to make a killing, and today we'll talk about upselling.

Amazon.com is the KING of upselling, and here's why: they are always doing it! See, one of the unspoken secrets of success is to just "do something." This is one of the main reasons why few people succeed where most others fail. It has nothing to do with talent and skill, it's just that if you don't show up to the party, you'll never get to dance.

Most people foolishly believe that they can't make money if they aren't doing something incredible or on some sort of stratospheric level that no one else can question, but this isn't true at all. Few people reach, or need to reach that level, in order to succeed.

It's like exercise -- all you need to do is be consistent and do something that works, and you'll see results. For most people, however, that word, "consistent," is more like a four-lettered word.

So let's look at where and how amazon.com upsells you.

* When you're looking at an item, they show you what other folks who looked at this item were interested in, and what they bought. Since there are several selections given to you here, it's almost impossible to NOT click on at least one of them.

* After you put something into your shopping cart, they do the same exact thing.

* They e-mail you with specials and other items you're likely to find interesting based on what you've already ordered.

* They are just a great company to work with. They do something that's rare nowadays: they do what they promise.

How can you emulate amazon.com? Simple, offer other products or items at the point of sale, offer items after your first sale is made, and do what you say you're going to do.

That's not rocket-science or anything, now is it?

I hope you've noticed something over the last few days we've been discussing these techniques. None of them are particularly advanced or particularly sexy. And none of them are particularly difficult to execute on a smaller less amazon.com-like level.

This is how big things usually happen, though. They are the sum of dozens of smaller, little things put in place over time, that create big waves when compounded.

And I hope that gets you pumped up and excited, because it's reality.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Take the free 30-day test-drive of Seductive Selling today - this month I've re-written an ad straight out of the National Enquirer. It originally started telling a story about why the hottest women go completely nuts over their newest and sexiest-looking butts -- but wait till you see what I did to it instead. You'll learn MULTIPLE important lessons about marketing, including headlines, stories and how to close, in just this one re-write alone. Try it now and get a 15 free bonus gifts at http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

Screw Obama, Screw McCain...

I'm sick and tired of the way things are going in this country. And so I finally decided, "Craig, you're either part of the problem... or, you're part of the solution." But now I'm not just part of the solution -- I AM the solution!

Check out this late-breaking news video here on my blog:




Show your vote of support by posting a comment here on my blog below. (Then go take a free 30-day test-drive of my offline newsletter right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl)

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

Amazon.com's First Strategy: Repetitive Contacts

Yesterday we talked about some of the strategies amazon.com uses, to create hundreds and thousands of sales, and so the remainder of this week we'll go through them.

Today we'll talk about their constant communication -- OR... their perceived constant communication.

Amazon.com's communication with their customers comes in a few different ways.

For starters, you can have register to have amazon.com notify you when new items are released that you want to buy. When you get these e-mails, they are very well received because it's something you wanted to buy earlier but wasn't available.

Who doesn't want to (finally) get something they've been longing for?

But the biggest (and to me, the smartest and most welcome) form of communication, is simply when you go to the amazon.com site.

Once there, here's what I see spread across the front of their home page, "Recommended Kindle Reading For You," then underneath this "More Top Picks For You," "More To Explore," and a host of other categories, all featuring items I'm likely to be interested in.

The smartest and best thing about this, is since all the recommendations they are making are based on prior purchases and prior items you've looked at, there's an outstanding chance you're going to at least be interested in one of the items, and so as soon as you click on something, they've not got you involved and into a buying mode.

In essence, this "communication" is more of an involvement device than anything else.

So how can you use something like this in your business?

Well, it would be darn near impossible to do something like amazon does. You'd need to have a fairly extensive catalog of items to sell, and you'd also have to have some pretty sophisticated tracking software. Not to mention, your catalog of items has to be fairly broad as well, since one of the things that makes this so effective is that amazon's customers go back to the site often, because there are SOO many different things the store offers.

What you can do, that's very simple, is to just interact and communicate with your list more often. As long as you've got something worthwhile to say, people will be very ok with hearing from you. Here are some different ways you can do this:

* e-mails
* blog postings
* surveys
* quizzes
* games
* puzzles
* trivia contests
* audio recordings online
* teleseminars
* and video postings online (both screen shots and live video)

In fact, the best thing to do would be to pick one or two primary means of staying in touch with your list, and then mixing in some of the others (whichever ones you're comfortable with) once in a while, so that everyone gets to "touch" you using their primary communication sense. (sight, hearing, feeling)

Let's face it, the more you interact with someone, the better your relationship will be, as long as whatever you have to say is interesting, thought-provoking, and puts a smile across their face every once in a while.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Now try it free. In this month's issue, find out what "hits" really stands for, and why it's the stupidest measuring stick around: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, just leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

How to get your hands on LOTS of cash, really quickly!

As you know, I run a Mastermind Group that meets here in Tampa, three times a year.

One of the members of this group, is a 25 year old "kid" who's just a really neat person. In a lot of ways, he reminds me of my younger son, Casey. Dustin is the kind of person who's always got a smile on his face, and he's also the kind of person you'd have a hard time getting mad at.

And, he's incredibly eager.

But the thing I respect most about Dustin, is his flexibility and adaptability to change, as well as his constant progress and willingness to just "dive" into where ever life and business, takes him.

He recently came up with an excellent way that almost anyone can get their hands on LOTS of cash, really quickly, and he actually created a video and put together an excellent report giving out loads of different resources to use, so that anyone can do this same thing.

In fact, Dustin pulled $93K out of the air for himself, in only 93 days -- and by ANYONE'S standards, that's nothing to laugh at. Oh, and don't worry, this isn't some stupid kind of "biz opp" thing, it's simply a way to get your hands on a load of cash, very rapidly.

So check out Dustin's video and read his report at http://tinyurl.com/5swomj

Then... go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. This isn't for everyone, but I don't know anyone out there who can't benefit from it, either: http://tinyurl.com/5swomj

Amazon: Smartest Marketers Online? Here are 5 tricks you can use...

There is no doubt in my mind that Amazon is one of the sharpest marketing companies on the planet. Here's why: they are constantly innovating and creating new ways of doing things that not only get you to buy things, but they also get you to buy more often.

Let's take a look at some of them and see how they adhere to very smart, very fundamental, basic emotional direct-response strategies.

1. They constantly communicate with their buyers. Every week, or maybe even a few times a week, they send me information about sales and other things I may want to buy.

2. They are the KINGS of upselling! They give you suggestions about other items to buy when you're looking at an item... they let you know what other people bought once you put a particular item into your shopping cart... and, they even give you suggestions to buy, based on your past purchases just when you log in and go to their home page.

3. They allow and encourage their customers to get involved in the buying and selling process, by letting you rank and rate your purchases. In effect, this has made them not only a retail outlet, but a sort of "consumer reporting guide" for anything you wish to purchase. They're smart enough to know that what others have to say about a product is far more important than what a vendor has to say about it.

4. They have put an "invisible fence" around their customers in a number of different ways:

One, for only $79 bucks a year (amazon.com Prime), you get to have all your items shipped to you via two-day free shipping, whenever you make any kind of purchase, at all. This gives you loads of incentive to keep buying stuff from amazon.com since you don't have to pay any shipping costs, and since you get all your items sent to you incredibly fast.

5. Another way they have put an invisible fence around their customers -- and it's one of the most difficult things for any company to achieve -- is that they've been instrumental in developing a new media that is technologically progressive.

And they control and not only the hardware for this media, but they also control the lion's share of the software to supply it, as well.

The media I'm talking about, of course, is The Kindle. The Kindle represents a significant step forward in the right direction, as to the future of where today's print media is going. It's an electronic book reader, and since the easiest and fastest way to get new books on it is by ordering them using literally "one click" from amazon.com... they are, in essence, willingly preventing you from ordering electronic books for your Kindle, from any other source.

This is just some of what makes amazon.com, so great. Over the next few days I'll be reviewing some of these strategies and giving you examples how you can use them in your business.

Also, I just ordered a Kindle myself, and I'll show it to you on a video and let you know my thoughts on it.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Want to attract the right leads? You need to be using the right bait. Here's the exact bait you need, to get all the pre-qualified leads you want: http://www.kingofcopy.com/leads

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

1968

Last night, my son and I watched a DVD I'd ordered a few weeks ago called "1968." It was a documentary hosted by Tom Brokaw, about the tumultuous late 1960's, which culminated in the Chicago riots, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, and deaths of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy in 1968.

There were two different theories put forward in the documentary. One was that the 60's were a unique time for cultural change and awakening. Things like the civil rights movement, women's rights, questioning and resisting the war, and introducing more free-thinking into pop-culture and society, paved the way for great changes and great thinkers.

Another thought was that, essentially, this was a good plan gone awry. There was too much excess, too many drugs, and the stability of the counterculture leaders surely needed to be questioned. That the anti-establishment divided and polarized Americans and things have never been the same, since.

Like may baby boomers, I've always romanticized this era, but mostly because of the music which was developed during that time. I've always been passionate about music and so these are the memories that come to me when I think about the 1960's. Of course, being one of the younger boomers (I was born 11/1963), I really didn't have any kind of a "real" perspective on things, either.

Since tomorrow is July 4th, America's Independence Day, I thought it would be a good time to get your feedback on some of these issues.

What's your opinion on things? What lasting imprint did the late 1960's leave on America?

If it was positive, let me know your opinion why. If it was negative, let me know what you believe could have been done different, so the results would have been different.

Post your thoughts and comments here on my blog.

Have a great 4th, and a relaxing weekend, and I'll see you on Monday.

Oh, this weekend I'll be putting the July issue of my Seductive Selling Newsletter together -- http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl. One of the columns in it is called "Little-Known Copywriting Secrets From The King's Treasure Chest." If you have a copywriting question you want an answer to, post that on my blog as well -- and maybe it'll get addressed in this month's newsletter.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Make 'em ALL say "Yes!": http://www.kingofcopy.com/seductive

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products

A Headline Formula For Everyone

Last week we talked about a headline split-test a friend of mine was running.

Today I want to show you how you can adapt good headlines to almost any business by using some simple common-sense "tweaks."

For example, one of the three headlines tested was "52 Ways To Win, Where Everybody Else Loses."

Headlines like this are formulaic: " ___ ways to ___ , when ____ "

One rule would be as long as you kept the front and and the back end of your headline contrasting, this can work in almost any business, but even this isn't fixed. Here, let's take a look:

Custom woodworking: "11 Ways To Make Your Living Room Look Like A Palace, And Be The Envy Of All Your Neighbors!"

Stereo equipment: "3 Ways To Get Studio-Like Sound In Your Home, And Eliminate Hiss, Crackle And Over-Modulation, Forever"

And financial services: "7 Ways To Retire: How To Win Before Uncle Sam Makes You Lose!"

I want you to start thinking in terms of formulas for your headlines, because this is a simple and effective way to approach them. Most people overcomplicate this aspect of their marketing, to the point where it's unnecessarily confusing in the end.

And since your headline counts for the lions share of your ad's ability to produce, you do not want to take this lightly. We'll be covering more of this moving forward, but the moral of this story is to keep it simple, silly.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Make 'em say "Yes!" all the time: http://www.kingofcopy.com/seductive

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on my blog -- I want to know what you're thinking!:

Here are ALL the King's products: http://www.kingofcopy.com/products