John Carlton - sheer lunacy
 

Hey friends,

I have this little thing cut out and sitting on my desk. I found it in a free sample of a John Carlton newsletter (which I would really like to subscribe to someday soon).

Here it is:

"It is sheer lunacy to write bland copy in order to avoid offending some imagined part of your audience. It is brilliant marketing to risk pissing off a few people to get your message across to those who want what you sell. Stop worrying about pleasing people who are not in your target audience. And start obsessing about pleasing the people you're asking to send you money."

I will describe my recent experience with it sometime in the next week or two.

Success,

Erik Lukas

P.S. Anyone else want to share their experiences with something like this?

That's my motto!
 

Hi,

A lot of what I post isn't totally politically correct; I always push the envelope as much as I dare.

Best,

- Boyd

Here's a "close to home" example...
 

Erik:

I agree - BUT - there is still a line that should not be crossed. I call it the crude line. Crude remarks and hard swear words (The F word, the C word, for example) should generally be avoided at all costs in letters. Also, so should using borderline words just for the heck of it. (Then again, I don't want anything to do with markets where those words are welcomed in sales messages.)

Anyway. Here's what we have in the Frequently Asked Questions page of The Great Ideas Letter...

"If you are not willing to "risk" the measly cost of a one month subscription, then you are most likely not willing to "risk" larger sums of money on any business venture at all. And so you just might be better off not subscribing to The Great Ideas Letter."

For some reason this "attitude" upsets people - mainly the freebie seekers. So we have no real loss.

Michael Ross


The Great Ideas Letter. Please Consider.

Another example or two or...
 

...Gary Halbert

He's one of the best in my opinion.. and he almost goads the politically correct into not liking him

He calls his subscribers names, he swears all the time... but I hang on his every word.

Don Alm is probably one of the few people where I read *every* post. You know its not going to be ordinary and you know it might offend, but you also know it *will* count! There will definitely be *something* to learn from.

Michael has the same effect with a different style. So direct sometimes makes you wince with the refreshing brutality... dont have to agree but you always respect.

Long live , personality, opinions and the freedom to express them differently from the bland norm and with a bit of edge.

So many are concerend with upsetting people that will never be their customers or their friends. So where's the danger in expressing your opinion anyway?

It's personal attacks that are a no no for me

I'm a pussy cat myself :o)

Take care,
Andy


One opinionated b*^%$£d!

Erik, here's a recent experience of mine ...
 

Dear Erik,

As a marketing test, just this morning, I gave a FREE one-hour seminar to 40 San Diego real estate agents on Timing the Real Estate Market.

It was sponsored by my title insurance company.

After the seminar, both title reps came up to me and said: "I don't think the agents liked what you were saying. You said the San Diego real estate market was in a "high risk" mode ... and that real estate prices are more likely to go down than go up. From the standpoint of maintaining a high confidence in advising people to buy, this is NOT what they wanted to hear."

My response?

Real estate cycles and trends are what they are. My message will always remain pure and unpolluted, regardless of my audience. I tell them what they need to know, not what they want to believe.

Reluctantly, the title reps nodded in agreement.

My guiding light is always, always be true to what you do!

Interestingly, when I give this same seminar to a paying audience who want to hear the truth, they embrace the message (even if they don't like what the message is from their own personal standpoint).

One way or another, all of us in business will find our target market. Keep the message clear, simple, and true ... and they will trust you and do business with you.

I am quickly learning that real estate agents are not interested in my market timing message ... and it doesn't bother me one bit. Interesting test, but no fit.

Best wishes, Erik the Future Multi-Millionaire

Robert Campbell




How to predict upcoming changes in your real estate market

You? A pussycat? BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA . . :^> (ahem, DNO) (DNO)
 

C -Word?
 

Ok...I know about the F word....but C word?
Let me see

I went through my foul language dictionary
and cant seem to find that one

Hmmmmm....must be an Australian thing....

unless you are talking about....

.......ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

There are two C Words. Neither is appropriate for sales letters (DNO)
 

DNO means Do Not Open because the entire message is contained in the headline.


Click here for business ideas that work

LOL! [DNO]
 

dno
> Ok...I know about the F word....but C word?
> Let me see

> I went through my foul language dictionary
> and cant seem to find that one

> Hmmmmm....must be an Australian thing....

> unless you are talking about....

> .......ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Near the top of page 217, Sam said...
 

"You'd be a lot less worried about what people think of you...
if you realized how little they do."
(quote from page 217, The One Minute Millionaire
by Mark Victor Hansen & Robert G. Allen)

Often we 'pull our punches' to avoid ruffling someone's feathers.
Sometimes the truth hurts. But it needs to be revealed.

You reference John Carlton. Someone else mentioned
Gary Halbert. Both use "strong" language in their writings.
I find it distasteful.

I don't like the "shock jocks". I don't appreciate
the street language that some folks use.

I'll admit that they get people's attention.

But I refuse to support that kind of mis-use of their right
to free speech.

I remember returning a set of tapes to Nightengale-Conant
because of the "mild" curse words that were sprinkled
through this particular set of tapes. They just weren't necessary.
There was no socially redeeming value added to the tapes by using them.
Like adding a few curse words to a movie to make it PG-13 or R rated
to attract a larger audience.

Taking offence when someone speaks the truth in love is self-defeating.

Being offended by someone who spews forth trash words from the gutter
could be considered to be righteous indignation.

You don't have to be a life-long proponent of King James' english.
But you don't have to spread the crusty talk of the streets either.

Just one man's opinion,

JDB
--
John David Bradshaw - The After50 Online Marketing Coach(TM)
Teaching old dogs new tricks...that make money online!
http://www.makingmoneyonlineafter50.com




More opinions...more truth?

Very well said John :-) (DNO)
 

Re: Near the top of page 217, Sam said...
 

Hi John,

I understand how you find Halbert somewhat distasteful and unneccessarily crude. He is. I'll admit it though, I enjoy reading his material. Call it a guilty pleasure.

Alternately, I don't and never could listen to radio "shock jocks." If I want to hear the first thing some (fill in the blank - maybe uneducated and highly opinionated chap) can think of off the top of his head, I can just listen to myself/or the myriads of other people who are willing to do it in real life without being paid for it.

So I suppose, I only find Halbert's crudeness fun because he deals with some very specific interests of mine. Direct mail, entrepreneurial success, crudeness.... (Sorry, John, just kidding on that last one)

Thank you for letting us know how you feel, John.

Success,

Erik

P.S. When is this honorary member of the 50 plus newsletter going to get his next issue? I don't think I have for a little while.

Re: Erik, here's a recent experience of mine ...
 

Robert,

Thanks for telling us about your test. Who usually attends your paying seminars? Is it mostly real estate investors?

"One way or another, all of us in business will find our target market. Keep the message clear, simple, and true ... and they will trust you and do business with you."

I should write that on my arm, Robert.

Success,

Erik
The Future Thousandaire :)

Back up! This is no joke...
 

> P.S. When is this honorary member of the 50
> plus newsletter going to get his next issue?
> I don't think I have for a little while.

Erik,

I published two issues in April. I have one in the mill, almost done...
I had intended on getting it out this week. I sent out
an issue of Business eProducts Review on Tuesday, May 6,
and planned to send "Making Money Online After 50" out on Thursday.

Well, Thursday morning I received notice that my list-serve service
had been shut down due to a spam complaint against another user.
So while they are moving everything to another server,
I have no access to my mailing service or list.

And this outage occurred the very day I had contracted
with Frank Garon to send me some of his "Guaranteed Visitors".
They estimated 48 hours before restoration of service.
And hopefully, no loss of data. We'll see.

It took me until Friday afternoon to get another autoresponder
set up to capture the "guaranteed visitors" until my list service is back up.
I have no idea how many subs I may have lost during this time.

This whole experience brings up several major points:

1. Make sure you have a backup of any list you have built-(I did)

2. Keep copies of your current autoresponder messages-
(I had forgotten to copy the 'latest version'of my welcome message...
I had updated it online and failed to download a copy...my bad.)

3. Have a backup plan in place ready to go-(I didn't)
It took me several hours Friday to set up the new autoresponder,
modify my webpages with new email forms, and check everything
to make sure it worked. At least next time (I pray it doesn't
happen again) I can be back online ready to go by just uploading
the backup webpages that access the backup A/R.

Now let me 'back up' and answer your question.

The next issue will be out by the 15th. If I don't have
my list-serve back by then, I'll have do do everything
manually, but I will if I have to.

So Erik, thanks for asking about this old man's newsletter. HA!

Talking about back-ups reminded me of a joke I heard
a long time ago. It goes something like this...

A new hire was being interviewed by the trucking company's manager.
He presented Joe (the new guy) with this scenario...

Joe, suppose you are driving down a two lane road and you come up
behind another semi that is going very slow due to the heavy load
he is hauling.

You decide to pass him so you pull out around him into the lane
beside him. You accelerate to get around him.

As you get up even with his truck, you see another vehicle
coming toward you.

There's no time to speed up any more to get around the other truck.

There is no emergency lane.

Traffic is backed up behind the other truck so you can't drop back.

You have no place to go. What would you do?

Joe thinks for a minute, and responds, "I'd wake up Ralph."

The manager, somewhat puzzled, looks at Joe and says, "Who's Ralph?!"

Joe responds, "Well, sir, Ralph's my back-up driver...
and he ain't never seen a wreck like this'n before!"

*g*

JDB
--
John David Bradshaw - The After50 Online Marketing Coach(TM)
Teaching old dogs new tricks...that make money online!
http://www.makingmoneyonlineafter50.com


Back to the basics...

Re: Here's a "close to home" example...
 

Michael:

Gary Halbert uses the F word in his sales letter - on the main page of his site.

http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com

Gary may offend a few people - but will get in millions of dollars worth of orders too.

Sincerely,
Ankesh Kothari

> Erik:

> I agree - BUT - there is still a line that
> should not be crossed. I call it the crude
> line. Crude remarks and hard swear words
> (The F word, the C word, for example) should
> generally be avoided at all costs in
> letters. Also, so should using borderline
> words just for the heck of it. (Then again,
> I don't want anything to do with markets
> where those words are welcomed in sales
> messages.)

> Anyway. Here's what we have in the
> Frequently Asked Questions page of The Great
> Ideas Letter...

> "If you are not willing to
> "risk" the measly cost of a one
> month subscription, then you are most likely
> not willing to "risk" larger sums
> of money on any business venture at all. And
> so you just might be better off not
> subscribing to The Great Ideas Letter."

> For some reason this "attitude"
> upsets people - mainly the freebie seekers.
> So we have no real loss.

> Michael Ross

Gary can do what he likes. In fact, so can everyone.
 

Ankesh:

Gary can use that word if he wants. He can use any word. Anyone can.

I simply gave MY opinion on it. *I* won't use those words. *I* won't be a part of any market that readily accepts those words in sales letters. And *I* think Gary is wrong for using those words.

In fact, every time I see a word like that in Gary's writings, I don't see any good reason for it being there. It appears to be there just for the sake of being there. It doesn't add to his writing. I am turned off by it. And that is my opinion.

It makes him out to be a Yobbo. Uncouth. And that is MY opinion. An uncouth Yobbo who knows a truckload about marketing and writing sales letters - probably forgotten more than any of us would ever learn.

Imagine Warren Buffett writing F market downturn F made us lose F money. Just doesn't cut it. And using the F doesn't add to the writing.

Supposedly Gary's market is high-priced and successful business owners who can afford to pay him $15,000 an hour plus 5%. And if you don't like his use of words you can go jump.

That's his attitude. Works for him.

What I'm getting at is that we all have our own standards of what we consider acceptable under certain conditions. Hammer hammer hammer miss BANG oh F.

My opinion is that those words are not acceptable for sales letters.

That's the wonderfulness of a board like this... we can agree and disagree and it's all right.

As Jim Straw says... we are all right and we are all wrong.

Michael Ross

Well put, Michael. It's called freedom, but....
 

> That's the wonderfulness of a board like
> this... we can agree and disagree and it's
> all right.

> As Jim Straw says... we are all right and we
> are all wrong.

> Michael Ross

It's called freedom of speech, and it is a truly, unbeleivable, valuable Right; that way too many take for granted or misunderstand. Same with some of our other basic, God-given Rights.

Example: I may not like the message some group spouts when they march down mainstreet, but the same Constitutional Law that lets them; will also let me march or speak my message.

It's the same on these boards, as long as we stay within the rules, we have the right to our opinion.

Always remember: It's only your opinion. You are entitled to it, but the other guy is too.
(even if he is wrong :-)

We can all learn a lot from each other, even from those you may disagree with.

These boards are an amazing thing, and I am very grateful to the admins who take the trouble to run them.

If knowledge is power, then we all should be secure enough to not get bent out of shape if someone disagrees or doesn't like our opinion.

Sorry for rambling on. My main point is this: Our freedoms & rights are very precious and need to be preserved.

My favorite quote, paraphrased a bit here, goes something like this:

"Those willing to give up freedom, rights, or liberty, in trade for "perceived" security, deserve neither."

Too many people down through the ages have paid too high of price for those Rights. From ordinary folks, to soldiers, to martyrs. Way too many have died for us to give up these God-given Rights so easily. How quickly we forget.

Enough soapbox,
DaveH




Unlimited Dial-up for $12.95 & great DSL too!

Re: Erik, here's a recent experience of mine ...
 

Hello Erik,

About one-third of the people at my seminars are real estate investors.

About one-third are people who are interested in buying a home and are nervous and worried.

The remaining one-third are people who want to know when to sell their real estate or people who are simply interested in learning about a topic that has never before been intelligently addressed: real estate timing.

Erik, it is critical that a person in business (like you and I, for example) always tell the truth and be honest about our area of expertise.
This is the only way to keep a good business growing. Forget about those who don't like your message ... and instead focus on those that do. This is your target market. Treat them with respect, honesty, and dignity ... give them good value ... and you'll stand out like fire in the night.

Best wishes to you, a sure-thing future millionaire!

Robert Campbell

On Pulp Fiction and the 'F' word
 

Hi,

If, like me, you're a fan of Samuel L. Jackson and admired his performances in _Pulp Fiction_ and the Star Wars prequels, you might like this...

[Note: as you know, S.L.J. played "Jedi Master Mace Windu" in the Star Wars prequels.]

--
Top Ten Things Samuel L. Jackson Should Have Said in the Star Wars Prequels:

10. You don't need to see my ******* identification, 'cause these ain't the mother****** droids you're looking for.

9. Womp rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'll never know, 'cause I'd never touch the filthy mother******.

--

Surf on over to the link below for the other eight things....

Best,

- Boyd




Top Ten Things Samuel L. Jackson Should Have Said in the Star Wars Prequels

What Monty Python called 'the naughty bits.' (dno) (DNO)