Bob Bly Does It Again

I've mentioned before the excellent articles Bob has written for "DM News." He's done it again. This time he gave a list of his 10 top favorite marketing books. Topping the list? "How to Write a Good Advertisement" by Victor Scwhab. "Scientific Advertising" by Claude Hopkins also made the list as did several other classics. Unfortunately, I don't have the list in front of me at the moment. I'll post the whole list when I have it handy. Here's the point. Bob Bly is one of the top copywriters alive today.

Bob Bly says these books are at the top of his list. If we're serious about marketing, do we have them in our libraries? Gordon has seen my library (well, at least *before* the flood). I own several of the books on Bob's list. Maybe you do too.

So now the next question. If we have them, do we use them? Every time we go to write copy? I know *I* don't. How about you? It's a lesson many of us could stand to hear again.

Rick Smith, "The Net Guerrilla"

His book "Become a Recognized Authority In Your Field In 60 Days or Less" was instrumental in the shaping my thoughts and concepts when I started the Las Vegas Business Secrets Exposed E-newsletter.

To aid me when writing, I have created a checklist that I go through. It is a compilation of thoughts from Bob, Clyde Bedell, Maxwell Sackheim, Anthony Robbins...to name a few.

Anyway, just wanted to give a hearty "Amen" to your comments.


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Hey Rick, Thanks for mentioning that list! I poked around www.dmnews.com , and came up with this.... Here's where you can read Bob Bly's list of his 10 favorite marketing books.

http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=23225&dest=article

In order, they are:

[*]"How to Write a Good Advertisement" by Vic Schwab[*]"My First 50 Years in Advertising" by Max Sackheim[*]"The Robert Collier Letter Book" by Robert Collier[*]"Reality in Advertising" by Rosser Reeves[*]"Breakthrough Advertising" by Eugene Schwartz[*]"Tested Advertising Methods, Fifth Edition" by John Caples, revised by Fred Hahn[*]"Confessions of an Advertising Man" by David Ogilvy[*]"Scientific Advertising" by Claude Hopkins[*]"Method Marketing" by Denny Hatch[*]"Advertising Secrets of the Written Word" by Joseph Sugarman


Read the article to get his comments on each one....

Definitely an article to save to your hard drive!

There are a number of books there I don't have yet.... Which means that I've got some "gaping holes" in my library! Hmmm.... Will have to fill those holes as soon as possible. :)

- Dien Rice


Here's Bob Bly's list

Looks like it's working for you, John :) Really enjoyed your last two issues.

What a niche!!!!

Success,

Erik Lukas

Rick -

I agree with you that Bob Bly is truly great.

Most memorable for me is Bly's "formula" for a Unique Selling Proposition, which he also calls "the reason for being."

Here's the USP formula: "My product is the only one that ___________ (does what) for whom (what audience) by __________ (how does it deliver the benefit).

Just fill in the blanks and Voila! Your USP appears.

Robert Campbell

PS: Rick, does the line below look familiar? (grin)




Read what Robert G. Allen said about my real estate book!

John -

> His book "Become a Recognized Authority
> In Your Field In 60 Days or Less" was
> instrumental in the shaping my thoughts and
> concepts when I started the Las Vegas
> Business Secrets Exposed E-newsletter.

I was not aware of that book. I'm not in my office right now but I think I have his book on copywriting in my collection. Sounds like this is one I should look for.

> To aid me when writing, I have created a
> checklist that I go through. It is a
> compilation of thoughts from Bob, Clyde
> Bedell, Maxwell Sackheim, Anthony
> Robbins...to name a few.

Awesome. Any chance you could share that with us?

Rick Smith, "The Net Guerrilla"

John -

>the Las Vegas Business Secrets Exposed E->newsletter.

When I saw Erik's reply to you, I had to go check out your site. Signed up for your newsletter. I found it particularly interesting that you *do not* sell anything directly from the home page. You simply have a sign-up for the e-zine.

Rick Smith, "The Net Guerrilla"

Dien -

> Hey Rick, Thanks for mentioning that list! I
> poked around www.dmnews.com , and came up
> with this.... Here's where you can read Bob
> Bly's list of his 10 favorite marketing
> books.

Thanks for posting this. You saved me the trouble of remembering to bring the article with me. (Which I forgot again.)

> There are a number of books there I don't
> have yet.... Which means that I've got some
> "gaping holes" in my library!
> Hmmm.... Will have to fill those holes as
> soon as possible. :)

Unfortunately, some of them are out of print or otherwise hard to get.

Rick Smith, "The Net Guerrilla"

Robert -

> Most memorable for me is Bly's
> "formula" for a Unique Selling
> Proposition, which he also calls "the
> reason for being."

> Here's the USP formula: "My product is
> the only one that ___________ (does what)
> for whom (what audience) by __________ (how
> does it deliver the benefit).

> Just fill in the blanks and Voila! Your USP
> appears.

I hadn't seen this one before. What an *excellent* way to create your USP. It directly answers the question made famous by Dan Kennedy, "Why should I do business with you as opposed to all the other options available to me including doing nothing ?"

> PS: Rick, does the line below look familiar?
> (grin)

Ah. Yes. Lights flash, bells ring. (g) I might have seen it on another board or two - the type I referred to in my post a little before this one. (g)

Also, see your e-mail.

Rick Smith, "The Net Guerrilla"

Rick,

The checklist is hand-written.

I will try to type it up and put it into a format to post in the next week or so.

To tie in with the newsletter (and the suggestions from Bob Bly on becoming the recognized "authority", I am developing a number of sites to sort of become the premier Las Vegas info source.

Presently I am putting the finishing touches on a couple of sites.

In the works...

A "pictures of Las Vegas" site. I just recently had the opportunity to purchase the domain name
www.PicturesOfLasVegas.com. The previous owner never did anything with it, and he let it expire. Got it for 10 bucks.

I plan to have pictures of just about everything in each casino (front desk, buffets, coffee bar, etc.). I will then blast an email out to travel agents, and they can use my site to show clients just about everything that is in each hotel. Most of the sites with pictures are either of poor quality, or they are loaded with so much other stuff that those just wanting to see pictures of whatever get lost in the "busy-ness" of the site.

A discussion board. I own www.LasVegasQuestionsAndAnswers.com. I hope to use the questions asked to compile the most frequently asked questions into an ebook to sell via the site.

A trivia site. I own www.LasVegasTrivia.com. The site will be total Las Vegas trivia. I am developing categories (based on the successful and time proven quiz concepts, like Jeopardy, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, etc) like:
- Mobsters Of Yesteryear
- The Colorful History
- It Happened In Vegas
- Entertainment
- Those Neon Lights
- Statistics
- Boxing
- Unbelievable Costs
- The Rich And The Famous
- Elvis
- Buffets
- Test Your Gambling Knowledge
- Believe It Or Not
- Wedding Trivia

And More...

I also own the following domain names, and will be developing guides, or whatever is pertinent to the web site(s) in the future:

- sleeplessinlasvegas.com
- lasvegasbuffetguide.com
- lasvegasbulletin.com
- lasvegasbusinessjournal.com
- lasvegascasinoinformation.com
- lasvegascityinformation.com
- lasvegasconcertguide.com
- lasvegasconventionguide.com
- lasvegascouponbook.com
- lasvegaseclassifieds.com
- lasvegasentertainmentalert.com
- lasvegasfordummies.com
- lasvegasgamblersalert.com
- lasvegasgamblingtips.com
- lasvegasgaragesales.com
- lasvegasguidebook.com
- lasvegashotelguides.com
- lasvegashousesforsale.com
- lasvegasinformationguide.com
- lasvegasnewsalert.com
- lasvegasnewsflash.com
- lasvegasrealtorguide.com
- lasvegasseniors.com
- lasvegasshoppingguide.com
- lasvegassucks.com
- lasvegastouristguide.com
- lasvegastouristinformation.com
- lasvegastraffic.com
- lasvegastravelinformation.com
- lasvegastravelplanner.com
- lasvegastraveltips.com
- lasvegastrivia.com
- lasvegasvacationsguide.com
- lasvegasvacationtips.com
- lasvegaswithkidsguide.com
- thelasvegascasinoguide.com
- thelasvegasconcertguide.com
- thelasvegasconventionguide.com
- thelasvegasentertainmentguide.com
- thelasvegasgamblingguide.com
- thelasvegasguide.com
- thelasvegashotelguide.com
- thelasvegasnewsletter.com
- thelasvegasrestaurantguide.com
- thelasvegasshoppingguide.com
- thelasvegastouristguide.com
- thelasvegasvacationguide.com
- thelasvegasweddingguide.com
- thelasvegaswithkidsguide.com

I think I have enough to keep busy for quite a while.

Regards,
John Palma




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