Been around here for a short while and I thought the time has come to give a little back. So here goes... listen up newbies!
What business are you really in?
First of all did you know you're thinking about it the wrong way?
You're not in the business of affiliate-anything! You're not in the business of PPC, CPA, CPV, WTF or any other acronym. Hell, you're not even in the business of making money -- you're thinking about it in reverse, see what I mean?
Let me try to explain a little bit better: the Federal Reserve Bank is in the business of making money, Google is in the business of PPC (follow my train of thought here), you my friend are (or aspire to be, I should think) in the business of ADVERTISING.
That's just dandy, Fluffy, but how will that help me make them monies? -- I hear you ask
Be a better advertiser to sell more! Makes sense, right? All that time spend on ebooks, gurus and blogs while the answer was staring you in the face.
Everywhere you look there are people talking about bid-strategy-this, arbitrage-that and all sorts of specific intricacies you shouldn't really care about at this stage.
It's like trying to build a car and learning about the manufacturing process of rubber -- you my friend need to read up on mechanics first, not how to grow rubber-trees. The car is your end-goal (them monies) and the mechanics (advertising) is what will get you to understand how all those buzz-word-components fit together.
What's the last 3 advertising books you read?
If you've yet to open your first book then you need to get started now and haul some ass because you're seriously falling behind the curve!
Before you'll make one red cent in this business you'll need to become a master of behavioral economics and psychology. You'll either have to be a natural at it (which I wasn't either) or learn the good-old-fashioned way: through a book!
Here's a couple (in precise order) to get you started this month:
1. Amazon.com: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (9780688128166): Robert B.…
2. Amazon.com: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (9780061353239): Dan Ariely: Books
3. Amazon.com: Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear (9781401309299): Frank I. Luntz: Books
4. Amazon.com: CA$HVERTISING: How to Use More than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make Big Money Selling Anything…
^-- Those shouldn't take you more than a month to go through and by the time you're done, you'll be way on your way to knowing what you should expand on and read next.
Here's what worked for me
I'm going to share with you something personal. This is what I worked from when I was starting out and it's what has worked for me. It's a checklist of the ONLY things you'll need to create advertising that sells.
At the time I honed that from thousands of dollars spent on testing and, more important, hundreds of hours sacrificed to study.
Most of us will only get to live about 25,000 days (that's about 70 years) so I hope you damn well appreciate me giving away something I put hundreds of hours into.
Some of the more important items are ambiguous (that's intentional) and you can find them detailed each in one of the 4 books I pointed to above.
General considerations
Write for response not for elegance, sophistication or graceful copy.
There's nothing cute or clever about being cute or clever in advertising.
Put yourself in the shoes of the prospect and ask yourself: "BIG DEAL! What's in it for me?!"
Actionable checklist
[ ] Touch on basic desires to engage emotionally:
1. Survival, enjoyment of life and life extension
2. Enjoyment of food and beverages
3. Freedom from fear, pain and danger
4. Sexual companionship
5. Comfortable living conditions
6. To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses
7. Care and protection of loved ones
8. Social approval
[ ] Talk about how others have satisfied their desires (examples, testimonials -- social proof).
[ ] Put at least equal effort into telling your prospect how buying your product:
1. makes them (aspirational)
2. keeps them (associative)
3. or helps them show the world that they're unique (dissociative).
[ ] Talk to the chimpanzee mind; no ambiguous message or imagery (one very specific thought per sentence).
[ ] Use powerful visual adjectives to occupy more of their minds and always represent a positive end result.
[ ] Ask questions to keep them reading. Especially rhetorical questions.
[ ] Put the biggest benefit they'll get in your headline.
[ ] Load your copy with pronouns (you, me I, he, she, him, they and them).
[ ] Call them by name or use a salutation that talks to them actualized.
[ ] Tell them why they shouldn't buy your product.
[ ] Sell the scare but make it achievable and be believable.
[ ] Use cues associated with groups or institutions of authority.
[ ] Ask for/call to action!
[ ] Use photos or illustrations of people and product-action shots
Here's to hoping that's going to help you out! Peace!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPE9uSFFxrI#t=0m42s
What business are you really in?
First of all did you know you're thinking about it the wrong way?
You're not in the business of affiliate-anything! You're not in the business of PPC, CPA, CPV, WTF or any other acronym. Hell, you're not even in the business of making money -- you're thinking about it in reverse, see what I mean?
Let me try to explain a little bit better: the Federal Reserve Bank is in the business of making money, Google is in the business of PPC (follow my train of thought here), you my friend are (or aspire to be, I should think) in the business of ADVERTISING.
That's just dandy, Fluffy, but how will that help me make them monies? -- I hear you ask
Be a better advertiser to sell more! Makes sense, right? All that time spend on ebooks, gurus and blogs while the answer was staring you in the face.
Everywhere you look there are people talking about bid-strategy-this, arbitrage-that and all sorts of specific intricacies you shouldn't really care about at this stage.
It's like trying to build a car and learning about the manufacturing process of rubber -- you my friend need to read up on mechanics first, not how to grow rubber-trees. The car is your end-goal (them monies) and the mechanics (advertising) is what will get you to understand how all those buzz-word-components fit together.
What's the last 3 advertising books you read?
If you've yet to open your first book then you need to get started now and haul some ass because you're seriously falling behind the curve!
Before you'll make one red cent in this business you'll need to become a master of behavioral economics and psychology. You'll either have to be a natural at it (which I wasn't either) or learn the good-old-fashioned way: through a book!
Here's a couple (in precise order) to get you started this month:
1. Amazon.com: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (9780688128166): Robert B.…
2. Amazon.com: Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions (9780061353239): Dan Ariely: Books
3. Amazon.com: Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear (9781401309299): Frank I. Luntz: Books
4. Amazon.com: CA$HVERTISING: How to Use More than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make Big Money Selling Anything…
^-- Those shouldn't take you more than a month to go through and by the time you're done, you'll be way on your way to knowing what you should expand on and read next.
Here's what worked for me
I'm going to share with you something personal. This is what I worked from when I was starting out and it's what has worked for me. It's a checklist of the ONLY things you'll need to create advertising that sells.
At the time I honed that from thousands of dollars spent on testing and, more important, hundreds of hours sacrificed to study.
Most of us will only get to live about 25,000 days (that's about 70 years) so I hope you damn well appreciate me giving away something I put hundreds of hours into.
Some of the more important items are ambiguous (that's intentional) and you can find them detailed each in one of the 4 books I pointed to above.
General considerations
Write for response not for elegance, sophistication or graceful copy.
There's nothing cute or clever about being cute or clever in advertising.
Put yourself in the shoes of the prospect and ask yourself: "BIG DEAL! What's in it for me?!"
Actionable checklist
[ ] Touch on basic desires to engage emotionally:
1. Survival, enjoyment of life and life extension
2. Enjoyment of food and beverages
3. Freedom from fear, pain and danger
4. Sexual companionship
5. Comfortable living conditions
6. To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses
7. Care and protection of loved ones
8. Social approval
[ ] Talk about how others have satisfied their desires (examples, testimonials -- social proof).
[ ] Put at least equal effort into telling your prospect how buying your product:
1. makes them (aspirational)
2. keeps them (associative)
3. or helps them show the world that they're unique (dissociative).
[ ] Talk to the chimpanzee mind; no ambiguous message or imagery (one very specific thought per sentence).
[ ] Use powerful visual adjectives to occupy more of their minds and always represent a positive end result.
[ ] Ask questions to keep them reading. Especially rhetorical questions.
[ ] Put the biggest benefit they'll get in your headline.
[ ] Load your copy with pronouns (you, me I, he, she, him, they and them).
[ ] Call them by name or use a salutation that talks to them actualized.
[ ] Tell them why they shouldn't buy your product.
[ ] Sell the scare but make it achievable and be believable.
[ ] Use cues associated with groups or institutions of authority.
[ ] Ask for/call to action!
[ ] Use photos or illustrations of people and product-action shots
Here's to hoping that's going to help you out! Peace!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPE9uSFFxrI#t=0m42s
