We held our fourth Copywriting Mastery Guild Teleseminar last night, and we covered a lot of ground in 90 minutes.

This session was on the step in the sales funnel I know all too well: writing a sales letter that converts.

Actually, I thought I had the topic pretty well covered with what I had prepared:

• four ways to make your letter compelling without using hype
• the all-important option of putting the person behind the business in the promotion
• 11 steps, in detail, on writing a killer sales letter
• and last but not least, I put the super-valuable topic of testimonials under the microscope.

We talked about how to look at testimonials; what makes a good one; what makes a bad one; and the three most effective kind of testimonials you can use to increase conversions.

I just left one little thing out. Probably the most important one, now that I look back on it a day later:

… how to GET testimonials!

Fortunately, Tim had a little experience in that area.

Well, more than a little

He shared a DYNAMITE method for collecting testimonials.

Not one or two.

Not a dozen or so.

A method he used in one of his businesses to collect SEVERAL HUNDRED testimonials… WITHOUT even emailing or talking to the people who gave them!

That's why this seminar is important. The interactive aspect - not only between me and Tim and Jesse, but also with the live questions from our students.

There's still time to get in, by the way. All teleseminars are recorded and available for download from inside our membership site.

I am convinced that dollar-for-dollar, this is by far the most valuable teleseminar series I have ever given.

If you'd like to sign up while we still have the low introductory price, go to http://www.thecopywritersguild.com

David Garfinkel

The team behind The Copywriting Mastery Guild teleseminar series was having an offline conference call, and we realized that this program is definitely NOT for everybody.

Some people seem to take an almost perverse delight in crossing every t, dotting every i, never jaywalking, always following the instructions on the shampoo bottle to the letter, and drinking 8 glasses of water every day.

This class is not for them.

Don't get us wrong. We like people who follow instructions and obey the law. We see value in being thorough. We're into pedestrian safety just as much as the next guy.

But — and this is key - we're BUSY.

So we've been forced to come up with the most efficient, powerful, time-saving ways to do things in our business.

And if someone wants to work hard and take a long time to learn how to write copy that makes money, we're not the guys.

In case you think I'm being totally sarcastic, look around. There are plenty of courses out there that would have you struggling for weeks before you even get your first piece of copy out.

Of course they don't advertise that fact. But I've had their graduates come up to me after 1 2-hour presentation and tell me they got more out of what I gave them than what they got out of eight weeks with "Institute A's" program.

My main thing is, I'm busy. I assume you are too. And impatient. We both are. So let's get right to it!

Last night on the first session of the 8-session teleseminar series, we talked about all kinds of time-saving tips you'd probably like to know about.

We went over Tim's ingenious way to get copy flowing, really, in a matter of seconds, with only a couple clicks of the mouse (and it involves free resources on the Internet).

I shared a headline time-saver you wouldn't believe is just hanging out there on the Internet — free — for all to see.

We revealed a free swipe file that is literally crackling with energy! It's better than a six-pack of Red Bull!

Fortunately, you can still get in the class and fit it into your own schedule, because everything is recorded and available online for you to use at your convenience.

This is a GREAT way to get yourself ready to take off in your business in the New Year!

Learn Copywriting

David Garfinkel

Today I was talking with one of my mentoring clients and he told me the most amazing story.

(It was a true story, but it was amazing.)

He had a sales letter he had to write. It was a relatively short and straightforward letter. His fee was reduced compared to longer, more complex sales letters… but, he was still making as much as many people make working two full weeks or even a month. In the U.S.

He expected the letter would take him a couple of days, but…

… it only took him a couple of hours, and, his client was thrilled with it.

I can't say this is normal.

And, I can't say this is something that happens with all my mentoring clients, or if it's a feat I could repeat myself… or even if he could do it again exactly that fast.

I'm not even saying that he made this tremendous productivity leap solely based on what he learned from me, because I know he had access to some other unique and powerful information that sped up his process.

But what I can say is I am well known for methods and shortcuts that speed up peoples' writing processes, and everyone who works with me ends up writing better copy, more easily and more quickly.

If you heard either of the preview calls Tim Erway, Jesse Jameson and I did, I think you'll see why that's true.

The main reason is — while I put my heart into everything I write — I use my head to develop simplified ways to do the same thing most people do the hard way.

And — here's the important part — I also use my head (and 19 years on performance-based teaching, coaching and mentoring experience) to make it easy for anyone to take what I've developed and put it to work for them.

To save time writing copy. To get better response. To feel more confident. For real.

You have an opportunity to tap into that special skill I seem to have developed. Tonight we start the Copywriting Mastery Guild teleseminar series.

What we are doing is not only going to help you write copy better and faster, but it's also going to help you zero-in on how to write exactly the right kind of copy every step of the way in the sales funnel process.

What does that mean?

Simple.

You'll learn techniques for writing better AdWords ads.

Which are different from techniques for putting together more compelling squeeze pages, which get prospects on your list. But you'll learn those, too.

Which are different again from how you put autoresponders together that warm up your list to buy. And you'll learn those, too.

And even more!

This is a unique opportunity to get some incredibly powerful, new information at a price that will pay for itself practically the first time you use it.

In fact, we're so sure it will work that we have a unique guarantee.

Take a look:

http://www.thecopywritersguild.com

Hope you will join us in the Copywriting Mastery Guild!

David Garfinkel

Here's what you need to know as a copywriter: The old gray lady just ain't what she used to be.

"The Old Gray Lady" was what insiders used to call The New York Times (maybe they still do… I'm so far away from that world now I have no idea) … and what I mean here is the newspaper industry has gone through a complete and utter transformation since the last time I worked on a newspaper, which was 1989.

What has happened since then, of course, was The Internet.

All great sweeping generalities, true… but what does this have to do with you and copywriting?

A lot, actually.

Tuesday Google took the wraps off a plan it's been working on for a long time. The most popular search engine announced it is starting a 3 month trial to help sell print ads for newspapers… including, wouldn't ya know it, The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post.

Newspapers as mainstream and old-school as they get.

Meanwhile, Web site Craigslist has removed millions of dollars ad revenue over the past several years from the newspaper industry.

It's almost starting to look like the Web giveth and the Web taketh away, doesn't it?

Well, if you look at things that way, you're not looking far enough. Consumers and their eyeballs are the reasons why ad dollars go where they go. Not "The Web" or any other vague generality.

But, here's what's so vitally important to you:

To continue to prosper in your business — or to start really prospering in the first place — you're going to need to know copy like you've never known it before.

And just as important, you're going to need to know the fine points of writing copy for an AdWords ad, and how that's different than a Craigslist ad… and how the copy works in each piece of a sequence like this:

1. AdWords ad
2. Squeeze page
3. Autoresponder message
4. Sales Page
5. Order Page
6. Follow-up autoresponder

… because there's a different objective, and a different psychology, for copy in each of those six pieces.

What you've just seen in that list is what is known as a sales funnel. You may have already known that, but, do you know how to write the best copy for each stage of the sales funnel?

That's what makes the Free Interactive Copywriting Mastery Teleseminar tonight different. We will tell you how to approach each stage.

Possibly for the first time, you'll have a clear sense of how these parts of a sales funnel work together, from a copywriting point of view.

Please join us… it's free.

To register, go to

http://www.thecopywritersguild.com

David Garfinkel

Right now the economy looks pretty darn good for many people, sort of shaky for others. The "macro" numbers — unemployment rate, Dow Jones Industrial Average, optimism among business owners — promise a strong business year in 2007.

Today is election day in the U.S., and what can happen is anyone's guess.

So let me say something that is definitely "politically incorrect" no matter what your politics are — what happens today at the polls simply doesn't matter.

To you as a business person.

I say that because my business has continued to grow, no matter what the economy, ever since I learned to get results with my copywriting.

Same for everyone else I know who knows how to get copy results.

You see, if things are good, people are in a buying mood, and you can sell to their desires.

If things are bad, people are scared, and you can sell to their worries and concerns.

If things are uncertain, people are also uncertain, and you can sell to their uncertainty.

Does this sound too cynical for the way you look at things?

If it does, just look at your own human nature.

You don't stop buying things when the direction of the economy changes. But you buy from a different mood and perspective, and you buy for different reasons.

Someone who is successfully selling to you what you buy must have struck a chord at those times when the economy shifted. Because you had to read some copy or listen to some sales pitch before you said yes.

That is why I strongly encourage you to learn about copywriting, or learn more about copywriting, at your earliest possible opportunity.

And that opportunity just might be starting this Thursday, when the Copywriting Mastery Teleseminar begins.

You will learn what you need to know to have a GREAT 2007… no matter what happens in Congress, or in the state house, or in your local elections.

No matter what happens on Wall Street.

No matter what happens at the Great Statistics Mills!

If you want to take a step forward to become master of your own business destiny, go to

http://www.thecopywritersguild.com

David Garfinkel