Gary Halbert 30 day challenge Copywriting Group

[Patchwork Girl]

I've already started this challenge and just realised I hadn't said hello! Halfway through Scientific Advertising and I'm fascinated... now trying to track down the rest of the books (some of them seem more difficult to find here in the UK). Big thanks to oldschool for putting together the great first post.

Copywriting will be, for me, a chance to ditch my poorly paid 'job' and put a higher value on my time-for-money freelance work while I explore other opportunities.

Of those who have finished this challenge - was it worth the time investment?

 

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[chrischapman]

It will be my first goal/accomplishment as a fastlane student.

probably your first goal should be to read TMF , have u read it?

 

[Raf Didden]

Yes, reading it for the second time, 30 pages every mornig before i start my day.

 

[Angus]

I own all of the books in hardcopy.

There's something funny about people trying to learn how to sell from a book about selling that they stole.

nothing funny, just pure opportunism, 2 seconds to do a google search with "pdf"
most of the authors are already dead, so i don't see the problem

 

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[mma323]

It's great that many people seem to be following Gary Halbert's advice!

I've been following it for a while as well... I've been copying great ads by hand for the last 594 days... everyday (I've been using Lift to track this - so, here's proof if you're curious/skeptical https://www.lift.do/app/users/ef44961e1c139bedbf84).

I had zero copywriting knowledge before, but now I have a reasonably good foundation for my copywriting skills thanks to this Gary Halbert exercise.

 

[Timbonitus]

I think it would be a cool idea to make a Facebook page dedicated to this challenge!

I would be down to join but I need to do a bit of research first. Send me a PM if you make the group!

Sent from my GT-I8160 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Twista]

If you dont know already, we are starting from Gary's premise that anyone can be a good copywriter in 30 days.Read Link Below:
http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Newsletters/zfkj_hands_on_experience.htm

I'm not sure if anyone has caught this or not, but this link doesn't work. It just goes to this page that says: "Error 404 - Page Not Found
We couldn't find the page you were looking for. Please return to the home page" I'm not sure if it's just my computer/Internet acting up.

But I found another link that works: http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/newsletters/zfkj_hands_on_experience.htm

 

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[jsk29]

After reading The Millionaire Fastlane a few months back, I did some research on what skill I should learn first as an aspiring entrepreneur. I discovered copywriting through the 'Learning to program is stupid!' thread, and found the Gary Halbert Letter shortly after. Took longer than expected (7 Steps to Freedom is huge and the Breakthrough Advertising pdf I found had ton of errors) but finally finished the reading list except the back issues of the GHL. I will start writing out the ads by hand while catching up on the back issues of the GHL. Reading through this thread gave me the motivation I needed to persist and follow through, thank you.

 

[Jam Wheel]

Whoever bumped this thread back to the top - thank you! I realized earlier in the week I will need to do some sales writing for my project but wasn't sure about all these Gary Halbert resources I had read around the forum (as in, where to find them). I won't be doing the challenge, but will check in on here from time to time.

 

[Discourse]

I'm not sure if anyone has caught this or not, but this link doesn't work. It just goes to this page that says: "Error 404 - Page Not Found
We couldn't find the page you were looking for. Please return to the home page" I'm not sure if it's just my computer/Internet acting up.

But I found another link that works: http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/newsletters/zfkj_hands_on_experience.htm

Thank you kind stranger. About to embark on the challenge!

 

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[leonbenj]

Keep it consistent people! I made it a habit to read and write every day! Its taking me longer than 30 days to complete as I am a slow reader. I'm on 5 of 9 books to read. I recently started copying the 9 ads Gary wanted us to rewrite. I got a question for mma323 and all of you doing the challenge or who have done it:

It's great that many people seem to be following Gary Halbert's advice!

I've been following it for a while as well... I've been copying great ads by hand for the last 594 days... everyday (I've been using Lift to track this - so, here's proof if you're curious/skeptical https://www.lift.do/app/users/ef44961e1c139bedbf84).

I had zero copywriting knowledge before, but now I have a reasonably good foundation for my copywriting skills thanks to this Gary Halbert exercise.

Which ads do you keep on rewriting? We stick strictly of the authors suggested by Gary Halbert? Which are: "Gary Bencivenga, Dan Rosenthal, Joe E. Kennedy, Pat Garrard, Steve Brown, Drew Kaplan, Claude Hopkins, Joe Karbo, Ben Suarez, Joe Sugarman, Gene Schwartz". Are you going over the main ones he suggests over and over? Do we rotate and write different ones every day? Which method is suggested for the handwritten part of the course?

Thanks guys!

 

[MasterT27]

Keep it consistent people! I made it a habit to read and write every day! Its taking me longer than 30 days to complete as I am a slow reader. I'm on 5 of 9 books to read. I recently started copying the 9 ads Gary wanted us to rewrite. I got a question for mma323 and all of you doing the challenge or who have done it:



Which ads do you keep on rewriting? We stick strictly of the authors suggested by Gary Halbert? Which are: "Gary Bencivenga, Dan Rosenthal, Joe E. Kennedy, Pat Garrard, Steve Brown, Drew Kaplan, Claude Hopkins, Joe Karbo, Ben Suarez, Joe Sugarman, Gene Schwartz". Are you going over the main ones he suggests over and over? Do we rotate and write different ones every day? Which method is suggested for the handwritten part of the course?

Thanks guys!

Hey guys,

You might have seen me post a few pages back how I had started the challenge and stuff around 3 months ago.

Well now it's basically completed.

I didn't read all the books twice though, but I'm about to do it now.

Now, here's what I can tell you about the challenges and my results.

I didn't even know WHAT COPYWRITING WAS before the challenge.

Now I can probably say that my skills are better than 95% of others email marketers out there (so what Gary said s true).

For people wondering how to use their skills once they have learned, well believe it or not I heard that direct mail still works and nobody is still doing it.

Otherwise, what I high recommend doing is getting into email marketing.

I started an email newsletter in the dating advice niche and got a few subscribers already thanks to my copywriting skills.

Now for all of you people actually copying the letters by hand, that's alright and it works.

BUT IT'S SLOW AS CRAP.

For me I type around 10x faster than I write, and I copied the letters in an word processor instead.

IT HAS THE SAME EFFECT. It's just that much faster and you can copy a lot more in the same time frame.

You could probably copy one of the letters 10x on a computer than you could do it once on paper and I believe you'd absorb the style of writing much more copying it 10x on an computer than once on paper.

Especially now that in this day and age you are most likely going to write stuff on all computer.

People are asking if they copied more than just the letters recommended by Gary.

To that I would say that the challenge was created back in 1986 or something.

We are now 28 years later.

How many incredible sales letter have been created since then you think?

What I did is I remembered a few sales letter online that were not recommended by Gary, but which I knew mode me dramatically want to buy after reading them .

So I copied those too.

I'll post a few here later on.

Also, I'm subscribed to a ton of email newsletter by master copywriters from 2014 and when I get an email I think is awesome, well I copy that one too a few times.

I was just at an insane email marketing event this weekend (Gary wouldn't even believe if he was still alive) and they said that everyone who has good copywriting skills will be a millionaire.

So keep doing stuff and look into email marketing.

 

[hestati]

I am almost done taking notes from the books and will be writing headlines soon.

Gary knew about computers, but you write copy, do not type it.

Also, do you guys know if we can find video tapes from the seminars Gary is talking about.

Also, except for Boron 2.0... How would you apply this all in modern day and age? Letters basically became emails, but how about mail lists? If I just start emailing a list of 2000 now it is called spam... Adwords only through website?

Also, do you think people are still ready to pay for ink and paper products (digital) or nowadays it is more like "oh, I have internet where I can find it for free".

 

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[jsk29]

I am almost done taking notes from the books and will be writing headlines soon.

Gary knew about computers, but you write copy, do not type it.

Also, do you guys know if we can find video tapes from the seminars Gary is talking about.

Also, except for Boron 2.0... How would you apply this all in modern day and age? Letters basically became emails, but how about mail lists? If I just start emailing a list of 2000 now it is called spam... Adwords only through website?

Also, do you think people are still ready to pay for ink and paper products (digital) or nowadays it is more like "oh, I have internet where I can find it for free".

What Bruce Lee Can Teach Us About Marketing

As you may know, Bruce Lee developed Jeet Kune Do, his martial arts system and life philosophy, around the concepts of "using no way as way" and "having no limitation as limitation."

How on earth does this apply to copywriting?

In my humble opinion, it is the best way to approach copywriting (and life in general) as well.

Jeet Kune Do is not rigid or patterned. The movements are simple, direct, and efficient. Bruce Lee believed in constant adaptation by integrating what is useful in real combat and discarding what is not.

In the same way, we can observe the masters and learn the principles of what makes direct response copywriting work.

There was, are, and will be hundreds of different methods of copywriting (I.e. newspaper, mail, magazine, radio, TV, online, video, curiosity headlines, news headlines, benefit headlines, long form, short form, pictures, no pictures, and on and on...). But the principles behind what makes them work will stand the test of time.

That's enough philosophy. You just want to me to answer your question right?

The truth is there is no single "best" answer. But I'll give you a flexible suggestion based on Gary Halbert's Starving Crowd issue. Here you go.

1. Do some keyword research on markets you're interested in.
   
2. Based on your research (traffic, existing competition, reviews, sales pages, etc.) look for where you can add value and/or solve a problem/need.
   
3. Create a landing page where you give away this solution FREE(!) in exchange for them opting in their e-mail address.
4. Run a test campaign with PPC ads directing to this landing page.
   
5. If the results are positive, create the solution and scale.
   
6. You now have a list of prospective clients whom you can build relationships with and offer back-end products/services to.

The most important step is step one.

I trust you are smart enough to know why the success of this entire plan hinges upon the results of step one (hint: being the first in your market against zero competition isn't always a good thing...).

Also, get creative.

If you feel your product/service is too valuable to give away free, write up free valuable content and offer the product/service to subscribers later on after you've built up credibility.

Or, if you believe the market is truly starving for what you've got, you can make the landing page a direct response sales letter.

Best wishes, and remember -- principles.

P.S. I was originally planning to use this idea for a blog post, but I figured I might as well share it on here to give back some value... and for good karma.

 

[WarWizard]

@MasterT27, you might want to read Mr. Halbert's take on doing everything mechanically here - http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/newsletters/zfkl_first_step.htm

 

[hestati]

I understand the principles and everything. I am wondering how to apply concept of grabbers or "white plain envelop". All these little things

 

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[jsk29]

If you understand the principles, the next step is to use your brain and create your own methods.

What is the principle behind grabbers?

The purpose of a grabber is to grab your reader's attention and lead him/her to read your copy to find out the purpose of the grabber.

Can you think of occasions where something online has grabbed your attention?

What comes to mind for me are: popups, ads with audio, ads with autoplay videos, interesting pictures + captions, infographics, etc. (And as Gary Halbert said, grabbers used incorrectly do more harm than good)

Here's how these guys used a video of one choking the other as a grabber to build a list and generate much cash:

As for the "white plain envelope"? Use your imagination.

I believe you can figure these things out for yourself if you put some thought into it.

 

[hestati]

I disagree on pretty much everything you said, but whatever, that's not the point.

Just wanted to repeat one of my questions: GH seminars, are they still available? Does anyone know?

 

[Deon]

I disagree on pretty much everything you said, but whatever, that's not the point.

Just wanted to repeat one of my questions: GH seminars, are they still available? Does anyone know?

I wish there was an "unlike" button for this reply.

The guy just gave you advice, which is actually correct. And even if it wan't correct, what kind of attitude is that? Nobody owes you anything or is obligated to respond to you, be grateful somebody took the time to type those words out to help.

Some people....

 

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[hestati]

This thread is like GH seminar without GH. So imagine, someone asks a question at the seminar and he gets a reply from one of the guests "I am pretty sure if you think about it you will figure it out", with an attitude. So yeah, I do disagree with his attitude and the content.

 

[jsk29]

1. Seminars require attendees to pay to attend.
2. As you said yourself, grabbers/white envelopes are "little things" and a man who understands the principles (you said "I understand the principles and everything") wouldn't struggle with creating new methods.
3. Either you do not understand the principles, you have no imagination, or you have no desire to put in mental effort. I hope for your sake it's the first because that's the easiest to fix.
4. Gary Halbert was a human being, and no human being is perfect. There some things he said which are now outdated. For example, offering only one method of payment processing on websites (phone orders). There are many things he said which were correct, that his students/colleagues have taken and improved upon via their own unique methods and continuous testing.

As for my attitude, I am only human and the only reason I came across that way is due to the impatience/frustration I feel when observing incongruency (see #2 above).

I'm done here. We both have better things to do than continue arguing.

 

[Simon Ashari]

Gary Halbert was a human being, and no human being is perfect. There some things he said which are now outdated. For example, offering only one method of payment processing on websites (phone orders). There are many things he said which were correct, that his students/colleagues have taken and improved upon via their own unique methods and continuous testing.

Is this true? Cannot imagine how much of a pain it must have been to call in to order compared to buying through paypal (or some other merchant).

 

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[jsk29]

Finally, do NOT let your prospect order online. Only accept TELEPHONE orders. And, only let them call your regular area code number

http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/newsletters/azdedislei_specialreport.html

This is why I feel compelled to stress the importance of principles over methods. Methods evolve as technology and society evolves, but human nature is going to be relatively static for a long time.

 

[hestati]

Is this true? Cannot imagine how much of a pain it must have been to call in to order compared to buying through paypal (or some other merchant).

Yes, he had his own reasons for that. But obviously it does not apply anymore. But hey, if you look at it, the problem of merchant account was never solved, it is still PITA for most of the sellers to deal with merchant account providers. Even here, at this forum, people are constantly complaining about Paypal.

 

[marklov]

SO after jumping to create my "eCommerce" store/s , I realized that I am bad at selling and im not pleased with myself at all....

I started this challenge a few months back but got sidelined because of greed and wanted to make money fast so I took what I thought at the time was important and ditched the rest which is practically 80% of the challenge.

So its no surprise that I am paying for that mistake now because it's starting show.

I decided to close my sites and focus on getting better at selling or maybe get to the point where I can free lance.

To think my decision a few months back could fk me up this much in the future....


I am a week and 3 days into the letters and the second one is a doozy and I honestly don't feel the dots connecting like some sort of "ah.....now I see" moment but I can feel that what I lack is somewhere in there though.

@IceCreamKid and others as well vouch for learning to write good copy ,so throwing a few months at it and see what happens is not too bad of a gamble.

Kick myself daily for being so

 

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[hestati]

I am almost done with the challenge, just gotta copy the headlines and honestly my life changed. All books are great, but the best one is Breakthrough Advertising and GH newsletters.

BTW, I know Gary was writing newsletters until 2004, but I can't find issues past 2000. Does anyone have them?

 

[Forodstar]

So this shall be my first step on to the fast lane.

I like to have the physical copies as these seem like pure gold. A few are on order. However, I am having difficulties sourcing a couple of the books here in the UK especially the earlier editions. Can anyone hook me up with some decent pdfs?

• The Robert Collier Letter Book

• Tested Advertising Methods

• How To Write A Good Advertisement

• The Gary Halbert Letters

• The Boron Letters

• Lazy Man's Way To Riches

• Breakthrough Advertising

• 7 Steps To Freedom

• Scientific Advertising

 

[DeletedUser19]

BTW, I know Gary was writing newsletters until 2004, but I can't find issues past 2000. Does anyone have them?

Here you go.

TheGaryHalbertLetter.com Organized

Scroll down to "Misc - Couldn't Organize These"

And learn how to research. You can't write good copy if you don't do proper research. You could have found this if you searched: 'the gary halbert letter' on google. It comes up second.

 

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[hestati]

I did research more than anyone else. This page has FEW newsletters and they are not arranged in order. I know for a fact that at least two people did arrange almost all newsletters, one of them shared it, but Kevin asked him to take it down. Other person never shared his version. I though lt maybe someone here had a chance to download whole package when it was still available.

 

[Deon]

I did research more than anyone else. This page has FEW newsletters and they are not arranged in order. I know for a fact that at least two people did arrange almost all newsletters, one of them shared it, but Kevin asked him to take it down. Other person never shared his version. I though lt maybe someone here had a chance to download whole package when it was still available.

Well, if you went to the link @Eagleeye posted, and opened your eyes just a little bit... You would see that there's a link in the beginning to a 1000+ page document (200 megabytes), which is complete and in order.