By: Robert Stover

Want to start writing better copy – instantly? Then perhaps you need to throw out your computer and pick up a pen. This insight comes from writing teacher Shari Wilson. She noticed that her student’s writing transitions,  flow and idea sequencing was better on handwritten in-class essays over those they worked on outside of class [...]

As some of you know, I’ve been hot on the trail of copy examples from Frank Irving Fletcher – probably the highest paid copywriter in the last 100 years. This example of his copy selling a $1000 (in 1920′s dollars – probably $10,000 today) caracul (sheep) coat is one of the finest examples of copy [...]

Ed Mclean in his book “The Basics of Copy” gives his insight about when you are ready to actually sit down and start writing the copy… “You know your reader so well you can almost see her. You know your product so throughly you could get up right now and deliver a half hour talk [...]

This morning in my email in-box were emails from top copywriters Drayton Bird, Doug D’anna and Clayton Makepeace. On my hard-drive is a virtual swipefile of hundreds of proven ads and sales letters. I’ve got a little window on my web browser that opens up 150 years of proven ads and headlines and marketing approaches [...]

Bob Bly recently released a new version of Claude Hopkin’s classic “Tested Advertising”. In it, he includes the Lord & Thomas creed. Creed #38 is on “Skeptics.” The first line reads.. “We are dealing with a world of skeptics.” My first thought was, “Wow. If they thought people were skeptical in the late 1920′s, you [...]

Over 20 years ago now, I was in a round table discussion debating the colleges restraints on creativity in regard to skits. There were tight “moral” guidelines and each skit had to be performed and “checked” by a member of the faculty. One member of the panel was describing what a terrible constraint this was [...]

Fact: The most important element of the headline is the core appeal. Second comes the way that appeal is expressed. Twice now in the last 3 months I’ve worked with my clients to shatter previous results by combining the two highest testing core appeals into a single headline. The result isn’t just (1+1 = 2). [...]

I’ve seen it again… The world’s worst headline. I’ve been seeing this menace rear it’s head now for 18 years. This virus-like headline must have been designed in a top secret, “Black” laboratory to kill the sales of a very specific class of business person: The Local Retailer. I think that if any business person [...]

Want an unfair advantage over the competitors you are advising against? Then stop selling your product or discounts and start selling “ideas”. What does that mean? I’ve just loaded up a short course examing the ads of Frank Irving Fletcher. Fletcher was earning $200,000 a year as a freelance ad writer in the late 20′s. [...]