Ryan Healy recently wrote a piece on his blog about not jumping into high-priced "money-making opportunities."
It made me think of an older couple I met at Matt Furey's "Super-Human Marketing" seminar in Florida last October.
They flew over form Europe. They were barely getting by financially. They nearly had a heart attack when they charged the entry fee for this $3,200 seminar on their credit card. $6,400 for both of them. I'm sure there was another $2,000-$3,000 to cover their flight. The hotel was another $800-$1000. Food was a good $300-400 (minimal) -- unless they were like Jeff Paul, who found himself eating crackers with his wife, at a Dan Kennedy conference that he couldn't afford (yet saved him from financial ruin, in the end).
This couple was stuck in a dead end situation back home. They worked long hours, lots of commuting, and no hope of retirement in sight (unless they wanted to live in some very Spartan conditions).
When I spoke to them, they told me they didn't have any products ready to sell. They had no affiliate website up. They had no real experience in copywriting, internet marketing or direct mail.
They had a lot of great ideas and more guts than me.
More guts than me, because they also signed up for the $1,300/month coaching program that was being promoted at that seminar. I believe that was $1,300 for each of them to join. So we're looking at nearly $30,000/year.
After they signed up and gave away their credit card info (again) they retired to their hotel room, in a frenzy of shaking and nervousness.
Did they make the right choice? I won't say. Can't say. Don't know. Too busy figuring out my own life.
But I know I didn't sign up for any $13,000 a year coaching program.
I'd rather get working, use less costly resources, until I can AFFORD the higher priced coaching.
I mean, you should be able to take what you learned from a $3,000 seminar (or even a $300 program like Advertising Magic and earn/create/attract the money you need for the next level. Otherwise, why invest in the next step, before you've proven the first rung on the ladder to be strong enough to support you?
I see this a lot. People who aren't ready for something, entering into it. That's one of the things I respect about Shaune Clarke's coaching program -- he won't accept coaching students who haven't already taken sufficient copywriting courses and/or demonstrate a sufficient degree of copywriting know-how.
You can't by-pass grade one and two, and expect to get anything out of grade three.
I've been studying copywriting for well over two years now. It's gone fast. I took baby-steps at the beginning. Started with purchasing one book off Amazon. It was Bob Bly's Online Copywriter's Handbook.
I won't give you a link, because I'm not too impressed with the book. I don't feel it offers any real direction. It ignores or glosses over many direct-response principles. In the end you sort of get a meandering "report" of the current state of the net. Some good content, but hardly the "definite" copywriters' handbook in my opinion -- with apologies to the esteemed author.
Ryan's suggestion of starting with something under $100 sounds good. Purchasing a classic like Scientific Advertising would be an excellent start. Start where it all began, in other words, with the father of direct-response marketing, Claude Hopkins.
Capture, captivate convert,
John C. A. Manley
P.S. If you haven't listened to last Friday's TGIF audio seminar, where I share an interesting argument for long copy from Gladwell's bestseller "The Tipping Point" click here. |
