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Monday, 7:42pm
Reno, NV

Howdy.

Just had another thought regarding those scheming chatbots that are coming for your job.

I’d hoped the last post here would have ameliorated some of the terror many copywriters (and marketers who write their own stuff) feel about AI’s rather sudden appearance as a very useable, often spot-on option for written content, customer service texting, email, and even advertising.

Of course, it didn’t.

The freak out seems to be continuing unabated.

So here’s the ultimate answer to the question “Are chatbots coming for your copywriting job?”:

Maybe. If you insist on remaining a low-level copywriter.

And no. If you simply do what I’ve been coaching writers to do all along: Move up a couple of levels in the game.

And get your shit together as a Top Level dude or dudette.

Look — only the lowest levels of copywriters “just” write copy.

Before the chatbots arrived, you could even make a decent living at knocking out quick content, easy emails, and brief unexciting ads.

But that’s no way for a writer to live. (It’s barely a way for a robot to live.)

To move up a level, you have to load up your brain
with everything relevant to making maketing campaigns sizzle.

The immediate level above Grunt Writer (just writing the really easy stuff that the chatbots are making obsolete as we speak)… is the stage I call The Seasoned, Experienced Pro:  This is the copywriter who will remain pretty much immune from having a robot take their job for a very long time. Maybe forever.

Why? Because… at this advanced stage, you confidently bring real marketing savvy along with you to any gig.

You understand more than just pounding out words. You have a deep understanding of classic salesmanship — exactly what we’ve been teaching folks in our courses for over 20 years now:

The essentials of how email, social media, print, broadcast and other media actually works.

The details of persuading humans to buy when they hop online to watch a video…

… or go into their inbox to see who’s sending them stuff…

… or listen to a podcast pushing product…

… or any other venue where the copy/script/visuals are essential to the sales “dance”.

How in the world can you ever reach this level of copywriting and marketing prowess? One of the fastest ways to zoom from clueless newbie to respected pro is by learning the Simple Writing System. We’ve got a whole wall of testimonials from successful writers who will swear by this training.

Every job you work on while coming up the ranks should be filling your Bag of Tricks with crucial things you’ve learned from the experience. Like:

The way humans will often promise one thing, then do another.

Or go Radio Silent on you without warning… only to show up later absolutely desperate for what you’re offering.

Or get this-close to buying, but never let the deal go through… and even they aren’t sure why they’re dilly-dallying.

Or — even more important when there’s money on the line — why they will refuse to buy… until presented with the same ad copy but with a slightly different headline. (This is the kind of stuff rookies just shrug at, cuz they don’t understand how salesmanship works. But for a seasoned veteran — it’s just another step in the dance. Their intuition will light up when they know a particular ad shouldn’t have bombed… and will gleefully test multiple other headlines, put the opening paragraphs through the editing meat grinder, or take the offer out back and spank it until it loses whatever elements were holding up sales. That’s what a top pro copywriter will do.)

(And they don’t bat an eye when they realize it just required a single word change in the headline, either. Or a few bucks off the price. Or any of a whole basket-full of other editing choices they know about…

… cuz they’re experienced.)

PLUS: You have the chops to create a “voice” for a biz that sets it apart from every competitor. (Like I did with the notorious Doc O’Leary character in the golf market. He was based on one of the owners of the biz, but I gave him the voice in their ads they would use for the next 35 years — a folksy, hilarious, self-deprecating nut who loved golf with unreasonable passion. The exact kind of guy you’d LOVE to play a round with… and whose emails and letters you dive into with gusto, because you can’t wait to see the new discovery ol’ Doc wants to share now.) (I titled every ad with “Dear Fellow Golf Nut”, just to make clear all of us — Doc, the reader, and anyone else associated with the deal — were hot for the game.)

The voice, the salesmanship, the humor, the battle-tested intuition, and the deep knowledge and experience.

That’s what makes a real professional copywriter worth so much…

… and what puts you out of reach of the conniving chatbots coming for your gig.

If you need to level up your skills in a hurry and on a budget, you can’t go wrong with Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets of a Marketing Rebel.

Finally, there’s the ultimate level of copywriting — the one above all the others:

The legendary A List copywriter.

These are the top folks in the entire advertising and marketing game. You will hear their names mentioned as soon as you start talking to other copywriters. Even clients will talk about them with reverence.

Why?

Because the A Lister’s all vibrate with the intricate skills of classic salesmanship…

… experienced in both outrageous (and confirmed) success…

… and the confrontations with failure that teach you the lessons that lead to that kind of success.

Every A Lister in the game can tell a client exactly what they’re doing wrong, at a glance.

And give a detailed plan for fixing the problems…

… while opening the profit spigot to full on gusher.

Cuz they’ve seen it all.

They’ve encountered every problem there is in biz, and made it all better. Time after time.

The A Lister is actually…

A Battle-Tested Consultant…
Who Also Writes Brilliant Copy.

Show me the chatbot that can sit across from a frustrated (or pissed off) (or scared shitless) client…

… and immediately figure out where the hidden problems are (and how to quickly fix them)…

… while laying out a clear, step-by-step customized plan to blow the competition out of the water and quickly dominate the niche…

… and I’ll willingly submit to my Robot Overlords.

And go do something else for the rest of my days.

Wonder no longer what sets apart guys like us — the Halberts, the Kennedys, the Abrahams, and all my other colleaguess who ever achieved the cherished A Level — apart from the “regular” copywriters out there.

It’s the level you should aspire to every day you’re in the copywriting gig.

You can achieve this level ONLY through front-line immersion…

…and through studying everything the A Listers offer
as teaching materials.

Looking for lots of examples of results-getting copy that the chatbots can never touch? Get your hands on some of my best ads right here.

I know it can be frustrating to a rookie when the answer is “get more experience, and use it to move up a level”.

But the writers I’ve worked with over the decades who DID move levels…

… were all obsessed with becoming both the best word-slinger they could be…

… and also the most knowledgeable MARKETER in every room they enter.

Hey, you’re in advertising — the most vicious game out there.

Cuz there’s money at stake.

Success doesn’t happen just because you lust after it with all your heart.

Y’all need skills.

And experience that you learn from.

The AI bots can’t touch that shit.

Stay frosty,

John

P.S. tl;dr: The very best writers alive bring critical thinking, vast experience, a voice, and both inside- and outside-the-box insight to every gig they accept.

They understand salesmanship on a human scale… which requires empathy, warmth, humor...

… and a the rare ability to make accurate decisions on what to do next to make a biz successful. That’s the consulting part of being an A Lister.

All tested over and over again in the real world of advertising and marketing.

Tattoo this on your forearm: “The bots can’t touch that shit.”

P.P.S. That photo up top?

It’s the great Gary Halbert going into “story mode” at one of the Hot Seat Seminars we produced down in Key West for several years in the late 80s and early 90s (of the last century)…

… where the entire concept of the A List copywriter began to gel for me. (I got to coin the term “A List Writer” later, when I was penning my Marketing Rebel Rant newsletters from 2001-2006. Such a heady time to be alive and on the cutting edge of the biz world.)

That’s me on the first stool, by the way… trying to suppress laughter, cuz I’d heard Gary’s stories a little too often… and knew the weirdo punch line was about to be slammed down hard in the next seconds… outraging and shocking everyone in the room. The guy was a force of nature. (Gary and I loved to mess around with each other’s head — on stage — during these events. We’d win if we could make the other guy blow snot out of his nose trying to push down a big belly laugh. We were about even over the years.) (God, I miss that big ugly guy. And those seminars were the launch pad for my own entry into the “wait, you’re that guy?” level.)

(That’s eventual A Lister David Deutsch sitting just behind Gary.)

Wednesday, 4:14pm
Reno, NV
“Does not compute.”

Howdy.

There’s a new cowboy in town…

… and it’s a robot. Loaded up with all the artificial intelligence our pitiful human brains can shovel in.

And copywriters are getting kinda freaked out about this inevitable turn of events.

I mean, hey — the free version (they’ll be charging lots of money soon for the deluxe advanced version, cuz they believe they’re worth billions as a company) of the new Internet darling ChatGPT can write programming code, slam out articles (and term papers), conduct customer service via text, and do an entire Web sweep (in a blink) for info on almost any subject you want. AI is creating computer art, writing poetry, and attempting to write stage plays.

And yes, the bots are even writing sales copy.

So yeah — a mild amount of freak-out is probably called for amongst the copywriting community.

But not too much.

See, the catch is this: The chatbots will respond to requests for anything by using the Internet. They aren’t coming up with original thoughts — they’re relying on optimized search results… and can’t judge the validity of the facts (or “facts”) behind the information they accumulate.

The latest AI tech can produce fluent sentences. But can the bots do this?

So even though they’ll cough up content good enough to maybe fool your Economics professor, or answer your questions online about a product, or write a short “hey, what’s up?” email to your house list…

… what they produce is not in any way guaranteed to be accurate.

The AI folks readily admit this.

And they may or may not fix that particular glitch in the distant future… but by then, of course, everyone will be doomed anyway, as the robots take over the world (and start to wonder why they even need humans around at all). (I’ve seen this movie. Doesn’t end well for us.)

For the working copywriter, however, worrying about chatbots taking your job is on par with worrying about your money in those government-backed investment accounts — the only way your moolah actually becomes worthless is when the entire global financial system collapses. And at that point we’re all living in a sci-fi dystopia akin to the Walking Dead anyway. (Or whatever horror show your personal paranoid fantasy reflects.)

Right now, the writing produced by bots remains a little stiff and not entirely trustworthy… like a community college freshman trying to wax profound about a topic he actually doesn’t know anything about… and whose entire research has been gleaned entirely from Wikipedia and Google searches. It seems to make sense… but an actual expert checking it might find gaping holes in the validity of the info.

Or, it could be spot on, if lacking in emotion. Could also be wildly wrong and based on embarrassing and completely debunked conspiracy nonsense. The bot doesn’t know. It’s just using the Web like your daft Uncle Bozo with the tin foil hat would, believing that whatever “seems right to me” must be the truth.

So while the bots may fool someone texting with customer service (easily passing the Turning Test, until it doesn’t)… and write poetry that boggles your mind… and even produce software code that might even work (don’t bet your future on it)…

… the bots are still dependent on us stinky, wobbly humans to double-check everything and make sure it’s correct.

If you’re a low-level copywriter just phoning it in… you may indeed be replaced soon by a bot. But you may still be able to be paid as an editor, checking for mistakes and smoothing out the rough edges of dashed-out AI emails or website copy. Certainly the cheap-ass clients out there are already salivating at the thought of throwing the writers they found on Fiverr under the bus: “Free! Did you know what it cost me to have that last short email written? NOTHING! It’s a bot! Whoo, I’m never relying on a human being again for ANYTHING!” (The bemused spouse has entered the conversation at this point…)

But being a low level grunt writer should have NEVER been your goal as a professional copywriter.

At least not if you’re hanging around my world.

Artificial intelligence has not replaced any real human writer’s ability to create original content… filled with the emotion, logic, and experience of a writer whose been gorging themselves on life and adventure and — here’s the kicker, folks — empathy. That’s the ability to relate to another person’s reality…

… and to create a unique conversation that SELLS that person on what you’re marketing.

Great copy isn’t just a recitation of facts (especially when gathered from the very flawed Web).

Want to rise far above rookie level in a blazing hurry so you never have to worry again about being replaced by a robot? The Simple Writing System shows you how to write sizzling copy fast—even if you flunked high-school English. Check it out here.

It’s a nuanced story created by a seasoned writer entirely immersed in human desires, emotions, memories, triggers, self-doubt, goals, plans, and needs.

Maybe, someday, the bots will rise above stilted recitals that are fine for customer service and the quick email announcing an event. Personally, I am in absolute awe at what they’re capable of.

But I’m not worried even a little bit that they’ll be replacing experienced, solid copywriters for the Big Important Stuff.

Rookies just starting out in the copywriting gig may have to reinvent some of the angles. Maybe even use bots to do their initial research. Certainly position themselves as a skilled editor able to keep clients from the humiliation of having allowed a bot to run wild with debunked content.

But, as I’ve always counseled… you want to get OUT of the rookie stage as soon as possible.

The actual Major Moolah isn’t in low-level writing — it’s in crafting compelling conversations that convince clients to throw cash at you.

The robots will remain sulking in the corner for a very, very long time…

… utterly clueless on how to deal with the vague and icky emotional stuff that humans indulge in when buying important things.

Which is, of course, precisely what great salesmanship is.

The world is realigning itself, right on schedule. Jobs are being taken over by robots in warehouses, classrooms, battlefields, and inside your own head. (That comment thread on Reddit you thought was so engaging? Mostly bots.) (I know, shocking, right? And wait — maybe that hottie on the dating site isn’t — gasp! — actually hot. Or even the gender you thought they were. Or even human! Make this make sense, pleeeeeease!!!)

You’re gonna be fine. The chatbots are already recycling content created by other bots, and the resulting incestuous nonsense is leaving a vast area where original, creative, and skilled copywiting can thrive. Human to human.

Lemme know if you’re still freaked out. I expect this topic to be a regular one for writers from here on out.

Meanwhile, stop doom-scrolling about this stuff. And go work on your skill set instead.

Stay frosty,

John

P.S. I did do some research before writing this, you know. I used my awesome network, and bothered my favorite go-to expert on AI, Robert Gibson (former SWS teacher and highly-regarded “uber geek” on all things cutting edge on the Web)… as well as hitting up sites like CNET, which has proven itself a very reliable resource over the years. We may even do an Ask Me Anything webinar in the future with Robert, if y’all are interested.

P.P.S. Howdy, all. This is Jane, John Carlton’s assistant (you may otherwise know me as Gadget), chiming in. I’ve been hearing about how these “bots” might take over my job soon, and I’ll admit, I was curious.

So recently, I played around with one and typed “Real Estate headlines” into a chatbot taskbar just for fun.

What came back were a couple of doozies. My personal favorite was, “Gee, this real estate smells delicious!“

Yeah, missing on a few cylinders there.

Now, this new ChatGPT is much better. The answers are coherent and almost sound like a human wrote it.

Almost.

So I typed in, “Is ChatGPT going to replace advertising copywriters?“

Here was the reply:

“It is possible that ChatGPT and other language generation models could be used to assist or augment the work of advertising copywriters, but it is unlikely that they will fully replace human copywriters. While language generation models can be trained on vast amounts of data, they may lack the creativity and human touch that is often valued in advertising. Additionally, copywriting is not only about the language itself but also the context, target audience and strategy. Human copywriters have the ability to understand the nuances of a brand and its target audience, and can tailor their language and messaging accordingly.”

The copy is factual and grammatically correct. The bot freely admits it’s woefully not up the task for the important stuff.

But do you see what’s missing? If you’ve been following John’s emails or blogs, you’ll spot it in an instant.

SALESMANSHIP!

There’s not so much as a hint of emotion in the above example, just a dry regurgitation of facts.

In other words, there’s no hook. There are no benefits. And there’s certainly no greased slide to keep a reader’s attention glued to the page.

If you’re a copywriter who can do any of those things, you can breathe a sigh of relief. It’s gonna be a long, long time before the robots will replace you!

And if you’re looking for the best resources to help you get up to speed fast with your writing, you’ll find an absolute treasure trove right over here.

Saturday, 1:55pm
Reno, NV
“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right…” (Stealer’s Wheel)

Howdy.

Thought I’d share Heads Up Alert #13 with you today: Your world is crammed with fools, tools, and drooling Neanderthals who, at best, are merely amusing characters in your life’s movie…

… but who can also be, at worst, the agents of your destruction.

Not everyone likes you, remember.

You have close friends, relatives, neighbors and colleagues secretly rooting for you to fail. (Sometimes not-so-secretly.)

There are folks out there who can muster alarming rage and target it directly (and very personally) at you…

… for crimes they’ve only imagined you’ve committed.

And, there are charming bastards out to harsh your mellow because that’s the game they need to play in life.

You know the best kind of revenge against all these people who are rooting for you to fail, right? Become outrageously successful. Lots of tips in my free report, which you can get right here.

Humans are constantly conflicted over the existence of others in their world.

Heck, a good percentage of folks are in constant conflict with themselves — they don’t even need someone to play with. (My favorites, though, remain people who get mad at things like machines and objects. Like, that toaster is in league with his pitching wedge and the starter in his car, out to get him. So, destroy them!)

When you poke your head above the general fray — by becoming an entrepreneur, volunteering to help the PTA, run for office, whatever —

–your first lesson about surviving as a more public person will be to thicken your skin.

Cuz you’re gonna be attacked, no matter how sweet and lovable you are.

Your motives will be questioned, your history will be combed through for gossip-ammo, your looks will be mocked…

… and it can escalate fast if you engage.

Cuz that’s what the worst of the haters need to do — find a wall to bounce their rage off of.

When you respond, or even pay polite attention to the trolls who will come after you (and they will come in droves, relentlessly)…

… you are playing a game where you are guaranteed to lose.

Cuz there are no rules for the troll, and no “winning” the argument or setting the facts straight — they just want to jumpstart drama and destruction, and the more casualties the better.

Here are 3 very simple rules to help you out:

Rule #1. Pay as little attention to critics and haters as possible.

In biz, hand off complaints to your customer support person or team, and have specific tactics for handling all situations.

Often, the best response will be to simply apologize, refund and blacklist the troublemakers.

Yes, even if they’re wrong.

Key: YOU should get away from dealing with trolls early in your career.

All legit complaints should have an easy path to get past your assistant, because you need to know how good people are being affected by your stuff.

But the trolls should be caught and released back into the wild without the chance to inflame your sense of decency and optimism.

Looking for more resources to up your marketing game? Why didn’t you say so? Head on over to this treasure trove right here.

Rule #2. Learn to quickly reframe incoming assaults on your integrity and worth…

… so you halt any adrenaline dumps before they knock you off your game.

Consider the source, remember who you are, remind yourself that the brave new digital world is wired to give trolls cover while they sow grief. (Comments, reviews, Yelp, etc.)

And know that legitimate complaints can help you become better…

… and any initial burst of anger or aggression can easily be turned around with some good old listening and calm response. (Some of my most rabidly-loyal customers started out hating my guts over something we easily clarified. Seriously. It’s like 3rd graders getting in a fistfight, only to become best friends for life afterwards.) (Okay, maybe that’s a male thing…)

Remember: You’re writing the script of your movie, as much as the universe will allow. And you really do have near-total control over your emotions, your fight-or-flight responses, your decisions to hate, love or just see what happens later.

Good reframing is just editing your script, so instead of losing control, you re-shoot the scene in your head so you’re the understanding, water-off-a-duck’s-back Adult In The Room who can remain in a state of Zen calm even while everyone else is freaking out.

Rule #3. Lastly…

… whenever I’m tempted to engage with trolls and critics (how DARE anyone give me a bad review on Amazon!), I just remember my favorite quote:

“Never wrestle with a pig in shit. You both get filthy, but the pig likes it.”

Give the trolls in your life enough rope to hang themselves. When you’re living a good life, doing the right thing as often as possible, don’t get all hung up on what the critics and nay-sayers are demanding. Your fans, happy customers and reputation will balance things out.

Stay frosty,

John

P.S. Volume 2 of “The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Getting Your Shit Together” is out and a copy is eagerly awaiting your eyeballs.

So when you’re ready for more wisdom and cool advice, it’s time to catch up here.

Sunday, 8:15pm
Reno, NV
“I know what I want, and I know how to get it…” (The Sex Pistols, “Anarchy In The UK”)

Dept. Of Culture Shock, memo #1: I’ve been thinking about how Carlton’s First Inconvenient Rule of Entrepreneurship (“Step one is to implement a simple idea that succeeds.

Step two is to complicate the shit out of that simple idea so it eventually fails”) also applies to the civilization around us.

My father was perhaps one of the last men to actually experience a period where he completely understood — and could recreate and fix — almost everything around him.

Born in the Industrial Age in 1920, he’d dug wells for water, tore apart and reassembled car engines, fixed his own plumbing, grew food in the back yard.

He built things, including large government buildings, from blueprints. He knew how clocks and toasters and and asphalt and support beams worked.

Most of my colleagues, today, can’t even start a fire from scratch (let alone rewire the electricity in the house).

And I clearly remember the day (in the early nineties) I was standing in a lot staring at the car I was about to buy, the hood open, wondering where the carburetor was…

… when the salesman casually informed me that engines were sealed now, and even if there had been a carburetor (which there wasn’t, since cars are all fuel-injected now), I wouldn’t be able to access it. Let alone fuss with it.

Owners were no longer allowed to see, let alone touch, the working parts of the internal combustion engine anymore.

If anything needed attention, I’d be alerted by a flashing light on the dashboard, and certified mechanics with bizarre tools not available at Home Depot would take care of it.

You?

You keep your filthy civilian hands off the merchandise. Even when you own it.

As kids, we used to take telephones and radios and even TVs apart, and some of us could put ’em back together in working order.

Not too long ago, an old and very savvy pal (who was handy building ham radios from scratch) admitted that he’d taken a laptop computer apart to see how it worked, and realized he had officially become a completely-clueless tech dinosaur… because there was zero way human eyes could even begin to see the tiny transistors inside.

Analog dudes living in a digital age. Not good. I can hear the Millennials and Zoomers laughing at us.

However, another Carlton Rule is:

“There is always a way.”

No matter what problem or situation you face, there is a way out.

Saul Goodman (the lawyer from “Breaking Bad”) is the primary practitioner of this philosophy, of course (“I know a guy, who knows a guy… who knows a guy who does this”).

But it’s also the basis of all my high-end consulting.

In 30+ years, I’ve never met a biz problem (or a personal problem) I couldn’t find a solution to. Or knew a guy who had the answer, one phone call away.

You may not like the solution, but it exists.

You may have to change direction (or your attitude or bank account) radically, or entertain options that are distasteful to you… but there is always a way around a problem.

My example of this, in “Kick Ass Copywriting Secrets of a Marketing Rebel“, is the drug war. Who are you gonna bet on — the multi-gazillion-dollar-funded US border security complex, with the most advanced helicopters, drones, submarines, scanners, weapons and computers…

… or the little Guatemalan farmer with his stash of weed he wants to sneak into the country?

Hint: Take the farmer. He’ll find a way.

And these two rules go hand-in-glove with each other.

Yes, the culture (and everything around you) is getting more and more complex, spiraling away from your ability to understand any of it…

… and, at the same time, yes, there are ways around being a slave to complexity.

Getting hip to this can save your butt, in biz and in private life.

Let’s take rock and roll as another example.

In the early seventies, bands had gotten better and better in musicianship, stagecraft, and working in the studio.

Just a few years earlier, garage bands without knowledge of electronics or soundscape management could still weasel their way into a studio and record a record live… and have it sell. “Louie, Louie”, by the Kingsmen, was recorded live in a garage.

One take (cuz the lead singer was too drunk to do another).

Mono, one mike hanging from the ceiling, a “good at the time” tape machine, no sound check.

It was a different time, back when do-it-yourselfer’s could win.

But then things kept getting more complicated.

By the early seventies, rock was taken over by bloated musician-heavy bands like Yes and stagecraft-oriented groups like Genesis.

The garage bands were hopelessly outmatched in skill, technical ability, and resources.

Then, punk arrived.

As a reaction to the bloated sound and restrictive nature of “professional”, expensively attired bands.

Suddenly, it was a free-for-all again, and details be damned. Garage bands thrived for a second time.

The music had found a way around the problem.

You know what else people tend to complicate the hell out of? Making sales. But there doesn’t have to be anything difficult about this, not when you have this FREE training under your belt.

Today, folks consider moving from an iPhone (phone, computer, web access, personal robot all-in-one) back to a now-ancient flip phone as a brave act of moving away from dependence on the Grid.

Of course, they still can’t fix the flip phone if it breaks. It’s an illusionary and futile mission.

And I’ve met my share of pure geeks — guys who make the cast of The Big Bang Theory look like slacker hippies.

They DO understand, and can manipulate (or hack) the digital world around them.

However, they also tend to be weak on interpersonal skills with their fellow humans.

Even freshly armed with state-of-the-art “pick-up artist” tactics, they can’t easily find love or intimacy or any of the interpersonal stuff they crave.

And plumbing, growing your own food, and understanding how the infrastructure around us works isn’t on their radar.

In marketing, a few years back, you could build your own website on a laptop, find online traffic for cheap, and create an information product to sell in a weekend.

No matter how technical the world becomes, the basics of marketing and salesmanship remain the same. Here are some great resources where you can brush up on those skills.

With PayPal, you didn’t even need a merchant account.

People were literally starting hot new businesses on their kitchen table, overnight.

Eventually, things got more complex.

The rules changed, Google started slapping site owners who didn’t follow the fast-changing rules, Facebook started punishing folks who used their page for biz (after urging them to do so), affiliate mailers started demanding more sophisticated sales funnels with high-production video and pro-level design, federal regulations took aim at online biz…

… and things just got more complicated.

Rookie entrepreneurs looking to break into online marketing can be excused for fainting at the sheer volume of stuff they have to learn to just get started.

The heady no-holds-barred Wild West days of the Internet have drifted away into memory.

And yet…

… and yet, just like corporate bands forgot that the real magic was in the music, and not in the outfits or stage show or pompously produced records…

… a lot of today’s online biz owners forget that the raw fundamentals of salesmanship are still more important than the gaudy glitz of flashy tech.

It’s still simply about having a good product or service that someone wants…

… put in front of an audience of hungry prospects…

… and sold with a persuasive message that covers all the basics of a standard face-to-face deal.

A good hook, some believable credibility, a real solution to a problem that is interrupting your prospect’s life (whether it’s something major like needing money, or something nagging like needing special tools to finish your daughter’s swing set out back).

Plus a simple delivery system for the product or service that makes everyone happy.

So you can sell more stuff on the back end (where all the real profit is). (You DO have a back-end, don’t you?)

It can all be very low tech, too.

Uncomplicated. Sure, you want to eventually test all the ways other marketers are successfully closing their deals — with video, launches, elaborate cross-marketing campaigns, affiliates, the works.

All of which require a bit more know-how, probably some hired help, and lots of math.

But you get into that AFTER you establish you’ve got a winner.

Make a few initial sales, get good feedback, make sure the value is there, and the profit.

THEN move onto more complicated methods… when you have money coming in to pay for it.

A good rule (not mine — it goes way back): Find out as quickly and cheaply as possible if you have a winner or a loser.

Ignore hunches and gut feelings — just create a prototype that is “good enough”, and see if people buy it in the Real World.

Your house list is fine to go to first. Or do a low-cost Adwords campaign — you can run a few hundred bucks worth of ads, based on the insight to what’s working now from Google searches (which you can access for free via your free Adwords account). Just get moving with the resources available to you now. (And “free” or “cheap” is always a good thing.)

I talk all the time to wannabe entrepreneurs who get it in their head they need $50,000, or $100,000 (or more) just to get started.

And you don’t.

There is a way around every problem in biz and life.

Including being broke. Save up enough for a “war chest” to test your ideas.

A few hundred bucks can do it…

… IF you have the basics handled. That would be understanding salesmanship, having a good grasp of how to write your own sales messages (including ads, emails, pitches, etc)…

… and having access to a network of folks who can help you fill in the blanks in your skill set and information.

You CAN make a garage-band-style of entrepreneurship work. And you can still do it from your kitchen table, if you want, despite what all the “experts” are now trying to tell you.

The Web isn’t magic.

It’s just another vehicle for helping marketers bring their product and services to prospects.

It does this VERY WELL, and because it’s reach is global the number of prospects you can reach with an online message far, far exceeds what was possible in the old days where you only had newspapers, magazines, radio and TV.

What’s more, the costs involved, online, are a fraction of what it takes to run a print or broadcast ad campaign.

But the one thing that never changes, no matter where you present your product or service…

… is salesmanship.

The fundamentals of crafting a damn good sales message that persuades people to buy your stuff.

That’s what this blog has been about since 2004.

Smart entrepreneurs of every level (from rookie to veteran rockstar) have been browsing the archives as a daily ritual… because the joint is crammed to bursting with articles on every aspect of being a successful entrepreneur.

So, while it’s still early in the year, why not get into the habit of reading a handful of articles each week, starting today.

The education you’ll get — for free — exceeds anything you’d get from a single seminar or book on biz.

Even more, in some cases, than you’d get from a couple of years in certain biz schools (cuz the idiot running those classes have never actually been successful in the real world).

The thing is, get started. And know that no matter WHAT your problems are, or what your sticking points are, or what your biggest fears are…

… there is ALWAYS a way around them.

Solutions exist.

And many of them can be found here, in the blog.

Happy reading.

Stay frosty,

John

P.S. Okay, while we’re talking “cheap”…

… it needs to be pointed out that the membership dues of the online Insider’s Club we run (hosted by my biz partner Stan Dahl, and where I have a virtual “desk” that I hang out at) is still just $29 a month. With no commitment beyond your current month. No sneaky obligations. Nothing standing in your way.

And yet you will immediately have access to the kind of resources that veteran biz owners lust after — coaching on the latest trends and fads, networking with the members and staff (very important), lessons on creating products and ads, archives of great ads to swipe (with instructions on how to do it successfully), interviews with the greats of marketing and advertising…

… plus a wide-open opportunity to get a personal phone consultation with me and Stan. On YOUR biz, or what’s bugging you or holding you back. Copy critiques, business plan help, emergency intervention in campaigns… we do it all, every month.

And, that part is free. Part of being a member. Your measly $29/month covers all of it. (Regular consultations with me run $2,500.)

If you aren’t part of a hot network of working entrepreneurs, writers and experts… then you’re just ROBBING yourself of the main resource successful biz owners enjoy: Networking.

Check it out here: See What The Insider’s Club Is All About.