Friday, January 30, 2009

How To Write Ads

By John Anghelache

The late, Gary C. Halbert, is my favorite copywriting mentor. Not only was he ultra-successful but he could teach the art and science of crafting ad copy like nobody's business.

A great lesson Gary taught was how to use winning advertising and business models. Instead of creating your own from scratch. Pretend you decide to write a special report on horse racing.

What should you do?

Should you study weight loss science? Should you spend years doing clinical trials? Should you roam the world looking for the perfect diet plan or diet pill? Well not really. Because there is a much easier way to access the most cutting edge weight loss science, clinical trials and new diet breakthroughs. Without doing all the work yourself. Curious? Then listen to this.

Forget about all that work. It won't pay off any more than taking the easy road. Gary's advice would probably be to acquire all of the best books and report written about horse racing. The hot selling ones. Read them and note all of the exciting little secrets horse racing fans want to know.

Take your notes and write that report on horse racing. And this report will contain the best of the best tips, secrets and tricks that you took out of the books and reports you read. The final result is a valuable report packed with great information horse racing fans will love.

That's the way to do it.

This lesson applies to crafting promotions. You can shortcut the entire process and create great space ads... websites... and... other forms of advertising quickly.

What we're talking about here is referred to as swiping in advertising circles. The process simplifies everything for the ad writer. Halbert was big on swiping. He taught it during a copywriting seminar in the mid 1990's. Almost the entire even was about the process of how to swipe to create your own profitable ads.

Look, if you don't want to become a top notch copywriter and don't have time to learn all the formulas, etc. then swiping is the way to go. All you have do is learn how to do it right.

Learn to swipe and life gets easier when preparing ads...

** You'll eliminate writer's block forever. Because now youll access a starting point for your ads. You wont be guessing at what to write. The swipes reveal exactly what to write in your ads to make them effective and responsive.

** You'll write promotions at warp speed. Swiping allows you to write faster. Again, part of the reason is because you wont have to guess. You can look at a great ad and almost fill in the blanks with your copy.

** The effectiveness of your ad will increase. By using a proven template you boost your chances of writing a winning promotion. That's why using swipes is such a powerful concept.

The moral of the story is: start swiping. - 15485

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