Page 145 - 597 Business Ideas You can Start from Home - doing what you LOVE! (Beginner Internet Marketing Series)

114 The Seven Lost Secrets of Success

sale, to finish the persuasion; but these six paragraphs
pave the way to lock somebody in to read this entire let-
ter. And as I pointed out, there are people who read this
letter today who go online looking for Berea College,
which is still around, wanting to give money because of
this sales letter. That’s how powerful it is.

Craig: Another thing: In traditional copywriting a lot of
advice says that you start out with a promise. You open
up with a problem. You say something very direct that
will give your reader an indication of “what’s in it for
me.” And I want to again underscore that that’s not
really explicit here. Everything is indirect. Two things
about that: First of all, his audience that he was gearing
toward were very successful men and they had a lot of
money and so on. He’s not going to talk to them about
how they can make more money.

Looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, he’s not
going to talk to them about how they can meet some of
the lower needs. He’s talking about self-actualization
and how to have them contribute and do things like
that. It’s a more high-minded type of need that they do
feel because it’s what’s missing at their level. So, he’s
writing at their level but he also knows, probably being
a successful man himself, that they are also pitched a lot
and asked for money.

Joe: I’m glad you said that.

Craig: So, he’s doing this, and we don’t know what
he’s asking for yet. We’ve already had all these levels
of meaning given and now the background, the story,
is coming, but he hasn’t asked for anything yet. And
it’s all indirect and I think that is a wonderful example