5 Copywriting “Gold Nuggets” I’ve Learned from Breaking Down 50 Proven Sales Letters in 50 Days 💰

On Jan 11th, 2021, I made a vow:

I’m going to hand-copy proven sales letters written by the titans of direct response…

From OG copywriters like John Caples, Victor Schwab, Eugene Schwartz, or Gary Halbert…

To more recent superstars like Gary Bencivenga, John Carlton, Parris Lampropoulos, or David Deutsch...

And I’m going to reverse-engineer some of their BEST stuff to figure out WHY they work.

Even better, I’m going to document my entire learning process through DAILY YouTube videos…

So that I don’t just “passively” consume all this information…

But instead I actively “re-create” the sales argument behind these timeless pieces of copy.

My target?

Do this EVERY. SINGLE. DAY… no matter what... until I reach Day #90!

(with Sundays off because I’m still human and need rest -- however, I’d still fill these retroactively)

Well, I’m happy to share that - as of writing this - I’m on Day #51 and still going strong 💪

Here are 5 cool things that I’ve learned during my journey:

✅ 1️ - CLARITY TRUMPS “CLEVER” EVERY SINGLE TIME

It true.

People don’t want to spend time “deciphering” your carefully-crafted “funny” headline.

They want to see how they can benefit from reading your copy immediately.

No beating around the bush.

No throat clearing.

No setting up jokes that need cognitive power to understand.

Instead - as Evaldo Albuquerque would say:

“Show them a NEW OPPORTUNITY that’s the key to THEIR DESIRE and that’s only available through my UNIQUE MECHANISM”

...explained as clearly as possible.

Every single proven sales letter I’ve looked at in the past 50 days has this dialed in, in some shape or form.

Here’s an example, written by none other than Gary Halbert, a.k.a. “The Prince of Print”

“Amazing New Formula From Beverly Hills Lets You Look Years Younger”

Or another one, written by Eugene Schwartz:

“How Modern Chinese Medicine Helps Burn Disease Out Of Your Body… Lying Flat on Your Back, Using Nothing More Than the Palm of Your Hand!”

✅ 2 - GOOD HEADLINES REALLY DO ACCOUNT FOR 80% OF A PROMO’S SUCCESS

Probably the first copywriting lesson most people learn is that headlines are really freakin’ important.

If your headline doesn’t immediately grab your reader’s attention…

If it doesn’t “shock people out of their half-asleep, zombie state”, as John Carlton would say…

You’re going to lose readers for good.

There are NO second chances.

So naturally, we all tend to invest a lot of effort into coming up with a strong headline, so that we can all reap those sweet copywriting riches!

Sound good - in theory…

However, after analyzing some of the best headlines ever written…

I’ve realized that probably 95% of copywriters still don’t spend enough time chiseling away at an amazing headline

(AND coming up with 2-3 alternative ones to A/B test)

As a result, those promotions often bomb… even though they might be super solid otherwise.

Look, it takes TONS of effort to come up with something like:

• “Twelve Smiling Swindlers...” (Eric Betuel)
• “What Never to Eat on an Airplane...” (Mel Martin)
• “Get Rich Slowly...” (Gary Bencivenga)
• “Read This or Die...” (Jim Rutz)
• Or the super-famous “They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano… But When I Started to Play...” (John Caples)

...But that’s OK because the results will also be exponentially better!

Regardless of how much time, energy, and effort you put into a headline…

Just make sure that it’s at least:

• Clear
• Compelling
• Credible
• And hints at a Transformation.

✅ 3 - HAND-COPYING IS “OVERRATED”

Now, before you immediately object with something like:

“But I thought hand-copying sales letters is one of the best ways to learn copy!”

Let me explain…

Hand-copying sales letters is a great way to get a deeper look inside the minds of master copywriters…

Problem is...

It’s slow and has a deceptively big “opportunity cost”.

What do I mean by this?

Simple: when you’re hand-copying sales letters for extended periods, it’s very easy to “phase out”.

To switch into this weird autonomous mode during which you’re kind of in a trance.

You STOP thinking about analyzing copy…

And you START experiencing all sorts of random invasive thoughts instead.

What I’ve found is that - in many cases - I simply “phased out” and hand-copied things without actually THINKING about them.

The entire process became a passive thing!

And after asking a few people about their own hand-copying experience, many have said the same thing:

They struggled to keep focus… and they often started thinking about random things.

Even worse, the rate at which you can absorb information through hand-copying is limited because the act of handwriting itself is a slow process.

Think about it… when was the last time you hand-wrote multiple pages for hours?...

Probably quite a long ago...

And most people are super inefficient at it.

So here’s what I’ve discovered:

🤔 It isn’t necessarily the act of hand-copying itself that “magically imprints copywriting into your brain”...

Instead, it’s the fact that you’re concentrating on a SINGLE thing, while in a flow state, without distractions.

In other words, hand-copying kind of FORCES you to absorb copywriting knowledge because you can’t really do anything ELSE during that time.

The thing is…

I’ve found that - for me, at least - marking up certain parts of a sales letter and leaving comments while reading it helped me absorb MUCH more information…

And I could do it way quicker…

Which meant that I had more time to also shoot/edit/upload/promote the daily YouTube videos.

Now, since we all have a limited time each day to focus on things like this (without neglecting other parts of our business)...

I’ve found that this version was a much better copywriting accelerator (wink) than just hand-copying.

So after about 20 days, I stopped hand-copying my daily assignments… and started focusing more on the “reverse-engineering” aspect…

With markups, comments, and deeper analyses - instead of just passively hand-copying.

Plus, there are certain 40+ page sales letters that I definitely wanted to break down…

But that would take AGES to hand-copy.

Anyway, this brings me to my next point...

✅ 4 - IN ORDER TO SEE PROGRESS, YOU GOTTA LET GO OF PERFECTIONISM

Ok, not entirely related to copywriting but still super important...

When I started my YouTube channel about 2 years ago, I spent waaay too much time editing my videos.

I wanted to make sure that they look “professional” and have perfect cuts and flashy video effects.

The result?

Spending waaay too much time on individual video projects… without a meaningful spike in viewership.

I tried adding more effects. I tried playing around with length. And I tried better thumbnails.

And while these DID affect video performance…

The difference wasn’t that big, to be honest.

But the difference in my upload schedule WAS enormous! 😱

I HATED the process of creating an entire video end-to-end because of the 10+ hours of work it required…

But at the same time, I was kicking myself for sometimes going months without uploading anything!

And even when I tried outsourcing video editing, it didn’t really produce the results I was hoping for.

Fast forward to today, and I’m consistently pumping out 20-40min videos DAILY!

And the ENTIRE end-to-end video shooting + uploading process takes about 1.5 hours.

Now, could my videos be shorter, tighter, and better suited to today’s “low-attention span” audiences?

Absolutely!

But by letting go of all this stress around video production, I’ve increased my productivity by 10X+ (maybe even 20X!)

PLUS - I’m actually looking forward to doing these videos now, which is a HUGE win!

I mean, during these videos I’m talking about a mega-niche topic that wouldn’t really interest “how to make money online”-audiences on YouTube anyway…

So why spend an extra 5, 6, 7 hours editing & cutting these 30-40-min in-depth videos when the RIGHT people appreciate them regardless… right? 😃

In fact, I made a rule that I CAN’T edit or cut anything out so that I stop worrying about getting it “perfect”!

(pretty YOLO, I know)

But surprisingly, this actually made me a MUCH better improviser and speaker - even though my native tongue isn’t even English! (it’s Hungarian)

Now, do I still make tons of mistakes, grammar errors, and stumble from time to time?

Sure.

But who cares?

The content itself is solid and existing viewers are loving it.

This was one of the biggest lessons for me throughout these 50 days.

✅ 5 - ONE GOOD “BIG IDEA” OR COMPELLING HOOK CAN MAKE OR BREAK THE ENTIRE PROMO

Ever since I first heard about the elusive “Big Idea” concept from Joe Schriefer, I knew that it was pretty important.

But I never really understood how important it actually was… until now.

Virtually every single proven sales letter I broke down during the last 50 days has a Big Idea that’s:

• Simple
• Relevant
• And connects with the reader immediately

Without trying hard to explain all the subtle details that make it work.

It just “connects”.

And it hits HARD.

The same is true with killer Hooks.

For example, instead of saying:

“This supplement is so great, it’s the best way to enhance your libido and have more energy, endurance, and stamina”...

Boardroom’s “Mount Rushmore” copywriter, Parris Lampropoulos came up with the following:

“Every night, Chinese emperor Kang Xi was REQUIRED to have sex with 9 women from his harem. And he was required to SATISFY each and every one of them. Here’s how he did it…”

^ ^ DAAAAYYYUMM!!! 🤩

Now THAT’s something that immediately grabs people by the balls people’s attention!

Here’s another example from the amazing A-list copywriter, David Deutsch, written to sell a book on estate planning…

...Arguably one of the most BORING topics you could ever think of.

“What every wife wishes her husband knew about estate planning… and the IRS hopes you never find out”

(which was followed by the unfortunate story of a U.S. Senator who - even though having a net worth of $20 million - still left his family in debt after passing away because he didn’t have the correct estate planning)

Again, super powerful!

And let’s not forget other amazing Big Ideas like:

• ...The End of America (Mike Palmer)
• ...Get Rich Slowly (Gary Bencivenga)
• ...Do You Have to Courage to Earn Half a Million Dollars in a Year? (Gene Schwartz)
• ...A Fluke of Nature (Frank Schultz)
• ...The Dollar Bill Letter (Gary Halbert)
• ...Man in the Hathaway Shirt (David Ogilvy)
• ...Amazing Secret of a One-Legged Golfer (John Carlton)

And the list goes on and on and on.

Conclusion: a killer Big Idea and/or Hook is really freaking important!

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Wow, this has turned out to be a monster of a post...

But I hope you enjoyed reading this, guys! 🙂

Let me know if you want me to cover more lessons during my journey because I still have 49 days left!

Also, which “gold nugget” resonated with you the most?

Leave a comment below with your preferred number and feel free to share why 👇