Just watched a video Ed Dale posted on using 3″ x 5″ cards for writing sales copy (…or at least his Mac software which does the same thing… Those crazy Mac geeks…)
Check it out here: http://tubbynerd.com/2008/02/28/oh-yeah-my-blog-is-back-check-this-flv-goodness/
He makes a particularly good point which I thought was worth mentioning (around the 5 minute mark)
When you’re writing a salesletter, (or any sort of copy) don’t stop - whatever you do.
If you need to research a fact, or get a sales figure for your salesletter, or insert at testimonials - DON’T.
Just keep writing.
If you stop, you interrupt your flow - and if you interrupt your flow, you lose your momentum and focus and what you end up with is going to be poorer quality.
Just keep writing…
Spell-checking, facts, figures… whatever - keep all of those distractions to the end.
Ed mentions he was taught this 3″ by 5″ card strategy by the (late) great Gary Halbert as a way to write quality sales copy - faster. It’s by far the easiest way to get all your main points together for salesletters, and really get your flow… before ordering all your points in a logical way.
I found out the 3″ by 5″ card system as a result of Gary Halbert sharing it with Ed… (Gary taught Ed, Ed taught it to Eugene Ware (the internet marketing guy nobody knows, but everyone should) who then co-authored the original Underachiever program (with Ed and Anthony Fernando), and Eugene in turn taught it to me.)
(Hassle me in the comments below if you want to know the exact strategy, and I’ll video it and show you how it’s done in a future blog post)
For writing content (like this), or short copy, I just use Jdarkroom - it’s a cut-down text editor which is great for keeping focus when you’re writing. It removes all distractions from your computer, and seems to transport you back to 1986 as a result. The 3″ x 5″ card strategy is really worthwhile when you have a lot of thoughts to compile.
But again, just like with the 3″ x 5″ cards - I just write until I’m finished… and then go back and do the “detailed” stuff at the end.
Brent
P.S. - Ed’s video is another example of the “Over the Shoulder” technique in action.
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8 responses so far ↓
1 Ed Dale // Feb 29, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Euge is definately the best Internet guy no one knows!!
And he is hotter than Pete Williams!!!!
Ed
2 Alister Cameron // Blogologist // Mar 1, 2008 at 12:10 am
For us crazy Mac geeks…
The equivalent of Jdarkroom is Writeroom by Hog Bay Software. Google it.
But I use something vaguely as good which is free, called Think, by Freeverse.
The latter doesn’t create a spartan writing console, but it blacks out everything below the active window… which is a fairly good step in the right direction.
Just thought I’d add that
Any hey Brent… I think you’re hotter than BOTH Euge and Pete… even if he has an iPhone.
-Alister
3 Your page is now on StumbleUpon! // Mar 1, 2008 at 1:18 am
4 Increasing Blog Visitor Traffic // Mar 1, 2008 at 10:37 am
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8 Alister Cameron - FriendFeed // May 4, 2008 at 8:55 am
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