My name is Kristof. Take a look:

I had an… eventful day today.

First of all, yesterday I failed my math final exam for the second time(Hooray!), which means I have about a week of “free” time till the next date.

So, today I helped my dad out on the construction site.

In case you didn’t know, he is a construction worker. He has his own group of people – 3 of them to be exact – and they go around and build houses for people.

It’s a pretty cool job.

Pretty challenging too.

After that… I was toast.

But I still had some things to do. Namely, I wanted to help my dad out with his Facebook ads, so I did that.

Then…

I edited his landing page for a product he is planning to run the ads for.

All this added up to me finishing everything at around 9 PM.

And you know…

The temptation to just skip today’s email altogether, send out something that’s “in the vault” and be done with it for the day was big. Almost too big.

Yet I’m writing this email.

Why is this all relevant to you?

Well… First of all…

If my goal only was to send out an email every day… I would have gladly skipped it today. There would have been nothing stopping me.

But, that’s not my only goal.

It’s part of it, but my real motivation is to become a more prolific writer and copywriter(and, also, maybe help you get just a little bit better at it at the exact same time).

And because of that…

I found the time to write.

Actually, my favorite time to write is when I don’t have time to write.

This may sound a little weird but I like it when my days are filled to brim like this. Not because I enjoy not having “free time.” But because on the days I have a shit ton of free time I simply don’t value it. On the other hand… If my schedule is real tight, I don’t waste my time with petty shit and get down to work and usually produce better stuff too.

Anyway…

Just a reason why you(maybe) should fill your schedule up more.

Kristof Nemeth.

For more tips like this on copywriting, marketing, writing and persuasion go over to:

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app/

I opened my new-found writing software today and this quote headbutted me:

“Objects are lost only because people look where they are not rather than where they are.”

Before I continue…

Some people collect watches, some coins, some stamps. I have a different kind of obsession. I collect too… Namely…

I collect writing software.

I’m not proud of it.

It’s not pretty.

But my latest find has a feature where it throws a funny/insightful quote at you every time you open it. Today I got the one I reprinted in this email.

It’s kinda funny…

But if I could have a chance to rewrite this quote(which I have) so it would fit copywriters and marketers more… It would certainly be even less funny then it is now… But because it would be painfully true about what most copywriters are doing wrong. It would look something like this:

“Sales are lost because copywriters look where they are not rather than where they are.”

This means that we often focus on the wrong things as marketers and copywriters(especially copywriters).

Instead of searching for the best “power words” to use…

Maybe you should look at the words your market is using.

Instead of swiping the latest and “greatest” headlines you can find…

Maybe you would do better by doing more research.

And instead of whacking away hours and hours in front of a computer because of writer’s block…

Maybe you should just sit down and write whatever comes to you.

You can always edit it, after all.

Anyway.

Just some thoughts I had to get out of my mind after reading that quote. And as parting words…

Focus on where the sales ARE.

And if you want more sales-attracting tips, you can go over here:

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app/

Kristof Nemeth.

I’m not at all into comic books.

I’m just not, and I will probably never be into them.

But I gotta say…

Comic book ads are pretty darn good.

I got the idea of looking at comic book ads from the magnificent Ben Settle. Now, unlike me, he is a huge comic book fan and he loves to study comic book ads too. So I thought, if they are good for him, they will certainly be good enough for me.

Yesterday I found one and looked into it…

Here’s the headline:

“Remember how many times you felt left out because you were broke!”

“Places the gang was visiting and you weren’t included. They all had money for movies, games, hamburgers and soft drinks… all of them except you.”

Before you prejudge it and say it’s shiet(let’s be real, everybody prejudges everything), let me say that this headline was probably not written for you… Unless… You are a kid between the ages of 8 and 15 who feels like he is an outcast from his group.

And to them…

I’m pretty sure it hit like a punch to the gut.

Read it again with the target audience in mind.

I mean…

Talk about being in your prospect head.

Talk about knowing what they are thinking about, how they are thinking about it and what they feel when they think about it.

It genuinely feels like it was written by a kid who went through the same shiet they are going through now.

And that’s something really important.

Crawling into their head…

To the point that you know what’s going on in their life, and can describe that in their – not yours, but their – vocabulary.

That’s it.

Now, for more, go here:

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app/

Kristof Nemeth.

Great sales copy has a common feature:

“It begins by selling a current problem – not merely a future one.”

Whenever I think about this “rule” this always pops up:

There are these ads I read and analyze that very much look like they are selling prevention… something the prospect doesn’t have at the moment, something he isn’t suffering from right now… YET, they make it look like it’s a current problem and sell like hotcakes.

The most recent I heard was from Ben Settle.

On one of his podcasts, he talked about the time he was writing an ad in the prostate market.

And he wrote the ad so well, that even when he gave it to one of his friends – who didn’t have a prostate problem, not even any of the symptoms – he eventually wanted to buy the product to prevent any of the bad things mentioned in the ad happening to him.

That was really interesting to me…

And there’s another one:

Do you remember when covid hit? Everybody started wearing masks and mask manufacturing and sales skyrocketed. After covid, sales went back down but that’s irrelevant… What’s important is that a covid mask isn’t a CURE.

It’s a damn prevention.

It wasn’t bought by people who already had covid.

It was bought by people who were scared shitless of getting covid and suffering or even possibly dying.

And that’s the point I want to make because this one thing is universal in both of these examples… If people are scared enough… They will buy prevention.

I’m not saying to start selling prevention because cure will outsell prevention every single time.

But…

If you really need to sell something more of a prevention than a cure… MAKE it a cure.

And one thing that can help you with that is scaring people a little bit of what can happen if you…(get a prostate problem – this is actually what Ben did). So just to close this off…

People will buy prevention, but only if there’s enough fear of the thing that’s being prevented.

If you fear writing sub-par copy…

Get back to the fundamentals that work every single time. And if you want a solid “check-up” of some of these fundamentals, go here:

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app/

Kristof Nemeth.

I’m currently reading Steve Jobs’ autobiography.

I’m not that far into it… Steve and Woz just founded Apple. Matter of fact, they were just about to create and introduce the Apple II to the market and slowly but surely they started picking up speed.

Now…

This part of the book is just riddled with marketing and business advice and also nuggets applicable to just about everything let that be content, copy or making a computer from scratch.

One of these lessons stood out for me.

It’s something Steve said that was later quoted in a newspaper article. It went like this:

“If we can rap about their needs, feelings and motivations, we can respond appropriately by giving them what they want.”

Isn’t that interesting?

It always comes back to the market.

And apparently… Steve was very well known for being close to his market.

The book said Steve was very close – intimately close – to his market’s needs, feeling and desires… which then in retrospect… allowed him to introduce solutions and products that even the market wasn’t aware of they needed or wanted before Steve came up with them.

He knew his people more than anyone else who ran a computer company. And I think… If anything, then this was one of the major things that made Apple a success.

If it wasn’t for this one thing…

Knowing his market better than anyone else.

Apple probably wouldn’t be as big as it is.

I’m not saying that there weren’t other factors, or that this principle solely was responsible for the success of this company. Far from it, actually.

Just knowing your market isn’t enough.

There has to be action.

A plan.

And a whole lot of other resources that make a company grow as big as Apple. I would go as far as to say even some luck…

But still…

If it wasn’t for Steve knowing his market this well. Apple would have probably taken a totally different route.

Or just ceased to exist like most tech start-ups did at that time.

Whatever is the case.

This does deliver a very important point and a lesson that’s worth taking seriously.

Know your damn market.

If you do… The lion’s share of whatever you are trying to accomplish is already there.

Kristof Nemeth.

I love to finish the things I start.

And I hate it if I have to leave a task half done.

Well…

If you are anything like me, this probably leaves a dent in your writing and makes the end result of your efforts a lot less persuasive than it could be and probably boring as hell. I would go even as far as to say that if more people would do the thing I’m about to say… there would be a lot less boring copy on the internet, and definitely happier copywriters.

Not everyone has the balls to do this tho.

It hurts.

It’s much like the old(and morbid sounding) writing advice, “Kill your darlings.”

It certainly takes the same amount of courage.

Okay… Enough teasing… What I’m talking about is… Being able to totally scrap an email, sales page, blog, article, or script just because it’s boring.

Let me tell you…

If something is boring, it’s destined to fail.

And if you feel while you are writing that your copy is boring to you… Just imagine your prospect feeling at least 10X more bored than you.

It’s no good.

You either rewrite it… Or you behead it.

For a very, very long time I didn’t have the balls to do this. No way I’m going to undergo all that struggle again.

That’s a wrong mindset to be in.

It’s dangerous.

But listen to this:

There’s no rule in writing that says you have to finish what you started.

Meaning… If you started writing an email but it’s so boring even YOU are falling asleep while writing it, feel free to delete it and start over. Trust me, nobody will look down on you or think less of you. Nobody will even know. What they will know though, is that your copy will NOT be boring to read.

For more such morbid education in marketing and copywriting go over to:

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app/

Kristof Nemeth.

This afternoon my dad stormed into my room and declared(not really, he just asked) that I had to help him take pictures of the bait boat he wanted to sell.

And you know…

I almost always welcome a good excuse for avoiding the process of studying for my final math exam. So, off I was to take pictures.

We went out to the local pond, just so, you know, the pics will have a ‘vibe’ to them.

I took the photos.

And all was well…

Until I dragged my ass home and checked out the photos…

Well, one thing is for sure. I don’t have to worry about ever becoming too famous as a photographer because I suck at it.

But this made me think.

I started thinking about my experience learning other skills like copywriting, coding, and web dev. Every single time I got into something new… Let that be something I was 110% passionate toward and thought that “I was made for this,” or something that I couldn’t stand doing…

I always sucked at it at first.

There was never ONE time I was good at something on the first fly.

Oh… Well… I take that back.

I was pretty good the first time I tried archery. But that’s about it.

Everything else… Copy… Email… Writing… Writing code… Sometimes even just talking… I completely, positively sucked at it.

Maybe you are not like me.

But I know that I’m an extremely slow learner and there are very few things I’m naturally good at.

Everything I can now do decently, or at least not be a total ass at it… Took me work.

I’m not a great writer.

But just getting to the point I’m currently at – Which, to be honest, is a pretty good accomplishment taking into account where I started – took me nearly a year. I didn’t write every day.

But I did write daily for at least 7-8 months out of that 12.

Whatever.

I firmly believe you can get good at just about anything – or at least half decent.

But it will take work.

For some people more, for some less.

It’s the one word nobody wants to hear, but everyone has to at one point – work.

Kristof Nemeth.

I’m in the middle of my final exam period and I was just reminded about how important deadlines are, not just for studying and copywriting but… pretty much… for everything.

What gets a deadline, gets done.

Matter of fact…

Gary Halbert(who is notorious for writing sales letters that would demolish competition) started writing most of his sales letters and newsletters at the very last minute which usually led to colleagues and especially clients becoming really irritated and probably losing some of their hair too…

Actually.

I remember reading one of Gary’s newsletters not too long ago where the first couple of sentences said that this issue should have been mailed yesterday… All while Gary was just starting to write it.

Why did Gary do this?

I’m not sure.

But if I could guess… It’s probably because the pressure of the looming deadline unlocked some of his abilities that he could hardly get to otherwise.

Maybe that’s just me imagining things into it…

But it does feel like that sometimes.

Whatever.

The fact that Gary was famous for writing late doesn’t mean that he was lazy tho. For example: Usually, he spent months just thinking about ideas, angles, and promotions, conducting research, and letting his mind work on the problem before even getting around to writing anything.

Then he unapologetically murdered the deadline.

And most of the time, he probably still left his clients in awe with his results.

Should you do the same?

Probably not.

I know, I couldn’t. I like to get things done early. The earlier the better.

Do what works for you.

But nonetheless.

Setting an uncomfortably tight deadline — so much so that you cannot let yourself off the hook — for whatever you are trying to whip into existence can most of the times just help you.

And…

If you want something that will give you a solid checkup on the basic copywriting chops you should have in your arsenal, check my short little book out over here:

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app/

Kristof Nemeth.

As of writing this, I’m at my girl’s place.

I sit in front of her desk while thinking real hard on what to write about. So much so that my struggle became my inspiration.

Literally.

Let me start with something Gene Schwartz said once…

“… I get myself a coffee, then I sit down. I sit down at the same desk every day. The desk where I had been writing for the last 30 years. I don’t write anywhere else.”

This was in a talk he gave to Philips Publishing.

And…

As I’m sitting here, sweating my way to a decent idea I think I start to get why Gene insisted on only writing at his desk.

I’m very much like him.

I do my best work when I’m home.

Sitting at MY desk.

It’s not that I can’t work anywhere else. I can. Of course, I can. But it really is a weird phenomenon because whenever I go over to my girl’s place I struggle like a cat to find something that I could write a decent email about.

I don’t know why.

But it feels like some shoved me back into my first month of writing and now I have to go through the struggle of finding ideas to write about all over again.

When I’m at MY desk, I don’t have this problem.

I rarely struggle.

At my girl’s place?

I always struggle lol.

It’s probably just my mind playing games on me. But still… If I can, I rather do my work at home. That’s where I do my best work.

With that said…

Your environment does have an effect on your work.

I know people who sit on the floor while writing. I could never do that.

Some like messy tables, and some need cleanness to focus.

And some – like me – do their best work when they are in the very same environment they have been working in for the last couple of years.

Do with that info as you please.

Kristof Nemeth.

P.S.

Now that I think about it… I think I would be a horrible digital nomad lmao.

Writing at a different place every other week?

Oh, hell naw.

Anyway, if you want more of this, go to:

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app/

Towards the end of last week, I was getting ready to shave because my girl hates when I go to hers looking like a Mongol warrior.

So shave I did…

I just smeared my face with the shaving cream(that, I accidentally was able to get all over the mirror because it was in one of these containers that shoot it out… and well, my aim wasn’t great, let’s just put it that way)…

Anyway.

So I just made myself the cheap replica of Santa when I heard the worst possible voice a shaving man can hear.

The doorbell.

I immediately knew who it was. The courier. I knew because my dad orders so much shit from everywhere for his boats and everything else that by this time the courier pretty much became a family member for us. I mean, sometimes I see this man’s face more than my dad’s…

But there wasn’t much to do.

Because one thing was for sure… I’m not going out to the streets looking like I fell face down into a birthday cake. So I didn’t.

I let our courier(khm, cousin) become a little creative.

And he did btw. He pushed the package up onto the top of the fence, so once I was done I just lifted it down. I was a little surprised that no one who walked on the street decided to free me from the burden of this package by stealing it, but…

Whatever.

There are actually a lot of similarities in our courier and how you can create more and better content, faster… without the grueling hours and the writer blocks. It’s this:

Things come when you need them the least.

That courier damn sure came when I needed him the least.

And most of my best content comes to me when I’m not in a hurry to write or create it.

On walks for example…

I’m just out and about, thinking, not necessarily wanting to create content and BOOM. A great idea pops up. And another one, and another.

Pressure and deadlines can work for some people… But they don’t work for me. Instead of energizing my mind and making it go faster and create faster, they complete block my mind down and freeze it.

And if you run into the same thing from time to time…

Create your content before you need it.

And thank me later.

BTW, just before I forget…

Go, get over here(there’s something free waiting for you there):

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app/

Kristof Nemeth.

Forgive me for being a little ’emo’ with this next question, but I promise I haven’t dyed my hair black yet(and I’m not planning to do it either.)… But…

What’s the point of all this?

Lemme give you context to ‘this’ before you misunderstand me for wanting to exit from this life.

I mean…

What’s the point of selling, negotiating, marketing and just generally persuasion?

If you were to ask 100 people you would probably get 100 different answers. That’s completely valid, although not quite good. There’s a lot of guru activity online and most people are just misguided by information. Every one of us is, to a degree.

But for me, the ultimate point of persuasion is to help people.

Yep.

It’s not to sell more shit.

It’s not to make more money.

It’s not to overdrive your business’s sales into high gear.

Those can all be by-products if selling is done right(e.i. when you actually want to help people). But if you don’t go in with that mindset… You are essentially scamming people.

Even Jim Camp said it.

“To use tactics is to try to gain an advantage over your adversary and try to take away their chances”(paraphrased, but you get the point lol).

“Your adversary” is your prospect. And he does not like to be ‘overpowered’.

And… Getting back to some Campism…

Another one of your goals should be helping your prospect discover how and why you can help them deal with a problem in their life using one of your products.

If you merely focus on milking your subscribers, followers, readers, and believers you will, inevitably, resort to using tactics to try to squeeze out just a nibble more money from people.

But when you flip the script…

You can still use tactics(the great thing is, they won’t look like tactics anymore, people will tolerate them more), but what you will be using more and more by nature is the sound principles of persuasion all working together to help your customer.

Maybe this isn’t the only ‘right way’ to persuade.

But it’s sure one of ’em.

If you want to discover 7 more “right ways” to sell and persuade, you should click over to this link. I don’t have anything to sell you, but I do have a free book on the subject:

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app/

Kristof Nemeth.

Lo and behold…

I find a guy complaining on Reddit that he is making 0 sales with his 190,000 email list all while sending 2 emails a week. He didn’t share his offer, nor his emails but the Reddit geniuses immediately came to his help wit earth-shattering advice:

“Send fewer emails”

“2 emails a week is way too much”

“TOO MUCH EMAIL”

90% of comments were saying that this guy’s biggest problem was sending too much email. Not his offer. Not his list quality. Not his product. Not his copy.

Too much email.

But hey, they might actually have a point, because if the guy is writing crappy corporate emails with no personality whatsoever, just blatant pitches, then he IS sending too many emails.

In that case, he should just STOP sending emails.

I mean, his current approach is obviously not working, is it? So why force it and burn out the list even more.

After all…

These reddit guys might know sumn’…

Okay, just kidding.

But back to where I was…

I really think its not about quantity here.

People will not buy from emails they hate getting, no matter if they get one it once a month, or once a day.

This game isn’t about sending emails people don’t want to get and trying to space them out and pray that it will make people like those emails more. It doesn’t work that way.

What you should strive for is sending emails people want to read.

If you do that…

The quantity you send becomes irrelevant.

At that point, 2 emails a week might not even be enough.

But keep the 2 emails a week for now.

See how the list responds to emails that actually look like it was written by a human being and not a robot, that has a pinch of personality in it and that actually explains what kind of problem he can solve for the reader instead of showing some fancy pictures.

Anyway…

That’s my perspective.

If you want to get my FREE report, Old-Timer Copywriting Secrets, which is about 7 principles used by Star Salesmans, Master Negotiators and A-List Copywriters, go here:

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app/

Kristof Nemeth.

A month or so back I read an interview about Ken McCarthy from Ben Settle.

It’s a short one.

But it’s filled to the brim with very valuable information about direct response, internet marketing, copywriting, business… and… even personal branding. Matter of fact, one of the most valuable nuggets that stayed in my ear(or, well, eye) was mainly about how to build a personal brand that works.

Ken revealed what every personal brand needs as a backbone to work.

But it applies just as much to business as it does to branding.

So what’s this?

Your personality.

And let me make an example here.

What Ken and Ben(ain’t that rhyming like a bitch?) made as an example was YouTube.

Because if you look at all the big YouTubers that are out there right now, and you examine their personality, all of them have one. One that’s likely exaggerated a bit too just to make it more interesting.

Whether that’s their real personality or just a fabricated one, that’s the hook.

That’s what holds their whole “business” together.

It’s a “fan-maker”.

Without a personality, the best most YouTubers could do is a documentary… And let’s be real… Not even 1/10th of their current viewers would watch a darn documentary.

They are hungry for dopamine.

And they want it from someone who has a personality.

But this isn’t limited to YouTube.

Like I said earlier… If you have a business and not a personal brand you can still profit from this.

Ratchet your personality up.

Use that in your emails and in your sales copy.

Get your customer service to be less lifeless and pour some personality into those interactions too.

I mean…

Doing just those two will set you apart like hardly anything else could or would.

And that’s it for now.

If you want to read more about personal branding and persuasion and how the two work hand in hand to get you not just a rabid following but people who want to buy from you too… Click here:

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app/

Kristof Nemeth.

Can you guess what was the best thing that ever happened to me?

Let’s see…

I could say that it was copywriting, but ngl, that would sound corny as fuck and it wouldn’t even be true. Working out maybe? Well, close, but not quite there. Going to University? Woah. Cold. Freezing cold.

Just kidding.

But the best thing that ever happened to me was something that eventually led to me doing all of these things and many more that ended up improving me as a person and my life.

Without this one thing…

I genuinely don’t know what I would be doing.

One thing is for sure… I would be in a much worse place.

Anyway…

The “cornerstone” thing I’m talking about is of course no other than stumbling upon self improvement.

Finding out that I could actually decide to better myself and get the future of my life somewhat between my hands and control… Was like a wet dream for me at that time. I mean, I was fat, lost, scared and god knows what else.

I was in a pretty bad mental state too as far as I remember.

I’m not saying this so you pity me.

I don’t want that.

My past certainly wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t bad at all actually. It was just that I was weak.

Self-improvement was the thing that shined a light on that.

And it was also the thing that got me started working away on my body, which led me to earn all kinds of respect, attention, time, and other assets from people whom I considered to be ‘above me’ or who talked shit behind my back just a year before that.

It all just spread from there on.

And to this day(and onward from here hopefully) I hold myself to the standard of getting just a little bit better every day at what I do – and also just generally as a person.

I think this isn’t even an option anymore…

It’s a must.

Just like with business…

If your business isn’t growing, it’s dying.

The same is true for you and your life. There’s no middle ground. If you are not getting better, you are getting worse.

Imma leave you with that one for now.

Peace.

Kristof Nemeth.

Lo and behold…

All this started with me taking my girl out.

It was just a couple days ago when she came up to the city I do my studies in and we went out to one of the newer shopping centers.

One thing about me is… I’m like most men.

Translation: I hate shopping.

Still, I went through some stores with my girl – mainly just guiding and guarding her so she doesn’t get bogged down in one of them for too long… And then we moved on. We had no fixed schedule so we just kind of strolled around.

And then I spotted it…

The bookstore.

Not gonna lie… Bookstores are my weaknesses.

I immediately stepped over to the “English” section and after a good deal of looking around I grabbed a book from the tightly squeezed bookshelf. I lifted it down and said, “Steve Jobs” while showing what I found to my girl.

“Steve Jobs?,” she replied, “Who is that?”

This was the moment where I was shocked, taken aback and dumbfounded all at the same time. I thought everyone knew who Steve Jobs was or at least would have a clue. But no. She was totally blank.

“You don’t know who Steve was?”

“No… Should I?” she asked back.

“I mean… No… I just thought people would generally know who he was…” And as I said this, it dawned on me…

“Don’t you have an iPhone?”

“I do… Why?” she said innocently.

And that was the cherry on top for me.

Yep… I totally did not laugh at her at that moment…

Anyway.

I had to accept that knowing who Steve Jobs was isn’t common knowledge. But this reminded me of something very important…

The curse of knowledge.

I thought since I knew who Steve was… Everybody else will automatically know who he was, or at least have heard his name somewhere… But no.

Falling for the curse of knowledge in real life isn’t a big deal.

But in copy…

Thinking that you don’t need to explain something in your copy because “she will know it” is one of the best ways to alienate even the hottest prospects and kill the sale.

Don’t expect that she will know it.

Expect that she won’t know it.

Because just going by the law of averages… Most people won’t know it.

Remember:

Just because you know something… Not everyone will know it.

And if you want to know more about this cup of tea:

* Internet pioneer’s blueprint for headlines

* How to sell a man who hates your guts

* Strange secret used by the worlds most feared negotiator to let people persuade themselves

Just check this out:

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app/

Kristof Nemeth.

Some months back I gave a guy a copy critique.

It was an email he wrote.

And not too long ago I found the 7 pieces of advice I gave to him which I will also share here.

If you are somewhat more ‘advanced’ there might not be anything new in here, but if you are more of a beginner I’m quite sure you will find at least one thing that even if you know about, you could improve on.

This isn’t just something I noticed no this pals copy…

These are also mistakes I made when I was starting out and mistakes I see a lot of people make.

Anyway…

Let’s get into this:

===

1. Look out for the flow

You don’t want your copy to be “blocky”. You want it to flow nicely, one sentence into another. A great way to spot the holes in your flow is by reading your copy out loud.

2. Use snappier language

Language that just smacks people. That wakes them up a little. Don’t use this everywhere – it can come of pushy – but it’s great for CTAs and bullets and headlines. A good exercise for this is writing out bullets onto paper.

3. Write more

Most of the things I picked up on were things that could have been said or worded better, but there is no magic trick for that. Just write more. Aim to write every day.

4. Try not to sound repetitive

Don’t use the same words too much. It’s boring.

5. If you promise something, give it to them

If you promise “something”, a solution, you better give it to them too.

6. Never blame them

Don’t blame the reader. Blame anyone else, just not him(at least most of the time). It will lead him to question himself and all that bullcrap will distract him.

He may turn on you too.

7. Say what they would say… But not that way…

Keep it natural. Use the things they say and use their language but only if it feels right to do so. Don’t make it cringe and obviously crafted.

===

That about covers it.

So, what about you?

Have you ever made one of these mistakes? Maybe more? Maybe you are still making them?

If so, no problem. Just aim to work on them more.

Any aspect of your writing can be improved if you only work on it more or put more thought into it.

I hope you found this helpful…

And if you want, reply here with the thing you have the most trouble with out of these 7 and I will give you some advice on how to further improve upon them.

Until then…

Peace.

Kristof Nemeth.

We all are.

This is a universal disease every single greenhorn writer suffers from and even the pros get a bite of it from time to time.

For your luck, it is curable, but only if you pay attention to what I say next:

Most people tell stories with a ‘reversed’ mindset and I will let you in on why…

But first, here’s a secret:

If you can write a story down exactly as it plays out in your head you will already do better than most because 80% people try to twist it and turn it to make it more interesting for the reader but only end up confusing them.

Write it as the ‘movie in your head’ plays it.

But there’s still something that can happen. Remember how I said we are cursed? Do you know what we are cursed with?

Knowledge.

Especially when you want to tell a story that not only entertains your reader but also makes him buy.

It’s real simple, let me explain:

There are two people. You, who lived through, experienced and knows the story. And some poor chap who you persuaded into reading your story.

The roadblock most writers trip on is the simple fact that your reader doesn’t know your story.

This isn’t a BIG problem…

And we shouldn’t wish for it to disappear because then there would be no use of telling a story, the reader would already know it.

Your job is to untangle this mess and communicate your story.

But always keep in mind that your reader knows NOTHING about your story.

You need to tell it to him that.

Story-Telling.

This is still somewhat obvious. The tricky part is how you do this.

You see, stories cannot be boring. If your story is boring you are done. Finito.

So what you need to do is somehow communicate only the absolutely necessary pieces of information to your reader so (1) he will be in picture with what’s happening and won’t lose sight of the thread and (2) you won’t bore him with unnecessary background information.

Most writers share either too much info and bore the reader.

Or share too little and their story flops in misery.

It’s up to you.

I want to share with you one little piece of advice I got about selling products that might just make you rethink your approach to business.

This:

You don’t want to make money from the first time you sell a new prospect.

If you make some, just take it as found money.

But your main goal shouldn’t be making money from the “first sale”. It’s not necessarily about the money either… It’s about the mindset that you don’t care about the money when someone wants to buy from you for the first time.

Back in the day, Gene Schwartz – legendary copywriter – said the same thing:

“You can’t make money on the first sale… Well, you can, but it’s an odd way to run a company.”

The money is – always – made on the back end.

Of course, there are some exceptions to that rule… Joe Karbo for example. He made an awful lot of money from just a single book on the front end(fun fact: as the orders came in for him, he was throwing away the customer names and addresses). But pulling that off nowadays…

Is damn near impossible.

Why would anyone want to do that anyway when you can sell to people who are already committed to you on the backend?

Selling to warm people is always easier.

This isn’t some kind of woo-woo, manifestation, “don’t focus on the money and it will come” shit…

It’s simply that your goal when selling a new prospect for the first time should be:

Building a relationship.

The goal of that sale isn’t to make you rich. It’s to get the customer into your world. It’s to start a relationship that will(hopefully) help you in the long run.

That relationship is worth way more than those couple of sticky dollars you could get in profit.

Sadly…

Way too many people focus just on that green stuff.

While not taking into account that they could be making way more money, only if they were to focus on the customers.

Peace.

Kristof Nemeth.

A while ago I opened Instagram on my phone.

I was using it to experiment with some of my twisted outreach methods…

And I was trying to avoid consuming any “copywriting content”, for reasons that will be obvious in a second…

But IG has a crooked algo…

And it somehow managed to find out that I’m a copywriter(I clicked on one post) and now it’s after me with the IG copy gurus.

For example:

I found a guy, who I know from X. I scrolled down a little, saw like 5 of his posts and immediately closed IG.

What did I see? Just this:

“Copywriting is the best side hustle in 2024”

Oh god.

I’m still surprised by the sheer amount of people that bitch and yap about AI taking over copywriting jobs – there were a bunch of these in the comments.

And I kind of don’t get it…

If these guys just were to spend that time writing, they would never have to worry about AI taking their jobs because they would be obviously better than a robot.

Whatever…

These are the same people that “hustle” 24/7.

Want to know how you can get ahead of them without “hustling” 26/7? Pretty simple…

Don’t quit.

I could bet… something… on the fact that 98% of them would not make it out of 2024 as copywriters. And I’m still being fairly positive here…

Most of them will quit WAY earlier.

Why?

Because they have high expectations. They expect to be making $10k/m by next week.

I’m not saying don’t aim high with your goals. Have big ass goals..

But crank down your expectations.

And relationships are the same…

“Unspoken expectations are pre-meditated resentments.” — Neil Strauss

Why?

Because we are waiting for something… We wait, we wait, and wait, but nothing happens because the other person doesn’t even know that we want it.

And it’s exactly the same with copywriting.

You just keep waiting and waiting and waiting, but there’s no one to tell you that your expectations are not going to be fulfilled.

Until… You snap. You can’t take it anymore, and you quit.

My best advice for anyone doing anything would be to lower your expectations.

Still, work hard and strive to become better each day, and have big goals.

Just don’t expect that some miracle will do that work for you.

Now… If you read this far… And you are still interested in copywriting, go here:

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app

I’m a sucker for tech, especially if it’s good.

But there’s something I hate with a burning passion… And that is… Word processors.

Any kind of writing program for that matter that has a grammar checker.

You know…

There are these people who sometimes write back to an email or a tweet saying the grammar mistake I had just made. Maybe I butchered a word, maybe I used the wrong “tense”. I don’t care, but these people do.

I don’t make a big deal out of it…

But…

The grammar checker is just like one of the grammar Nazis… But it’s planted right into your computer and doesn’t let you rest for a single minute.

I think I will have to go back to Stone Age and write on paper…

Anyway…

Now that I’m talking about grammar and spelling and all that… there’s a quick way you can get 2 flies with one slap. One, make the grammar Nazis faint. Two, make your emails “radiate” humanity and bond better with your audience. And that is…

Don’t edit out the imperfections in your emails.

Leave a couple of slip ups in.

Let them feel that your email wasn’t written by an AI chatbot or a “hired gun”. That it was written by YOU.

Some people struggle with this because schools implanted them with perfect grammar. That’s not bad, but it’s false. You don’t need perfect grammar… What you need is…

Clear communication.

If your message is clear, your copy can be written in straight Latin too. No one cares.

And if you leave in a couple mistakes, or broken “tenses” here and there in your emails… Your audience will see you as more human, and not just someone who sends them words on a pixel screen.

This is why this will add to the relationship you have with your list.

Anyway.

’nuff said…

Just remember:

Looking perfect isn’t always the best thing to do. Sometimes you can achieve more by looking a little “imperfect”.

Kristof Nemeth.

P.S.

If you want to read my ramblings about copywriting and marketing, get over here(don’t worry, I WILL try to bribe you with some free goodies):

https://kristofnemeth.vercel.app