The sinister secret of Sin City copy
Published: Sat, 02/08/20
"Sin City”
A dark and gritty comic book with lots of violence, crime and action. And as is always the case when a popular new "style" emerges in a business, niche, or industry… the comicbook store shelves became glutted with imitations. Everyone started shamelessly aping Frank Miller's stories, drawing style, and characters.
The result?
Every single "copycat" title was eventually cancelled.
Some within just a few issues of their debut.
And this happened even though there was a huge demand for these dark and gritty crime comics, and even though many of Frank Miller's competitors had a lot of talent.
Question is, why?
Why did they fail while Frank Miller comics & back issues still thrive today in the same niche — including with two movies based on his titles? The answer is because the imitators simply copied the surface elements of Frank Miller's comics — and never bothered to figure out exactly what makes them "tick." All the stuff that makes Miller's stories work: the balance of humor and drama, the three dimensional characters, the themes that surface as the stories progress… were completely absent.
What does this have to do with your copywriting?
With your emails?
With your social media influence, engagement, client-acquisition, and overall attractiveness to customers, clients, JV partners, and everything else?
Everything, my Golden Rooster.
Because this is one of the main reasons so many ads fail today — and have always failed since the beginning of direct response marketing. Far too many ads are nothing more than retreaded & swiped formulas with a bunch of product benefits "plugged" into them.
Structurally, these sales letters correct:
They have the headline.
The opening paragraph.
The story.
The bullets.
The offer.
The P.S., etc.
But there's nothing people can sink their teeth into to think about that prompts them to buy. It’s like these dorks on Twitter I keep hearing about who read my emails and think they have to sound, write, and behave like I do. Which is as stupid as the wannabes who copied Frank Miller. Copying what others are writing or doing in their ads/emails/social media, whatever… simply makes you a warmed over version of someone else’s left overs from a week ago that’s now growing mold in the fridge. Which is why if you want to write what the great Ken McCarthy calls "Battleship copy” — the kind that launches entire businesses or product lines almost overnight — you have to get out your righteous shovel, roll up your sleeves, and dig deeper.
You have to think bigger, too.
And, yes, you have to work smarter.
This is the sort of info Ken teaches in his Advanced Copywriting For Serious Info Marketers course I’ve been yammering on about all weekend.
Ken’s not just an 8-figure “copywriter.”
And he doesn’t just teach “copywriting.”
Where he shines & blows away everyone in the industry is in teaching even people with no copywriting or info marketing skills to speak of exactly how to (1) write great copy without needing to be a “great” copywriter, and then (2) use that copy to potentially create 6, 7, & even 8 figure info businesses.
This is not something the new product junkie or swipe-a-holic is intellctually capable of doing.
Thus the title where it says “serious info marketers.”
Speaking of which:
Ken’s offering this prestigious course at a gigantic discount for my Horde only until tomorrow, Sunday, 2/9 at midnight EST. Plus, if you use my affiliate link and send me your receipt & shipping address by that deadline (not after — to be clear, you must send it to me, not just buy the course, BEFORE the deadline), I will send you a copy of:
“Crypto Marketing Secrets”
This is the entire 30-issue run of my old “Crypto Marketing Newsletter” in a book.
This print newsletter ran from early 2010 through mid 2012.
It is also not for sale anywhere else, and less than a few hundred people — give or take — on the planet even possess it at all.
NOTE:
This is a *physical* book that will be sent by mail at my expense.
Retail value: $810.00 (30-issue run, each issue costed $27)
It’s yours when you buy Ken’s copywriting course via my affiliate link during the sale here:
http://www.EmailPlayers.com/secret-course
Ben Settle
P.S. A word of warning to the new product junkies, marketing hobbyists, and opportunity seekers chasing after “hacks” or whatever bright shiny object horse shyt they think will make them a fortune:
This course is not sexy or “cool.”
It’s purely fundamentals mixed with decades of info marketing experience combined with sound, principled thought & the rules of human psychology.
That’s why I call it “meat & potatoes.”
Learning from this man, from this course (as I went through it some 15 times to write the sales letter for it many years ago) was by far the best education I ever got on the mechanics of writing sales copy.
If you’re a newbie, this is the kind of info I highly recommend.
If you’re a veteran, I think you’ll still pick a lot of gems up.
Even seasoned A-list copywriters like, for example, the great David Deutsch, and other world-class “name” marketers like Perry Marshall (who rarely gives a testimonial to copywriting products, from what I can see) have given this course testimonials about this over the years.
The point?
If you want "ninja" go to another lame internet marketing seminar or free blog, or be a bar fly in yet another copywriting facebook group. They'll fill your head with all kinds of nonsensical short term tactics that sound cool and sexy, but don't work long term, or for anyone but the person teaching them.
If you want to write ads that make lots of sales, I recommend (biased though I am) this course.
Here’s my affiliate link:
http://www.EmailPlayers.com/secret-course