"The Daily Unstupid"

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Every Letter That Sells Stuff Is A Sales Letter

by Linus Rylander

I feel a short rant coming on. All words in the following paragraphs that start with “fuck” are completely called for.

Was just up on the balcony, looking at the moth-like flying things appear as if glowing beneath the orange street lights. You appreciate the view across the street and say “Hey, look at that! It looks like they’re glowing!” … but when they’re aimlessly fluttering around in your bedroom at 4 in the morning they fucking piss you off, don’t they?

Anyway, I think it’s funny that some of the people I actually respect in the online space, such as Andre Chaperon (who’s brilliant, by the way) have actually started calling their sales letters “Non-sales letters”.

The reason being, is because he actually does an excellent job of selling through them. (from my POV, as a copywriting dude)

Shit.

What he really means is “non-screaming-hypey-fucking-clickbank-lame-attempt-at-selling-shit” … letters.

What the hell? How bad does a marketplace have to get before you have to start calling your shit a “non-what-it-actually-is” …

(by the way, on Planet Linus, building your list exclusively through WSOs and then spamming your list with 18 billion offers a day, and recruiting all your amateurish “JV” friends to hype up your latest scrambled-together, rehashed PLR bullshit as the greatest thing since toilet paper (actually much more useful than sliced bread) … is NOT A VALID BUSINESS MODEL)

I’m doing some training… coming up… on how to write real sales letters, and other content to sell stuff… soon. You can get a sneak peek here.

/end rant

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Don’t you DARE tell me you’ve failed until…

by Linus Rylander

Listen up now, because this is some important shit.

Before I get to the meat of this, an interesting sidenote is that I’m typing this at 4 am in the morning, and I’m not wearing pants. (the internet lifestyle… being able to set your own schedule is really only cool if you’re also not a weirdo)

Anyway, I had to type this out before I headed off to bed, because I think it might have a significant impact on your future success.

They tell you that failure is “good”… embrace failure, fail forward. Fail faster, better.

Probably about a bazillion quotes out there about why failure is friggin’ fantastic.

I agree with them, but I think they’re missing the mark.

Results > All

What I really believe is that there is no such thing as failure… only results (to varying degrees of satisfaction).

I also believe that there is no such thing as success – only results, except now you like them.

What really moves us forward, is results.

From a result, we can learn something.

Good or bad, there’s a lesson in there somewhere, which makes us do it better next time.

Funny thing about results: they only occur once you have shipped something.

Put something out there.

Most people think that they are “failing” online.

They’re not, they just haven’t finished anything.

Maybe never even gotten started. You can’t fail at a project that doesn’t exist outside of your own head.

You can’t fail at something no one knows about.

If you’re an aspiring info-marketer… and you think you’ve failed, try this:

  1. Find a niche market
  2. Find or create something to sell to the market
  3. Put it on a website with some rudimentary sales copy
  4. Send 1000 qualified visitors to the page (key word being “qualified”)

Did you make a sale?

No?

Congratulations, you’ve now failed. Now you can try again, and do it better.

But don’t you dare tell me that you’re failing if you haven’t even shipped anything.

Peace.

Linus

P.S. If you’re not really sure where to start, check out this little ninja “TOC” process, which is like my “fix-all” solution to any problem/sticking point/don’t-know-what-the-fuck-to-do…

Here: http://lemonarian.com/the-toc-solution

Creating vs. Consuming: Why You’re Not Making Money

by Linus Rylander

A couple of hours ago, Jason Moffatt posted a status update about his new product – see image above. He also just sent an email to his list about it… and if you’re not on it, I think you should be. It’s one of those lists that are worth being on.

I think he’s right on the money, quite literally.

It really hit home with me – and I think this is something that is too important not to blog about…

Creating.

Being a creator is one of the most useful things to identify yourself with. And that’s barely an opinion.

And I don’t care if you just want to be an affiliate. If you’re not comfortable with being a product creator yet, that’s fine. It’s beside the point. When you look at the big picture, the BIG THING is about fulfilling a need in a marketplace, and if you do that through an affiliate offer or your own product is a different matter altogether. (Hint: there’s more money in the latter… a lot more…)

Anyway – most people try to “siphon” traffic through their poorly stitched together “landing pages” and send people off to the hot CPA-offer-of-the-week. Or something like that.

Once you shift your mindset toward CREATING VALUABLE THINGS you can build a real following of people who will listen to you.

Here’s a novel idea: start a blog.

You know… a blog that is actually a blog. What you’re reading right now is a blog. (meaning: just because it’s based on a blog platform such as wordpress doesn’t make it a blog)

… or a newsletter. What you’re reading right now is also a newsletter, albeit a not-very-regular one. (again… just because it gets sent out by email or mail doesn’t make it a newsletter)

The key thing is a vehicle that allows you to CREATE THINGS ON A REGULAR BASIS with little to no hassle.

Once you have that – the money will come a little easier.

The best kind of traffic is an audience that already listens to you. Shocker.

Some people will read this and go “Holy shit! DUH!! Why haven’t I done that before? *forehead slap*”

… which is sad. It’s marketing 101 – but all the basic (read: useful) stuff gets clouded by the 1-2-3 pushbutton automagic money-getting software launches… and everything else that’s shiny and new and comes with built in mega-promises and 7 bonuses and free barbeque sauce if you order in the next 16 seconds.

If you feel totally stuck right now… or you’re a bit uncertain on where to go next, here’s my “fix-all” solution: http://lemonarian.com/the-toc-solution/

(seriously, no hype, and nothing to buy either)

Signin’ out,

Linus

 

 

2 Ways To Write Kick-Butt Blog Posts, Emails And Traffic-Pulling Articles

by Linus Rylander

In this post I figured I would share my “method” for writing blog posts and emails. It’s what I do here.

There are two primary ways I do titles and headlines.

Triplets and Lists

If you’re into music you’ll know of something called triplets.

Copywriting has a lot in common with music. Good copy, when read out loud, has a sort of rhythm to it. Read the title of this post aloud and you’ll see what I mean.

What I call a triplet in terms of copywriting is when you have three things stacked together. Like this post.

Notice that it isn’t just “three things” – but things that invoke curiousity. Things that don’t quite make sense and intrigue you.

Triplets work well because they sound good. They roll smoothly off the tongue.

Lists work because they are specific, and they usually come with a definite, tangible benefit.

Everyone loves lists. (blog post by Seth Godin)

Your title is the most important part, because if it doesn’t compel someone to read the rest, the rest won’t get read. Durr.

These are two ways that work well. I don’t use them all the time, as you might notice, for my own reasons… but hey, do as I say, not as I do…

The title of this post uses both.

Another useful concept is that of telling stories. That’s how you get people through 1000-word posts without getting bored.

Stories

A story is anything that has happened… real or fictional… that includes a set up, event and a punchline. At minimum, 3 sentences. Like this:

Yesterday I met a friend at the bus-stop. She asked me what I wanted to be in life. I said I wanted to be a dinosaur.

Click the previous link for better examples…

I also like to mix it up. I’m deliberately making this post short. (it’s saturday)

Some of the others are long, like the one in the previous link.

Quick recap:

Talk soon,
Linus
P.S. Oh, and bullets win. Always.

P.P.S. Remember I’ve been telling you about that super-duper cool new thing I’ve been working on? Well… here’s a first, mini-sneak-peek… “The TOC Solution”

(some of you may have read parts of that before… but it’s different, I promise ;)

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