Fladlien Productions

Hello,

Just got back from the Mass Control event in San Diego. It was pretty good. Got to meet some of my long time clients and friends like Dale Maxwell and Lance Tamashiro.

The night before the event, I got a special invite to hang out for two hours with John Carlton, who is probably one of the top five living copywriters of all time.

I got this invite because I bought through his affiliate link.  40 other people did. Only 4 people actually showed up and
I was one of them.  John has been like a mentor to me. I stalked his ads. Memorized parts of them word for word. I use his examples all the time in my coaching classes. So it was great to be able to meet a “legend” in person.

John is so respected that even other big name guys wanted to see him. So when I came up to the room, Bob Serling was already there (he spoke at Kern’s event) and Harlan Kilstein hung out for an hour (Kilstein also spoke at the event). Rich Schefren’s right hand man and business partner, Brian Johnson was there as well, as where a few other big names.

And then there was little old me.

I got to talk with John personally for about 30 minutes. He found me pretty intriguing, especially when I told him I had written over 50 sales letters in a year and pretty much all of them were good.

He wanted me to promote his stuff as an affiliate right away, ha!

Anyways, there is a point to all this. The point is that two years ago I was some nerd who knew all about John Carlton, but didn’t even belong in the city as him, much less the same hotel room. Two years ago I did not have ONE sales letter to show for my efforts. And the idea of dropping 2k to get into the conference, 1k on the ticket, and 1k on the hotel room would’ve probably made me throw up, considering that would have been the equivalent of 3 months of pay back then.

My have the times changed. I did it by mastering 3things.  First, I mastered persuasive writing. Then product creation.  Then focus – so I can do both of those things constantly, day in an day out, and at an unbelievable speed.

In this business, sometimes it’s not about the money, but to be able to transform yourself from worshiping an ideal to earning their respect. That means a lot. And it should be a motivator for you to press on, and to take it to the next level.

It’s worth it. I can now speak from experience.

Thanks,
Jason “one legged golfer” Fladlien

Recently I wrote a blog post talking about 4 out of the 10  types of headlines I use when writing my email copy, sales copy or any time I need a really good headline.

People loved that blog post, and wanted to know what the  other six were. So here they are:

Instant Gratification

This is BY FAR, my go to headline. Give people a quick  solution to a desperate problem, and often times that’s all you need.

The simple formula is “How to do [a specific solution they desire] in [a very specific time frame]…”

For example:

“How to write a 400 word article in 7 minutes or less, including proof reading and research” for my 7 minute article product.

Or…

“How to write near world class copy in 3 hours or less” for my copywriting success shorcut system.

Or…

How to fin a profitable niche… create a 24.7% converting squeeze page… a magic solution product… and 1% sales copy… all in one sitting” for the niche invasion system product I did with Lance Tamashiro.

5 times out of 7, this is the first headline I go to, and when in doubt, this is the one I fall back on.

Dramatic Demonstration Of Proof

Once for an email, I wrote a headline that said “Me and this guy created 72 products in 2008″ to promote Product University.

Another time I created a headline that said “I bet with $100 of my own money I can show you how to create a product in 48 hours or less” for my 48 hour report product. This time I combined instant gratification with proof.

One of the best examples I saw was a headline that I believe Gary Halbert created for Robert Allen that said “Drop me off in any US city, only give me money for food, and in 72 I’ll buy you a prime piece of real estate with no money down”.

Another example: Claude Hopkins one time wrote a headline that said “These 7 questions about yeast were asked 683 times” or something to that effect (going by memory here).

The most famous example was by one of the greatest advertisers of all time, David Olgilvy, who said “At 60 miles an hour, the loudest sound you here is the ticking of the clock…”.

If you have a dramatic way of demonstrating your claims, you should consider using that in a headline.

The Story

To tell a story, you only need three things… a character (or characters), where they were at, and where they’re at now. That’s it. Watch how you can transform this into a headline…

How A Former Chicago Bears Cheerleader Partnered With Two Young Nerds Who Did $160,000 In The Last 3 Months To Share
With You… The Ultimate FREE One Day Workshop On Invading & Dominating ANY Niche In 7 Days Or Less!

It’s a headline I created for a workshop I’m doing in Orlando at the end of the month with Robert Plank & Mary Wilhite.

I got this from John Carlton, who once wrote a headline that said:

Crippled Golfer Stuns L.A. Open Crowd By Crawling From Death Bed To Beat 110 Pro Golfers With a 67 (Using A Short Backswing) And Qualify For The Last Spot In The Famous 2002 Tournament!

One time in a copywriting class, I came up with a headline for one of my students, Elisabeth Kuhn, which said:

“Former Breast Cancer Survivor Stranded Over Seas Was Forced To Discover Simple But Effective Cures For Stress”.

In each of those example, you notice there is a character (former bears cheerleader, crippled golfer, breast cancer survivor), where they were at (on death bed, stranded over seas, “did 160k in last 3 months) and where they are at now (qualify for the last spot in us open, stress relief master, holding an amazing free workshop).

Simple stuff.

Predicting The Future

We all love to speculate in the future. Sometimes those make the greatest headlines.

Here are some great examples:

“What the wolverine leak means for the future of piracy…”

“8 ways the future of gaming is being reinvented”

“Imagine pinpoints brain regions that ’see the future’

“10 skills developers will need in the next 5 years”

“Are paperless receipts the future in Retail?”

Offer

If you have an unbelievable offer, you should put it in the headline. I did that in the above “former chicago bears cheerleader” example, when I combined the story with the offer.

Here’s another example: “Why two sick bastards are offering 43 of their own personal tools for only $7″. I created this for an offer at twosickbastards.com.

We liked it so much we did it again at themrrclub.com when I came up with the headline “Master Resale Rights, Private Label Rights & More To 81 Products For Only $7″.

Combo

The last technique I use is a bit anti-climatic because I’ve already demonstrated it to you – combining these different techniques together. Once you have chosen one angle to work for a headline, why not add in a second? For example, after I wrote “how to write an article in 7 minutes or less including proof reading and research” I immediately followed it up with a “proof” subhead. I combine story with incongruent juxtaposition all the time. Etc.

So, quick recap on the ten types of headliens to use:

1. Anger
2. Challenging conventional wisdom
3. promise of little known information
4. incongruent juxtaposition
5. instant gratifcation
6. proof
7. Story
8. Predicting the future
9. Offer
10. Combination of the above

There you have it. Once you master these ten types of headlines, you’ll never want for another headline again.

Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

-Jason

Yesterday, April 7th, was my birthday. I spent it doing everything I love to do… I conducted two webinars,  did an hour and a half “follow up” video recording for our members at http://videosalestactics.com, and conducted two personal one-on-one coaching sessions.

I still had time stop by my mom’s and visit her… cook a gourmet vegetarian pizza and eat carrot cake and open gifts with her.

One gift I got was this hideous, ugly looking 1970’s Monster figurine that when you switched a button, it would growl and its eyes would light up red. It’s literally the ugliest toy I’ve ever seen. And it’s what I gave my brother Ryan for Christmas (we had a weird sense of humor toward each other).

Little did I know the next day he comes out of his room and tells my mom, “We’re giving that to Jason for his birthday!” My heart strings were already being tugged.

The other two gifts I got were a book Ryan made for school and a lock of his Ryan’s hair, which I didn’t know my mom had. When I saw the hair, I immediately begin to cry. I remember when Ryan was sick, I’d always rub his head and touch his hair.

I sat and cried pitifully for 10 minutes. Then I felt better. I then went home and gave one of the best webinars of my life with Robert Plank for our video sales tactics members. Then, right after the almost 3 hour webinar, we hopped back on the call and recorded additional content for our members.

Robert kept saying through the recording that I was in a particularly good mood. I was. I can’t explain it. After I cried, I just felt better. Like Ryan was there to comfort me. Then I went to sleep last night and I had all sorts of wonderful dreams with him in it.

All in all – it was the best birthday I’ve ever had.

I also go a present from a client of mine who has become a very close friend. It was an email. It was a very touching email about how much positive impact I’ve had on his life, and his family’s life. My life purpose has always been to leave a positive impact on the people I meet, and to get a response like that, written from the heart, was the icing on my birthday cake.

I got to do everything I loved doing on my birthday… I spent about 12 hours yesterday delivering value in the form of information that will help people better their life. I spent time with my family. I got great presents from clients. And I really felt like my brother was right there with me.

Now as I reflect on this, I realize: Even if it wasn’t my birthday, I would’ve spent the day exactly the same way. I simply love what I do. That’s the real secret to my productivity. I love the opportunities that my business makes available to me.

And it’s no accident it’s happened this way. It was through deliberate cultivation of habits and skill. It was the unwillingness to settle for anything less than what I knew I was capable of. It was having the knowledge to experience the pain of discipline now, knowing that it hurts far less than the pain of regret…

My message for you is simple: please make today special. Every day really is a gift, as wishy washy as that sounds. If today was your birthday, what would you be doing? You should live at least part of everyday like it was your birthday.

Because in a way it kind of is… every day is the birth of a new opportunity to bring you one step closer to achieving what you were destined to achieve.

Thoughts?