Eugene Schwartz’s Great Rules about CopyWriting
Eugene Schwartz is one the greatest copywriters in history sharing the same plank of fame as Gary halbert, John Carlton and David Ogilvy. The best thing about his teachings, however few and scattered they are, is that they are extremely simple to understand and easy to implement; It is just the implementation part where most people stumble and fall right on their face. If you are a small business owner, you have a lot to learn from the man and here they go:
- Work, work, work work: Did you think that this was obvious? Did you think that this would be the underlying requirement no matter what it is that you want accomplished? It is and there is no denying that, but then, barely about 10% of world’s population really works hard. Most people out there just pretend. They act as if they have tons of work to do – actually, they do – but they don’t work. They would do anything but work. Gene just advocates hard work because there are no short custs to success. Cliched, it might be; kick ass advice it still is.
- Work In Spurts and Intensely: Here’s where the genius of Gene Schwartz comes in. He fervently recommends working in spurts. While you are working do it intensely. For instance, he recommends you start working and work continuously for say an hour or so and never stop — no taking breaks looking around or out of the window, smoking, drinking coffee or talking to anyone. Focus laser-like on work for each second of that one hour and then take a break. Even if you did 4-6 hours of Intense work in this manner, your productivity levels would climb way higher than you could ever imagine.
- Be the best listener, ever: Being in the business of copywriting is one of the most punishing businesses ever – that’s because you never get to talk about yourself or anything at all for that matter. You should just be listening. You have to listen so much that your ears bleed. You should initiate conversations with almost anyone on the planet and just listen to them. Why should you bother? You should make them talk and you sit down to listen because once humans get into the talking mode, there is no stopping them. This way, they would spit out everything they have, you become very important to them, develop rapport and the best part is that you get to know their deepest fears and guarded secrets.
You will hear this a lot from me: there is something to be learnt from everyone. If you aren’t learning, you’d rather be dead. If you like to get a sample of Eugene Scwartz’s teaching, please email me to request for a copy.
