Yesterday I mentioned that I was gonna do a mailbag this weekend and answer questions that readers emailed me.
Well I got about 250 questions sent to me, so I picked a few of the best ones to answer today.
Let’s dive in…
First up is one from Jim Rowley.
“Are there any quick and dirty ways to take a high performing affiliate offer and get it running on Facebook?”
My answer:The two that I see most often is simply sticking a quiz or an article lander in front of the sales page and trying that on Facebook.
Obviously it depends how non-compliant your offer is currently.
But if you want a “quick and dirty” way to test it, that would be my suggestion.
Alright next question is from Tom Adolph…
“How did you come up with everything when you launched Patriot Power Greens?“
My answer: It was really pretty simple. I knew I wanted to create a supplement that sold well. So I was paying attention to what was working in the marketplace (and also what was missing).
This was back in 2014 or so. I kept getting direct mail magalogs for a greens powder back then, so I figured that offer was working.
At the time no one was doing greens powders online in direct response besides Athletic Greens (and they weren’t very good at copy) so I saw an opportunity to run a greens powder online.
Now I just had to come up with a unique hook for it.
Basically I was running a lot of traffic in the conservative news niche at the time so I knew what angles worked.
I knew anything that was anti-Obama worked. I knew anything that was pro-Ronald Reagan worked. I knew anything that was patriotic worked.
It dawned on me that the big angle no one had hit on yet was the military. 60 and 70 year old conservatives have a huge affinity for the US military. So I thought if I could simply find a hook to use that incorporated the military it would probably work really well.
So I sent like 30 of our greens canisters to my cousin who was in the Coast Guard at the time. Him and his unit tried them out. And then I got a few testimonials back from them.
One of the testimonials was from an older guy in their unit, and he mentioned that he was now keeping up with the young guys in their PT tests, and even beating a few of them.
As soon as I heard that I knew I had my hook.
So Patriot Power Greens became the “greens drink used by elite military units to help the old guys keep up with the young bucks”.
That was the whole angle.
And it worked like gangbusters.
Alright, let’s dive into another question.
Christian Loparco asks…
“How do you grow you income as a copywriter and find clients willing to pay 5-figures for a project“
My answer: This is a question I get all the time.
And I feel like a robot when I answer it because I say the same thing every time.
First, you need to be good enough at copy to charge 5-figures.
That’s step one.
If you’re not good enough to charge 5-figures then you need to get better at copy before doing anything else.
Step two, which is the one I’m assuming you’re asking about, is actually a lot easier…
You meet clients at events.
There is honestly no better way to get high-paying clients than meeting them in person and asking what they need help with copy-wise.
At our last Copy Accelerator event we had companies like Agora Financial, VShred, Healthy Back Institute, 4Patriots, Natural Health Sherpa, Nerve Renew, Primal Health and more in attendance.
And guess what?
I had each of them stand up and say what they were looking for copy wise.
They were ALL hiring copywriters.
And paying 5-figures per project.
So that’s my suggestion.
Meet them at events.
By buying a ticket to the event, you are buying access.
Most of these companies (and more) will be at our next Copy Accelerator event Feb 26-28th, so I’d suggest getting a ticket when we announce the event (end of this month) if you’re serious about landing high-paying clients.
Alright let’s switch gears and dive into another question…
This one is from Grace Gurucharri who is in our Copy Accelerator mastermind. ““Before you started your career based around copy – did you used to enjoy writing? Or have any background in it?Also, before your copy skills were strong and while you were early on in your career, any advice on how to invest both financially and in yourself while keeping with a budget/busy schedule?”
My answer: I blogged and did SOME writing before I became a copywriter.
But I was never a real writer.
In terms of enjoying it, I really enjoy writing emails.
But I don’t enjoy writing long copy like a VSL.
It’s one of the reasons I moved away from that and do more “funnel strategy” now.
I’m more into the strategic moves I can make to make an offer convert better than simply writing a new VSL for someone.
In regards to your other question, I have two suggestions.
For investing, learn about low-fee index funds.
They are the simplest, easiest and most-reliable way to invest. You basically stick money in an account and don’t touch it.
A book called The Simple Path to Wealth explains this really well, Id suggest reading it.
In terms of budgeting, here’s what I would say…
Your #1 focus should be to increase your income.
It’s not to nickel and dime and focus on whether you should buy a $5 coffee or make it at home.
Cause if you can go from making $50k a year to $100k a year, that’s a big difference.
And in our world, that’s fairly easy to do.
If you’re writing copy and making someone a bunch of money, you will make a lot of money as a result of that.
So my suggestion would be as follows…
1. Focus on increasing your income
2. Put 15% of your yearly income into low-fee index funds (I use Vanguard for mine)
There’s obviously more to this.
But if you do those two things, you will be ahead of 95% of people.
Alright let’s do one more before I wrap this up…
Ryan Smith who’s a member of our Copy Accelerator group sent this one in and I just couldn’t resist answering it…
He knows how to appeal to me.
“Will Ohio State win the national championship this year?“
Considering I’m a huge Ohio State fan, you might be surprised by my answer…
I don’t think they will win it all.
I think they’re really good this year.
And the playoffs will be incredible…
But I think Fields will have trouble with Clemson’s defense (he caves when people are able to pressure him).
I also have some doubts about the OSU defense (specifically the secondary). I think a good passing team like Clemson or LSU will be able to expose some of their issues.
So we’ll see.
I’ll be rooting for Ohio State.
And probably throwing shit all over my living room while I watch…
But I’m not hugely optimistic about their chances to beat two really good teams.
We shall see…
Alright, that’s all I got for today.
I’ll probably pop back in tomorrow with another mailbag.
This was fun.
Enjoy your Saturday.
– Justin
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