How old is the classic formula for writing long form direct response ads, presentations and sales letters?

I used to think the oldest examples could be found in US publications from the late 1800s.

Now I’m not so sure.

Here is a form-perfect sales presentation embedded in the opera L’Elisir d’Amore (”The Elixir of Love”) by Gaetano Donizetti which premiered in Milan, Italy way back in 1832.

Dr. Dulcamara arrives in town as an unknown, catches the villagers attention, establishes his credentials, lays out the problem, shows how his product solves the problem, and then shows what a great deal his solution is.

He creates a sense of scarcity and a time limit to buy; uses testimonials to back up his claims; and then, only after he establishes his product’s value, reveals its price in classic infomericial style which, following his well-crafted build up, appears like a great bargain.

The villagers clamor for the product and the buying frenzy begins.

Yeah, he’s a ham and the whole thing is way over the top. This is a comic opera after all, but his sales sequence is impeccable.

The music isn’t bad either!

Here’s a rough translation:

DULCAMARA: Signore! Signori! Good day dear friends! Come closer…can you all hear me?
Now then, I reckon you’ve heard of me. That’s why you’ve turned out to cheer me.
I’m doctor of posology and modern pharmacology,
of medical essentials I’ve heaps of top credentials.
I’ve cured so many terminal cases
that I’m famous all over the world, and…and…in other places.
As one who loves the human race, my philanthropic feeling
requires my travelling place to place to share my gift of healing.
I empty out the hospitals wherever I arrive

It’s Dulcamara’s magic cure that makes the patients thrive, and eases the diseases so that dying men survive. Without my skill the deathly ill would not still be alive!

For flatulence, anaemia, lock-jaw or septicaemia, this potion here will clear it up… (concocted in Bohemia)
This tonic’s a salvation for chronic constipation,

I have here testimonials in praise of what I’ve done.
Here’s one from a Bavarian, a male octogenarian, who bought my primal water… then sired a baby daughter by Charlotte, who’s a starlet, and has just turned twenty-one!
And since then he has sired another daughter and a son!
The water that he’s taken is certain to awaken the slumbering libido of old men in search of fun!

For ladies of a certain age with bottoms growing bigger…this potion, made from thyme and sage, restores your girlish figure. Two spoonfuls of the liquor, you take each night with dinner.
In just a week, or quicker, you’ll look five kilos thinner.

There’s nothing like it anywhere. My friends, take my advice… because you’re all so nice, Ill give a special price!

As I’m the sole supplier, and stocks may soon expire, the limit’s ONE per buyer…
…unless you want it twice.

I’ve pills for disabilities, from dropsy to asthmatic wheeze, for every sniffle, cough and sneeze, I’ve remedies to stem disease.

And if your veins are varicose, the symptoms I can diagnose. I’d recommend a double dose of potions I suggest.

For gentlemen whose pates are bare, I’ve something here for loss of hair…applied for just a month, I swear, your thatch will match a grizzly bear. There’s nothing like it anywhere – you really have to try it. There’s nowhere else to buy it, from Paris to Trieste. I guarantee you won’t resent the paltry, piddling sum you’ve spent on hair restoring liniment – discovering you are blessed with shocks of locks that manifest – yes, more than you before possessed! The doctor always knows what’s best!

You’re convinced my potions cure you, but you’re looking apprehensive…you’re mistaken, I assure you, if you think that they’re expensive. Fifty lire? No. Thirty? No. Twenty? Some shops would charge you plenty! But for you, a proposition – I’ll discount my own commission and I’ll give away each bottle for ten lire – as a gift.

VILLAGERS: Just ten lire – what a bargain! What a sympathetic man…and honest too!

DULCAMARA: Here’s one more…this one’s stupendous! As a cure-all, it’s tremendous. Throughout Europe I have sold this to crowned heads and big-time spenders…but because my tour has ended, and you folks have been so splendid, it is yours for fifteen lire…twenty less than I intended.
(to assistant) Gelsomina, sound the trumpet! So then nothing could be clearer..each one bought saves twenty lire…so the more you buy, then the more you are saving… buy two, and put one away.
It’s the panacea so many are craving for syndromes unknown to most doctors today.
Time has shown I know better than they!

VILLAGERS: If we profit when we buy it, then we’re fools if we don’t try it. What a wonderful preparation, this all-purpose medication. Doctor, we shall never forget you. We’re so lucky you came to town. We’re so honoured we met you…such a man of great renown.

DULCAMARA: Now, some say doctors may be greedy, but you’ll find I’m kind and fair.
If I treat a patient who’s needy, I only charge what the poor beggar can bear.

VILLAGERS: A more kind, benevolent man you won’t find anywhere.

DULCAMARA: Ah! What I sacrifice, to relieve human suffering…my chief concern is in serving mankind.

VILLAGERS: A fairer man you’ll never find!

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Let’s get right to the point: LSD Deals.

What are they? And why are they so dangerous to your financial health –  and sanity.

I first heard the term “LSD deal” in a book by Robert Ringer. I don’t remember which one though I have a feeling it might have been “Looking Out for #1.” You can look it up.

The reason I’m writing this particular blog post is I wanted to point a friend to what Ringer had to say on the subject and much to my surprise when I googled the term nothing useful came up.

First of all, what is an LSD deal?

No, I don’t mean trade in illegal drugs.

I’m talking about deals that not only make no sense, but also waste incalculably large amounts of time, money, and energy. The folks pursuing them seem caught in the thrall of deep delusion.

It happens to everyone at least once at some point in their lives: young and old, male and female, rich and poor, intelligent and not so intelligent. As Ringer’s ingenious terminology implies, there’s something about these deals that cause folks to lose their connection with reality.

Let’s start out by looking at some obvious LSD deals.

How about paying $400 a share for an Internet startup that’s not only never made a profit, but also barely made a sale? That kind of insanity was very popular not all that long ago.

How about packaging real estate loans that were never signed, never recorded, and were made under terms that the borrowers could not possibly dream of meeting?

That’s the financial disaster the world economic system is currently trying to dig itself out from. Keep in mind less than five years ago these kind of transactions were considered absolutely “normal.”

Of course, neither the $400 per share Internet IPO or the $10 million package of loans made to people under highly dodgy circumstances made any sense at all, but the people flogging the stuff “believed” and the people buying it “believed” too.

Functionally, there is no practical difference between the people who got involved in these businesses and people tripping their brains out on a powerful hallucinogen, thus Ringer’s apt term the LSD deal.

I’m not picking on you

I mention these two examples first so that no one will think that I’m picking on them individually.

After all, both these MEGA LSD deals were endorsed by institutions like Harvard University, Columbia University, the Federal Reserve Bank, the White House, “leading economists”, and various captains of industry.

So if you find yourself caught up in an LSD deal, don’t beat yourself up, but do disengage and move on. LSD deals are quite possibly the most dangerous thing on earth when it comes to your wealth, health, and sanity.

How to know when you’re involved in an LSD deal:

1. You love talking about it, thinking about it, dreaming about it –  but not a whole lot of practical activity (i.e. money making) is going on.

2. You’re waiting for: a) the right partner, b) the right investor, and/or c) the right break before the “magic” can start happening.

3. You’ve done absolutely no market research, or your market research is months and sometimes years old, or your market research involves talking to yourself about how great your product, project or idea are.

The antidote to LSD deals

Remind yourself of how business works:

You take things off your shelf, pass them across the counter, and somebody gives you enough money in exchange so there is a clear profit in the transaction for you. You have a repeatable system in place for this to happen day in and day out.

That’s a business. Most everything else is a hallucination, an LSD deal.

It’s true that some deals and ventures take longer to bring together than others and there can be an extended waiting and ramp up period. Okay, that’s fine as long as what you’re working towards is going to look like the description of business in the paragraph above.

Another sure sign of an LSD deal is vagueness on the details.

Instead the process is: a) run around, b) talk a lot about what you’re doing, c) experience huge emotional highs (and lows), and d) at the end of the day avoid looking at your empty ledger book.

Here are the tell tale signs of being in a REAL business

Business happens when money changes hands.

Business happens when your total sales are more than your cost of goods, marketing, and operations costs.

Business happens when you can put your hands on your customer list and say “these are the people who buy from me.”

Business happens when there is a clear, definable, reachable market for what it is you have to sell.

I might be leaving a criteria or two out in this definition, but you get the idea.

It’s perfectly fine to pursue dreams and passions. The fact is a lot of what we consider humanity’s greatest achievements have come from people who pursued dreams and passions.

But in the meantime…

Keep your eye on the ball

If people aren’t giving you money you can bring to the bank –  not promises of money, or hopes of money –  in exchange for your goods and services, then you need to get that part right and get it right right now.

Not only will this “boring” approach to business make life more comfortable and pleasant for you, it will also increase the odds that you’ll reach some of your most ambitious goals and biggest visions.

Thoreau said it’s okay to build castles in the sky, just remember you also have to build them on the ground too. Good advice.

Now, at last, there is an article on the web which explaines one of the most important concepts in business: the LSD deal – What it is, why it’s so dangerous, how to recognize when you’re in one, and what to do to get out of one and onto a more productive track.

I hope you found it useful.

Optimism and positive thinking are essential tools for success. So is having your feet firmly on the ground and learning to avoid the quicksand.

Learning to analyze business ideas before you invest time, money and effort in them is one of the most useful skills you can learn as an entrepreneur and training in this skill has run through all our System programs over the last sixteen years.

It may be why so many of our students have been so successful over the years and why we have new success stories year in and year out.

Good luck!

Ken McCarthy

The System Seminar

P.S. The last public System Seminar will be held April 15 – 17th, 2011 in the New York City area.

Full details: The System Seminar

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In Economics Made Simple – Part One, we saw that governments just love to mess with the money supply.

One school of economic thought, the Keynesian School, think that’s a great idea.

(Before you attribute Keynesian manipulation to the “right” or the “left,” understand that they ALL do it. It was Ronald Reagan who kicked off the bubble that’s dominated the US economy since 1980.)

The other school of economic thought thought, the Austrian School, says the government should stay the heck out of manipulating the money supply.

Why?

Because it doesn’t work in the long run. The piper always has to be paid and in the meantime, the waste and excess that is spawned during bubble times is not good for society or real wealth building.

I’m in the Austrian school, all the way.

Who cares?

Does the broader economy matter to the individual entrepreneur?

Does a bear s*** in the woods?

True, during a bubble time, the state of the economy might not matter that much. In fact, a lot of loony ventures that wouldn’t work in normal times, thrive during bubbles. Ignorance can be bliss – and profitable.

But when the bubble goes the other way and things tighten up, intelligence (i.e. being interested in the wider world around you) pays obvious dividends again.

First, the little question

Let’s take care of the little question first…Is the recovery real?

To quote a sage friend of mine: “This recovery has everything going for it – except customers.”

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no recovery. Bogus pyrotechnics on the stock market does not mean that the marketplace – the place where real people buy and sell – is in good shape.

Sure some businesses are flourishing. Well run, well positioned business, in “fortunate” niches are doing great, but the vast majority of of business activity – and buying – is down across the board.

…And the problem is structural: heavy debt overhang taken on when blue skies looked like they were going on for ever and ever.

If you get your business news from CNBC, you’re going to argue with me on this point. OK, I give up. Larry Kudrow and Jim Kramer are financial geniuses. You win.

The real question

The real question is will the insane excesses of recent years lead us to inflation (or hyperinflation) or deflation (price crashes.)

The average thinking person assumes that the bailouts are inflationary. It’s a reasonable position to take – unless you include one variable: scale.

Here’s what I mean…

If someone turns on a garden hose and just sprays water in the air all day and night, that would seem pretty wasteful, wouldn’t it?

But step back and look at the bigger picture.

What if that same person is spraying his garden hose in an attempt to fill up Lake Mead after Hoover Dam has collapsed? (Thanks Robert Prechter for this analogy.)

Now a completely different picture emerges.

It won’t work

Yes, it’s a shame to waste all that good water AND it’s nowhere near enough water to work.

Yes, it’s obscene that first Bush and then Obama have been shoveling untold trillions of dollars down a black hole trying to “shore up” the banking system AND as big as these bailout numbers are, they are absolutely dwarfed by the size of the problem.

The problem: Money is disappearing from the economy faster than it can be replaced. Where is it going?

Well, a $1 million house in Miami is now worth say $395,000. $695,000 in value just went up in smoke. No one else made it. It’s just gone. Poof!

The bank that made a loan based on the $1 million valuation counted on getting its money back some day and with a profit no less. The owner counted on being able to sell the property and capture the profit or borrow against it.

No more.

Multiply that by tens of thousands of properties in Florida, mix with fifty states, throw in commercial real estate, and a countless number of enterprises that are selling less, earning less and therefore worth less and you’ve got a massive exit of dollars from the economy that even reckless bailouts can’t fill.

It’s all supply and demand.

A dollar shortage means cash is more valuable, NOT less. When cash gains in value, prices go down. Inflation is the opposite. Dollars become less valuable so the prices people demand go up.

The 1980’s, 1990’s, and 2000’s were a massively inflationary period – in real estate, in stock prices, in commodities, in business valuations – now we’re coming down the other side.

Why you’ll never hear this on TV

This is not simple stuff which is why most people get it wrong.

You’ll rarely hear this scenario being discussed intelligently or in depth.

Why?

It’s not profitable for TV channels to talk about it.

Take CNBC as an example (please). It sells its airtime to one-million-and-one financial services companies, all of whom want you to turn your cash into their financial products.

Even if the smartest thing in the world right now (and for the time being it is), is to keep your cash in US dollars and in safe places, CNBC will NEVER tell you that because its advertisers would have a fit.

They’re pitching, not reporting or teaching

Speaking of “fits,” notice that CNBC’s stock picking rock star Jim Kramer tells people to BUY-BUY-BUY and SELL-SELL-SELL, but he never tells us about the third option which is to go to and stay in cash until things blow over. And you know what, he never will.

To translate this into practical advice: Don’t borrow to buy things at TODAY’S prices and only make big purchases (like real estate) if you absolutely have to – and you don’t, you can always rent.

If you continue to “play” the market – and anybody who owns stock is “playing the market” even if it’s in a conservative mutual fund – it’s best to realize you’re playing with a grenade whose pin has been pulled. Play if you must, but be ready to move fast or face an unpleasant outcome.

If you own a business, tighten up. If you can expand without taking on obligations, go for it, but the theme of the day is batten down the hatches. Get smart. If you’re going to invest, invest in improving your game.

The good news is that flexible, well run, marketing-savvy enterprises are going to be the best place to be.

Guiding lights

I’ve mentioned before that my guide to these times is Robert Prechter. (Not-so-coincidentally, you will see my name on the cover of the latest edition of his prophetic book “Conquering the Crash.”)

I’m also a big fan of Hugh Hendry, a hedge fund manager from the UK who was not fooled by the bubble and not only survived the 2008-2009 crash, but made money during it.

This is not simple stuff, but when you wrap your mind around it – and you can if you want to – you’ll be living in totally different (and better) world than people who are getting their info from CNBC and other totally unreliable sources.

It’s worth taking the time to get it right because fortunes will be made by people who get this right.

This video which I found on YouTube explains it as well as I’ve seen it explained anywhere (and after you watch the video, take advantage of the free report link at the bottom of this article.)

- Ken McCarthy

P.S. If you’re still following this, you’re probably interested in turning all this into some practical advice. Last summer I wrote and gave away something called the Independence Day Blueprint.

I was motivated to write it because I noticed that a lot of my successful students were spending like there was no tomorrow. Others were doing “smart” things with their money like piling it up in mutual funds. Ouch!

So long before the crash starting in 2005, I started beating the drum and warning about the coming inevitable credit contraction.

Some listened, some didn’t. Those that did were happy, I know at least three families that saved multiple six figures because they considered what I was saying seriously, told their broker to stuff it, and put all their money in cash (cash money market funds, treasury bills, savings accounts in highly rated banks.)

This summer I put all my ideas into the Independence Day Blueprint and planned to give it away on the 4th of July to anyone who asked for it. I did – for that one day. Then I took it down and planned to come back later and market it.

Then the reality of my schedule hit me. I’m never going to find the time to market this report for what it’s worth.

So rather than have it sit in my digital filing cabinet where it won’t do anybody any good, I’m making it available to anyone who wants it for free.

But this is it. Get it, read it, use it.

To get your free copy:

Click here for Independence Day Blueprint

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What happens when a Spike TV producer and an economics professor get together?

This entertaining – and informative – video explains the two major theories of modern economics.

One, Keynesian, says when you run into trouble, print more money. The other position, Austrian, championed by Friedrich Hayek, says “not so fast.”

I live as if the Austrians are right and, if you ask me, I recommend that you do too.

No answers, but it’s good to know the questions.

- Ken McCarthy

P.S. Today (January 31, 2009) is the last day for the early bird tuition special for System Seminar 2010.

I’m the only person – in the world – who’s taught practical online marketing before the boom…during the dotcom boom…during the dotcom crash…during the Bubble of the 2000s…and during the present crisis. Sixteen years in all.

I always bake economic reality and sobriety into every course.

Could be why our enrollment is way up this year over last while the rest of the so-called competition is fading.

Details: The System Seminar 2010 – Chicago, IL

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Saints 31, Vikings 28

It was an honorable, hard-fought game. I won’t gloat in victory.

Either team could have easily won.

I’m not going to say the best team won, but it is true that the team that got the points on the scoreboard first when it mattered did – and there’s a giant lesson right there, and three related bonus ones for good measure:

=== Uber-Lesson ===

Great team, great plan, great productivity etc. don’t mean a thing if you’re not putting points on the board – in a TIMELY way

Football – and business – is not about having the best stats.

It’s about having the best business and that’s calculated in sales made, profits earned and taking money off the table (wealth, also known by the boring old word “savings.”)

Three more related lessons:

1. Protect the quarterback

The Vikings did a pretty good job of that. The Saints did a GREAT job. It made all the difference in the world.

In business, this translates to “protect the boss.” In other words, if you work for somebody, WORK for them. If you’re the boss, expect respect and loyalty.

I see a whole lot of otherwise great leaders make this mistake. They put their staff’s well being first (good), they give their staff’s credit (good), but they’re too lenient and tolerate less-than-stellar performance from employees.

This is bad for all kinds of reasons, but here’s the key one: Yes, business and football are team efforts, but neither is going anywhere without a quarterback who is protected so he can do what he (or she) can uniquely do.

Three kinds of people

There are three kinds of people in the world: 1) people who know how to be respectful and loyal, 2) people who are learning, and 3) people who don’t know, don’t care and/or are genetically incapable of things like honesty, integrity, and loyalty.

My advice as soon as you get the first whiff that someone is in the third category, out they go, preferably head first. (This includes “little” things like showing up late and not honoring simple commitments.)

As for folks in the second category (they’re learning), make a clear decision as to whether you want to invest your time and effort in mentoring them to become fully functional human beings. It will be expensive, even it you’re successful.

My take on this is? Let someone else teach them.

There are plenty of people who automatically and reflexively “protect the quarterback.” Why on earth have anyone else on your team?

2. Doing everything right “most” of the time is not good enough

Once you “get” the fundamentals and make applying them a reflex, the next thing is to be on guard against mistakes. The Vikings did everything right, except for a few bone-headed beginners’ mistakes that cost them the game.

Top performers in the high-stakes business of commodity trading will tell you: making money trading is not just about racking up huge profits. It’s also about being relentlessly vigilant and not accidentally giving away the farm through careless blunders.

Sales-oriented entrepreneurs often fail to learn this lesson.

They’re so focused on their great plays, they never look up at the scoreboard and see that they’re actually losing because they’re not paying strict attention to all the boring – but absolutely essential – parts of business that keep things on track and in the black.

3. Don’t be good, be great

If you’re going to go through the effort of tackling somebody, why not take the small extra step of trying to force a fumble?

The Saints did this and enough of their attempts succeeded that it won them the game. Extra energy expended? Just a little thought and consistency.

It’s the same in business.

Too many folks just go through the motions and do everything “right,” but fail to apply that little bit of extra tactical effort that can turn a commonplace interaction into a game changing one.

It’s the fine points relentlessly applied that can make all the difference.

Summary

1. If you’ve got a good leader, respect and protect him. If you are a good leader, expect the same from your staff.

2. Do things right and pay at least equal attention to not doing things wrong

3. Why settle for being good when a little extra thought and execution can make you great?

- Ken

P.S. As promised, to celebrate last night’s historic win, I’m giving Saints fans – and all other smart business owners – a one-time chance to join us at System 2010 at a super price.

For two days only, January 25 and 26, we’re rolling back tuition to the 2009 level.

in sixteen years, we have NEVER done anything like this before and since the Saints are never going to Super Bowl again for the first time, don’t count on it happening twice.

This truly once in a lifetime sale expires midnight January 26, 2010.

Details:

http://www.thesystemseminar.com/register.html

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Drew Brees has cracked the word’s best kept success secret: W-O-R-K with enthusiasm thrown in for good measure.

Even if you don’t like football, you should watch this. If you’re a fan, this will blow your mind.

If you’re wondering how Drew Brees got so good watch all the way through to the end.

If Drew Brees were an Internet marketer, he’d be on the System 2010 faculty.

He’s our kind of guy: hard working, modest, and as good at it gets.

- Ken

P.S. Here’s the deal: If the Saints win, we’re going to roll back the end-of-the-year tuition for System 2010 for 48 hours for anyone who missed the deal (it was a sweet one.)

The game starts this Sunday at 6:45 PM.

P.P.S. If the Saints win…no make then WHEN they win…the sale will go on for all day Monday and Tuesday of next week. Watch the video – be amazed – Go Saints!

http://www.TheSystemSeminar.com

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We end the decade today.

If you’re wondering what the next decade is going to bring for Internet marketing, consider this:

At the end of the last decade…

* Dotcom stocks were heading straight up in one of the biggest orgies of manic stock buying the world has ever seen

* Banner ads were selling at massive (and irrational) premiums

* Pay-per-click advertising (then offered by just one company, GoTo.com) was considered an oddity

* Yahoo was the 800 pound gorilla in Internet media

What a difference ten years can make

Today:

* The NASDAQ still hasn’t come even close to recovering its Year 2000 heights

* Banner ads are sanely priced

* Yahoo appears totally hopeless

* Pay-per-click advertising (mainly in the form of Google AdWords) has taken over the world

Crazy times

I was there ten years ago.

Actually, I was there seventeen years ago (1993) when I started making my first tentative experiments online. I had the once-in-a-lifetime thrill of witnessing and participating in the birth of a new medium.

But all was not sunny in Internet Land.

By 1998, I reached a point of total bafflement at what was going on in San Francisco and Silicon Valley in the Internet industry I helped pioneer.

People I knew to be hopeless idiots and in some cases outright scammers were being helped by New York investment banks like Goldman Sachs to loot billions of dollars from the stock market by selling shares in companies so loony that they defied belief.

That year, the fall of 1998, I voted with my feet, said “bye” to the Bay Area digerati crowd (who thought I was nuts) and moved back east to the sleepy, beautiful and then low-priced Hudson Valley to wait for the inevitable.

A year and a few months later, New Year’s Eve 1999, I watched in amazement as Internet shares that were already insanely priced went straight up.

Then it all fell apart

By the end of 2000, Internet companies were vanishing in droves.

Companies valued at hundreds of dollars per share were selling for pennies…if they were still in business at all. And as the months progressed, the implosion became more and more severe.

When I went back to San Francisco in 2003 after having been away for nearly five years, it was like a neutron bomb had hit the place. The buildings were still standing, but the people – and the companies – were gone.

In the middle of the wreckage, I did something that a lot of people thought was crazy. In 2001, I started working on a new Internet marketing training. In 2002, I launched it.

It was called the System Seminar.

The turn around

I created the System Seminar with a simple premise…

In spite of the crash of bogus Internet companies, the Internet itself was as solid as a rock – and it was going to grow, this time for real.

How could I be so sure?

For the same reason, I was willing to risk substantial time, money, energy and my reputation for sanity by putting on the first web marketing conference ever (November 1994, San Francisco.)

This time around though, things were going to be different.

The big change

The big change – and we built it right into the very first System Seminar – was that Internet advertising was going to be based on careful calculations of ROI (return on investment.)

In a way, this was nothing new. Old school direct marketers have been tracking the profitability of their ad buys for decades.

But this was a brand new concept to many on the Internet.

It’s hard to believe now, ten years after the fact, but it’s true. Before the System Seminar, only a handful of scrappy Internet entrepreneurs were tracking anything besides “hits” and the cost of banner ads.

I’m not going to take credit for the massive sea change that’s taken place in the last ten years

But I will take credit for being the first to put it on the line to teach this approach as the only one that makes sense for Internet marketers when nearly everyone else was still talking about “branding” and “mindshare.”

The big change – Part Two

In 2002 (2001 actually if you count our early beta trainings), the System Seminar was the only place on earth where you could learn an integrated approach to Internet marketing…

…One that combined smart online media buying and careful results tracking with “old school” smarts like direct response copywriting and list management.

From the very beginning, our focus was on pay-per-click. We even mentioned Google AdWords at our first seminar, even though it had only just launched and no one really understood how it worked yet.

Fast forward a few years and two of the attendees at that first System seminar (both then total PPC “newbies”) wrote what have become the two definitive books on the subject (See Perry Marshall’s “Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords” and Howie Jacobson’s “Google AdWords for Dummies.”)

Thanks to its PPC revenues, some say that Google is poised to take over the earth.

Not so fast Google

Here’s what absolutely won’t change in the coming decade:

* The Internet will continue to be a central part of hundreds of millions of people’s lives. If anything, it will become even more central as the Internet solidifies its position as the “central switching station” for all media: text, audio, video, buying, selling, communicating, chatting, gossiping etc.)

* Consumers will continue to seek VALUE in their purchases and if my crystal ball is working, they will be even more militant about getting value for their money in the years to come.

* Advertisers – the ones who are going to survive that is – are going to become even more sophisticated about tracking their results and making sure they get the best possible value for their money.

What this is going to look like is smart Internet marketers diversifying away from Google AdWords.

AdWords will continue to be an important part of the mix, but anyone who is not taking energetic, aggressive steps to free themselves from dependence on Google for their traffic is going to have cause for regret.

Strategy for System 2010

I’ve been writing ad copy since I was in high school and started paying the rent with my efforts back in the mid 1980s.

I am a serious student of the game.

Copywriting is the switch that turns raw traffic into money.

I don’t know how to state it forcefully enough but here goes: Traffic is worthless without masterful conversion and conversion is just a fancy word for ad copy, so in a very real way the whole game of Internet marketing boils down to copywriting.

In all the noise about Twitter, Facebook and other “mindshare building tools” a lot of internet marketers have lost sight of what matters in Internet marketing.

To bring us all back to reality in 2010, I’m bringing in two Big Guns of the copywriting world to System 2010 – both multi-decade veterans who write real ad copy for real companies selling real products to real people. Both master teachers…

But don’t take my word for it. They’re both published authors with their books continuously in print: Bob Bly from the US and Drayton Bird from the UK. Google them.

The other piece of the puzzle: traffic

Great copywriting, as important as it is, is not enough.

You need the second part of the equation: traffic.

I’m a big fan of SEO, article marketing, JVs, viral marketing and all the other “free” ways you can drive traffic on the Internet. Over the years, we’ve offered scores of trainings and master classes on these subjects.

But none of these methods can hold a candle to the simple, reliable method of simply buying the traffic you need.

If you want to maximize your potential on the Internet, buying traffic is where it’s at.

Here’s why:

Buying traffic lets you turn on the traffic you need right now, not weeks and month from now.

If you’re already a traffic buyer you already know that Internet traffic is the Eighth Wonder of the world.

You can buy a little, test it, amplify what works and turn off what doesn’t.

It takes skill, know-how and paying attention, but knowing how to buy Internet traffic comes as close to money-on-demand as anything on earth.

Why it’s so hard to get good information about traffic buying

Two facts:

1. There are no “old” traffic buyers. Not yet, anyway.

Most of the traffic sources that matter today (like pay-per-click) weren’t even around ten years ago.

2. People who are good at traffic buying generally don’t teach.

Traffic buying is a demanding and lucrative specialty. Taking time away from the main event to teach it to others is not something most traffic buyers ever think of doing, let alone are willing to make the serious effort to do.

That’s where the System Seminar has a major leg up over every other Internet marketing training.

Just as people like Perry Marshall and Howie Jacobson were motivated by their experience as System Seminar students to document and share what they learned about AdWords, the new generation of System-inspired Internet marketers is ready and willing to do the same with what they’ve learned about the nut and bolts of buying traffic today…in 2009, soon to be 2010.

Our System 2010 traffic faculty

For the first time ever, we’ll have traffic buyers on this year’s System faculty who have spent (and continue to spend) and track millions of dollars of their own money on Internet ad buys: Greg Davis, who specializes in high volume mass appeal consumer offers and Ben Moskel who specializes in a highly competitive niche where traffic costs are at a premium.

Both are real-world experts in uncovering new traffic sources, testing them, and figuring out how to make them pay. Their knowledge is not theoretical – and you won’t find it in any book or course. It’s based on the market as it is right now.

To round out our faculty, Google-certified Timothy Seward of ROI Revolution who guides the purchase of tens of millions of dollars a year in traffic for over seventy companies, will share his perspective on what’s working today, where things are headed, and what it takes to maximize the profits of an Internet business.

Steal this seminar

If you’re reading this before January 1, 2010, you have the chance to get all this cutting-edge knowledge at a bargain basement price.

Every year, we make the System Seminar available to people who can make an early decision to get a bargain price.

If you’re an Internet marketer and you’re already buying traffic for your business, System 2010 will be some of the best time and money you’ve ever spent.

If you’re looking to make the leap into Internet traffic buying, System 2010 will:

a) show you what’s really involved (no sugar coating),
b) cut months if not years off your learning curve, and
c) help you get where you want to go faster without making expensive mistakes.

The fact is one wrong move in traffic buying can easily cost you several multiples of the price of System Seminar 2010. (You may even be making an expensive traffic buying mistake right now and not even realize it.)

Our traffic buying faculty has already made most of the big, dumb, expensive mistakes so you don’t have to.

Even more important, they’ve dug up traffic sources and refined tracking methods that are practically guaranteed to improve your bottom line.

Early Bird Registration Deadline: December 31, 2009

How much for this hard won, can’t-be-found-anywhere-else knowledge?

For the multi-decade experience of two master direct response copywriters with hundreds of campaigns each under their belts…

For the rough and tumble know-how of two master multi-million dollar traffic buyers…

For the insights of one of the sharpest Internet campaign advisors in the business, certified by Google…

And for the insight of yours truly, the guy who’s been at this now for seventeen years, consistently finding you the right people at the right time for your next right move?

Check it out.

You may be pleasantly surprised at how affordable all this is when you’re an early bird.

But do it by midnight December 31, 2009.

Details:

http://www.TheSystemSeminar.com

Ken

P.S. Happy New Year!

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True story…

I was once interviewed my someone (a serious marketer) who before he started the recording asked if it was OK if he mentioned John Caples.

“Of course!” I replied. “Why do you ask?”

His answer was one of those things that initially shocked but did not surprise me…”Because half of the Internet marketing ‘experts’ I interview these days won’t let me mention anything that they can’t earn a commission from.”

That, sadly, sums up the state-of-affairs in much of what is called Internet marketing “education” today.

It’s a jungle out there. Choose your advisors wisely. Some have a vested interest in you not knowing what’s going on.

Be all you can be. Read.

Whether you’re the rawest new beginner or a seasoned pro with years under your belt, there are two things you need to know about Internet marketing:

1. Internet marketing is direct marketing
2. There is a gold mine of information on the subject contained in the many excellent books real marketing experts have written over the years

I know of no better way to accelerate your progress while at the same time improving your BS detector than to read – and continuously read – the books I call the Classics.

The secret, “they” hope you never find out

I try to spend at least 15 to 20 minutes every day going over one or more of these books.

It may not seem like much time, but it adds up.

Just 20 minutes a day is over two hours a week which is over 100 hours a year. That’s a brain changing (and life changing) chunk of time. I’ve been doing it for over twenty years myself.

As I’ve told all my students since Day One and repeat at every System Seminar: “Soak your brains in these books.They will change your life.”

You can do this – and why you should

This list could be much longer, but ten is plenty. In fact, any one of these books has the power to be life changing for you.

No matter what your budget of time and/or money, you can afford this “program.” In fact, I’d say nobody, no matter how much they already know, can afford not to do it.

The most successful marketers I know are invariably the most serious readers – and the very best ones never stop.

My Top Ten Reading List

1. My Life in Advertising – Claude Hopkins
2. Tested Advertising Methods – John Caples (Fourth edition or earlier)
3. How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling – Frank Bettger
4. Scientific Advertising – Claude Hopkins
5. How to Write a Good Advertisement – Victor Schwab
6. My First Sixty Years in Advertising – Maxwell Sackheim
7. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail – Richard Benson
8. Breakthrough Advertising – Eugene Schwartz
9. The Robert Collier Letter Book – Robert Collier
10. Common Sense Direct and Digital Marketing – Drayton Bird

While some of these books are hard to find, many are readily available in low cost editions.

Reading just one will make your year. Making them a part of your day will change your life.

The real secret of marketing success

Successful marketing comes from developing a way of thinking.

It’s not a the result of a bag of tricks and it’s certainly won’t come from a “coaching” program sold out of high pressure telephone boiler room.

Success is largely a do-it-yourself process.

It helps a lot if you have someone close to you who can show you the ropes. I didn’t. So I read.

By reading, I gradually found the real experts who knew what they were talking about.

I’m not saying I never went down a wrong path or was never fooled by a personable con artist. I have been. Plenty of times. But because of these books, even in the worst of times, I’ve always had a reliable rudder which has kept me on course.

Be all you can be. Read.

Best,

Ken

P.S. Our annual System Seminar is rooted in the direct marketing classics.

This year, we’ll be meeting April 9 through 11 and as has been true for the last five years our meeting will be in Chicago.

I picked Chicago as our annual “headquarters” because the Chicago area has the biggest concentration of direct marketers in the world. More even than New York.

It’s the place Claude Hopkins and Maxwell Sackheim, the guys who practically invented direct marketing, cut their teeth.

You can read all about this year’s faculty and the subjects we’ll be covering here: Click here for more information

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The first book I ever read about advertising was David Ogilvy’s “Confessions of an Advertising Man.”

One of the smartest things I ever did in my life was to take Ogilvy’s advice to read Claude Hopkins’ book “Scientific Advertising” at least seven times.

I did – and many more times than that. I still read it along with Hopkins’ autobiography “My Life in Advertising.”

Now there’s a brand new – and excellent – biography of David Ogilvy written by long time colleague and Ogilvy & Mather adman Kenneth Roman: “The King of Madison Avenue”

There’s so much of value in this new bio – but here’s one gem.

Here Ogilvy describes his company Ogilvy & Mather:

“..the most precious asset we have is probably our ETHOS – the spirit which binds all our offices together all over the world (Note: O&M had over 100 offices.) It embraces:

Intellectual honesty – with our clients and with each other
Thoroughness – as opposed to superficiality
Professionalism – in everything we do
The emphasis we place on character – in choosing people for key jobs
Pride in O&M – tempered by unrelenting discontent with our shortcomings.”

I like all these Ogilvy principles, especially the last: “Pride…tempered by unrelenting discontent.”

It’s a marathon, not a sprint

If you’re giving it your all and you’re working to the highest possible standards, you should be proud of your efforts.

But if you’re smart and you intend to continue succeeding year after year, you’ll realize that best is still yet to come and you’re only really just getting warmed up no matter what success you’ve had.

Technique is important, but it can’t replace this kind of deep-in-the-bones dedication to doing things right.

In that spirit, I’m happy to say that 2010 will mark our sixteenth consecutive year of offering fundamentally sound, cutting edge, and principled training in Internet marketing.

This year, Drayton Bird, a direct marketing pro with over forty years experience will be joining us in Chicago as a featured speaker at System 2010.

Among other things, Drayton is an alumnus of Ogilvy & Mather.

Drayton sold his UK direct marketing agency to O&M, became one of their key DM executives, and was the person Ogilvy entrusted with teaching direct marketing principles throughout the agency’s 100 + worldwide offices.

Details about the event

For more information about System Seminar 2010, Drayton Bird and the rest of our faulty: Click here

Ken

P.S .If you’re reading this before December 31, 2009 and you intend to join us in Chicago, please note that the super “early bird” tuition discount deadline offer expires December 31, 2009.

For more information about System Seminar 2010: Click here

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Can you really condense a seminar’s worth of copywriting advice in just 140 characters or less?

Seven marketers took a stab at it. Here’s what they posted to Twitter in the order they posted.

Some good stuff!

“Only 3 things matter in copywriting: The reader starts reading, he keeps reading, he takes the action you want him to. That’s it.”
- Twitter.com/KenMcCarthy

“Good copy offers relevant benefits with every reason to grasp them; what you miss if you don’t; dispels disbelief and stays in the mind.”
- Twitter.com/DraytonBird

“Copywriting: the art of using words to create first interest, then action.”
– Twitter.com/ShelHorowitz

“Who Am I, What Do I Have, Why Do You Need It, Here’s How You Can Get It Fast!”
- Twitter.com/ChefMarkGarcia

“Get his attention by meeting and stimulating the interests (already on his mind) and meet his desire with an irresistible offer”
- Twitter.com/Andy_Moose

“Get clear on what counts, create, wait, edit, test, keep what works, do it again.”
- Twitter.com/Adriel_Brunson

“Copywriting is: Getting attention and keeping it long enough that the reader takes your desired action.”
- Twitter.com/Healymonster

“Copywriting is conclusively proving that you offer the best solution to the prospect’s problem so they act NOW”
- Twitter.com/shaunoreilly

“Copywriting is discovering what people want & showing them how to get it (in print). It’s not “original” but works for me ;0)”
- Twitter.com/bensettle

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