Gary Halbert was, and still is, one of the greatest direct response copywriters to have ever walked the planet.



Although I never had the opportunity to have met him in person, his overwhelmingly abrasive yet positively motivating personality (in my opinion) shined through in everything he did.

Through his newsletter"The Gary Halbert Letter" and his copywriting seminars, Gary produced some of the greatest success stories of our time.

He taught the secrets of how to write copy that produced results and anyone who was smart enough to follow his advice, harsh as it was at times, made a killing.

I know, because from the time I launched my first website online I've been following his writing style and even that of his colleagues and students.

In my studies of this amazing man and his copy, I was able to uncover a two key secrets that Gary used, that I believe can help anyone looking to dramatically improve the results they are getting from their current copy, whether online or offline.

They came to me like a breath of fresh air. In a world where everyone has an opinion about how to do just about everything, including how to write effective copy and sales letters, over complication has become the bane of many people's existence. Truth is?simplicity is the key to success!

These two secrets that I've seen Gary use are just that, SIMPLE. So what are they?

Desires and Duplication.

One of the best ways to sell any product or service is to tap into the hidden desires of your target market. Doing this helps you to appeal to their "self interest" and THAT my friend is far more powerful than the product or service you're selling!

You see, nobody cares about how great it is to sell more products through the use of "my or your" special techniques or strategies. But, if we tell them?

"The benefits of knowing exactly how to "make money on demand" from using simple yet persuasive words will infuse itself into every aspect of your life so much so that?you will unconsciously gain instant respect from your friends and family because of your newfound mental dominance."

?Now that will get them reading your copy and buying your stuff faster than you can imagine.

But tapping into that hidden desires isn't the only thing you need to do. At the beginning of this article I used a lead-in or opener that started with, "If you have ever dreamed?" and ended with "then this may be the most important article you have ever read about?"

Why did I do that?

Well first reason is because it is one of those phrases that opens your mind and starts tapping into your hidden desires. It also primes you for what's ahead. The second reason is because looking back at Gary's work, he repetitively used similar phrases like that for his lead-in and in other areas, on many of his greatest sales letters.

What the great Gary Halbert unconsciously knew, and I discovered later was that if self interest and hidden desires is what I was after, and this phrase works in current controls, then repetitively using persuasive phrases for different markets, and even similar markets, and applying it to my copy will work like magic!

Now, I might get in trouble for saying this because some people might take it the wrong way.

Swiping a compelling phrase, editing and re-using it for your specific product or service has been a copywriter's secret for decades. Notice I didn't say copy it word for word'I said, "swipe it" not plagiarize.

It's a very simple thing. When you find something that works, duplicate it. Simplicity is the key to copywriting success. Write to capture the hidden desires of your target market and duplicate successful copy.