Copywriting – Josh Earl

Can Bonuses Actually Hurt Sales?

I spent the first half of 2017 on a massive project: Launching The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide, written by my business partner, John. Overall the launch went great—we hit #2 on all of Amazon for non-fiction (actually it was #1, since we only lost out to a John Grisham novel that was *ahem* completely […]

The case against testing headlines

Recently I shared the results of an interesting study. A group of researchers looked at hundreds of A/B tests for ecommerce stores, and basically validated what experienced copywriters have said for generations: Don’t waste your time fiddling with cosmetics. Test big things like your guarantee or adding customer testimonials. In response, reader Karl points out […]

7 Questions For Copywriting Client Interviews

Whenever I start a new marketing project, whether it’s a consulting gig, a project for a client in my freelance days, or sponsorship or affiliate deals for Simple Programmer, step 1a is: Conducting an interview. Preferably with the founder of the business, or else someone who has day-to-day contact with customers. I used to get […]

Don’t Know What to Say in Your Copy? Ask This One-Word Question

In my early days as a newspaper reporter, I had the “5 W’s” drilled into me. You know: Who? What? When? Where? Why? (Some people add on “How?” for good measure.) Every time I hit a marketing challenge and I’m not sure where to start, I go back to the 5 W’s—especially the first one. […]

How “Pitching” Your Blog Posts To Your Email Subscribers Can Get You More Readers

My business partner John is a one-man content creation juggernaught. To give you an idea, this guy: – Wrote a 3,000-word blog post every week for 7 years – Created 55 video courses on different programming topics in less than 2 years – Cranked out 2 500+ page books – Now records 2-3 YouTube videos […]

Do You ‘Need’ A Different Sales Funnel For Each Product?

I’ll be the first to admit it— The way I run the email list for Simple Programmer is WAY more complex than most businesses need. Multiple email courses, behavior-based automated triggers, segmentation… Most people would do much better to take a simple approach. Just how simple? That’s what subscriber Javier is pondering: If you have […]

Confessions of a Compulsive ‘Word Hoarder’

In college I had this problem whenever I went to write a paper. The professors would always assign some arbitrary length—”10 pages, double spaced.” Invariably I’d be working on my draft, and around 8 pages in I’d slam into a wall. I’d covered all my points, said everything I wanted to say. Where on earth […]

5 Tips for Writing Emails When You’re Short on Time

Subscriber Chad recently took the plunge and signed up for CopyHour (excellent decision—I’m sure he will not regret it). However… He now finds himself in a time crunch: Josh — Loving CopyHour. But, my daily email efforts are a mess now. I’ve got ideas whirling and I’m off message and letting too many typos slip […]

Away From Pain Or Toward Pleasure: Which Is Better?

One of the most frustrating things when you’re learning a new topic is all the conflicting information and advice you hear. Occasionally the conflict arises because the information is just BAD. Based on myths, junk science, political agendas, what have you. More often though, the problem is that a particular piece of advice works SPECTACULARLY […]

How to Capture Attention with a Winning ‘Sales Argument’

I just wrapped up a product launch at Simple Programmer. This project had a couple of unique twists to it. For one thing, I was NOT the one writing most of the copy. Instead I was “copy chiefing” a software developer and (relatively) new copywriter named Dan. Then there was the topic of the course […]

From Reluctant Marketer to Confident Copywriter

This is a story about my longtime buddy Derick. Like me, Derick is a software developer and entrepreneur. He runs a website called WatchMeCode, where he sells screencasts about software development. There’s something you should know about Derick: He is without a doubt the most RELUCTANT marketer I’ve ever met. When I first got to […]

Avoid this ‘Email Neutering’ Mistake

Continuing yesterday’s theme of “pummeling my best students”… Here’s another tip I gave Jason on his “learn to build 3D games” course launch emails. (Jason’s officially at least a brown belt at this now, so he can take it.) The fourth or fifth email in his launch series tells the “origin story” of his product. […]

Avoid This Common ‘Dead Fish’ Email Opening Line

Check this: One of my students from the 4-week email copywriting workshop I taught last fall, a software developer named Jason, is launching his first product now (a course on 3D game development). He’s been giving me blow-by-blow updates, which I’ve enjoyed immensely. He’s kicking butt with his launch emails too— Until, that is, he […]

Should Your Copy Skew ‘Negative’ or ‘Positive’?

Nobody likes a Debbie Downer, amirite? So why, asks subscriber Ant, did I often use a negative angle in my copy? Quoth he: When you created the ‘5 Learning Mistakes’ email course, did you think about making it positive rather than negative and if so, what was the reason you went with negative? i.e. 5 […]

How To Stop ‘Sales Page Skimmers’ Cold In Their Tracks

Circling back on something I hinted at yesterday: There are a couple of techniques you can use to keep people from “skimming” your sales pages and emails—encouraging them to read every word instead. Last week I spent an hour or so watching screen recordings of prospective customers reading one of my sales pages. Multiple times […]

6 Lessons From A Sales Page ‘Peeping Tom’

Earlier this month I flew out to balmy San Diego for the Traffic & Conversion summit, put on by Digital Marketer. I returned with a mild sunburn, and a hefty list of ideas and to-dos. One suggestion I had to try out right away came from marketing whiz Perry Belcher: Make screen recordings of your […]

Why I Don’t Do ‘Autoresponder’ Emails

Another question from last week’s multi-email “half-marathon”: Josh – is this email part of a campaign or do you write broadcasts? Also, do you batch write your daily emails? Or write daily? I get this one a LOT, often from subscribers who’d written in with questions and were excited that I’d answered them “on the […]

Should You Use Multi-Part “Soap Opera Sequences” In Your Email Marketing?

Last week’s 4-part “mini-series” on outsourcing your marketing generated some fun reactions—including several good questions that I’ll tackle over the next few days. Here’s one from a reader named Dana: Oohh…The suspense. Loving this email series. Because I totally resonate and agree with what you are saying. Some other “experts” are always saying to outsource […]

Features and Benefits: How Do You Find the Benefits Of A Product? (Part 5)

One of the all-time great marketing FAIL stories goes something like this: The corporate head honchos at a pet food company (I believe it was Alpo, although I could be wrong about that) decided to introduce a new flavor for their product lineup. So they ran focus groups to hone their marketing message to perfection. […]

Features and Benefits: How Do You Find the Benefits Of A Product? (Part 4)

About 20 years ago Proctor & Gamble had this new product they were test-marketing. One of their researchers had discovered a chemical that would bind to scent particles, rendering them odorless. Who better to market this product to than people whose homes reeked… Like the slightly crazy lady with 17 cats lazing about and puking […]

Features and Benefits: How Do You Find the Benefits Of A Product? (Part 3)

When I was a kid I used to love to play with mirrors. I’d grab a handheld mirror and hold it up to the big mirror in the bathroom and— The reflections were endlessly “nested” one inside the other, seemingly to infinity. Mirrors within mirrors within mirrors! And so it is with the benefits of […]

Features and Benefits: How Do You Find the Benefits Of A Product? (Part 2)

My oldest son is 6, and he’s a bit… analytical. Maddeningly so, at times. He wants to know the *meaning* of EVERYTHING. I always know I’m in trouble when I see his little brow furrow into a thoughtful scowl. “Daddy, what does ‘fun’ mean?” This innocent-sounding question is, of course, a trap. Into which I […]

Features and Benefits: How Do You Find the Benefits Of A Product? (Part 1)

Back when I was just getting started with copywriting, I used to kinda dread Skyping with my copywriting mentor. If he was a college professor, he’d be the kind who always managed to call on you that ONE time when you had no clue what the right answer was. One time he was giving me […]

What Types Of Stories Should You Tell In Your Emails?

Got two emails recently that I wanted to share. The first email is about a sales page I wrote where I told a story about a frustrated developer that I called “Mike”: I told a friend of mine about what you guys were doing. So they checked out your site and your “learn anything” product. […]

From Frustrated Rookie to Competent Copywriter

One of the quirkier hobbies that I’ve gotten into over the years was hand-crafting knives and straight razors. (Yes, the kind you shave with.) When you ask an experienced “bladesmith” how they make such beautiful razors, you’re likely to get the following response: Well, you start with a hunk of steel, and you grind away […]

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