How the Copywriting Siren Beckoned Me With Her Six-Figure Song
by Colin | September 18, 2008
by Colin | September 18, 2008
It all started with a sales letter…
A 24-page monster promising me I could retire and make more than doctors and lawyers… writing. It piggybacked on one of my financial newsletters, snuck into my house via direct mail, cross-selling. The nerve.
As promised, three e-columns ago, I’m going to present to you a fuller history of how the copywriting world beckoned me with its six-figure siren song.
Or course, seven months prior, the word “copywriting” read like Greek to me. “Sales letter” as well, and “piggybacking,” and “direct mail.”
Yet, somehow, the letter bypassed my “opening-the-mail-over-the-blue-box” filter.
(In hindsight, I think the prospect of royalties hooked me. The words “passive income” sets off hot button nukes in my brain.)
That said, I’ve never heard of AWAI nor Michael Masterson and certainly not this Paul Hollingshead fellow who writes $15,000 letters from his cottage in Vermont. Plus, they asked for $39 a month! Back then, I had just broken a new threshold for “subscriptions:” $16 a month for a stock newsletter.
Doubling that and more… well, I balked.
However, Paul Cozened His Way On To My Desk
And Sat There For Three Months
I hemmed. I hawed. Filed the letter away and took it out again. I even slipped it into the recycling bin a few times, only to pull it out days later.
Now, this wouldn’t have happened online via a pixilated sales letter. (So much easier to click the “x” button.)
I researched… I Googled “AWAI” and “scam” together. I lurked on forums. I read the fraud complaints, the story of Michael Masterson’s real name - all that. At the end of the day however, the negativity percolating on the web felt… disingenuous and bitter, in an over-reactive way.
The folks attacking AWAI could not give any hard facts as to why and how exactly the home-study course scammed them. They got personal.
That eased my mind… but the cheque remained unwritten.
The tipping point happened when I read Michael Masterson’s book “Seven Years to Seven Figures.” Up until this point, I suffered this delusion that I could build wealth by investing in stocks and real estate.
Let me tell you something. It’s not going to happen if you ain’t got the capital.
Here’s the real formula: make more money, then invest it to build your empire. *smacks forehead*
It goes on… To make more money, do something sales-related for a results-based paycheque. No income ceiling that way.
But what if you don’t like knocking on doors or interrupting dinners?
A Solution Exists: Write Sales Copy!
Work on a computer alone in your home office. What more can an introvert ask for?
It gave me more impetus to reply to AWAI… but I had to talk my way past the last gatekeeper: the wife. Or as a mutual friend of John and I says, “Management.”
Now, Queenie has put up with tons of my money makin’ schemes in the past: multi-level marketing, day-trading, real estate investment seminars, stock clubs, Adsense content sites… Fortunately, she tolerates it. I don’t get support exactly… but I hear most husbands out there don’t get away with what I get away with.
So with her “blessing,” I ordered AWAI’s “Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting” on April 17th, 2008. From the time I received Paul’s letter until giving out my credit card number, that’s about 68 days of pacing, re-reading and weighing.
You’re looking at a great case study for offline direct mail. It works.
Well, sort of. Sticking a cheque into an envelope and walking to the mailbox seemed like a huge hassle. A better offer came along on the AWAI e-mail list. I took that instead. (I sure screwed up AWAI’s tracking.)
Of course, several other ingredients in my life added to the final buy order. I promised myself on the day my son Cedrik entered our lives I could not, would not let him grow up in lower-middle class scarcity. I’m not saying I slacked off gunning for wealth before him, but any parent reading this would understand… kids change you. Makes you push your limits.
Also, the house we’re in right now shrinks by the minute while Vancouver real estate prices mushroom by the second. (Damn you, 2010 Winter Olympics.)
Finally, we’re tired of the J.O.B.s. The stark reality of our generation dictates that two full-time parents raking in six figures do not cut it. It blows my mind that I made more than my father by the age of 25 and yet my current standard of living falls desperately short of my childhood in a blue-collar single-income family.
(By “standard of living,” I mean quality family time, not material possessions.)
There you have it. The story of how the copywriting universe siphoned me into its slick, wet sales funnel.
Colin Y.J. Chung
P.S. Next week, find out how many zeroes I’ve added to our net worth from my copywriting venture so far. As well, how did Queenie react to that change in wealth? Before you run off to invest in the AWAI program, you may want to tune in…
P.P.S. If you’re new to REALITYcopywriting.com please enter your name and email in the box on the upper right (or subscribe to our RSS Feed) to receive notification of all new e-columns.
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September 18th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Hi Colin,
You have a really fresh voice, your stories and your expression of them hook me every time. Well done and keep going.
Kath
September 18th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Thanks Kathy! That means a lot to me.
September 19th, 2008 at 6:31 am
Hi Colin,
Thanks for sharing, I look am looking forward to the rest of your story. Like you, I want to do better by my family and think copywriting could help with that. In looking at the best way to develop a copywriting business, I have encountered the underbelly of the Internet that makes me pause.
I await the rest of your story…!
John
September 24th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Interesting read, as always. I can’t wait to hear how this turns out for you Colin. It’s comforting to know that I’m not the only person out there always trying to dream up passive income ideas. Good luck!
June 14th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
The article is usefull for me. I’ll be coming back to your blog.
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