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How to Become A Top Internet Marketer by: Willie Crawford A recent thread at The Internet Marketing Warriors member-only discussion forum examined what it is that separates the big Internet marketing successes from the 'also rans.' There was no argument that one key to being an online success is learning to write great copy. Great copy is what gets your site's visitors stirred up enough to actually take action... often a monumental challenge. The discussion also asked why big online successes would bother with learning to write copy when they could hire someone else. The answer was that it's fun trying to see if you can create, or improve upon, a winning sales letter. Many of the top copywriters are also so busy writing copy for their own projects that if you could afford the ten to fifteen thousand dollars they'd charge you, you'd also have to get on their waiting lists. So clearly, learning to improve your own web copy is a worthwhile investment. The fact is, anyone can get a web hosting account, throw together a hastily written web page, and say that they are in business on the Internet. In-fact, that's what far too many people do. That's one of the reasons why most netrepreneurs never earn a respectable income. They never bother to learn what it is about good copywriting that makes it work. They never learn enough about human behavior to understand what makes us behave the way that we do. Human behavior and motivation hasn't changed in thousand of years. As Jay Abraham is fond on saying, 'Human nature, is human nature, is human nature.' How and why we react to environmental stimuli LITERALLY hasn't changed since the beginning of recorded history. Understanding the causes and effects of human behavior is the secret to great copywriting. As complex as we like to believe we are, we're all really creatures of habit. Humans are not really that complex. We're lots of emotions and chemical reactions sprinkled with a little reason :-) Copywriters understand that we're lots of 'hot buttons' that can be ethically exploited. Great copywriters have discovered what these hot buttons are and the correct way to push them. They've discovered through trial and error how to whip the prospect into a 'white-hot buying frenzy.' They've discovered how to get a prospect to reach an emotionally charged decision and then logically justify it. All of the discoveries made by great copywriters, which are often well-documented, makes it incredibly easy for you to become a world-class copywriter (which is your key to becoming a top Internet marketer). All you have to do is study what they have written. All you have to do is model their successful sales pieces. You don't even have to fully understand WHY they worked - you just need to know which ones worked. That's the one big danger I see in modeling others' sales pieces. You don't always KNOW which ones worked. Great copywriters test everything, and as a result, always know which elements made the difference in their advertising pieces. It's not guesswork - it's science. Some share their scientific findings with you in their courses and books. Aspiring copywriters should have a library of these courses and books. Here's an astonishing fact... many of the top Internet marketers today did not struggle for years before becoming successful. They understood... perhaps even stumbled upon the real key which is effective copywriting. This enabled them to reach six and even seven-figure incomes in months rather than years! Let me give you an example. My friend Yanik Silver only came on the Internet scene in 2000. I started in 1996! Within a year of coming on the scene Yanik was already a household name. Within 2 years, he was one of the 'gurus.' What is Yanik's secret? He's an incredible copywriter. Like many world-class copywriters, Yanik actually spent a lot of time studying copywriting. He was introduced to the works of Jay Abraham and Dan Kennedy as a kid. He discovered the power of good copywriting early. As a teenager, he was already writing direct response copy so good that it sold medical equipment, for his dad, to hard-noised, very discriminating doctors. He wrote ads that caused doctors to mail or fax in orders for expensive medical machinery... site unseen, while he was still a teenager. Yanik, and every great copywriter that I've ever talked to, became that way through study and practice. They studied everything that they could that was written on the topic by famous, proven copywriters. They built huge 'swipe file' of documented-successful sales pieces. Then they spent a lot of time practicing writing similar sales pieces. They practiced until they were able to model their teachers. Being one of the Internet marketing top-earners is really very simple. You study 'million-dollars salespieces.' You sit down and write them out, over and over again. You study each element of those successful salespieces. Through practice and repetition you develop a feel for the flow. Your nervous system becomes 'trained.' You develop an arsenal of thoughts, of headlines, guarantees, closes, proof, sub-headings, power word... and eventually you reach a point where the powerful, effective copy just flows from you effortlessly. I used Yanik as an example above for two reasons. One is that he has produced a 'home-study' copywriter's course that I've gone through. I refer to my materials from this course any time that I'm working on any email, autoresponder series, direct mail piece, or webpage. You can check out Yanik's course at: http://www.ultimateonlinecopymanual.com The second reason I used Yanik as an example of how good copywriting can make you a fast-rising Internet marketing superstar is that Yanik consistently sets the standard that I aspire to. Yanik conducts workshop - his 'protege program' that costs $'14
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