I recently rewatched an old movie called Seconds. Uncomfortable, but also very interesting. I won't give away the plot here, in case you ever want to go see it yourself. I'll just share a quote I wrote down, because it was relevant to what we all do: "You know son, when I began this business, I was a young man with an idea. I wasn't aiming to make a lot of money. Helping others, help them to find a little happiness. Oh heck, not just the rich. You see, I got tremendous comfort in the thought that in my small way I was waging a battle against human misery. And I was, too! Except we do have a high percentage of failures. I guess that's to be expected, but it hurts me." If you are in the information selling business... I reckon you got into it at least in part to wage a battle against human misery, in your own small way. I also reckon that you have a high percentage of failures. Regardless of how good your information is. Regardless of how accessible you try to make it. Regardless of how hard you try to motivate people. People just don't get the results that you know are possible, or any results at all. Does this hurt you? Do you just shrug it off and say, "That's to be expected"? I'm curious about your experiences, what you think about this, and what if anything you do about it. Let me know. And if you like I can share what my experiences are and what I think and do.

This morning I watched a video about unwritten rules in baseball. (Bear with me if you know nothing about baseball or care nothing for baseball.) I had no idea, but baseball has had, for 100+ years, dozens of unwritten rules about player conduct, for example: - You cannot flip your bat after you hit a home run - You cannot have a beard (all teams, once upon a time, New York Yankees still today) - You cannot score from second base on a single if your team if the game is a blowout and your team is winning Now here's what got me: These unwritten rules are enforced BY THE PLAYERS THEMSELVES ON THE PLAYERS THEMSELVES... often by members of your own team! If you break one of these unwritten rules, odds are great that you will be beaten up, ostracized, or sometimes worse (eg. have a 100mph baseball launched at your face on purpose). Here's what else got me: - If you're a big star and you break a rule in a big moment, exceptions are made - If you're young or inexperienced, then you will be consistently and brutally punished by other players for breaking a rule I remember reading in, I believe, Robert Cialdini's Influence about the importance of hazing rituals to form a sense of in-group identity. That's what this reminds me of. Seemingly arbitrary rules, enforced by group members, as a way of reinforcing the importance of the group and of recommitting their loyalty to that group. Now I've really never belonged to any group, unless that group is the group of outsiders who don't really belong to any groups. But without getting too weird about it... I'm curious: What seemingly arbitrary rules have you experienced or seen in real-life groups you've been a part of? And in online groups you've been a part of?

I'm curious what you think: Why do sales calls typically convert at 20%-50%... ... while sales pages typically convert at 2%-5%? If you had to put it down to just one thing?

Good news, everybody: Vinnie Vincent, formerly a guitarist for Kiss from 1982 to 1984, has just released a new album, Guitarmaggedon. Guitarmaggedon retails for $2M. Yes, two million dollars. $2,000,000, for a single copy. I haven't heard the album yet – you have to pay for that, and I don't have $2M in cash right now — but I know it features bangers like: - "Heavy Metal Poontang" - "Rocks On Fire" - "Ride The Serpent" - "Cockteazer" If you're not a big VV fan, you might wonder who or what would possibly pay $2M for a 10-track album by a washed-up, second-rate, 73-year-old rock star. I don't know. I also don't know if Vinnie will be able to sell even a single copy of this album. But he does have something working in his favor. For $2M, Vinnie is not just selling a single digital copy of Guitarmageddon... ... he's also selling the licensing rights. In other words... pay Vinnie $2M today, and you could be slinging Heavy Metal Poontang for the rest of your life, and keeping ALL THE MONEY. I bring this up because I have lately been thinking about the value of tying in an offer to money — whether it ties naturally to money or not — in order to make it feel like your prospect is effectively buying "money at a discount." This morning, I came up with 10 ideas for tying an offer into money [update: 11]. "Licensing" was #3 on my list. I would like to share my complete list with you... but I also want to hear if you have ideas I didn't come up with. So I propose a nice little round of Sunday-morning Marketing Battleship. Here's how that works: Tell me your idea for tying an offer into money. If I have that same idea on my list, I'll tell you so. If your idea is not on my list, you get a hit, and I'll share an item on my list that I haven't shared yet. You win when I'm completely sunk and out of ideas. Are you game? Then fire away below and tell me your idea, or two or three, for tying in an offer to money, and making your offer feel like "money at a discount."

... and that reason is that they were tested infinitely. What you see in an old ad is the perfect combination of words, evolved over a long time, which can be hard or impossible to come up with in one sitting. Example: Yesterday I wrote an email to my list with the subject line: How an ex-copywriter makes $12k/month in a new kind of part-time job That subject line (and the entire email) are modeled on this ad: How I made $10,000 a Year In a New Kind of Business And when I say "modeled," I mean I used a bunch of the same words, same arguments, same structure. Results so far: 55 replies, many from people who are surprisingly qualified and serious about the offer. Would I have gotten the same kinds of results had I simply used my own copywriting brain to write this email? Maybe.... but my personal guess is no. I've had this experience before when I modeled old ads. Completely outsized response to what I normally get. I know it's familiar advice but it's worth repeating. Study old ads. And don't just study them. Apply them. Model them. Even word for word. Old ads are a treasure chest waiting to be opened, and the fact that the treasure chest has been sitting in an attic for the past 100 years doesn't change that.