Hi FLF,
I wanted to drop an introduction so you know a bit about me, what I'm doing and where I'm going.
First I live in Florida, happily married with 2 kids and have a pretty good life in general. Family is always first to me, work second. I fully believe in the "work hard, play harder" mentality. I strive for that every day. Over the last 3 years, I felt as though I've been a bit all over the place. It's my fault because I kept making the same mistakes, hoping for a better outcome: the exact definition of crazy if you ask me.
So what's that mistake? Ah, that's the funny and demented part: I kept thinking the factories making my product would make the product I wanted, at the price I wanted and the quality I wanted. As you can see in the title, I invented some things. I started simple enough with an idea and took that idea to a local machine shop and had a couple prototypes made to test my idea. After about 6 months of prototyping, we finally had a version that worked like I wanted.
I then paid out the arse to get 500 made and headed off to Bike Week in Daytona to market test my idea. I ended up in a horrible location but my idea was still selling. Not at the volume I wanted but it was selling. I sold about 150 over the 10 days. Not bad for a start-up product no one's ever heard of.
Onward I go!
I then decided to go to Bikefest in Leesburg, a 3 day event that's not nearly as big as Bike Week. Believe it or not, I had listened to the feedback at Bike Week and this time I did things slightly differently and followed the advice of the customers from Bike Week. In the 3 days, I sold about 150 more! That was awesome. I have a winner and people will pay me for my product. Now, I need to get my costs down and find a factory to mass produce it. That should be easy, right?
WRONG!
I won’t bore you with these details but I will give you a high level view: tried US – too expensive, tried India, Canada, Russia, Taiwan and a few other countries, all without success. If you want particular details, ask me. I love to share those horror stories!
AND then there’s China: tried there too with success and failures. I’ve been through about 20 different factories and now I have 2 factories that can make my product 100% like I want and 1 that makes it about 98% the way I want. Eh, it’s China.
Skip forward to October: decided to do another market test with the newly updated product at Biketoberfest. Remember, I mentioned I had listened to my customers and I was working on updating my product at their request. I didn’t mention they challenged me to invent a new item, which I did and I had on hand! Off to Octoberfest I go. It’s another 2.5 day event.
This time I was expecting to sell my newest version of my product but the factory run was wrong so I took what was left of my old inventory and my new invention plus two new products I’ve cleverly re-purposed to fit with my other products. I did awesome! Even given the fact that I didn’t have my newest version of my product.
My “Product Line” was exactly what the market wanted and people were paying me and happy to find my product. I had a few people from previous events come looking for me, even bringing friends along. That was great.
Fast forward another 6 months: still fighting those stupid factories! My god. I missed Christmas, Father’s Day is coming up and my product is great for that. But still – the factories can’t get my product exactly the way I want it and I’m not ordering until they do. Can you believe they even suggested I lower my standards? Well, I’m not lowering my standards for anybody.
Just after Father’s Day, they finally sent me a sample that was 98% correct, so I ordered my first production run. They assured me they would correct the 2% also. What I got was not the same as the sample I had received…. plus the 2% incorrectness was still present. Oh boy. I tried working with the factory over and over and after too much lost time I finally decided to look for other factories. At this time, I’m guessing I’m at about 10 months working with this factory, attempting to get them to make my product right.
Finding a factory is easy: finding a good one is a lot of trial, error and time. Fast forward to last week: I just ordered another production run that will be here Dec 1 – just in time for this Christmas. I sure hope this one is right! No, it’s not from the original factory. They are still trying to make my product correctly.
Between last week and Father’s Day, I’ve had some time on my hands. I’m not an idle kind of person, so I needed something to do between the tests and factory discussions. Like anyone… or no-one, I built an 850 square foot front porch. I always wanted one and I had some time, so off I went.
Building the porch almost killed me because I’m not as young as I used to be. Working 10 hour days of physical labor, 6 days a week in the Florida heat is just horrible. But I did it for 4 months and it came out better than I imagined. Now, it’s September and I find myself with time on my hands again. What to do, what to do?
One day, while sitting on my new porch happily swinging, I started to wonder how I will sell my product once I have it in hand. Funny but with all the prototypes, factory searching, testing, etc. that went into making my product a reality that thought hadn’t really crossed my mind. What am I going to do?
I started researching and researching: how do successful people sell products. I read a few books but none of them really sounded like the game plan I wanted. Then I stumbled upon Gary Halbert’s newsletter and the Boron Letters. Something about those letters resonated with me and I began reading his recommended readings: Scientific Advertising (great read but wording will throw you at first)…. I read a bunch others as well. But the fact was, I really like what he was teaching/preaching. I can sell very well in person. I don’t want to learn SEO, SEM, AdWords and a bunch of the internet stuff. That’s funny to me because I’m a very technically talented person when it comes to computers.
As you can see, when I write I tend to over explain. Some even say I write too much. I do that because I want to provide the reader with as much info as I believe necessary to understand the full content… or my point. But that’s exactly the point Gary seemed to be making: you can never write too much! I loved it so I kept reading and learning.
I’m on several email lists and on one email promotion I found out about a few guys who had learned from Gary H in person. Those guys were about to teach their very first course on copywriting. I eagerly signed up with the notion that I’ll learn from people who are doing it now successfully. I’ll learn how to sell my products better through stellar copy. I took the course, it’s full of great info and I learned a ton. However, the downside of the course is I only know the instructors and no one else in the class. As a matter of fact, the instructors denied my request to be able to talk with other “classmates.” To me, that’s just stupid but it’s their class and their rules. So be it.
That’s when I started reading the Warrior Forum. I found there are many different approaches to copywriting and copyrighters all have very strong opinions. Here’s the rub: which ones are loud because they want to be heard and which ones should I really be listening to? No clue… I will say that I only want to listen to those that are doing it and making a lot of money. Why bother if that’s not the case?
While searching for Gary Halbert anything, I also stumbled upon the Gary Halbert challenge there here on the FLF. I read that thread but I have to say that the challenge is to just get up to speed with the teachings as quickly as possible. There’s no practice, no trial by fire, no real work in the challenge other than endless reading. I think a slight variation on that challenge would have been more in line with Gary’s teaching: read this, write an article. Read this, write and article. Repeat until you feel smarter. Something like that.
Today, I decided to write my first post to introduce myself and give you a “little” history of me.
There you have it.
PS – If anyone is looking to talk with someone else that’s not only learning but doing, I’d be happy to converse. I’d love to find a few people that are following the same path I am. What path you ask? I’m writing newspaper ads and selling stuff via a call center. I’m not doing affiliate marketing.
PPS – However, I did hire my skills out to a local mortgage direct mailer. I received a letter from him when I was refinancing my house and decided to contact him and insult his letter. The letter was horrible and I told him why I thought so. I even offered to fix it for a fee. He agreed. Hmmm. Earned a few bucks and got to practice my new skills. Not a bad way to start in the copy writing biz.
PPPS – As I started my intro I felt I should end with where am I going? First, I’m writing my ads for my products. Second, I’m following my recent learnings and selling other stuff via newspaper ads. After 1732 words, no you know a bit about me.
I wanted to drop an introduction so you know a bit about me, what I'm doing and where I'm going.
First I live in Florida, happily married with 2 kids and have a pretty good life in general. Family is always first to me, work second. I fully believe in the "work hard, play harder" mentality. I strive for that every day. Over the last 3 years, I felt as though I've been a bit all over the place. It's my fault because I kept making the same mistakes, hoping for a better outcome: the exact definition of crazy if you ask me.
So what's that mistake? Ah, that's the funny and demented part: I kept thinking the factories making my product would make the product I wanted, at the price I wanted and the quality I wanted. As you can see in the title, I invented some things. I started simple enough with an idea and took that idea to a local machine shop and had a couple prototypes made to test my idea. After about 6 months of prototyping, we finally had a version that worked like I wanted.
I then paid out the arse to get 500 made and headed off to Bike Week in Daytona to market test my idea. I ended up in a horrible location but my idea was still selling. Not at the volume I wanted but it was selling. I sold about 150 over the 10 days. Not bad for a start-up product no one's ever heard of.
Onward I go!
I then decided to go to Bikefest in Leesburg, a 3 day event that's not nearly as big as Bike Week. Believe it or not, I had listened to the feedback at Bike Week and this time I did things slightly differently and followed the advice of the customers from Bike Week. In the 3 days, I sold about 150 more! That was awesome. I have a winner and people will pay me for my product. Now, I need to get my costs down and find a factory to mass produce it. That should be easy, right?
WRONG!
I won’t bore you with these details but I will give you a high level view: tried US – too expensive, tried India, Canada, Russia, Taiwan and a few other countries, all without success. If you want particular details, ask me. I love to share those horror stories!
AND then there’s China: tried there too with success and failures. I’ve been through about 20 different factories and now I have 2 factories that can make my product 100% like I want and 1 that makes it about 98% the way I want. Eh, it’s China.
Skip forward to October: decided to do another market test with the newly updated product at Biketoberfest. Remember, I mentioned I had listened to my customers and I was working on updating my product at their request. I didn’t mention they challenged me to invent a new item, which I did and I had on hand! Off to Octoberfest I go. It’s another 2.5 day event.
This time I was expecting to sell my newest version of my product but the factory run was wrong so I took what was left of my old inventory and my new invention plus two new products I’ve cleverly re-purposed to fit with my other products. I did awesome! Even given the fact that I didn’t have my newest version of my product.
My “Product Line” was exactly what the market wanted and people were paying me and happy to find my product. I had a few people from previous events come looking for me, even bringing friends along. That was great.
Fast forward another 6 months: still fighting those stupid factories! My god. I missed Christmas, Father’s Day is coming up and my product is great for that. But still – the factories can’t get my product exactly the way I want it and I’m not ordering until they do. Can you believe they even suggested I lower my standards? Well, I’m not lowering my standards for anybody.
Just after Father’s Day, they finally sent me a sample that was 98% correct, so I ordered my first production run. They assured me they would correct the 2% also. What I got was not the same as the sample I had received…. plus the 2% incorrectness was still present. Oh boy. I tried working with the factory over and over and after too much lost time I finally decided to look for other factories. At this time, I’m guessing I’m at about 10 months working with this factory, attempting to get them to make my product right.
Finding a factory is easy: finding a good one is a lot of trial, error and time. Fast forward to last week: I just ordered another production run that will be here Dec 1 – just in time for this Christmas. I sure hope this one is right! No, it’s not from the original factory. They are still trying to make my product correctly.
Between last week and Father’s Day, I’ve had some time on my hands. I’m not an idle kind of person, so I needed something to do between the tests and factory discussions. Like anyone… or no-one, I built an 850 square foot front porch. I always wanted one and I had some time, so off I went.
Building the porch almost killed me because I’m not as young as I used to be. Working 10 hour days of physical labor, 6 days a week in the Florida heat is just horrible. But I did it for 4 months and it came out better than I imagined. Now, it’s September and I find myself with time on my hands again. What to do, what to do?
One day, while sitting on my new porch happily swinging, I started to wonder how I will sell my product once I have it in hand. Funny but with all the prototypes, factory searching, testing, etc. that went into making my product a reality that thought hadn’t really crossed my mind. What am I going to do?
I started researching and researching: how do successful people sell products. I read a few books but none of them really sounded like the game plan I wanted. Then I stumbled upon Gary Halbert’s newsletter and the Boron Letters. Something about those letters resonated with me and I began reading his recommended readings: Scientific Advertising (great read but wording will throw you at first)…. I read a bunch others as well. But the fact was, I really like what he was teaching/preaching. I can sell very well in person. I don’t want to learn SEO, SEM, AdWords and a bunch of the internet stuff. That’s funny to me because I’m a very technically talented person when it comes to computers.
As you can see, when I write I tend to over explain. Some even say I write too much. I do that because I want to provide the reader with as much info as I believe necessary to understand the full content… or my point. But that’s exactly the point Gary seemed to be making: you can never write too much! I loved it so I kept reading and learning.
I’m on several email lists and on one email promotion I found out about a few guys who had learned from Gary H in person. Those guys were about to teach their very first course on copywriting. I eagerly signed up with the notion that I’ll learn from people who are doing it now successfully. I’ll learn how to sell my products better through stellar copy. I took the course, it’s full of great info and I learned a ton. However, the downside of the course is I only know the instructors and no one else in the class. As a matter of fact, the instructors denied my request to be able to talk with other “classmates.” To me, that’s just stupid but it’s their class and their rules. So be it.
That’s when I started reading the Warrior Forum. I found there are many different approaches to copywriting and copyrighters all have very strong opinions. Here’s the rub: which ones are loud because they want to be heard and which ones should I really be listening to? No clue… I will say that I only want to listen to those that are doing it and making a lot of money. Why bother if that’s not the case?
While searching for Gary Halbert anything, I also stumbled upon the Gary Halbert challenge there here on the FLF. I read that thread but I have to say that the challenge is to just get up to speed with the teachings as quickly as possible. There’s no practice, no trial by fire, no real work in the challenge other than endless reading. I think a slight variation on that challenge would have been more in line with Gary’s teaching: read this, write an article. Read this, write and article. Repeat until you feel smarter. Something like that.
Today, I decided to write my first post to introduce myself and give you a “little” history of me.
There you have it.
PS – If anyone is looking to talk with someone else that’s not only learning but doing, I’d be happy to converse. I’d love to find a few people that are following the same path I am. What path you ask? I’m writing newspaper ads and selling stuff via a call center. I’m not doing affiliate marketing.
PPS – However, I did hire my skills out to a local mortgage direct mailer. I received a letter from him when I was refinancing my house and decided to contact him and insult his letter. The letter was horrible and I told him why I thought so. I even offered to fix it for a fee. He agreed. Hmmm. Earned a few bucks and got to practice my new skills. Not a bad way to start in the copy writing biz.
PPPS – As I started my intro I felt I should end with where am I going? First, I’m writing my ads for my products. Second, I’m following my recent learnings and selling other stuff via newspaper ads. After 1732 words, no you know a bit about me.
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