A disgruntled copywriter wrote me demanding clarifications. He believes most copywriters lie and exaggerate their claims of wealth. Let’s call him “Chuck.”

I understand where Chuck is coming from. Because I’ve been where he is. So I responded, not because I wanted to acquiesce to his demands but because I wanted to give him hope, ideas, and, dare I say it, a million-dollar education.

He says he will be asking other copywriters the same question, and even threatened (although, that may be too harsh of a word) to publish my reply.

For all I know, this copywriter may be gathering information to create his own product. Who knows? (If he is, I must say that his strategy is brilliant. And if he does create a product out of this, good for him!)

I’m reprinting the conversation here since I believe it will help a lot of other struggling copywriters out there. Also, I’m opening myself a little more than usual. I guess you can say that I’m exposing the real “Michel Fortin.”

My answer might surprise you…

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Michel Fortin: No, I think if you want to look at optimism in the best way is to look at it as an educational process. Learning is part of it… sitting down with people, talking with them, spending time with them, reading books, spending your time on learning as much as you possibly can.

You will be able to go down the right road. Fast or slow doesn’t matter and that’s not optimism. That’s just being. That’s just following your conscience. That’s just being a realist. It’s not being a pessimist. It’s not being optimist. It’s probably an optimal point of looking at it, an optimal point or way to look at things, but it’s not necessarily optimistic.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you think it takes courage to pursue new ideas?

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Here are the worksheets to use when applying Michel Fortin’s G.O.A.L. method. You can simply use the tables below as a model to guide you. You can use them on a sheet of paper, in your journal, or on your computer.

But if you do prefer the printable version, you can download this book in digital PDF format by clicking here. Most browsers have the PDF plug-in already installed.

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“I practiced the art of getting more things done rather than getting the really important things done well.”
– Alec MacKenzie

“We can no more afford to spend major time on minor things than we can to spend minor time on major things.”
– Jim Rohn

Now is the time to set your GOALs. Your “guides” are goals that will most likely stem from your personal values because, having gone through the process so far, you will have a pretty good idea of what kind of goals you truly want. Take a new sheet of paper and write at the top the words “My Guides.” Then, write down what you want to be, do, or have.

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I’m up for a challenge.

Just recently, my friend and SEO blogging expert Andy Beard posted an article about an interesting case study.

After simply rewording the headline of a blog post, John Wesley literally multiplied his traffic to one of his blog posts by 10 times.

With the same post!

In other words, nothing was changed except for the headline. The article was exactly the same, word for word. But by changing the headline slightly, the blog post drew a ton of traffic, particularly from social networking sites.

Well, now’s your chance to have me do the same thing for you — and learn a thing or two, too. Here’s how. Let me rewire one of your own headlines for maximum selling power. But there’s a catch…

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Takeaway selling, for the uninitiated, is a way to limit the supply of a product or service in some way to increase scarcity of an offer. Because it’s a proven fact that scarcity sells. It’s the age ol’ law of supply and demand.

The less the supply, the greater the demand, as people don’t know how much they want something until it’s about to be taken away from them.

As Jim Rohn once said, “Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.” Why? Because procrastination is the biggest killer of sales — particularly online where the chances of a prospect staying on or returning to a website (in order to think about buying), in today’s click-happy world, are scarce.

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