No messing around.
Here they are: my top 10 favorite copywriting resources…
1. Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
2. The Eugene Schwartz Phillips Publishing speech
3. John Carlton’s “Kickass Copywriting Secrets”
4. The Gary Halbert Letter
5. Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz
6. No B.S. Direct Marketing for Non-Direct Marketing Businesses by Dan Kennedy
7. “Look Over My Shoulder” newsletter by Dan Kennedy
8. Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples
9. Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got by Jay Abraham
10. No B.S. Sales Success In The New Economy by Dan Kennedy
And one more bonus resource for the lavishing’s sake:
The advertising of competitors and companies selling totally different, uncompetitive products or services.
This is a terrific source of raw material from which you’ll find terrific shortcuts for your own marketing.
Most of these resources are dirt cheap…
Some are completely free…
… And combined, they are better than a marketing degree!
You know, Claude Hopkins, the greatest ad man who ever lived, was once asked to review some college textbooks on advertising and advise the publishers on how to improve them.
His advice?
Burn them!
They were written by academics with no front-line, down-in-the-trenches experience, who had never put their own money on the line and tested their theories in the marketplace.
Apparently, he told the publishers they had no right to mislead beginners and that by the time they’d read the books, it would take them years to get back to zero.
Most books on advertising are dangerous…
… but you’ll be safe with the resources above.