I’m reading a great book called Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson.

Rework is a collection of brief one-page and two-page business lessons. You can plow through five or 10 chapters at a time and feel inspired, stimulated, and rejuvenated. It’s time well spent.

Keep in mind, Fried and Heinemeier are the founders and creators of Basecamp, a project management tool used by millions of people around the world (including me!).

So the business lessons and anecdotes in the book come directly from Fried’s and Heinemeier’s experience building a successful, multi-million dollar business.

What They Say on Page 118

On page 118 begins the chapter titled “Don’t Be a Hero.”

Their premise is simple: When you get stuck, or your unsure of your work, don’t try to be a hero. Get another person’s input instead of trying to muscle your way through it.

“Even heroes need a fresh pair of eyes sometimes — someone else to give them a reality check,” they say.

I agree. That’s one reason I offer copy critiques: So you can get a fresh pair of eyes looking at your work.

Eyeballs for Sale

For the last few months, I’ve been offering to do up to 8 copy critiques at a significant discount. Six of them have been claimed.

In fact, one guy bought a second critique after he saw the results from the first. He writes:

PS – that last copy critique you did for us… We combined your suggestions with a couple minor design tweaks and ended up with a 55% lift in conversion. Nice job :)

Do you have a sales letter or landing page that could use an in-depth critique? Then I invite you to order your copy critique here. (Only 2 left at the discounted price.)

-Ryan M. Healy

I’ve been part of a meet-when-we-feel-like-it mastermind group for two or three years now. One way that we help each other is by critiquing each other’s letters and ads.

There are no formal rules or expectations. If we have time to critique an ad, we do. And if we don’t have time, we don’t. Pretty simple.

But one thing I’ve realized through this mastermind is that everybody needs another pair of eyeballs.

We’re All Partially Blind

We all have our blind spots, especially when it comes to our own work.

Look at something long enough and you’ll stop seeing it altogether. That’s because our minds tune out what’s familiar and tune in to what’s new and different.

The same thing applies to writing sales copy. After a while, it’s going to be hard to spot the rough patches, hard to identify how your copy can be improved.

How to Get More Eyeballs

You can, of course, start a mastermind of your own comprised of people who are familiar with direct response sales copy. And you can critique each others’ ads and letters.

Or if you’d rather pay for another set of eyeballs, you can certainly do that too.

Right now, I’m offering copy critiques to 8 people for 40% off. So far, two people have taken me up on the offer, which means there are still six critiques I will do at this discounted rate.

After I sent one of the critiques, one client replied back immediately and said, “This is EXACTLY the direction we needed.” Who knows? It may be exactly the direction you need as well…

Click here to get your discounted copy critique.

-Ryan M. Healy

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Since my wife and kids are sick today — bad coughs because of some respiratory bug — there won’t be a lot of romance going on here today.

But I’m not going to let that stop me from cuddling up by the fire with another sales letter… maybe yours!

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I’m looking for a hot date with an ugly sales letter! Can
you help? >>> http://www.ryanhealy.com/copy-critique
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As you may recall, I’m currently offering 8 copy critiques at 40% off the regular price. You pay only $300 for your copy critique.

Just yesterday I finished the first critique. He ordered it on Feb 8 and I finished it on Feb 13, well under my 14-day turn-around guarantee.

Here are some relevant stats:

• I inserted 18 comments right into his sales letter pointing out trouble spots and areas for improvement.

• I wrote 2 new headlines for potential testing.

• Plus, I wrote 1,397 words — 5 pages! — of feedback that was sent in a separate document. (The sales letter was 2,512 words, including testimonials. I wrote more than HALF that in feedback.)

Of course, I can’t guarantee a certain number of comments or headlines or pages when I do your critique.

But I can guarantee I will give you my best suggestions to strengthen your copy so you get more sales.

So what do you say?

For only $300 I’ll get all cozy with your sales letter and show you exactly what changes to make so you can romance more sales out of it.

Click here to order your copy critique.

-Ryan M. Healy

If you’re an entrepreneur, chances are you’re a control freak like me. One of those guys who wants to do everything himself.

Say it with me: “I’m a control freak.”

There. Feel better?

I do.

While I can appreciate the desire to do everything yourself… the desire to make sure everything is “just right”… I’ve also learned the value of paying for expert help.

Not every outsourcing experience has been perfect (they rarely are), but I can definitely say that outsourcing and paying for outside advice can be worth far more than you pay for it.

For instance, this past fall I hired a business coach to dig into my business and tell me what needed fixing. He called up my past clients to get objective feedback about my performance and the value of working with me.

When he was done, he compiled his discoveries and spent a good amount of time going over them with me.

Some of the things I learned I had only suspected — and the research confirmed my suspicions. Other things I didn’t expect at all — and the research uncovered new information.

Fortunately, all of it was valuable to me. Now I have much greater clarity about what I need to do to improve my business. And it’s clarity that I could not have achieved on my own, apart from the help of an expert.

That’s one of the problems of being a solopreneur. It can often be difficult to be objective about your own business because you’re so close to it. It can be even harder to find time to work on your business instead of working in it.

Copywriting Myopia

If you’re writing and editing your own copy, you can run into the same problems as a solopreneur does.

After looking at your copy for days, weeks, or even months, you can develop a form of copywriting myopia that prevents you from seeing the big picture — from correctly diagnosing what’s wrong with your copy and how to improve it.

Let’s face it. It’s next to impossible to be objective about our own work once we’ve invested so much of ourselves into it. And even though I’m a professional copywriter, I still get other copywriters to critique my work.

Sometimes all it takes is a new headline, or a subtle tweak, to make your sales copy really “pop.” And usually it’s the guy who’s not emotionally invested in the copy who can come up with the big insight that makes the difference.

Right now, I’m offering copy critiques at a discounted rate for the next 8 clients only. One spot was claimed yesterday. I expect more spots to be claimed before the end of the week — maybe all of them.

If you have some sales copy that needs a second set of eyes, then click here to claim one of the remaining copy critiques now.

-Ryan M. Healy