A well-organized swipe file is as good as gold in the hands of a skilled copywriter.

But while many copywriters and entrepreneurs know how to spot winning ads, very few know how to go about building, organizing, and using a swipe file to write stronger copy faster.

This is the subject of a recent interview I did with Lawrence Bernstein. When you listen to this 53-minute interview, you’ll discover:

• Right ways and wrong ways to use a swipe file. (Plus, why Lawrence calls one famous copywriter “Flawed Hopkins.”)

• An evergreen subject line that works like crazy in the financial market — plus the psychology behind why it pulls so well.

• Famous ads that were swiped — why they worked when other swipes fail.

• What David Ogilvy said would NOT work in the 1960s, but actually works very well today.

• How a pay-per-email model could actually be a good thing for savvy online marketers.

• Why 2002 is a lot like 2010 — plus an insider tip on how to use this insight to instantly strengthen your ads.

Here’s the MP3. You can listen to it by pushing the play button, or download it to your MP3 player.

Why Am I Giving This Interview Away?

Quite simply, I’d like to encourage you to join The Ultimate Online Swipe File, Lawrence Bernstein’s flagship membership site for serious direct marketers.

I’m a member.

And if you look at the testimonials page, you’ll see other heavy hitters who’ve joined the site as well.

In Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art, he writes: “It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.”

In other words, it’s the getting started that’s so difficult as a writer. But here’s what’s so wonderful about The Ultimate Online Swipe File: It makes getting started easy.

By the time you read an ad or two or three, you’ll be building so much momentum that it will actually be hard not to write. Even better, when you start writing, your ad will practically write itself!

Two Free (Out-of-the-Ordinary) Gifts When You Sign Up

The Ultimate Online Swipe File is an extremely valuable resource. In fact, copywriter Gary Bencivenga says it’s “the best source I have ever found” for “an almost limitless supply of great ads.”

Naturally, I want you to sign up for The Ultimate Online Swipe File. So to make it easier for you to say yes, I’ve got two free out-of-the-ordinary bonus gifts for you.

First, I’ll give you free membership in my Copywriting Code site. You’ll get free access for as long as you maintain your Ultimate Online Swipe File membership. This is an extra $19.95 value every single month.

What’s more, Lawrence has also agreed to give you a free copy of his subject line swipe file called “Made You Look: 527 Email Subject Lines That Dare You to Look Away.” This product sells right now for $97 — but it’s yours free with this offer.

All together, this is an extra $117.95 in value you get your very first month of membership. And the email subject line swipe file is yours to keep no matter what.

Go ahead and sign up today:

Click here to sign up for The Ultimate Online Swipe File

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Forward me your receipt after you sign up and I’ll issue your free Copywriting Code membership immediately. Thanks!Similar Posts:

• Stuck on a Sales Letter? Then Do This…
• They Sent This Email Not Once, But Twice…
• Can I Promote Your Affiliate Program?
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• Are You Accidentally Missing Out?

Have you ever been trying to write an ad or sales letter and just gotten stuck?

Have you ever written headline after headline after headline… and still come up empty?

Or have you ever completed a sales letter only to discover that it lacks that gut-level punch you know it needs to have?

If you can relate to any of these frustrating situations, then you simply must have a robust and easily accessible swipe file on hand.

The Value of a Swipe File

A swipe file is simply a collection of ads and sales letters that have been tested and proven in the real world.

In other words, they worked.

The value of a swipe file is in its inspiration. By reading a winning ad, you  may be suddenly inspired to finish some copy that’s had you stumped for weeks.

Or you may come up with a new (and stronger) selling angle. Or you may even find new ideas for how to structure and position your pitch.

Any number of good things can happen when you take the time to study and review winning ads and sales letters.

(In fact, an old Eugene Schwartz ad recently inspired a sales letter I wrote that sold more than six figures in six days.)

Where to Find Proven Ads

Obviously, you could piece together a swipe file by tracking down old ads, buying advertising books, and raiding your mail box. But this approach is tedious and time-consuming.

You can spend months and years building a swipe file — and even then the ads won’t be organized in a way that’s easily accessible or searchable.

More to the point, why bother becoming a direct response detective when Lawrence Bernstein has already done all the detective work for you?

In case you don’t know, Lawrence Bernstein is the #1 direct response researcher (and archiver) on the planet. He probably knows more about the history of advertising than anybody alive today.

Even better, he’s got the biggest collection of direct response ads and sales letters anywhere. His personal swipe file contains literally thousands of pieces dating from the 19th Century to the present.

And possibly best of all, every ad and every sales letter has been scanned and uploaded into a private members-only web site called the Ultimate Online Swipe File.

Quickly Find Any Ad, Anytime You Want

When you join, you’ll have access to direct response ads that have been responsible for literally billions of dollars in sales. And you’ll be able to search these ads by author, market, product name, or any other keyword you can think of!

As soon as you click “Search,” you’ll instantly be served with dozens of profitable ads that fit your exact search criteria.

This is especially valuable if you write copy on a regular basis.

• Serial entrepreneurs will be able to roll out product after product — and write the sales copy with ease.

• Freelance copywriters will find proven copy templates — and lots of raw inspiration — for just about any project under the sun.

Of course, you’ll find plenty of ads from guys you know. Guys like Eugene Schwartz, David Ogilvy, John Caples, Claude Hopkins, and Gary Halbert.

Plus, you’ll find plenty of ads from guys you don’t know. Guys like Drew Kaplan, Dan Rosenthal, Mel Martin, Bud Wessecker, Ralph Ginzburg, Ben Suarez, Maxwell Sackheim, and many more.

Which means you’ll have direct access to the masterpieces of the most successful advertising men in all of history.

The Bargain of the Decade?

Imagine for a moment that all these men were still living today. And imagine that you commissioned each one to write an ad for you.

How much would you pay? Perhaps $20,000 per ad? Maybe $30,000?

Based only on what you’d have to pay to have these ads written today, there’s easily millions of dollars worth of ad copy inside Ultimate Online Swipe File.

You get it all for far less than you’d expect. For the right person, it’s the bargain of the decade.

When you sign up for the Ultimate Online Swipe File through my affiliate link, I will also give you free access to my Copywriting Code member site.

This is an additional $19.95 a month value, yours free as long as you remain a member of Ultimate Online Swipe File.

Click Here to See If “The Ultimate Online Swipe File” Is Right For You

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. The Ultimate Online Swipe File is an investment in your direct response business, and it can easily pay you back many times over. I’m a member myself and it’s worth every penny.

Remember: Sign up using this link, then email your receipt to rhealy@gmail.com so I can activate your free Copywriting Code membership — the perfect companion site to The Ultimate Online Swipe File.Similar Posts:

• How to Use a Swipe File
• Basic Sales Appeals Go on Forever
• What to Do When a Sales Letter Fatigues
• They Sent This Email Not Once, But Twice…
• Does the World Really Need Another Copywriting Book?

David Ogilvy is one of the most famous names in advertising. And the headline he wrote to sell Rolls-Royce cars is nearly as famous.

Here is what Ogilvy wrote:

At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock

But did you know Ogilvy didn’t actually write this sentence? The proof is right in the original ad itself. Here is what the first paragraph says…

‘At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise comes from the electric clock,’ reports the Technical Editor of THE MOTOR.

So here is what we know:

The Technical Editor of THE MOTOR magazine wrote what became Ogilvy’s headline.

Ogilvy’s genius wasn’t his creativity, nor even his research. His genius was his ability to use a proven idea to position the Rolls-Royce favorably within its market.

But the story goes even deeper than this. That’s because there’s evidence that Ogilvy’s headline pre-dates even the magazine he referenced in his ad.

As Robert Rosenthal reports on his blog “Freaking Marketing,” a variation of the headline first appeared in 1933 in an ad to sell Pierce-Arrow automobiles. The headline reads…

The only sound one can hear in the new Pierce-Arrows is the ticking of the electric clock.

Could it be that what appears to be a singular moment of genius was really just a latent idea that had been bouncing around the advertising world for years?

We’ll never really know. But one thing’s for sure. Ogilvy nailed it when he wrote that headline. It was the right appeal for the right product at the right moment in history.

What does all of this mean? Well, for one thing, originality doesn’t count for as much as we’d like it to. As Rosenthal writes: “You don’t take originality to the bank.”

Most advertising breakthroughs come from the synthesis or adaptation of time-tested ideas that have already appeared in the past.

Would you like help learning this important skill? Then you might be interested in this…

==> http://www.BiggestCopywritingSecret.com

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

• Turning Research into Sales Copy
• Has Netflix Gotten Bored of Its Own Advertising?
• Do Questions Work as Headlines?
• Stuck on a Sales Letter? Then Do This…
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Do you know Drayton Bird?

In direct response marketing, he’s a living legend.

After all, not many can say they worked with David Ogilvy. And not many can claim being the top trainer for the biggest direct marketing agency in the world (Ogilvy & Mather).

Plus, Drayton’s experience runs the gamut.

He’s helped small businesses, of course, but much of his work has been with big companies… companies like Airbus and American Express.

The breadth and depth of Drayton’s experience cannot be overstated.

To put it in perspective, think about this:

He had mastered the fundamentals of direct response marketing long before most of us were even born!

Anyway, the reason I bring all this up is because both Drayton Bird and Bob Bly were recently interviewed by Ken McCarthy.

This interview is direct response gold. Yet Ken is giving away the interview for free.

Why is he doing this?

Because Drayton, Bob, and Ken will be doing a special copywriting Master Class on the Monday following Ken’s System Seminar in April.

And the free interview is a taste of what will be presented during the Master Class.

Obviously, if you like the interview, maybe you’ll consider attending The System as well as the Master Class.

But even if you don’t, you’ll still get a lot of value from listening to Drayton Bird and Bob Bly share stories and insights culled from decades of hard-won experience.

Here’s the link to download the interview (opt-in required):

http://www.thesystemseminar.com/319-34.html

Just so we’re clear, this is my affiliate link. If after downloading the interview you decide to attend The System or the Master Class, I will get a commission.

But potential commissions aside, I still think this interview is worth your time. With that in mind, here’s the direct link you can use if you’d rather not use my affiliate link:

http://www.thesystemseminar.com/masterclass/

Enjoy!

-Ryan M. HealySimilar Posts:

• 3 More Good Reasons to Attend the Direct Marketing Master Class
• Meet the Genius Behind the Book
• Drayton Bird: “The Best TV Ad Ever”
• Is It Ever a Good Idea to Mix Politics and Marketing?
• Best Link Cloaker?