Modesty Personified

That article was written several years ago.
Since then, I've written many more killer promotions
plus I have the most highly read marketing website on
the internet. My recent Alexa rating was 1610! More
people read the Gary Halbert Letter than read Rush
Linbaug and Bill Onelly combined. And this is true in
spite of the fact that both of these men promote their
websites to tens of millions people almost every day.

Anyway, I am now doing something I haven't done for a
long time. As of right now, I am actively soliciting
for a few new clients. But, before I get cranked up and
into a full bone pitch, I want to just ramble on for a
few minutes. Look, I recently got the results of a
sales campaign I had written for a very famous person in
the marketing and real estate business. You would know
his name instantly but, for personal reasons, I think
it's best I keep his identity confidential.

In any case, the spreadsheet (Lord, I hate those
things!) he sent me illustrated the copywriting I did
for him pulled in 6-1/2 times MORE MONEY than anything
written by any other copywriter he has ever hired. By
the way, he's a multi-millionaire so he does have the
money to hire the "creme de la creme" of copywriters in
the entire world.

I
want to tell you about the last time I actively
solicited for clients. I was living in Key West and
informed the readers of my newsletter that, if they were
willing to pay my fee ($15,000 upfront and 5% of the
back-end sales my efforts produced) I would pay all
their expenses to fly to Key West and put them up in a
hotel at my expense, while we discussed their project. I
also told them if they did this, they didn't have to
guarantee they would become a client of mine... but...
they at least had to be a "for real" prospect to whom
price would not be a concern.

Many of those people did become clients. And a few did
not. But there was one guy I especially remember. Why?
Because, in my opinion, he was guilty of fraud. After I
flew him to Key West, put him up in the best hotel, and
discussed his project at length with him, he said,
"Everything sounds great... but... I think $15,000 for
your upfront fee is too much to pay you."