How to Make it BIG as an A-List Financial Copywriter 

In Selling the Golden Dream: Part I, I talked about breaking into the financial copywriting business, in which you are selling investment newsletters and trading advisories. I talked about the kind of money you could make, and a few of the techniques I used to make it BIG as a financial copywriter. 

• The MacGyver Technique
• The Cookie and the Dog
• The Wizard of Oz   

I also explained that selling investment advice is like walking your reader down the Yellow Brick Road to meet the Wizard, who, of course, is going to make them rich. 

If you missed that message, click here.

It will bring you up to speed as to what we are talking about here. 

In today’s message, I would like to show you how to take your reader down the Yellow Brick Road. I will give you an example from one of my most successful email promotions. That way you’ll see the effectiveness of my Million-Dollar Copywriting Formula at work. 

Let’s begin with step one, your headline. 

STEP ONE  

Your headline is the most important part of this guided journey. It’s the critical first step that ensures your reader walks down the path with you.  

That step can be a news headline, benefit headline, curiosity headline–it can be any of them and all of them. 

Whichever you choose, it must be written with investing knowledge and selling knowledge behind it–otherwise it will lie there flat. Your reader, or Dorothy, if you will, will have no reason to join you on the Yellow Brick Road.

Here’s a headline I wrote years ago that generated $250,000 in sales for a trading letter the first time it went out.

The headline: $6 Canadian Oil Stock to Hit $12 by Friday: Buy Now. 

Who wouldn’t want to know that? 

That really goes back to my premise of selling the golden dream. 

A reader sees that and they can almost picture in their mind’s eye what it would feel like to turn $5,000 into $10,000 in just a few days. Of course, nobody buys until they first believe. 

Please keep that in mind: Nobody buys unless they first believe. 

So every single step you want them to take after that first step MUST be believable and support all the reasons why this stock will deliver these returns. 

So the rest of the promotion must not only prove the headline but also prove that the Wizard is the right guy to make you the money.  

This brings me to…

 STEP TWO.  The proof that keeps them reading. 

Let’s take a look at the subhead and the headline together. 

$6 Canadian Oil Stock to Hit $12 by Friday 

“All thanks to its mammoth Colombian, Argentinean, and Peruvian reserves. Buy this one today and I guarantee you’ll thank me a thousand times by June 20th—or you won’t pay a dime.”

Before I go on, it’s important that you know there is a lot going on in this subheading. It begins to give the reader some background on the stock and a guarantee, which begins to lend credibility to the Wizard. 

This particular promotion was an upsell piece.  

The Wizard’s readers already subscribe to his $99-a-year advisory. We are now going to ask them to pay $699 for a three-month subscription to this more profitable advisory. 

So it’s not as if these people are coming in from the cold. They are, if you will, practically friends with the Wizard. So your selling style will be different than if you had no relationship with them. 

Regardless, your headline, subheading, and body copy are all important steps that you must follow to guide your reader down the Yellow Brick Road to the order form. 

• Let’s take a look at how the body copy continues to lead your reader to the Wizard. 

“Fellow Investor:

If this is the first time you’ve received one of my Global Growth buy alerts, you’re in luck. The biggest oil play of the year is at hand, and this is your opportunity to profit. 

Here’s why:  

The highest oil prices in history have triggered a mad dash to find new oil reserves as worries deepen over world supplies. This is why oil hit $138 a barrel last week…

… why the brain trust at Goldman Sachs proclaimed oil could easily fetch $150 a barrel this summer…

… and why the lightning rise in this $6 Canadian oil play will be driven by three mammoth forces:

• The falling dollar, which makes oil more expensive for Americans
• Rising demand from emerging countries like China and India
• Saudi Arabia’s refusal to pump more oil to help ease prices

Adding to the explosiveness of this fast moving situation are OPEC’s continuing refusal to pump more oil, Venezuela’s continuing threats to stop US oil deliveries, and ongoing attacks by Nigerian rebels on that country’s oil infrastructure.

When you add everything up, we are facing a supply/demand squeeze of epic proportions—leaving the world with only two—and I repeat—only two choices:

1. Develop alternative fuels fast, or

2. Find more sources of oil IMMEDIATELY.

To be sure, developing alternative fuels is a great solution for the long term.  

But finding new oil sources is the only short-term solution that makes sense now.

The reason is simple:

Unlike alternative energy sources that are still on the drawing boards, the oil exploration, production, refining, and distribution infrastructure is already in place.

So while solar sounds nice, ethanol is interesting, and wind power has some possibilities—they’re all future solutions and not those that will help you pay your bills TODAY.

For these reasons, and four more, I’m telling my readers to expect…

A Double in the Next 14 Days—Guaranteed

As you can see, there’s a lot of power-packed knowledge in those few paragraphs. 

Each one took the next step in leading the reader to achieving their golden dream. 

Before we move on, let’s talk about this subhead for a moment, “A Double in the Next 14 Days–Guaranteed.”

Again, we are offering the golden dream–another nugget to keep them reading. If you’ve seen my work before, then you’ve seen how I drop these nuggets in the copy. 

As I mentioned in Part I of this series, I call the approach “the cookie and the dog.” You just drop a cookie on the floor and the dog will come running for it. Drop a cookie every three feet and your dog will eat one and move on to the next one.  

It’s not really magic. Because you know your dog is hungry for it. The same is why you place these cookies, or nuggets if you prefer, in your copy. To continue to take your reader down the page to the order form. 

Remember when I said earlier that nobody buys unless they first believe?   

I can’t just say to the reader they will double their money in 14 days–I have to prove it. The only way to do that is with facts. 

Here is how the promotion continues… 

Here’s why:

1. Over the past decade, this company has quietly acquired the drilling rights to more than 6 million acres in Argentina, Peru, and Colombia—countries whose combined oil reserves are equal to half of Venezuela’s reserves.
2. In addition (and unlike our OPEC suppliers), Argentina, Peru, and Colombia all have stable democratic governments that are friendly with the United States—a huge plus in the world today.
3. What’s more, this company’s quarterly revenue is exploding twice as fast as the big oil companies’—at an amazing 373% year over year! So it’s no surprise the stock is up a shocking 478% over the past 12 months.
4. PLUS, with analysts now estimating the company’s sales growth to exceed 710% for the current quarter, you could easily expect a double in the next 14 days as the pension funds and oil and energy funds realign their holdings to improve their second-quarter performance.

When you consider the stock is up 60% in the past 30 days and has already doubled investors’ money over the past 90 days… 

… you can understand why I not only see the next big move coming in the next 14 days but also have no problem offering you a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee if my $6 Canadian oil stock—or any of my recommendations, for that matter—doesn’t deliver as promised.

As you can see, each one of those fact-filled paragraphs supports the claim that the stock will double in 14 days.  

You’ll also see I added another cookie. Because the facts support the stock doubling in 14 days, I can offer a money-back guarantee.  

Again, every word, sentence, paragraph, and fact are all constructed to keep your reader’s interest going down the path with me to meet, of course, the Wizard. 

Since that is my objective, and nobody buys unless they believe, I now have to point out how the Wizard has made people money. REMEMBER: People who sign up for these letters do so because they want to make money, and they want to believe the person whose investment advice they choose to subscribe to will make them money–so you must include the advisor’s track record.  

Here’s how I present this.   

When you consider the stock is up 60% in the past 30 days and has already doubled investors’ money over the past 90 days… 

… you can understand why I not only see the next big move coming in the next 14 days but also have no problem offering you a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee if my $6 Canadian oil stock—or any of my recommendations for that matter—doesn’t deliver as promised.

After all, over the past 10 years, my eight-point stock-picking

system not only has beaten the S&P 500 by $10-to-$1 but has delivered 1,408% returns, thanks to great trades like these:

• China Life, up 187%
• Rostelcom, up 151%
• Wimm-Bill-Dann, 
• Foods, up 139%
• Net Serviços de Comunicação, up 97%
• Fiat, up 92%
• ABB, up 88%
• Tenaris, up 76%
• TBSI, up 60%
• Energias de Portugal, up 50%
• Banco Bradesco, up 49%
• Diana Shipping, up 48%
• British American, up 48%
• Sodexto, up 48%

Now with rising oil prices pushing our Alpha ratings on this fast-moving Canadian oil stock through the roof, even these fast gains could look like chump change.

That’s why you can make this trade with 100% confidence that it will deliver as promised—or you won’t pay a dime.

My $699 Trial and “Profit or Pay Nothing”

Guarantee Make You a Winner No Matter What

STEP THREE–The close

As you can see, I continue to drop the cookies in this promotion by reinforcing that they can make their money-doubling trade with the Wizard without risking a dime. 

So I not only prove that the stock may double in 14 days, but continue to offer my guarantee as additional proof in how much I, writing as the Wizard, believe in this pick. 

Now it’s time to close the deal. 

Look…

A year’s subscription to Global Growth regularly costs $5,000, and you have to sign up for a minimum of a full year.

Because the profit potential on this $6 oil stock is so great, my publisher has allowed me to open the door for a limited number of 90-day trials for just $699 (that’s almost half off the regular $1,395 three-month rate) and no long-term commitment.

You get…

• 90 days to try our service
• 90 days to buy our stocks at their lowest prices
• 90 days to see our trades begin to pay off

And then decide.

Once you see this one with your own eyes, you will understand why my approach has delivered 1,408% returns over the past 10 years… and why our readers profit in all markets at all times.

This copy is another example of keeping your readers interested in joining the Wizard on their journey to wealth and riches. It is also salesmanship 101–the discount offer. 

So not only do we give you the reasons why this stock will double in 14 days, but we offer a guarantee for 90 days and also give you our best discount because we believe so much in this deal. 

Talk about a triple win for the reader! Wouldn’t you want to invest with this Wizard? 

I can personally tell you that 357 people did at $699 each.  

However, just like any good sales offer, this was a one-day limited-time offer. Which, of course, plays into the whole concept that this stock will double in 14 days. If you don’t act now, well… then you will miss out. 

The following copy plays up that fact. 

Today Only

My Global Growth service is for investors who want to own the best stocks, want to collect the biggest profits, and are willing to act quickly on my unhedged recommendations.

If you are willing to invest in my recommendations, you will enjoy the benefits that my Global Growth system has brought to others and you will never invest any other way.

If you can’t take me up on my profit-or-pay-nothing guarantee TODAY, chances are you wouldn’t buy my recommendations anyway, and I would be remiss in accepting you as a new reader.

That’s why you’ll have to make your decision today. The power of positive earnings momentum is accelerating earnings in our $6 Canadian oil stock. So if you’re going to profit from this move, NOW is the time.

If you want to profit with us, then you must accept my guarantee and savings offer today without hesitation. The action or nonaction you take today will determine your future wealth.

You have my promise that you will profit, or you pay nothing.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Did you see how this works?  

I walked the reader down the page by catching their attention, keeping their interest, building desire, and then getting them to take action or they would miss out on achieving their golden dream–all by dropping little cookies along the way. 

This upsell sales promo is much shorter than many of the hundreds of long-form sales promotions I have written, but it serves as a short example of my Million-Dollar Copywriting Formula in action that has earned me millions of dollars in royalties from the top publishers in the country, including: 

• Aftershock Report
• Asia Edge
• Blue Chip Growth
• Cabot Dividend Investor
• Cabot Growth Investor
• Cabot Options Trader
• Cabot Small Cap Confidential
• Cabot Stock of the Week
• Cabot Top Ten Trader
• Cabot Marijuana Investor
• Cash Machine
• Charles Payne’s Smart Investing
• China Strategy
• Emerging Growth
• Forbes Dividend Investor
• Forbes Gilder Technology Report
• Forbes Nanotech Report
• Forbes Oberweis Report
• Forbes Wireless Outlook
• Forecasts and Strategies
• Global Growth
• Health & Healing
• High Profit Stocks
• High Yield Investing
• Hilary Kramer’s Absolute Capital Return
• Hilary Kramer’s Game Changers
• Hilary Kramer’s Value Authority
• Hilary Kramer’s 2-Day Trader
• Hume Money Files
• Investor Alert
• Investors’ World
• Matt McCall’s Investment Opportunities
• Money Map Press
• Natural Prescriptions for Women
• New Mineral Cures
• New Science of Getting What You Want
• Next Generation of Natural Cures
• Personal Finance
• Platinum Growth
• Prevention Health Books
• Private Stock Briefing
• Profitable Investing
• Quantum Growth
• Quantum Wealth System
• Real Wealth Report
• Recurring Riches 
• Retirement Letter
• Scarcity & Real Wealth
• Secret Vitamin Cures That Work
• Smart Money with the Dolans
• Street Authority
• Tech Investing 
• The Complete Investor
• Trader’s Advantage
• 24-Hour Cash Flow Miracle
• The Ultimate License to Print Money
• Utility Forecaster
• Wall Street’s Best Dividend Stocks
• Wall Street’s Best Investments

I don’t mention this to brag, but only to underscore the effectiveness of my Million-Dollar Copywriting Formula.

If you’ve read this far, then I’ve done my job correctly.  

I’ve placed just the right amount of cookies in this article to keep you reading about the same system that I will be coaching, as I walk you down the Yellow Brick Road that financial copywriting offers you. 

These are the kind of skills you will want to acquire if you would like to get into the very lucrative copywriter niche–skills I can teach you in my Million-Dollar Copywriting Formula coaching program. 

Next month I will be launching my coaching program to help up-and-coming copywriters break into this very lucrative field. 

If you give me just one hour a week, one-on-one, I will show you how to: 

• Write with a style that flows effortlessly from page one to the order form, and do it over and over again.
• Take the world’s best, winningest ideas and bring them to your current project. 
• Layer on the benefits and the specifics.
• Make your copy irresistible by adding the often-forgotten credibility elements.   
• Transition from one idea to another in a way that makes total sense to the reader.  
• Create a compelling offer that will have your readers doing a swan dive to the order form. 

And ultimately become an A-list financial copywriter and enjoy the wealth and riches that come with it. 

If the idea of making it BIG as an A-list copywriter appeals to you and you want to make sure you are on my coaching launch list, click this link to learn more about my program.

In Selling the Golden Dream Part III, I’ll tell you more about my techniques and my program along with my three-step program for creating million-dollar marketing campaigns.  

So be sure to look for it!  

All good wishes, 

Doug D’Anna, Copywriter and Creator of

The Million-Dollar Copywriting Formula