(Swipe, Thought, Uplifting, Picture, Interesting, Drawing)

This is a fun email for Friday May 20th, 2022. Hope you like it 🙂

🎤 Listen to this email here:

Swipe:

This is a cool chart sent along with a toaster that visually shows the different heat settings.

The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 don’t really mean much to the user, but showing them like this instantly conveys what each setting does!

This is an example of simple and effective copy visuals!

Thought:

Movie posters are basically one-pager advertisements, however they often contain NOTHING but the title of the movie and an image.

For example this Spider-Man movie poster just says "Spider-Man" and some action shots of the main characters:

They can get away with this because everyone already knows what Spider-Man is! All they have to do is show the new movie is coming out, and an audience will follow.

Another sequence of posters that needs very little explanation or words is James Bond.

The franchise is so popular that just showing a sparse poster is enough, like this Golden Eye poster:

...or this Spectre poster with nothing but a cool picture of James Bond:

Now some movie posters need to add more context to the poster because the general public may not know much about the character, like this awesome Kamen Rider poster.

Notice the extra story text on the left and right:

Or when Scarface came out it's poster had additional context explaining the story because no one knew this character:

Uplifting:

One of the absolute simplest time-saving tricks I’ve seen bars do in recent years is:

“We’ll keep your tab open but give your credit card back right away.”

When they do this you can just leave, and at the end of night they’ll close your tab and do an automatic 20% tip.

Customers love this because they can leave anytime without spending 10 minutes trying to close a tab.

Bartenders love this because they get 20% gratuity on every check.

Bars love this because bartenders are filling drink orders, not settling tabs.

This is such a small change, but yields big results!

Picture:

Totally random, but these are the 5 different light settings my home office scrolls through depending on my mood:

It's all controlled through a Phillips Hue remote, with 4 Phillips Hue Play lights, 2 Phillips Hue color bulbs inside lamps, and 4 LED lamps for some extra lighting power when on calls.

It all looks like this in the day:

...and looks like this at night:

Interesting:

I couldn't believe this actually works! Notice the difference in reading speed on the below text:

Text on left: Normal text. Text on right: “Bionic Reading” text with specifically bolded letters.

Watch how fast you can read the text on the right with the bolded letters!

It's kind of wild how much faster you can read the right side with these specifically bolded letters!

Drawing:

I've utilized drawing little stick figures and such for years, and it's always been difficult....but over the year's it's become easier.

My original drawings were done on tablet computers or an iPad Pro and then edited in Photoshop:

Then for a while I used a Google Presentation file with different body parts of StickGuy (heads, eyes, noses, mouths, bodies)....so I could just drag-n-drop them into different permutations like this:

Then I was using Canva a lot, and you can draw + add images:

Or you could use Canva pre-existing templated stuff:

Now I'll often edit and create images directly within ConvertKit (what I'm using to send this email):

Making images used to be this very skilled thing few people could do, but now it's become so much more accessible with better tools!

Hope you enjoyed these little tidbits, have a happy Friday!
Sincerely,
Neville Medhora - CopywritingCourse.com | @NevMed

Listen to this on Podcast:

I've tried every email sending company out there for my own businesses or for clients.....and I'm going to show you my #1 pick of them all.

I've personally used:
• GetResponse
• Aweber (7 years)
• Klaviyo (7 years)
• MailChimp (3 years)
• InfusionSoft (5 years)
• ConvertKit (currently)

Here's what I personally have found from going through all these services:

The big stuff is almost all the same. Sending broadcasts, autoresponders, tagging. Every email service has this.

However it's the little things are important: How the editor works, editing images, being able to capture emails easily etc....

Here's the top things I've enjoyed about ConvertKit.

#1.) Easily write in the editor

This is such a big problem with most companies. The editor is often clunky and frustrating to write in.

In ConvertKit you write, and that's what it puts out.

Especially as an email gets longer, some email editors will "blow up" and mess up your email like an old Microsoft Word doc.

I used to always write blog posts on my website, then transfer them to emails. For almost a year now I've used ConvertKit as my default blog writing software.

One of the main reasons is the next point....

#2.) Edit Images on the spot.

Doing small edits to images is one of the most time consuming things I do (and for people who aren't good at this, often impossible).

For example, here's an image of an old advertisement I used in an email:

But I want to make it more informative by marking up the image...

With ConvertKit directly from the email editor I can do this:

This normally used to take many steps of importing/exporting the photo from Photoshop or another program like Canva. With ConvertKit I never left my email editor!

#3.) Autoresponder just click through and edit.

In the past my autoresponders looked like this:

While this LOOKS COOL, IT'S COMPLICATED AND HARD TO MANAGE.

Let's zoom in and look at this:

To make an autoresponder I would have to:

• Create and apply tagging rules
• Create a timer & rules for each individual email
• Link each email to the next
• Open new windows to edit an email
• Layout the emails so they fit on the screen
• View individual reports for each email

This was an utter disaster, and made wrangling my autoresponders super difficult.

ConvertKit solved this by making a brain-dead-simple layout like this:

Just click the email you want to edit....and edit right there on the spot.

I also HATED the reporting on other autoresponders. You had to click through each email one-by-one....but autoresponders are meant to be viewed as a sequence, not individually.

That's why when I saw ConvertKit displays simple reporting like this I rejoiced:

These might be very simple things, but to anyone who's living is made with emails, these things are huge deals.

I DON'T KNOW WHY IT TOOK SOMEONE THIS LONG TO MAKE AUTORESPONDERS LIKE THIS 😂

#4.) Accept purchases for products

I do consulting and sometimes accept random payments for sponsorships. Instead of invoicing software, I'll just create a product in ConvertKit, add the price, and send that link to the client, like this:

BAM. I just accepted payments.

It's little things like this that SHOULD be simple that I like.

#5.) Capture emails and grow list

Ugh, another bane of my existence is having multiple services to do email collection and email sending. Why are they not the same?

With ConvertKit I put this simple email signup form on CopywritingCourse.com/newsletter

In the past few weeks here's the performance of that box:

This means ~15% of the people that landed on that link entered their email address, and I picked up ~1,200 new subscribers from that.

Since I use ConvertKit for email collection AND sending, I set this form to start new signups on the autoresponder I mentioned above.

#6.) Send content upgrades in one

Sending a "Content Upgrade" is when someone signups for your email, and you send them a file:

This feature was nearly impossible with InfusionSoft, and required 10+ clicks and settings.

In fact I had to use LeadPages to handle this functionality.

However ConvertKit just let's you push people to a different page after they signup, or send them a message via email with the link:

Once again, this seems like such a small thing, but in practice is so difficult with many email services. So now I could send people relevant content downloads extremely simply, which massively boosted conversion rates!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this post on the primary features that make me love ConvertKit.

Sincerely,
Neville Medhora

P.S. I made this whole email inside ConvertKit, including all the images.

P.P.S. If you are looking for an email editor, try out ConvertKit's free trial!

(Swipe, Thought, Uplifting, Picture, Interesting, Drawing)

This is a fun email for Friday May 13th, 2022. Hope you like it 🙂

🎤 Listen to this email here:

Swipe:

This is a fun(ny) ad from FedEx which harps on the famous question:
"Which came first: The chicken or the egg?"

FedEx is showing how fast they deliver a package through this ad 😂

Thought:

I've written 5,000+ blog posts and emails reaching hundreds of millions of people.

This is the messy process of creation they all follow:

STEP #1.) Have tons of random and disorganized thoughts.

These thoughts & ideas come to you in the shower, on walks, or randomly...

STEP #2.) Put all those thoughts into disorganized writing.

Just get all those thoughts into writing in one place.

This could be in a Google Doc, a note in your phone, a Wordpress post, or wherever you write.

It doesn't have to be organized (or make sense) yet...

STEP #3.) Edit, Organize, & Trim.

This is where you'll start putting your disorganized writing into a coherent structure.

60% of the time the article changes it's focus at this stage...

STEP #4.) Start making your article clean & clear.

Re-read your article, and RUTHLESSLY cut out sentences that "don't earn their pixels."

At this point your article is ready.

HINT: You'll still NEVER be 100% satisfied with the final product...so 90% happiness on an article is great 🙂

Uplifting:

I originally started using Instagram as a place to post my daily to-do lists all scratched off, like this:

The problem is my friends didn't wanna see these everyday, especially since the stuff was already crossed off.

In order to share my daily to-do lists I recently created a "Journal" feature in our members area:

Any member can click that tab, and it'll automatically add to a running journal log.

For example I always create my to-do lists the night before, and I snapped a pic and shared it:

It's kind of neat keeping a running work journal because you are forced to write out what you're doing, other members can see it, and people often leave feedback or give you ideas.

It's so cool the internet allows you to work in a community like this 🙂

Picture:

Whenever my friends (and 4-door-down neighbors) @thesamparr and @SaraSodineParr go out of town I get a free guard dog named Sid 🙂

Here's Sid playing the guitar:

Here's Sid watching podcasts with me:

Here's Sid lazying in the office:

Here's Sid guarding the gym while I workout:

Here's Sid chameleon-ing into the office rug 😂

Interesting:

One of the obvious technologies that will appear in our lifetime is Augmented Reality (AR) glasses.

Right now we use tiny phone screens to view our information, but if you had glasses which can display pixels, your screen can be ANY size you want!

If you acquired a pair of AR glasses from 5 years in the future, you would essentially be a superhuman:

You'd be able to listen to conversations, transcribe, and reply using GPT-3. People could ask you questions, and you read what pops up on your AR glasses.

It would appear like you are answering any question instantly.

You would instantly know pertinent information at all times:

Imagine doing a standup comedy set with these glasses on. Instead of having to remember jokes, you could literally read them without anyone knowing:

This technology is still early, and I imagine it'll be like smartphones in the last 20 years: They are initially useful-but-limited devices, but in 10+ years their usefulness will massively increase.

Drawing:

Speaking of to-do lists from earlier in the email, here's the format I use for my hand-drawn to-do lists:

I've been using this method for YEARS....in fact here's a video from 2012 showing the exact same method I've been using!

Hope you enjoyed these little tidbits, have a happy Friday!
Sincerely,
Neville Medhora - CopywritingCourse.com | @NevMed

Hi my name is Steve. I’m a bit of a sneakerhead, and I wanted to build out an email list of people to send sneaker deals I find. Why not try to make money doing something I love & know alot about.

I tried a couple of different platforms to build an audience first (Instagram, Twitter), but the one that caught the most steam is my own Sub-Reddit.

So far I’ve been adding between 100 and 300 new subscribers per day.

(Swipe, Thought, Uplifting, Picture, Interesting, Drawing)

This is a fun email for Friday May 6th, 2022. Hope you like it 🙂

🎤 Listen to this email here:

Swipe:

This was an ad from 1969 when Pop-Tarts were first introduced. In one image and a little text, the ad shows:

• What they look like
• What’s inside of them
• How they are packaged
• That they go in the toaster
• The different flavors of Pop-Tarts
• Dimensions of the Pop Tarts (hand for scale)

This ad makes me want a Pop-Tart!!

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No matter what copy skill you’re looking to build this year, This Copywriting Summit has got you covered!

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Normally, these books sell for between $19 and $399 each.

But right now, they’re sending them to anyone who gets a ticket today through this link for FREE. See you May 16!

Thought:

Sometimes it's easier to just "Show" a product rather than describe it.

This ad from Miro just "shows" a team building out a communication workflow with a simple gif, and it helps explain the product much better than tons of text!

Taking this concept even further, did you know on Amazon's phone app you can see an augmented reality view of what a product will look like in your home?

Here I typed in "Shelf", found a product, clicked "View In Your Room" and through the camera I can see exactly what it would look like in real life.

Instead of describing what this shelf is like, Amazon took it a step further and lets you SEE THE THING IN YOUR OWN HOME!

Uplifting:

I pay $600/month to have a guy from MyBodyTutor call me everyday at 10:15am and ask:

• What I ate (which I log throughout day).
• When I’m going to workout.
• What I'm going to do during that workout.
• What I’m going to eat today.

It’s been incredibly transformative on my eating habits.

For 2 years I was trying to hit a certain fitness goal and just "keeeppptt" missing it. The daily accountability this provides (also the fact I'm shelling out a good bit of money) keeps me on track.

I've never had a problem consistently working out....but pigging out on junk has always been a problem.

I've started cooking myself a lot more, and it's been super interesting to see how healthy you can make a meal (and learning what's in it vs never knowing with purchased meals).

Here's examples of meals I make now:

Beets, Avocado, Green Beans

Steak, Tomato, Spinach, Goat Cheese

Beets, Tomato, Spinach, Goat Cheese

Chicken Legs, Green Beans, Whiskey Cocktail

Chicken, Spinach, Tomato

Chicken, Goat Cheese, Tomato, Beets, Spinach

Making healthier meals like this has actually been pretty simple (having a grill outside is a game changer), and the food is super delicious still!

Picture:

In my experience Twitter is the fastest “Online —> IRL” friend making platform out there.

This is me and @RohunJauhar from DM to hanging out in 48 hours:

I've met a ton of friends through Twitter in the last year....and it kind of reminds me of the early days of blogging when you'd read people's blogs, somehow communicate, then meetup when traveling to their city or at a conference.

Interesting:

Speaking of Twitter....there's so many social networks, which one do you focus on??

In this recent post I reported on the 3 questions to ask which help you decide where to focus your energy:

#1.) What channels do I have a natural advantage?
#2.) Will I enjoy spending 1-3 years of time on this platform?
#3.) What main channel helps me create "cascading content"?

Ultimately it's best when you create one type of content that "cascades" into many types of content.

For me, it's like this:
Blog Post ⇨ YouTube Script ⇨ Social Media Posts (Twitter and LinkedIn)

This means if I write one blog posts, it creates a nice SEO asset that then allows me to easily make other content:

Drawing:

I love the shortening of information. You get to pick-and-chose your desired level of depth and mastery.

For example if you want to learn to cook an egg, you can choose your desired "depth" of knowledge:
• 30 seconds: TikTok
• 15 minutes: YouTube
• 1 hour: YouTube
• 2 hours: Book
• 6 hours: Course
• 100 hours: School

However this illustration by Janis Ozolins shows it's actually KIND OF HARD to make short content!

I always thought making catching Instagram Reels or TikTok videos was easy, but often they have as much editing as a long video.

Hope you enjoyed these little tidbits, have a happy Friday!
Sincerely,
Neville Medhora - CopywritingCourse.com | @NevMed

When you have so many choices, which platforms do you choose?
Blogs • Email • Twitter • Tik Tok • Images  • YouTube • Podcasts • Facebook • Medium • Quora • Instagram •  Long Form Video  • Short Form Video • Media Companies • Sooooooo many more...
😳

Watch the video here:

Listen here:

Group Question: What content do you think YOU should focus on?

Mine is Blog Posts. If I write a blog post → It turns into a YouTube Video Script → It turns into social media content. What’s yours? Respond with your answer 🙂

(Swipe, Thought, Uplifting, Picture, Interesting, Drawing)

This is a fun email for Friday April 29th, 2022. Hope you like it 🙂

🎤 Listen to this email here:

Swipe:

I saw this image from AirSign used in an Instagram advertisement, and it immediately felt familiar:

It felt very much like this 1978 Susan Wood photo from New York Magazine I had posted about a few months ago:

Don't they look kinda similar??

I reached out to the company to see if this was indeed their inspiration for the ad:

This was their reply:

So this ad wasn't the direct inspiration but it's neat to see a similar style being revitalized 🙂

Thought:

Does anyone else feel like a philanthropist whenever you click the organic result on Google instead of making the company pay for your click 😂

Slightly scrolling down to click the organic result could save a company $2 to $40 per click 😬

Companies are often FORCED to bid on their own brand keywords because Google kiiinnnd of extorts companies into doing this.

For example if I Google "Ahrefs" you'll notice their competitor "SemRush" comes up as an ad before Ahref's own organic result:

Because of this companies have to bid higher and higher for their own top spot.

Uplifting:

The Lord has answered my prayers after 10 years:

Google Docs "Pageless" format for a continuous document with no page breaks 🙏

On your Google Doc: File → Page Setup → Click "Pageless"

Thank you Jesus, Allah, Buddah, Zarathustra, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster for finally answering this prayer!

I've been waiting so long.

Documents with tables would always get messed up like this, with that little line caused by a page break:

Picture:

I get more done in 2 hours of co-working than 8 hours of working alone.

For example had some buddies over co-working the other day:

In fact as I'm writing this I have someone else working at my place.

Since I get so much more done when co-working, I've decided to formalize this process a bit more.

Instead of "randomly calling whoever at the moment" I've started a list of people to co-work sorted by proximity to me:

This should make it easier to schedule!

Interesting:

Did you know Google has free games and tools you can use right from the search results?

Google this: "Play Snake"
You can instantly play a game of snake, and even select other games like Tic Tac Toe and Minesweeper.

There's also some useful tools...

Google this: "Flip A Coin"
You'll be able to do quick coin flips to help you make a decision.

Or Google "Google Tuner" and right from the search results you can tune your guitar!!

Drawing:

Writing Tip: Avoid "Rambling Old Man Syndrome" when you write.

This is where you start writing, but end up rambling about semi-related stuff.

For example this shows a story zig-zagging all over the place and confusing the reader:

The way you solve "Rambling Old Man Syndrome" is by answering this question before writing:

"The point of this article is..."

For example:

The point of this article is...to show people how to write a cold email.

The point of this email is...to get them to call my phone number.

The point of this Tweet is...to show that you should avoid "Rambling Old Man Syndrome."

By knowing what your content is about FIRST, you can keep your story structure easy to read, like this:

Hope you enjoyed these little tidbits, have a happy Friday!
Sincerely,
Neville Medhora - CopywritingCourse.com | @NevMed

A lot of writing is bad because of "Rambling Old Man Syndrome."

Watch the video here:

Listen here:

A lot of writing is bad because of "Rambling Old Man Syndrome."

That's when it feels like you're listening to a rambling old man who never finishes a specific story:

It looks like this:

These kinds of posts are built on bad outlines that look like this:

If you’re a regular poster on LinkedIn, you can get a lot of people looking at your profile. 

Having a big audience is great - but the real goal is to get those people to do something like:

• Subscribe to your emails.
• Buy a product from you.
• Hire you.

…and that means visiting your website. 

Most people add a link to their site in the About section of their LinkedIn profile.

That might work, but it’s easy to get lost on the profile page. 

Instead, there’s a really easy way to add a CTA that you can’t miss. 

Here’s how to turn your profile visits into website visits.

Step 1: Add a profile section.

Step 2: Click “Add featured”.

Step 3: Click the plus icon.

Step 4: Add your CTA link.

Then, you should end up with a big section on your profile linking back to your site. 

This should help you turn more of your profile viewers into website visitors! 

(Prefer a video version? Here's a walkthrough I recorded for a member who posted a LinkedIn question in the forum)