There are two types of people in life:
Those who recognized the subject line and those who didn’t.
Let me explain:
See, one of the most famous ads ever written was the historic masterpiece written by John Caples and its headline was “They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano – But When I Started to Play!”
Caples then goes on to tell a (made up—which is dubious in its own right and quite possibly illegal nowadays) story about a man who sat down to play piano at a gathering with his friends.
The good friends they are all started laughing because this man had (as far as they were aware) never played a single note in his life.
But then, suddenly the man started playing the most magnificent music anyone had ever heard.
He earned admiration and respect from every single person in the room.
He then tells the story of how he learned to play piano from some music institutes across the country which would send him these lesson bundles to practice on your own (the product the ad is about).
The ad made a shit ton of money and with it easily became one of the most swiped and copied ads ever.
Which is laughably stupid.
Not the money-making part, it’s a good ad. But the swiping part.
The only thing you’re doing with swiping, well, anything, is shooting yourself in the foot. You’re not original, your audience will realize, you will look stupid, nobody will buy your stupid stuff, and you lose all credibility you had as a marketer—which probably wasn’t a lot to begin with since if you’re down to copy someone else’s work, you’re probably also doing a lot of other dubious stuff that hurts your credibility.
Am I calling swipe files stupid? No.
I’m calling the act of swiping stupid.
Swipe files are great for idea generation, to learn what makes something “good” and to improve your own ability.
I have a swipe file full of old-school ads (before 1990) which I open every morning when I hand copy an entire ad—a practice Gary Bencivenga, the world’s greatest living copywriter, and many other top players recommend.
But the stuff you write?
No, that needs to be original.
Your thoughts, your ideas, your interests, your style, and your structure.
You’ll never see me talk about swiping inside Email Extraordinaire. I simply don’t teach you how to copy, how to mindlessly follow some checklist which will undoubtedly end up with bad results, nor how to be a fraud and destroy your entire reputation and credibility.
I give you the tools and principles you need to succeed together with the freedom to experiment and grow on your own personal journey.
Email Extraordinaire is more of a guiding hand in the right direction than a step-by-step template on how to do something—which can be said about every single product of mine since that’s just how I do business.
Anyway.
If this didn’t scare you off (which I hope it didn’t because you shouldn’t be on my list in that case) then go check out Email Extraordinaire today,
Why today?
Well, because it’s the last day you’ll ever get the chance to do so. In about 16 hours I’ll close the cart for good (or at least for the next 6 months) and you won’t be able to purchase Email Extraordinaire.
So don’t waste any more time and check it out today.
Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE