Hey reader,
Clever headline, eh?
Not really. At all.
It was clever, at one point. Like back in 1927 when it was first used.
John Caples (famous ad man and copywriter) used it to advertise a course that taught one how to play the piano.
Here’s the original ad written by John Caples waaaaaay back in 1927 (if you’re interested):
So why I am posting this here as my first blog post on the new site?
Well, because, as many of the great teachers of marketing and copywriting preach, the only way to get good at something is to do it. And if you’re gonna do it, you should try and emulate those who do it well.
The “it” here is writing. And more specifically, “copywriting”.
Caples is still raved about nearly 100 years after writing this ad so I am safely assuming he knew how to do it well.
What I did was I wrote this ad out by hand, word for word. Then, I did it again. Then, I did it again.
Yes, it was painfully boring. Yes, my hand hurt. No, it was not enjoyable.
But, there are way too many folks who tout the benefits of hand copying great ads for me to put up an argument. So, I did it.
And, I’m doing it.
Everyday.
It sucks, frankly. And maybe it’ll turn out to be a waste of my time. We’ll see.
But, it’s all about the reps. Something I suck notoriously at.
I’m the absolute king of starting something, being child like excited about it for a few days, maybe a week, and then it flames out and I’m on to the next thing.
Working out. Running. Writing. Eating healthy (this one is the nastiest one of all for me. I think my longest time sticking with a healthy eating kick can be measured not in days, but hours. Like 4 of them.)
But, I’m still a kid.
A really old, almost over the hill one.
I’m bound to grow up and mature at some point.
Maybe all of you curious readers will begin to keep me in line.
Anyways, that was quite the tangent wasn’t it?
Instead of hand copying this ad for the zillionth time I decided to mimic the ad for an offer I am seeing ads for in my facebook feed.
Here it is:
They Laughed When I Stepped Up To The Tee Box
But Not After I Swung
Rick had just hit his drive before me. The boys, as usual, stood in amazement and commented on how unbelievably straight his drive went, as it always does.
To the amazement of the boys, I strode confidently up and placed my tee in the soft tee box grass.
“Here’s Kurt, being a smart ass again,” somebody chuckled. They all laughed. They were all certain I’d shank or worm burn it yet again.
“Can he drive the ball like that too!?” I heard one of the newer guys ask.
“Hell, no!” Rick exclaimed. “He’s never hit a decent drive in his life… But just watch him. This is going to be good.”
I decided to make the most of the situation.
Acting confident, but with a sheepish grin, I stood back behind my ball and lined it up, just like you see the pros do on Sunday. Then, I took out my little note pad, as the pros do, to reference what happened the last time I drove this hole.
The boys were amused, to say the least.
“What do your notes say, Kurt!? Try not to slice into the opposite fairway!?” One of them laughed from behind me.
“Quiet! Let him concentrate!” One of them whispered sarcastically, and they all roared with laugher.
Then…
I let it rip
The boys were so quiet you could hear the worms crawling around.
Boy did all that laughter die out in an instant.
But, it was only one nice drive. One really nice drive.
So, what? Maybe I got lucky…
The boys were a little quieter as I set up at the next tee box.
And for good reason.
Once again…
I gave it a ride.
This time, further and straighter than the last.
290 yards, then 300, then 290 again, then 305.
Again and again, the entire day through. Long, straight drives.
Everyone of em.
It was as if Tiger himself had spent the previous week with me working on nothing but my driver mechanics.
And it was almost as if he was there, guiding and directing my every movement.
I was that good.
As I put my driver back in the bag on 18 after crushing yet another monster bomb straight down the fairway, the new guy who, at the start of the round, and who was unaware of my history, had asked if I too could drive like my friend Rick, asked me how I learned to drive like that.
The others boys scoffed, somewhat mystified as to what they just witnessed and now what they were hearing. Lowly ole Kurt being queried about how he got so good…
What a feeling!
Anyways, I had to tell the new guy the truth.
Just last year, and all the years prior, I couldn’t strike a drive to save my life. I was terrible. Really terrible.
My friends all backed me up.
“We’ve been golfing with him for 20 years,” said Rick. I’ve never seen him play like that in my life.”
The other guys echoed a similar sentiment.
New guy was baffled.
“How did you get so good all the sudden? Where’d you learn how to drive like that? Who taught you?”
“Truly, I’ve only been working on my drive for about 8 weeks now,” I replied. “I didn’t know if it would work or not so I didn’t want to tell anyone.”
“Didn’t know if WHAT would work?” They all demanded.
So then I told em.
“Have you ever heard of Performance Golf?” I asked them.
The boys nodded. “Yeah. It’s some online golf coaching thing, right?” They asked.
“That’s right,” I told em. “They have a brand new program called (product name) that teaches you how to hit your drives like I just did all within 8 weeks.”
So then I explained to the new guy how I’d longed to be able to hit a decent drive. How, for years, I was, by far, the worst driver of the bunch.
I would slice it, worm burn it, miss it completely…. You name it. I could do everything besides hit it cleanly.
Then, I told him, I saw some ad from performance golf about a new program developed specifically around driving the golf ball. It only costs a few hundred bucks and it told about how a bunch of guys in my same situation had successfully completed the 8 week program and were now crushing straight drives and impressing all of their buddies.
Best of all, the program only required about 4 hours per week of training. Of course, you could do more but it promised that 4 hours per week would yield very obvious results.
I was a bit skeptical but what did I have to lose?
I got to work on the lessons the same day I bought the course.
They did a great job of explaining what I (and most folks) do wrong before even starting the swing, and how to eliminate the problem.
It went on the illustrate several (but easy to remember) mechanical problems that, when addressed and corrected, result in a more powerful, more smooth, and more crisp driver swing.
Frankly, it was surprisingly easy.
So, after about 3 weeks and about 15 hours of instruction and holding the club in my living room while going over the video lessons, I hit the range.
And…
I was IMPRESSED!
Typically, when I hit driver at the range, I am actually tired out after half a bucket. And that’s because my old swing was so wrong, it was burning about twice the energy it needed to and only providing me about half the power necessary for a great drive.
Needless to say, I powered through 2 full buckets and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Or feeling.
I wasn’t tired. It didn’t feel clunky. It sounded fantastic (that gorgeous sound you hear when Tiger or any other pro strikes a ball off the tee), and boy oh boy did the balls go far… and straight.
Now I’m looking at what the other programs from PG might be able to do for my game!
—————
POWER DRIVE by Performance Golf
You, too, can now learn how to become a fantastic golfer. You really can’t go wrong with this program which has now shown over 500,000 other frustrated golfers how to correctly hit a drive.
You do not need to be born with an athletic “gift” for golf. You don’t need some special talent or ability. You need to learn what you’re doing wrong, how to eliminate it so that you’ll never do it again, and what things to do to replace the old habits.
This program works for rank beginners or for those of you who’ve been struggling with your game for years.
Thousands of our program students never dreamed they’d gain control over their drivers until they took our 1 on 1 Swing Review. There’s no one size fits all in golf. That’s why one of our PGA -level coaches takes a look at your swing and sends you a personalized video response to help you eliminate the root cause of your swing flaws.
If you are truly wanting to up your game – if you really want to surprise your golf buddies with drives that leave them in the dust – head over to our website and upload your swing video today.
We are making a new offer of 20% off the normal $400 program price now through the end of January.
Pretty easy to write a decent sounding ad when you knock off one of the masters.
Anyways, this first post is officially long enough. Hope it spawned an enjoyable or useful thought of your own.
Cya
