One of my subscribers, who’s among the top five financial copywriters today, put me on the spot about the numbers from this promotion.
It’s a romantic notion to think that Dan Rosenthal rode off into the sunset with millions in royalties from just a few days of work, but it seems unlikely.
I’d gotten this info from one of Clayton Makepeace’s contributors a few years ago and taken it as fact.
Lesson? Trust but verify! Trust but verify!
This is a very good letter but not of blockbuster caliber and the numbers do not seem to add up.
So, I retract everything beneath the line.
And by the way, Dan is alive, well and still working, according to an acquaintance who met him for lunch in the Far East a few weeks ago.
This is Dan Rosenthal’s direct mail piece that brought in $12 million in orders in a few weeks.
The story goes that Dan went to the publisher with the idea, took two weeks to write and polish it and then walked away with 30% of the take.
What a concept.
No graphic design, no sidebars — just a 5-page paper-and-ink sales letter with a 1-page response form.
This is one of the all-time great sales letter openers for a financial newsletter. And with the price of gold closing in on three times the price per ounce when this letter mailed, it packs even more of a wallop.
Dan Rosenthal’s sales letter for the “Natural Resource Hunter.”
And here’s one of his print ads for the Silver & Gold Report.
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that is awesome copy lawrence,
it also goes to show that gold and indeed most things are cyclical, golds up, golds down, golds up again.
that’s why this site and what you’re doing rocks.
thanks for this lawrence
Neil
Brilliant opener.
Love the phrase “with absolutely no intention… until” — what a way to provoke curiosity. Like they know a secret, and you’re about to as well.
I don’t know who sent you here (Aoril 9-10, 2012) but there is significant doubt about the tally of this promo.
A very reliable source questioned it and I have not been able to prove to the contrary.
Got this off the swipe file column of Clayton’s site some years ago.
I trusted but did not verify!
Hi Lawrence,
I just came across this post. Chances are you’re referring to an article I wrote when I was writing for Clayton but there must have been some confusion.
I’m sure I posted this swipe and attributed it to Dan. But I don’t believe I connected this letter to that story (Which Clayton told me several times over the years).
First, because the swipe above is not for the same client.
Second, because this swipe is for a $100/$200 offer.
And the story was that Dan came to the client with an idea for an expensive back-end promo with a multi-thousand dollar price point. It was the first really expensive back end they did was my understanding and that is what put the sales up so high. They’d already built out a big customer list but had never offered a product above a few hundred dollars at the time. Although I’m sure the $12 million number is an estimate at best as it was related to me in casual talk at the bar.
That particular article isn’t live anymore and I don’t have a copy of that particular article so if I made a mistake in the article I apologize.
I love that story though whatever the numbers were because it illustrated how a business that gets customer acquisition right really does have million-dollar low hanging fruit waiting to be plucked.
BTW – Love your site.
Regards,
John Newtson
Hi John. Great to hear from you and thanks for sharing what you recall!
I loved your original post and the story and have learned my lesson to SAVE valuable content like that and never trust that it “will always be there.”
Do you have any sites these days in which you write articles or blog posts!?
All the best,
Lawrence
I’m Dan Rosenthal, who wrote this piece of copy. It was good, but it was not a blockbuster. It was good enough to run on and off with different openings for a few years.
The piece that Clayton’s protegee is referring to was written years before. The client, a friend of mine, heard that I had launched the first $5,000 service (Red-Hot Penny Golds), and sold it out (if I remember correctly, 200 subscribers) within a week.
He asked me to do the same for him, only he wanted it with a thousand subscribers. I said I didn’t think it could be done, but I was willing to give it a try. We agreed on 30% of the profits, net of refunds and direct costs.
He flew out for a few weeks and the copy we produced was crap. He went back home; came back a month later for another 2 weeks. Again, pure crap copy.
Then 3 days before the two weeks were up, his dad called me up. An old man in his 80s, and a friend of mine. He started talking , and talking, and talking. By the time he finished, I knew exactly what to do with the letter. I thanked him. Sat down with his son, and banged it out in the last two and a half days.
The damn thing sold out on a 50,000-piece mailing. The first days’ results were so good, we rushed out a re-hit and an adaptation to his expires and other names. Unfortunately, he stopped taking orders at 1,400, cutting off about a thousand. But he had a nice payday anyway. And I had no complaints with my share.
The moral of the story, the best copy is “listened not written.” You sit down. Let your client talk. He knows what his product is all about. You just have to write it down coherently and powerfully.
Best wishes from Bangkok.