Review of Killer Copywriting by Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck

Without a doubt Jeff Paul is one of the most successful small-business information marketers ever. From staggering on the brink of bankrupt, Jeff Paul built a fantastic successful information business - right from his own home.

And when I read Jeff Paul's course some years ago, and listened to his tapes, I learned some secrets about successful information marketing that I've personally based much of my own business on.

Jeff has teamed up with one of his most successful students, Jim Fleck to update and turn his famous seminar course about the secrets of the old time copywriting masters into an ebook course, "Killer Copywriting".

One of the things I really found inspirating was Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck's tips on how you can write compelling sales copy. There's no doubt about it that it was these copywriting skills which to a large degree were responsible for his oustanding success.

"Killer Copywriting" consists of a main manual and several bonus reports -all published in PDF-format. The main manual alone is well above 200 hundred pages. And the total price for all this is (at the moment of this writing) only $37. Now, if you compare the price of this course, "Killer Copywriting", with the price you typically have to pay for other copywriting courses, you'll immediately see that you seem to get a lot for your money - at least at first sight.

So, when I began reading the main manual, my first thought was this: Is this copywriting course really worth as much as the other, more expensive courses out there? And considering what famous marketing "gurus" Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck are, do they really reveal their "real" copywriting secrets here?

So, you can understand that I was excited to see what Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck had put into this course!

"Killer Copywriting" is an overview over the copywriting techniques that has to a large degree been responsible for Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck's success.

Jeff Paul did mention some of these in his now famous course on Direct Marketing, but "Killer Copywriting" is a more systematic treatment of his copywriting methods.

If you compare the contents of this course, you'll recognize many of the same copywriting techniques and methods that you'll also find in the other competing courses.

In my opinion, what sets Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck's "Killer Copywriting" apart from most of these is the following:

Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck speak from personal experience. Some books and courses on copywriting seem to be written by someone who's so far removed from the real "battle" for the attention of potential customers, that you wonder if they ever deserved to be written. This is not the case with "Killer Copywriting"! Jeff Paul has gone the way himself. When he was deep into financial problems, he simply couldn't afford to spend his last money on sales copy that didn't pull orders.

And what's interesting is, that Jeff Paul's copywriting techniques in turn are based on the copywriting techniques of Dan S. Kennedy and the old copywriting masters.

Jeff Paul's writing style is not the typical "dry" and boring style most authors use - even many copywriters.

Jeff Paul's and Jim Fleck's course is easy to read, and you quickly catch the point. Often Jeff and Jim use illustrations and real-life examples of sales letters and ads. They show you exactly what made some sales letters and ads successful, and what caused others to fail.

In other words, Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck practice what they preach.

What I really like about this course is that it's much more than just a collection of isolated ideas about copywriting. No, "Killer Copywriting" goes beyond the basics and deals with the psychological processes that goes on in the head of your potential customer when he or she reads your sales copy.

Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck show you what it is that determines whether your customer will place the order or not.

This doesn't mean that "Killer Copywriting" is a speculative course, built upon the latest pop-psychology.

Instead, and this is important, Jeff and Jim's conclusions are based upon years of testing of what works in real life. Sometimes in the course Jeff says that a certain technique has proven to work, because it appeals to the customers psychological mindset. But in the same breath Jeff says that he doesn't know for sure what the deeper psychological reasons are why this works. It simply does work again and again...and that's all you need to know.

Some people would prefer a course like this to have been written in a more step-by-step style. And I agree that it would have been easier, after you've read the book to go back and get a quick overview over the process of writing effective sales copy.

However, I also think that the tips boxes (in the main manual) which constantly sum up everything, are helpful in this respect. They don't give quite as good an overview of the whole process as a more step-by-step approach would. But still, I find these summary boxes very helpful.

Besides, the two extensive checklists Jeff and Jim have added as bonuses, are really, really helpful. These two checklists are probably the most helpful copywriting checklists I've ever seen. Use these two checklists and you'll be well on your way to write order-pulling sales copy.

What's more serious, in my opinion, is that you aren't always told exactly HOW to do what Jeff Paul recommends. In other words, you're told WHAT to do, but not always precisely how to do it step-by-step.

For instance, Jeff Paul rightly impresses upon his readers the importance of testing all aspects of your sales copy. But so far as I can see, he doesn't show you exactly how to do that - step-by-step.

Now, when this is said, I'd still say that Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck's "Killer Copywriting" is one of the most inspiring and useful books I've seen on copywriting.

I suggest that you supplement it with one of the other good guides on copywriting out there, that give you a sample skeleton of a good sales letter. Some of the best I've seen are "Winning Website Sales Letters" by Robert Boduch, "The Ultimate Sales Letter" by Dan S. Kennedy (can be bought through Amazon.com), Jo Han's big course plus Marlon Sander's helpful books and courses. Joe Vitale and Bob Serling have also written some excellent guides. Those are the ones that come to mind as I'm writing this, but there are other fine guides too.

Now, please don't get the impression that this means that "Killer Copywriting" is a bad product. No way at all!

What I'm saying is just that you have to understand exactly WHAT Jeff Paul aims at. "Killer Copywriting" isn't primarily a book on the pure basics of copywriting, though you'll learn that too. For example, if you don't know how to start and end a sales letter, you could benefit from supplementing "Killer Copywriting" with one of the books that aim at showing you that. And if you're looking for a book that just shows you how to write sales copy in seven short steps, you'll find that "Killer Copywriting" goes way beyond that.

But if you've already tried to write order-pulling sales letters that didn't actually pull any impressive number of orders, you may wonder how you can improve your sales copy.

What is it that the masters do that you could learn from? Are there any special methods and techniques that you should use to boost your sales?

If you're in this position, I can almost guarantee you that you'll benefit enormously from Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck's "Killer Copywriting".

For example, one of the copywriting techniques that I've personally learned from Jeff Paul (when I read his Mail-Order course several years ago) was the use of stories. Honest and real-life stories. Personally I love both to write and to read interesting stories. And it's quite clear that other people like stories too. Jeff Paul has used stories - both from his own life and those of others - extensively in his sales copy. And the results have been impressive.

Jeff Paul also tells you why stories are so effective. The reason, he says, is the emotional impact they have on the reader.

Emotional impact is the real reason why your readers buy. As someone has once said: "People buy because of their emotions, and they try to justify their purchases (to themselves and others) with logic".

In "Killer Copywriting" Jeff and Jim really show you how to do this. They share the techniques that they're using all the time when they write order-pulling sales copy.

Of course it's vitally important that you don't ever violate valid ethical principles. Manipulation is usually bad. But if your offer can really help people to change their lives to the better, why shouldn't you tell them all the reasons why they'll benefit from it?!

Finally, another tip I find very valuable is Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck's emphasis on the LOOK of your ads and your sales letters. Most ads and sales letters are easy to spot. And whenever you see something that immediately looks like an ad, most people hurry ahead, not offering more than a split of a second on that ad.

I couldn't agree more. It simply can't be said much better than that! And I wonder if not one of the worst mistakes made today in writing sales copy for the Internet is exactly that. The socalled minisites are becoming more and more popular. And rightly so. But so often you'll immediate be able to spot a minisite as nothing else than a sales letter. And the fact is that more and more minisites look like each other. They use the same type of bullets, the same background, the fonts, the same graphics, and so on. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's just that these minisites can immediately be recognized as sales letters, and nothing else. Maybe it's time to take heed of Jeff Paul's wise words. And lately I've actually noticed that some clever copywriters and marketers have begun to change the way their sales letters look like.

In my opinion this is a really valuable course on copywriting. Actually, I think it's one of the best I've read so far. It's very extensive. And you'll discover some of more advanced secrets of successful copywriting.

Besides, I personally like Jeff and Jim's frequent references to some of the older copywriters. These copywriters are the "fathers" of modern Direct Response Copywriting. But they're more or less unknown to many modern copywriters. Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck show how valuable it is to learn from these old masters of copywriting. And personally, I totally agree. But Jeff Paul Jim Fleck go a step further and even analyze several of their most successful ads. This is another very valuable part of this course.

I certainly think this course is worth the money. And considering that Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck only charges $37 for this course, you get your monies worth returned several times over.

Now, "Killer Copywriting" is, so far as I can see, a front-end product for some of the other products that Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck sell. But it doesn't matter. "Killer Copywriting" is a complete product in itself. And you don't need to buy anything else from the authors in order to fully benefit from this course.

So, to make a long story short, this course has my highest recommendations. It's one of the best, wisest, most useful, most entertaining and best written courses I've yet seen on copywriting.

Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck: "Killer Copywriting"

Jeff Paul and Jim Fleck:
"Killer Copywriting"