My Reading Notes # 1: The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert
A collection of my personal reading of the books I read and created a significant impact on my life and career.
Chapter 1: Tuesday, 5:41 pm, June 12, 1984
Gary talks about the importance of improving and maintaining your health and physical fitness. The best way to attain that is to do roadwork.
ALL first attempts are sloppy and lame.
This chapter also talks about the “the four square lessons on life” picked up from the booked called “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey
Winners in life and successful people spend a lot more time doing things that fall into Q2 than most peoples.
Chapter 2: Wednesday, 6:57 p.m., June 13, 1984
Gary talks about the importance of fasting, at least once a week.
“Fast day” is the day you set aside to give your mind and body a rest.
Fruits act as a “nature’s broom” and helps keep you cleaned out and mobilating.
In life, everyone must learn to deal with unnecessary grief from other people, but sometimes you are faced with a jerk with the balance of power in their favor and the only way to subscribe, especially with your pride intact, is to develop mental toughness as a form of mental guard.
Gary suggests not to tell to other people what you are doing.
“There is no justice. There is only power.”
Sometimes there is no use wasting time and energy fighting establish belief by arguing. It is better to just silently go about proving or accomplishing your goal.
Chapter 3: Thursday, 3:26 p.m., June 14, 1984
You should eat a lot of vegetables.
Don’t listen to all that garbage that says you should eat between meals.
In fact, six small meals is a lot better than three big ones.
Develop a tough independent attitude. When you depend on others, you give yourself an excuse for failure. Example.”It’s not my fault if she forgets to buy my vegetables.”
Just go easy and use a little common sense.
Gary talks about also his time table for the book he wanted to write
Gary advises his son, Bond, to concentrate on developing arms.
When most people tell others of any plan about making money, they are met with instant negativity.
People don’t do this consciously. They simply need to do it to make themselves better.
When you tell people your plans to get rich, they will translate your success into their failure for not becoming rich.
Most people judge how well they have done in life by comparing themselves to their peers. If one of their peers has become a multi-millionaire and could retire young and rich, they will question their own decision.
The advantage over others is GREAT when you can SHUT OUT THE NEGATIVE ATTITUDE OF MASSES.
Winners revise their plans over and over and constantly reassess.
Chapter 4: Friday, 11:05 AM, June 15, 1984
Gary stresses out the importance of developing lean and hard strong muscular arms
He also talks about respect
A fat, sloppy, skinny and weal body tends to broadcast to the world that the owner of the body is “lacking self-respect.”
Tough animals have a tendency to prey on weak or helpless animals.
DEFENSIVE BEHAVIOR INVITED AGGRESSIVE ACTION.
Rely on your own strength instead of Somebody Else’s Compassion.
“…I want you to to be able to avoid fights without losing your dignity.”
Quote by Rockefeller, “ Self-reliance is the most satisfying in the world and is the real motive of great businessmen and not money.”
Chapter 5: Saturday, 10:02 AM, June 16, 1984
Gary reveals the #1 big secret to making money
Money is the by-product of enthusiasm.
Money is where the enthusiasm is.
When it comes to money, attitude is the most important thing of all.
The first thing you must realize is that you must become a student of marketers.
The first and most important thing you must learn is what people want to buy.
But be careful. You want to know what people actually DO BUY, not what they SAY they BUY.
The surveyed people were trying to give the “Right” answer and so they put down as an answer the beer they feel they SHOULD drink.
If you want to be a topnotch marketing man, you have to know how it really is. Not how people (or you) wish it was or how they think it is.
You must become a “student of reality.”
Chapter 6: Sunday, 10:16 AM, June 17, 1984
…To be constantly be on the lookout for the groups of people (markets) who have demonstrated that they are starving (or at least hungry0)for some particular product or services.
How do you measure hunger?
Possibility #1: Mail to people whose names and address we get right out of a telephone book. Terrible Idea. Too many non-prospects in this kind of group
Possibility #2: Those in Possibility #1 but only those who live in the high-income areas. This is a little better but not nearly good enough. Not everybody who lives in a high — income area has a high income.
Possibility #3: Mail to a group of people that are relatively sure have above average incomes likes doctors, lawyers, architects, top executives. Not bad. We are now getting into areas where we have at least have a chance. At least, they probably have the ability to do some investing.
Possibility #4: Mail the promotion to a list of upper-income people who are proven mail orders buyers.
Possibility #5: Mail the promotion to a group of wealthy people who have ordered some other investment book by mail
Possibility #6: Mail the promotion to a list of wealthy people who have purchased by mail, a product similar to ours — several times.
Possibility #7: Possibility #6 plus who have paid big money for what they bought
Possibility #8: Possibility #7 plus who have very recently made such a purchase
Possibility #9: Possibility #8 plus who our friendly list broker tell us is working like crazy for other like crazy for other mailers with promotions similar to ours
Possibility #10: THE BEST LIST OF ALL IS YOUR OWN SATISFIED CUSTOMER LIST.
Chapter 7: Monday, 10:30 AM, June 18, 1984
Any list of proven mail order of buyers will outperform any list of non-buyers.
There are three main guidelines you can rely on when you are picking lists to test
Recency — The more recently a person has purchased (by mail) something similar to what you are selling, the more receptive, he will be to your offer.
Frequency — The more often a person buys a particular item, the higher his desire for that type of production service.
Unit of Sale — refers to people who buy a larger amount compared to others
Recency — the most important of the three
People don’t always put their money where their mouths are, but they do nearly always put out their money where their true desires are.
In addition to mailing lists, there are a number of so-called “hot” mail order publications.
These are newspaper and magazines that mail order companies advertise in over and over.
“A client pays a big amount of money to write an ad and then they want to tell me how to do it?!” — a lesson on control
When there is big money involved it is very very hard for the clients to write those checks.
Clients usually believe that they don’t need you anymore since he already has the ad.
Sell people what they WANT to buy.
Look for ads and direct mail pieces that you see over and over. Whoever runs these ads a HIT A NERVE.
To make money, you must hit the same nerve BETTER.
Locate those hot buttons. You don’t have to guess. You don’t have to wonder. You don’t have to ask people or take surveys. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS OBSERVE!
Chapter 8: Tuesday, 10:52 AM, June 19, 1984
If you halt your forward progress every time you get a little tire or irritable, then you are suffering from lack of discipline.
If you keep pushing when you are chronically tired or really sick, then you are a fool.
“Most of the world’s work is done by people who didn’t feel much like getting out of the bed.”
We often try to convince others and ourselves that we are something we are not, something we have an idea we “should” be.
Truth can be determined NOT by how people use their mouth but rather how they use their WALLET.
Be skeptical of what people say. Be skeptical of surveys. Of Questionnaires. Instead, believe in NUMBERS.
Keep awake to possibilities of overlooked marketing possibilities.
Gary has a long belief that a lot of money can be made by making offers to people who are at an “emotional turning point” in their lives.
He talks about pregnant women and asked a doctor to write to him
Chapter 9: Wednesday, 10:30 AM, June 20, 1984
Gary talks about developing a mail order campaign.
A good part of working life should be spent time reading “SRDS” list book and newspaper and magazines that carry a MO Advertising
Headline: How You Can Make Extra Money
Hire somebody to write a little report
First Part: about little known techniques
Second Part: money techniques that would uniquely apply to a particular group of people.
The first part to remain the same
The second part to be customized to a particular group of person
As a general rule, the more “custom tailored” your promotion, the more successful it will be.
Ideas breed other ideas.
Chapter 10: Thursday, 9:12 AM, June 21, 1984
When you get stuck or emotionally jammed up one of the ways to get yourself unclogged and flowing again is just to keep moving.
The key is movement!
Gary advised Blond to read to classical advertising books 1. “Scientific Advertising” by Claude Hopkins
“The Robert Collier Letter Book” by Robert Collier
2001 Headlines — Gary Halbert book
Superbiz by Ben Suarez — read the headlines
1st reading — just read for enjoyment, at your own pace
2nd and 3rd reading — take notes, read 2x to 3x
Make yourself a collection of good ads and a good DM called “swipe file”
How to create a DM Promotion from scratch
Step 1: Go through “SRDS” book and look for lists of people you want to work (ex. Real estate)
Step 2: Buy 3 to 4 books about real estate. Read and take notes.
Step 3: Get as many DM pieces and space ads about real estate marketing. Read and take notes.
Step 4: After Step 1 to 3, go back and review notes from “The Robert Collier Letter Book” and “Scientific Advertising”. Read those headlines again.
Step 5: Create your product. Create a report NOT a book.
First, go back to those books on real estate investing and extract in outline form all the good ideas in these books.
Pick out the best of the ideas and overlay them with their own ideas.
Arrange these ideas in a logical form.
Remember that you are creating a REPORT, not a book. A 100 typewritten pages.
Chapter 11: Friday, 9:07 AM, June 22, 1984
“A” Pile — contains letters that appear to be personal
“B” Pile — contains letters with a commercial message
Everybody always opens ALL of their “A” pile mail
First Objective in DM Promotion Design — to get the envelope in the “A” pile
So simple and so OVERLOOKED.
Grabber — something to get the customer attention(ex. Little baggie of dirt)
Chapter 12: Saturday, 10:02 AM, June 23, 1984
Gary talks about adding the day of the week, the exact time, day of the month and years as part of salutation in emails
It makes the letter more personal
It gives a sense of immediacy and intimacy.
It bonds the reader and writer.
A time dated communication carries considerably more weight than one which is not.
Another thing to make the salutation more personal is to address the reader by name. Ex. Dear Joel, Dear Lhou, Dear. Mr. Dela Cruz, Dear. Mrs. Bellen
Gary also talks about adding instruction to the reader on what to do next in your letter. It relieves the reader the burden of trying to figure out what he is supposed to do.
The letter must be pleasant, easy to read, interesting and unconfusing.
For DM letters, you must include a reply envelope.
There are 2 options when it comes to replying envelope.
The reader pay for the postage
The writer pay for the postage
The disadvantage of Option 2 — cost implication
When to use Option 2 — Stamped Reply Envelope (SRE)
Condition 1: when the sales for the high-ticket item are more than enough to cover up the pay for SRE
Condition 2: Whenever you want the recipient of your letter to feel guilty if he doesn’t reply. Good for charity and fundraising.
Chapter 13: Sunday, 9:02 AM, June 24, 1984
Life lesson from Bond: He said that he was luckier than Jeff because Jeff lived when Gary was already rich. While Bond was when Gary was not yet rich, therefore Bond learns how Gary solves problems, especially money problems.
“When things are tough I have discovered that a very, very simple but effective thing to do is just keep moving in a positive direction.”
Continuation of Chapter 12 about using guilt in sales. He included a self-addressed envelope with the stamp for the reader to reply that he won’t participate in the offer.
Telling the reader about the product being a genuine limited offer and that some other lucky person will take advantage of it if you DON’T.
This has reverse psychology on it.
Gary talks about another 2 kinds of Reply Envelope — Business Reply Envelope(BRE) and Place Stamp Here Envelope (PSE)
Business Reply Envelope (BRE)
Much cheaper than Stamped Reply Envelope
because you pay only for the postage and BRE Fee
Disadvantage: They slow down your email and the post office telegraph that your letter is NOT a real personal letter.
Place Stamp Here Envelope (PSH)
Most economical reply envelope of all
The customer pays for the postage
Disadvantage: not as convenient for the reader to lose some money to reply to you
Advantage: more personal so you can gain more orders
More cheaper than SRE and more personal than BRE
Chapter 14: Monday, 9:05 AM, June 25, 1984
Attention Grabber should be relevant and should tie with your message
A submarine that flies? — — Clickbait, cheap shot, not good
On chapter 11, the example attention grabber is a little baggie of dirt, on the letter it will explain us “The sand inside the bag was taken directly from a certain beach of the island of Maui..”
Use words that would make the reader “picture with pleasure” also called word pictures. What it does is the reader imagines what you are telling them.
Gary added the inclusion of order card and printed brochure in the sales letter.
We do want him to read the order card but we want him to read it at the proper time! And the proper time is AFTER he reads the letter.
Make it business-like personal to achieve credibility
Chapter 1 to 13: picking off the list, the outside envelope, and return envelopes, how to get the reader’s attention and first couple paragraphs of the letter
Chapter 15: Tuesday, 9:09 AM, June 26, 1984
Gary teaches the particulars of how to write a copy
Chapter 1 to Chapter 14 — discusses the “conceptualization” of marketing effort
Gary talks about assembling “swipe files” relevant to the promotion
List cards describing the lists you are going to test (target market niche)
A copy of the report you intend to sell (product/service)
Copies of DM Pieces other people used to sell that are related to your products
Copies of Space Ads other people used to sell that are related to your products
Copies of books and reports
Copies of exceptionally good ads and DM pieces, even if they are not related to your product
A copy of the book with hundreds of headlines
Anything that is “idea generator”
Next thing to do is to start reading and taking “nugget note”
Does not matter how long, how important it is as long as strikes you the moment you read it, take it down
Other items to takes notes
How many pages
How many words
How many photos
Who wrote it
Facts about the Author
What will the product do for you
After collection nugget notes, rank them as
- good
** — better
*** — best
Stop Working on the project for a day or two.
Often what happens during this time, is that an outstanding sales idea will occur to you — sometimes called the “breakthrough idea” or “aha experience”
Gary introduces also the proven sequential outline called AIDA Formula — Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
Chapter 16: Wednesday, 9:09 AM June 27, 1984
Gary explains the A.I.D.A. Formula
ATTENTION
Gary reiterates the importance of Attention Grabber in Chapter 11 and 14
Always remember that the attention grabber needs to relevant and naturally tie with the letter.
INTEREST
Feed the reader interesting facts
Tell stories
DESIRE
What we do to create desire is to describe the benefits our prospect will get if he buys the product or service
This will be the main attraction
You must always include even the obvious
ACTION
In DM promotions, it is in the form of him sending us an order
This is where you close the sale
“Would you like to get in on this great investment opportunity? Would you like to be one of the privileged few who actually own a piece of the finest beach in Maui? If so, it’s easy to order. All you have to do is fill out the order the coupon and send it to me with your payment, etc, etc.”
You must be very clear, very specific about what you want him to do
Above All, tell him to do all this RIGHT NOW! TODAY!
Tell him to hurry and tell him what he will lose if he delays
Gary advised Bond to get a copy of facelift ad and copy it in your own handwriting
Chapter 17: Thursday, 10:31 AM, June 28, 1984
After Gary advise Bond to copy the facelift ad in handwriting, he wants Bond to continue copying good ads for the next 4 or 5 months
When you actually write out a good ad in your own handwriting, the words, the flow, sentence structure and the sequence of information and everything else about the writing of the ad became a part of you.
This is a way of internally imprinting on your mind and body.
…the deep inside out understanding of what it takes and what it feels like to write a good copy
Few tips on good copy
Use simple common everyday words
Write short sentences and short paragraphs
Use transition words
Ask questions once I a while and then answer them yourself. (ex. How do we get the benefits? The answer is simple.)
Use some “word pictures” to create a reader experience
Use parenthesis as a “little eye relief” for the reader
Gary describes a good writer who makes thing perfectly clear.
Don’t worry developing your own “style”
If you are writing for applause, you will go home with empty hands. Write for money!(Refer to Scientific Advertising, Chapter 2: Just Salesmanship, Paragraph ***)
The very best writing goes unnoticed.
Chapter 18: Friday, 7:09 AM. June 29, 1984
Gary talks about the layout of the ad must be an “eye treat” for the reader
This means wide margins, short words, short sentences, short paragraphs, and an attractive, inviting layout
The layout of the ad should catch the attention of your reader but not in the way that causes him to notice the “layout”
In most publications. The editorial content gets 5x as much as readership as advertising content
It means your ads should have “editorial” look
You can do a better selling job when at FIRST it does not appear you are attempting to do a sales job
Chapter 19: Saturday, 9:27 AM, June 30, 1984
You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression
The interviewer decides whether or not to hire the person in the first 40 seconds.
You either hook a reader or lose him when the very first looks at your ad or DM.
Sometimes, a reader will read and order from your ad, even though he was turned off by it when he first saw it
But don’t count on this. Most of the time people will never alter his original impression.
He will simply edit all new info that comes to him and process in such a way that will validate his original opinion.
Gary believes that “We unconsciously spend the rest of our so-called decision making not really making a decision but instead searching for justification for the decision we have already made.
It also works the other way around. When the prospect gets an “instant lift” just from looking at your ad, then he will start reading it and looking for reasons to convince himself that the promise of the ad is true
What kind of look will give the reader a lift?
The layout must be clean
There should be a lot of contrast.
It should look east and inviting to read.
Pictures should have “upbeat” nature
Women like pictures of women. Men like pictures of men.
For package, use good, crisp white paper for the pages of the letter and envelopes
If you are using label addressing, use a tight white label on matching the envelope
If you are using stamps, whenever practical, use large colorful commemorative
For letterhead, should be dignified and non-distracting
The typeface should be a serif face
The original letter must be typed with a carbon ribbon.
Use RED when you want to underline words
Photographs should look crisp, clean, glossy and clear.
Chapter 20: Sunday, 12:56 PM, July 1, 1984
A long, long time ago, Dennis Haslinger told Gary that most of the most serious mistakes he would make in life would be bad ego decisions.
Please remember word H.A.L.T. (stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired) and you should never make a decision when you are any of those things
“I am clearing the deck and getting this garbage out of the system so that my strategic decisions and my future letters will be clear.”
You don’t have to get it right…You just have to get it MOVING!
Chapter 21: Monday, 11:24 AM, July 2, 1984
Gary talks about propositions or deal. (ex. Buy one, take 1, buy now with a discount, if you buy more than one, I’ll give you a discount)
You must have a good explanation of why you are offering a proposition or deal
There are far more compelling reasons or “excuse for the deal” and if you find a way to use it you can……. dramatically increase your sales
.……make yourself a bushel of money
You can’t always control what happens to you in life but you do have a lot of control over your response.
Example of extraordinary effective excuse for the deal that makes 40 million sales
I am offering You
This Deal Because of You
(By the virtue of some unique circumstance)
Are So Special
Find a way to show the customers that he was unique and valuable to you
Chapter 22: Tuesday, 10:35 AM, July 3, 1984
Gary told his son Bond a little trick in improving his copywriting — to read it out loud.
What happens when you read your copy out loud is that you will verbally stumble over all the places that are not smooth.
You have to rewrite the rough spots and read it out loud again. Then repeat the process until it is smooth enough.
Advertising writing should be the best writing of all.
Gart reminds Bond about writing good ads and DM promotions in his own handwriting and in addition, read it out loud
By doing this writing and reading aloud of good material you will find that the process of writing good ads will be internally imprinted on your nerves, muscle fibers, brain cells and every fiber of your being.
Get yourself a collection of good ads and DM pieces and read them out loud and copy them in your handwriting.
Here is the outline of steps to direct mail success
Step 1: Find a hot market (mailing list)
Step 2: Find or create a product (preferably paper and ink) to sell to that market
Step 3: Create a direct mail promotion that describes the product or service and the benefits of owning the same
Step 4: Make a test of the mailing list (1,000 to 5,000 pieces)
Step 5: Analyze results
Step 6: If the results are good, mail 20,000 to 100,000 more letters
Step 7: If results are still good, start rolling out and taking care of business
If you use common sense, your chances of success are excellent.
Where people go wrong is by making it too complicated.
YOU MUST ALWAYS FIND A MARKET FIRST
AND THEN CONCENTRATE ON THE PRODUCT.
A guy with a new product cannot find a hot market for that product…
…but a guy who uncovered a HOT MARKET can always find a product to fill the needs of that market
Chapter 23: Wednesday, 4:24 PM, July 4, 1984
It doesn’t matter how much you learn if you don’t use what you learn.
The big difference between people who make it in any field and those who do not is AWARENESS.
Prison is a microcosm of society and weakfish are gobbled up fast.
So are those who walk around with their heads in the clouds oblivious to what is going on about them
You can sulk in prison.
You can’t waste time feeling sorry for yourself.
You can’t stay lost in fantasies about your woman or what you are going to do when you hit the road.
Always be ready at any time to “catch a break”
Mail order and all other fortunes are made by men and women who know what’s going on their field.
What determines the winners? It’s how they play the cards that were dealt with them.
Believability is one of the top most important ingredients of god MO and DM promotions.
One way to do that is to give exact details.
Most car owners — — -> 77.6% of all car owners
You can lose lots of weight — → and the average reported weight loss over a 31-day period was 37.5 pounds for men and 26.3 pounds for women
Chapter 24: Thursday, 7:15 AM, July 5, 1984
Gary reiterates the process on how to create a profitable business as discussed in Chapter 22
He also discusses the IMPACT.
The impact is the impression you or your promotion makes on its intended target (the result of your attention grabber, a continuation of Chapter 14)
One of his favorite way in all the world to achieve impact in DM promotion is attaching things to the top of letters
The best example is the classic “dollar bill” letter featured in “The Robert Collier Letter Book”
Chapter 25: Friday, 7:14 PM, July 7, 1984
In business dealings, people can smell it when you are weak. When you are vulnerable. They can smell success too. They can sniff out a winner.
And you can’t fake it. Not for long. You’ve got to be it.
“One of the things I have learned here is how precious the good times and the good people are. I hope I have learned never again to not take fare of my special relationships like the one I have with you, Let’s remember we’ve got something very special and really take care of it.”
- **END OF THE BORON LETTERS***
