I asked Ryan W. Johnson to teach one of the tactics he learned when he took Dane Maxwell’s Mixergy Copywriting Course. –Andrew

How Dane recovered from a $12,000 humiliation

Five years ago, fresh out of college, Dane Maxwell was scammed for $12,000 when he bought a business website. Destroyed and humiliated, he moved back into his parents’ house.

Fast-forward to today and Dane runs a lifestyle business that helps real estate brokers recruit and retain agents. Revenue last year: $400,000.

Dane discovers copywriting

How did Dane get there so quickly? And how did he do it without venture capital, without partners and without a team of salespeople, programmers and marketers?

In his Mixergy Copywriting Course, Dane outlined the ten items he includes on his websites, sales pages and emails to boost his conversions.

Dane’s system

In other words, Dane created systems that maximize his revenue (through recurring payments and higher conversion rates) and minimize the work involved (through automation and a checklist approach to copywriting).

Brilliant.

One tactic: headline writing

But can you really systematize your copywriting? I entered the course excited but skeptical. Dane jumped in with both feet. His first copywriting tactic was this easy-to-use formula for writing clear, effective headlines:

Examples

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Dane gave a successful example from his own business: “Recruit 2 Top Producing Agents Each Week Without Cold Calling Or Rejection.” Nice. That’s a solid, clear, actionable headline.

Another example: “Your home sold in 90 days GUARANTEED or I’ll sell it for FREE.” The formula works. Domino’s Pizza used it to turn their small franchise into a billion dollar business: “Hot, fresh pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or it’s free.” I was convinced.

What I love about this formula is that it’s so easy. It has that “why didn’t I think of that?” ring of truth to it. And you can use it for more than just online sales pages. I could have used it for this post’s headline: “Boost your conversions in less than three minutes with this fast, easy-to-use headline writing formula.” That’s sharp.

More tactics

Learn the other copywriting tactics from this course here.

[Credit: Stock photos by Fotolia.]