For those who assumed a construction question may be off topic for a copywriting forum...

"If you give me 5 minutes of your time, then I'll prove to you that construction and copywriting can go hand in hand in ways you never dreamed possible!"

Ahem, so have any of you written, or know of great examples of sales copy whose target market is infoproducts for the do-it-yourself crowd? Preferably the copy should have successfully sold construction or DIY type how-to books online.

Offline, I run a high end renovation and home improvement company that's doing extremly well. (Hence, my AWOL'ness from the forums lately) I'd like to share some of that practical knowledge and expertise in the form of ebooks and/or brick and mortar books (excuse the pun).

Thanks all,

Paul Short

P.S. I seem to remember some nice lawn care copy Ray Edwards wrote where there was an audio of a lawnmower at the end of the letter. Examples like that would be great

Paul,

I can't help you with the crux of your question, but I'm just wondering since when was DIY a working class thing? DIY and gardening are now amongst the biggest hobbies in the UK and worth billions of pounds each year, and I've certainly never noticed any class divide on it. In fact, my middle class friends have all been DIY'ers since their teens (if not earlier) because they're all technically minded, practical chaps.

Just thought I'd throw that in in case you were operating on a limiting assumption.

Jane

Hi Jane,

After reading your response, I can see how "working class people" should have been phrased differently. I certainly didn't mean any disrespect by it. (It's after 4am here and I'm exhausted. Maybe I should post on forums when I'm thinking more clearly - my grammar would probably be better as well )

Hmmm. After further consideration I've decided to edit the original post and replace the working class reference with "do-it-yourself crowd." That would be more fitting.

Thanks Jane

Paul

Paul,

I can't remember ever seeing "Do-It-Yourself" ebooks for home improvement (never looked though - tons of offline stuff - just look at magazines!) - and even thought about it myself (like millions of other ideas)... but it was never a priority.

I too ran an offline construction company for several years here in Italy, and I built homes from zero, awesome stone walls, arches, pillars, and all sorts of stuff in brick or stone... including floor tiling...

Hmmm... if you ever want the "Italian Masonry Secrets" (they're the best)... maybe we could JV something... plus I know what makes most tick... after having sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of my own services (but that is a slightly different game).

Invariably though, my clients loved to hang-out and "spy" on my every move, even participate so they could learn. They usually "learned" quickly to have other things to do, instead of helping, as building in Italy is HEAVY man!

Anyway, didn't really answer your question... just offering my "builder's solidarity"...

Builder humor:

Dang it! Cut it twice and it's still too short!



Tim

Actually man, if your biz is doing really well you should become a consultant/info product guy like Joe Polish is to Carpet Cleaner, Mike Storms is to Karate School Owners, Dr. Tom Orent is to Dentists. It's much more lucrative...

You could become THE guy for creating better renovation businesses...

-- Jason B.

Hi Paul,

I rewrote that copy and also http://www.howtobuildanewhome.com
They all do very well so I'll say there "should" be a market for this
type of infirmation.

Regards,

Ray Edwards,
"the gets results copywriter!"

Hi Ray,

I had a quick look at your copy there and it triggered some questions for me. The couple showcased in the copy had their property valued at $60,000 more than it cost them, which sounds good. But is it? If it took them a year full-time to build, and between them they earn more than $60k per year, then it's actually cost them money. (I'm assuming that they gave up their jobs, and that may be an incorrect assumption).

The point is this, any capital gain has to be viewed in the context of the opportunity costs and expenses incurred in its creation. Especially as the gain is not liquid and wouldn't pay them back for their rent and living expenses during construction. This is something frequently omitted from TV programmes on property development. Everyone gets excited about the £20k "profit" that the entrepreneurs made on their property (in a rising market - lol) and forgets to mention the loss of income and living expenses incurred during the development. When those are factored in, and the profit is adjusted for the rise in the market (because any subsequent property acquisitions will be subject to the same rise), most people have actually made a loss.

So, to bottom line it, is $60k profit good given whatever income they gave up and whatever expenses they incurred in the duration of the project?

Jane

Jane, your observation is correct - one of THE MOST stressful things a couple can go through is the remodeling or building of a new house together... I don't have exact stats, but it is up there among the top causes of divorce!

One of the worst nightmares for a contractor is also an inexperienced couple who wants to get in there and "do it themselves" as much as possible to "save".

Welcome to "Stress City"!

Invariably "she" wants to realize her life dreams, express her new found creative "genius", and create her "castle", and "he" wants to "get it done yesterday" without spending a dime...

An impossible explosive mix! Because "she" always wins. I tell you, I've seen this again, and again, and again, and I should have been paid as a marriage counselor psychologist more than a builder!

A little bit of knowledge is DANGEROUS! Because people than think they are experts, even though they don't know how to hold a hammer or trowel...

I've had a couple who decided at the last minute to change everything because she saw in such and such book a beautiful "picture"... "oh, I want it just like THAT!"... (and these people were counting pennies - working from a bank loan just to get the roof on the house)

It was a highly specialized technique used in ancient church restorations...

My answer... "Uh... sorry... but, are you crazy? Do you have any idea how much that will cost you, and how long it will take?"

Her resolute response - "I'll do it, I read in a book..."

There was no changing her mind, and so I let her do it... it took her 6 weeks of full time work together with her husband (most of the time) to do something that I would have done in 1 1/2 days (by myself) with modern techniques... for a minor aesthetic issue that added extreme complications, and further delays for the rest of the project.

The crazy thing is - they blamed me for slowing down their progress because I would try and convince them to consider other options!

Well, thank God I took on that job on an hourly basis (I saw the danger signs) - because it became impossible with their desires of wanting to participate, save money, have world class church restoration artistic quality, with the most incredibly expensive, ecological products, and be finished as fast as possible!

And they blamed me for delays!

Talk about wanting "your wine keg full, and your wife drunk!" Well, even with my colossal patience, I have my limits...

So I quit (first time ever), and now, a couple years later, that roof is still not on! They phone me asking me to come back, but I have much better things to do with my time now.

It is a big house, and they had bought it with another couple - their group participation has now dissolved... seperated... and they ran out of money, I warned them a thousand times, from the first day we met, but they thought they were the experts and knew better, even though they had never built a thing in their lives before, let alone a house...

Just for them to understand the building processes, I had to draw pictures that a 5 year old could understand... when I explained things verbally, it never went beyond the "glazed eyes"... one thing I learned over the years is that most people can NOT visualize... building is like playing chess, you have to see things several moves in advance - it's critical to avoid nasty problems.

The vast majority of people simply do not have this capacity - it's a fact.

This whole story isn't different than a client who can barely sell a $50 product with 2000 visitors, insisting they know better what their page should say, because they read one copywriting book...

But their headline continues to say:

Welcome To XYZ Site.

My Sunday rant...

T

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies!

Jane, if the people you speak of had hired someone to build their house and continued to work in the meantime, the increased labor and contractor costs of building would probably have been more than their $60k income, so it's all in how you look at it.

Ray. Thanks for pointing me to that letter

Tim, Tim...

Italian craftsmanship. My ceramic tile guy Joe (who woulda thunk it?) is Italian. He's in his early 50's and, though not much of a people person (keeps cursing at me in Italian) he's one of the best I've ever seen. He's bloody expensive too, but quality is king so he's worth every penny and more.

My ex wife is Italian too - that's all I have to say about her - except that I miss her cooking... (I lost a bunch of weight after we split up)

As Jane mentions in her first response to me, the DIY industry is huge, and it's worldwide. I watch the home renovation and decorating shows on TV quite often, plus I'm in the industry and know there's a ton of opportunity there. I regularly do jobs where the homeowner has botched the work and they hire someone to fix it. If they had specific how-to info from the beginning this may not happen as often.

I've also been doing research and find there are a lot of searches being done for "How To" information and for most areas of home renovation there are very few if any web sites (minisites) that offer specific DIY info. There are a lot that try to be all things to the home renovation industry, but little how-to guides are in short supply. That's also why salesletter examples for this type of thing are scarce.

There's obviously an interest and market there with numerous niches and sub-niches. That's what I'm considering.

IMHO, if one were to write a few no-fluff how-to guides on different aspects of home renovations and use internet marketing tactics and sales copy to sell them from minisites, one could do well.

I've registered a couple domains for this purpose and am writing 2 guides right now. I'll be using some of the copywriting knowledge I've learned here for the sales letters and I'll let you all know how it's going as soon as I have some results.

Oh, Jason, I think Bob Vila has that covered

Paul Short

Ciao Paolo,

Italian wife (your ex)... builder... copywriter... what's your Dog's name? (just making sure that the twilight zone isn't creeping into reality too much here with similarities... ).

Oh, I think making a whole bunch of how to books would work.

Though I got really tired of meddling, penny-hording, "know-it-all" clients, I was dealing with major projects, not just renovation... different bird.

Also, it depends on local prices, and specific bids (and skill required to do the task in question) as to whether a do-it-yourselfer will save or not... but that's not the issue with the desire of the do-it-yourselfer to know this stuff (except for the "major projects stress management" ebook I have in mind)...

----
Pre:
Warning: Start to build or remodel your house at your own risk...

Head
The 8 Essential Home Remodeling Secrets That All Couples (You) Must Know To Save Your Marriage From Deadly Building Stresses, Finish Your Project Way Faster, And Keep Thousands Of Dollars In Construction Costs In Your Pockets

Sub
Statistically speaking, your remodeling or new home construction project has a X% chance to cause your sudden divorce, will probably be very late, and cost way more than you expected! Want to know how to avoid all that stress, delay, and uneccessary cost?...
-----

Or something like that. Prevention is a tough sale... but who knows, something like that might work too with some fine tuning and editing.

If I were you, I would write the sales letters first, test various subjects in Adwords, see if they pull, THEN write the ebooks... give the first few who buy a refund - and an explanation letter, then send them the book for free when it's done, and ask for testimonials.

It's an idea anyway for the topics you aren't completely sure about...

Ci vediamo,

T