I'm looking for a copy of the original Joe Karbo "Lazy Man's Way to Riches" ad.

Can anyone point me to it?

Thanks.

Alex

Hmmm, I've got the book, but have never seen the ad for it.

Have you tried www.hardtofindads.com ? Something tells me Mike Senoff would have it or be able to locate it if asked nicely.

Steve

Alex,

Ben Settle's got it over on this page:

2007 » June » Copywriting Grab Bag

Scroll about half-way down, and you'll see the link. If that doesn't work, email me and I'll send it to you.

Which one would you like, wall st J or NY Times?

Let me know.

Thanks JC,

I call everyone's attention to the ad right beneath the Karbo ad that Ben Settle has posted about...there are two versions of the "Astrology Today" ad that Settle shows. He states;

"This is also one of the 9 ads Gary Halbert told his son to copy out by hand and study in “The Boron Letters.”

Last week I posted at my blog about this ad, and how it represents "a restructure of products" that are already selling. It is covered in the "Copywriter's Checklist"...and I'm not here to pike this or anything else, but I do know it isn't going to be around much longer, and for 7 bux, it is well worth your time and money...

Back to Joe Karbo and I'll connect some dots here. When I met Joe I was a student (one of those young bullet-proof, perhaps even slightly arrogant, young guys who had a little success and thought I knew it all)

...at Golden West College in Huntington Beach CA. I was in a "business" class and we were studying the ads, and I hopped on my motorcycle and got on the Expressway (see, I said I was "bullet proof" or was that just stupidity)...

and ran over to buy the book, where I literally bumped into JOE. I've related this story many times over the years, so I'll cut to the chase here:

When Joe started running those ads, he didn't even have a back end, heck, he didn't even keep the names, he was tossing them away. Genius Joe?

Well, Joe did get his head on straight about the value of his customers in no small thanks to Mr. Harvey Brody, who was at that time offering two very valuable services...one his seminars and consulting on Direct Marketing, and the other was the use of COMPUTERS to manage lists. It was REVOLUTIONARY...most of these guys had no idea what a computer was, let alone using one to manage lists.

Joe Karbo, along with Gary Halbert, Ben Suarez, Joe Sugarman, Jay Abraham and many other well known names, all either attended Harvey Brody seminars and/or had direct contact with him. He was generating millions of dollars a year with his LONG, pamphlet copy that was selling, for those times, an unheard of price of 500 dollars for a "course". His book was selling for 99 dollars at a time when Halbert and Suarez were getting 20 bux for theirs...

my point...

When you visit the site posted above, print out the Joe Karbo ad, and also study those Astrology Today ads, not necessarily for the copy, but for the concept.

IS there a product out there, or on your desk even, that could be RESTRUCTURED? Could it be broken into smaller chunks? Together sold for less than the current "best seller"?

Sometimes you need to look at what the copy was doing to the product, as well as the copy itself. The 3 dollar "horoscopes" were a front end, and a 10 dollar back end was sold...millions of dollars worth...for less than the most popular same type product was being sold for.

RESTRUCTURE. Think about it.

gjabiz

PS. The official name of the "Copywriter's Checklist" is The Sales Promotion Production Form and it is still used today as a way to stimulate ideas. It won't be up too much longer.

There are six different versions of the Karbo ad.

I remember Frank Kern asking me for them before he did one of his launches.

The simplicity of the offer and the language made these ads rock.

He did these ads in various sizes for different media too.

Peace.

Wow, that's some ad. It has a sworn statement from his banker certifying he is worth more than a million dollars and even gives the name and address of the bank. One doesn't see verisimilitude like that these days.

--Anita

Every NOOB should know EXACTLY where to find the ad in their home library, WITHOUT having to search the internet. It's reproduced and dissected in chapter 24 here...

Advertising Secrets of the Written Word: The Ultimate Resource on How to Write Powerful Advertising Copy from One of America's Top Copywriters and Mail Order Entrepreneurs by Joe Sugarman

And in chapter 23 here...

The Adweek Copywriting Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Powerful Advertising and Marketing Copy from One of America's Top Copywriters by Joe Sugarman

The above is basically the same book as the first one, but it's a paperback.

I have been reading HGL but I swiped the word from you. I've seen you use the word in some of your posts and think it's a great word; every copywriter should strive for verisimilitude in their writing. I also enjoy the challenge of trying to type it without triggering red spell check marks.

--Anita