… is not using typographical tricks like placing an ellipsis at the end of a headline to “lure” the reader in.

I mention this because I have just received another marketing/spam email offering me the opportunity to learn the ‘Top Tips’ of a master sales copywriter. I’ve already learned the craft of copywriting from some of the legends of the industry; writers who can take the smallest or most seemingly insignificant benefit of a product or service and create a big idea to entertain and persuade their audience to change their behaviour. No easy task.

In the email I received there are at least another 30 “Top Tips” that the so called expert copywriter is willing to teach ordinary people. (I’ve never meet an ordinary human especially as there are 6 billion unique models running around the planet).

Let’s be very clear; the best copywriters in the world work for the best advertising agencies in the world. They do not write spam emails about how to write spam emails under the guise of Internet marketing.

So here is my three top tips for spotting scam copy online or in an email;

1. It’s very, very, very long – You’re halfway through it before you have any idea what it’s about except you’re promised that your salary or penis will be much larger for little cost and/or effort just by clicking a link.
2. It’s too good to be true – turn your annual salary into your monthly, weekly or daily salary. Quadruple your profits overnight. But you only get to the ‘offer’ after reading a type of prose which is a written is a style that is half evangelical and half brain washing.
3. It’s full of praise – Typically the praise is for a person or system that the sender is trying to convince you to use.

What I really hate about this kind of Internet marketing is that it preys on the naive, gullible, simple or desperate. And for this reason alone I will do my best to educate people as to the different types of deplorable tricks that the majority of Internet marketers use.