June 03, 2008

Mr. Moneyfingers Haddad vs. Landon Ray: A Ten Round Smackdown

Copywriters tend to have some serious chutzpah when it comes to the fees they quote.

They tap out a few paragraphs or pages and, as if they were literally gold-coated, they’ll quote seemingly astronomical fees of thousands, tens of thousands of dollars.

Sometimes they’ll even demand a piece of the action… that is, a percentage of sales created by the ad or direct mail piece that carries their golden prose.

To me, it’s always seemed over the top, so when I recently met direct response copywriter Chris Haddad I decided to get him on the phone, press record, and grill ‘em.

I asked him some pretty tough questions like ’How DARE you!?‘ and ’What difference do you really make?‘

He was gracious, and he even spent the rest of the call schooling me on why I should never pick up a pen (or keyboard) on behalf of my business again.

In the call, he tells us:

• Why Tags Lines Are Useless.
• The Biggest Mistake Business Owners Make When Writing Their Own Copy.
• The Three Ways to Tell if the Copywriter You’re Hiring Sucks.
• Two Basic Copywriting Lessons You Probably Never Learned.
• How to Deal With Objections in Your Copy.

So, despite the well-known fact that all copywriters are scumbags, Chris really hooked us up with some gems in this call.

Pop it into your Ipod and let me know what you think.  If you’ve got questions for Chris, post ‘em here and I’ll make sure he knows about them.

Download ‘Haddad vs. Ray’ Here.