Net Frontier Marketing

You may or may not know this, but Gary Halbert, one of the best copywriters who ever lived, passed away in his sleep last Easter Sunday.

The “Alpha Shit Weasel” as he affectionately referred to himself as, is no more and tens of thousands of people around the world are missing him already. Me included.

For Years I’ve read the Gary Halbert Letter, anxiously awaiting the next installment. I have encountered no other resource, ever, that provided such an array of explosively effective writing and marketing tips, all there on public display.

Thousands of pages of marketing magic, all of them free.

I have received several emails lately from people who follow my blog and reviews, telling me my writing is much improved and asking how I did it. Look no further than the Gary Halbert Letter.

This thing will inspire you. It will make you sad or happy. It will make you laugh and give you hope. I can’t explain in mere words what it does for me to browse through those archives.

Gary used to charge his thousands of subscribers good money for access to these monthly newsletters. Here’s the kind of man he was:

When he received literally hundreds of feedback from readers, over the course of many years, stating how the Letter had changed their lives, given them courage in dark times or helped them make millions of dollars, he decided to stop charging for it and put the entire works up on the web so that anyone could benefit, no matter if they could pay for it or not.

I’m not a millionaire yet but I should be within the next 2 years or so. When I do get there, if someone asks me to list 10 influences, people or books that showed me the way, Gary Halbert would be high on that list. Rest in Peace.

After I heard the news and browsed once again through those rich archives of marketing wisdom, I came across one of the products I bought through Gary’s recommendation: The 12 Month Millionaire Course.

It’s a three hundred plus page course on how to make big fungolas in direct marketing, mostly off line.

If you don’t know what fungolas means, you haven’t read Gary Halbert and you should start right now. It means money.

It almost changed my perspective on what money means, in a good way. Money seems like this fantastically evasive idea. Something that’s difficult to get. Something you need to work hard and overcome many obstacles to accumulate.

Beyond that, something serious and heavy, rare.

Fungolas, you come to realize, are everywhere. The world is packed with fungolas. You could make them in a hundred different ways. A man with the right ideas and the right system could go from broke to rich a thousand times in his life.

Fungolas are light, abundant, omnipresent. They teach you to laugh at yourself, not take fate or better yet outcomes too seriously. They teach you to take chances and seek reward rather than avoid risk and thus be a true entrepreneur.

Gary Halbert was a powerhouse on the internet although he more or less knew it. Where he really was at his best was writing direct response copy. Physical letters that land in mailboxes all around the world and cause people to pull out their credit cards and checkbooks.

That what 12 Month Millionaire is about. It was written by Vincent James, a high school drop out ex-felon that wasn’t going to let anything get in his way.

One thing about Gary was his very unilateral skill set. While he could sell a million CD players with a letter, he couldn’t even figure out how to use one himself.

Although he never says it, I think he never accumulated the fortune he could have if he had known more about managing a business.

That’s perhaps why he gave 12 Month Millionaire such a strong recommendation: because it’s author was somewhat of a “total package”.

Not as great a copywriter as Halbert, but a much stronger manager, Vincent James did it all himself, building his business from scratch to over a hundred million dollars in under 10 years, all before he hit the ripe old age of thirty.

For any affiliate or PPC marketer or even those selling their own products, there is a lot to learn from this manual.

The most important may be one that is mentioned in the recently released and beginner focused Guru Slayer: product ownership. The first sale does not serve to create profit; it serves to create new sales.

He who accepts that and applies it will soon rise to the top of the class.

I’ve not said much about the 12 Month Millionaire here because it would be too long a post. I will link you to a full review momentarily.

In the meantime I will tell you it’s a rather high cost product: over $300.

While I personally have only used the tips online so far and found it extremely worthwhile, those willing to take their efforts offline with the book stand to gain even more.

In the course, you will learn how to run a direct response business: a real one.

The course itself is not cheap and the methods require some capital to get started. Not huge sums of money, but be prepared to spend a couple hundred dollars or more.

Which brings me back to another of Gary Halbert’s expressions: PWM: Players With Money.

Here’s how he defined them, quoted from his newsletter:

The Halbert Index is a totally unique way of classifying people. To be at the top of the Index you must have the following:

(1) You must have a life, and

(2) You must have a sense of humor, and

(3) You must have intelligence and be an independent thinker, and

(4) You must be a generous and giving person but… at the same time…

(5) You must refuse to take shit from anyone who doesn’t have a gun to your head, and

(6) You must be willing to take chances and cheerfully accept losses, and

(7) You must have the capacity and courage for true intimacy with your loved ones, friends… and sometimes… even your associates and strangers, and

(8) You must be wealthy always in your mind… and therefore… very often… in your pocket, and

(9) You must be honest and have integrity not defined by laws but rather, by the inner-core of your being, and finally

(10) You must have a relationship with a higher power (nicknamed “God”) that does not necessarily include and/or often transcends any association with an organized religion.

Actually, according to Gary, this describes a player, although with that mindset, the money can’t be far behind.

Vincent James’ course is expensive and you’ll need some cash to make it work. That’s not a problem if you’re a Player With Money. If you’re not, work on it and come back to it later.

For now, here’s my full 12 Month Millionaire Review.

I’m off to make some fungolas.

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