Goldmine Marketing

Tag: direct response

  • It’s here: Secrets of Emotional, Hot-Button Copywriting

    Here’s your link for the FREE first chapter!

    Feb 16, 2026
    2:32pm
    Saint Paul

    Years ago when I first started in direct response, I quickly learned the idea, “benefits, not features.”

    For example:

    “Faster web browsing,” not “5 gig internet.”

    “Look great at your school reunion,” not “Lose 5 lbs.”

    Later, that idea was expanded to “features AND benefits.”

    But features and benefits alone don’t sell.

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  • Defining Success with Bob Bly (Persuasion Play Podcast #016)

    1:18pm
    Saint Paul

    Robert W. Bly has been a “true freelance copywriter” for over 45 years.

    He’s written sales copy in dozens of industries with hundreds of clients, and he’s the author of The Copywriter’s Handbook. Bob’s 110th book is coming out soon:

    AI Apocalypse Now

    Bob joined me for a wide-ranging interview about his life in copywriting, including stories of huge wins and terrible failures… digital marketing vs direct mail… his life in Jersey… and so much more.

    You can find Bob and get 4 FREE Special Reports worth over $100 at https://bly.com/reports

    Listen now to Defining Success with Bob Bly, episode 015 on the Persuasion Play Podcast.

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  • Doberman Dan: Win the Long Game (Persuasion Play Podcast #015)

    10:05am
    Saint Paul

    Serious students of direct response copywriting know the name Doberman Dan.

    Dan started selling bodybuilding guides and supplements in the 1990s as a way to find freedom from his J-O-B as a police officer.

    That financial freedom didn’t come quickly, though.

    It took Dan some 9 failed businesses before he asked himself,

    “Why did I buy THAT thang?”

    …and then used the answer to build his own successful business.

    Doberman Dan was gracious enough to sit with me and share his story—and a few secrets—for this episode of the Persuasion Play Podcast.

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  • Brand-Ego lessons from the White House

    11:48am Saturday
    Saint Paul, Minn

    Recently there have been memes* floating around the web of Vice President J.D. Vance’s face superimposed on all kinds of popular images.

    (*when I used “meme” as a Scrabble word some 15 years ago, having read it in Howard Bloom’s The Lucifer Principle, other players were unfamiliar with the concept of self-spreading ideas. They disqualified the word, and ended my turn. Anyways…)

    Maybe you’ve seen these Vance memes. Vance as George Washington. Vance as a character from Game of Thrones. And more.

    Both his supporters and detractors have been posting the images.

    J.D. Vance himself says the memes don’t bother him, and I read somewhere that because he was once a Marine, he can take some good-natured ribbing.

    This is great anti-branding and has a valuable lesson for direct response marketing, if you ask me.

    Let me explain.

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