Is clayton makepeace legit? monthly service

Howdy sportsfan,

You've intrigued me. Posting a question about Clayton Makepeace and the value of his $66 per month newsletter? I do have a few comments to make, but the first one is to NOT sign up for his newsletter.

See, I write copy. I'm no pro, but I get good conversion rates on what I have written. If you sign up, study the info, and act on the info, I'll have more good competition. I really don't want that, but the field does need more good copywriters, and more great copywriters.

It's obvious to me that you have not read any of the content that he grants to us - daily - on his website. He grants it to us for no charge. If you haven't read it, you haven't any idea about Clayton's credibility.

Have you ever heard of Rich Schefren? (strategicprofits.com) Rich, yet another multi-milionaire, holds Clayton in the highest regards. Go to strategicprofits.com and search for "Clayton Makepeace". You'll see there's no BS there.

Have you ever heard of Gary Bencivenga? A sort of retired living copywriting legend himself. Go to bencivengabullets.com and sign up for the bullets. Gary regards Clayton as one of the few copywriters he'd pay to learn from. So did Gary Halbert (RIWP - Rest in Wild Peace). So does John Carlton.

But, seriously, don't take my word for it. Go to john-carlton.com and search for Clayton. Read it from yet another master, little grasshopper dude.

Read and act, man. Study the crap out of what Clayton writes. Read the 1200 posts on Clayton's site. That'll keep you busy for a few days (2 weeks?). Then I dare you come out of that and say you didn't get the value of your time.

But two weeks is a lot of time, isn't it? Compared to two minutes it is. But compared to "the other path", the path that has thusfar taken me 12 years (and I've shortcutted my way here), two weeks to get a good handle on copywriting is practically nothing.

If you have read it, and you still have a question, then I beg you NOT to quicken that pace: DO NOT read Clayton's paid info. Got it? I find it very difficult to believe that any person who has any ability to read, to think, and to take action would ever question Clayton's credibility after reading what is gifted to us on his site, after carefully searching out what other professional copywriters - copywriters who get paid a LOT of money to write copy - have to say about Clayton.

Here: If you want to make a million bucks in software, would you go to skid row and ask a bum how to do it? No. You'd go to someone who's done it and get rejected time and again trying to talk to that person to learn his secrets.

If you want to make a million bucks writing copy, would you honestly talk to anyone - **ANYONE** - who has not done it to try to find out? Clayton does it EVERY YEAR. (No, I have not personally seen the checks, nor am I his personal accountant to be able to verify this. BUT I read stuff from AWAI, too, of which more, later...)

Obviously, if you have two brain cells rubbing together, you'd answer correctly. If not, you wouldn't.

Now, regarding AWAI - Do you know why they're raking in millions a year in sales? Because of copywriting (and the rest of their system, too). They test the heck out of everything. Don't believe me. Really. Don't listen to the likes of Michael Masterson, it'll make my life a lot easier, but I have this terrible tendencey to listen to what folks worth $100 Million and up have to say. I believe they're the type of people I want to be listening to, as opposed to the likes of "professors" who MIGHT be able to clear $50K a year.

While I'm quite amused at your question of credibility of Clayton, and "is it worth it", really, dude, have you even read his site?

I certainly do wish you the best in your endeavors, but trying to find a better value than Clayton Makepeace info on copywriting is almost impossible.

Later,
Izzy

 

I saw Clayton's name and had to respond (I'll gladly stand up for his value).

First of all sportsfan -- here's a hint for your eBook question on another thread: see how The Total Package is doing what you want your ebook to accomplish, just on a larger scale. Attract attention, build trust ... great positioning. Clayton is worth studying in this way.

If you want proof of Clayton being "legit" -- just read the daily Makepeace Total Package emails (even catching up on them once per week if you don't schedule time daily). Clayton and his team will stuff you full of ideas you can bank on. You'll know soon enough the value of that info.

And it's free -- like you've read in the other response posts here.

Of course, getting such value builds up an affinity with Clayton's message: and helps you do business with someone you know/like/trust.

You'd then see for yourself why your friend is making that suggestion.

(and you'll probably do what I'm doing now to promote Clayton).

I do have an admission to make. Well, two actually.

The first one is: I'm a paid up member of the Easy Writers. Been with it since issue one.

I love to see the orange envelope, and the monthly CD, hit my letterbox. Sometimes I drive to visit my mum and dad for 90 minutes each way just to have time to play 2 or 3 of the CDs! The monthly value in the newsletter FAR FAR outweighs the cost.

(Paying for it also helps you give attention to what you receive -- to make sure you get your money's worth!)

To paraphrase Edgar in Men In Black: "you can have my Easy Writers envelope when you prise it from my cold dead hands."

And no sooner.

Admission two: these days I very heavily filter my email to keep my inbox lean. Lots of subscriptions to mailing lists (for free study of good campaigns) ... very few marketers/copywriters (less than 5) are allowed in my inbox: Clayton is one of them.

I've only just come across this part of digitalpoint forums -- usually I lurk elsewhere at the domain name forum when I drop in. I normally post on the copywriters board and warriors forum when not immersed in client projects. Will keep an eye on this forum more now too (although hard to keep up at times)!

I did feel it worthy of paying back Clayton's generosity with the Total Package to sign up and post this as my first post.

If you are Australian, you'd definitely call Clayton "fair dinkum."

 

In an attempt to dispel any concerns about Clayton Makepeace and the value of his information, I'd like to submit the following...

This is just a high-level snapshot of my submittal to a National Salesletter contest. I recently discovered I was one of 28 finalists for the contest.

I've spared you most of the details, and have just included the Executive Summary and Lessons Learned in this post.

But here's how my copywriting experience has benefitted emormously from being associated with Clayton Makepeace...

Executive Summary:

Late last year, Brett Fogle, CEO of Options University LLC, attended Eben Pagan’s $10,000 Get Altitude seminar. During the course of the seminar, the participants were given an assignment to develop a product and marketing plan “on the fly” using methods and techniques taught at the seminar. The participants were also given the chance to enter a contest to see who could raise the most money from the new product while attending the seminar. Brett entered the contest.

Based on Brett’s specific instructions, I developed a salesletter in a matter of hours for Brett’s product. The salesletter generated a 24% conversion to sales for the product, generating over $10,000 in sales while the seminar was still active, and eventually won the contest for Brett.

I feel the salesletter and related marketing plan have a good chance of winning Dan Kennedy’s National Salesletter Contest, based on the immediate results and the conversion to sales ratio, and since the principles used are right out of the Clayton Makepeace playbook, and based on the solid principles I’ve learned from The Total Package and the EasyWriters Marketing Club.

UPDATE: I recently discovered my salesletter is a Finalist in the National Salesletter Contest. If I win, the grand prize is a brand-new Ford Mustang. I’m one of 27 other entrants to make it to the finals. The winners will be announced at Dan Kennedy’s Info-Marketing SuperConference in Nashville, TN next month. Wish me luck!

Lessons From This Experience:

I think these principles from Clayton Makepeace’s playbook – along with additional insider copywriting tips and ideas gleaned from The Total Package and the EasyWriters Marketing Club - were evident in this money-making experience:

1) Success Loves Speed – Obviously, we didn’t have lots of time to pull this off, or to make it “perfect.” We decided what we had time to do, did it, and then reaped the rewards.

2) Take (Inspired) Action – The experience involved taking action to find out who our “perfect” client is, and then producing a product for that client.

3) The Importance of a Deep Understanding of Your Clients and Customers – Without this, your results will be spotty, and mediocre at best. You must have an intimate understanding of your client or customer – who they are, where they are “coming from”, what keeps them up at night, and what their ultimate wants, desires, dreams and aspirations are.

4) Copywriting Principles – Once you completely understand your “perfect” client and have an appropriate product for him or her, success can then be a matter of proving that understanding in your salesletter and other sales materials, with your copy simply echoing back their dire concerns, with your product providing their ultimate wants and desires. Of course, adding things like social proof (via testimonials, etc.) and scarcity adds “fuel to the fire.” But get them emotionally involved first, and then follow up with a logical explanation of why your product is the best solution to their problem(s). Classic Clayton Makepeace.

Anyway, I respectfully submit the above information to this forum. I hope it is helpful, and hope that you can now see the immense benefits of being associated with Clayton Makepeace and his intensely valuable information related to copywriting and marketing.

If anyone would like more details about my contest entry, including the salesletter itself, just fire me an email. Thanks.

Kindest regards,

J. Daryl Thompson
CEO, Trade Your Way To Wealth LLC
www.TradeYourWayToWealth.com
Freelance Copywriter, specializing in the Financial area

 

Don't know about his service or newsletter, but he is an excellent copywriter in the "Hard Sell" market.

Anybody who can write copy that sells, for the worst and most inaccurate stock market subscription newsletter (by Marty Weiss), can't be all bad. Weiss's newsletters have thousands of subscribers. Good marketing makes bad products profitable. And, great copywriting is essential to good marketing.

Go for the free stuff first.

In my opinion, Halbert was the best who actively worked as a writer of copy. He passed away last year at too young an age. Gary Bencivenga was as good but different style, yet just as effective. Now he's 'retired' but did his one and only seminar that he is selling to only 200 people for $5,000. In my opinion, that would be the best 5 grand you could spend, newbie or experienced pro. An excellent guy too.

The caveat - writing sales copy for the internet is different than writing for print.

The most important thing about copy (nothing else is even close) is that any and all copy, from headline to font to phrasing to layout to punctuation to closing setup and the close to coupon, etc. MUST BE VIGOROUSLY TESTED many times... especially if you are trying to sell crappy stuff. -))

 

I'm a new copywritier. I have a grand total of two clients. And they're so new, I haven't even billed them for my work.

Now I should add that I'm not a new writer. I've written plenty in my career - most of it bureaucractic reports, letters, flyers, etc.

So, when I plunged into copywriting by enrolling in the AWAI Course I thought "Heck, this'll be easy! I'll be rolling in the dough in no time!" Well, a few months later, along with a big slice of humble pie, I've found its not quite as easy as I thought.

Learning the art of copywriting takes work. Hard work. In fact, I've never worked harder.

But it's been worth every dime and every second I've spent learning it. I've found that I really like the challenge of selling. So I keep at it. And thanks to Clayton - and others - I'm getting better every day.

When I'm trying to learn something new, it helps to get different points of view. When someone tells me how they craft a headline using an angle I've never tried before, well, sometimes the light bulb clicks on. That different angle is all I need to really get a concept that aluded me beforehand.

Clayton and his team provide those different points of view - and a lot more -for free. They cover everything about selling through the written word. Bullets, headlines, leads, research - the list goes on and on. And the archives are posted to anyone to use at anytime.

To top it off, I don't think there's been a time when I haven't laughed out loud when reading an ezine. (I'd like to be a fly on the wall in the Total Package lunchroom - it must get pretty crazy in there some days.)

I'm not a member of the EasyWriters Club - at least not yet. I plan to join when I start making some money in copywriting. And I'll do it because I believe in Clayton's hard earned knowledge for creating promotions that sell. And I trust in his goodwill to share it with copy newbies like me.

As for Clayton being a scam artist? The bottom line is he's made a pile of money for his clients. Millions. To me, that's proof of his character in itself. But I've also had the advantage of meeting Clayton at the 2006 AWAI Bootcamp. Now he wouldn't remember me from a hill of beans. But I remember how sincere he was in offering advice - as well as laughing with people over a beer. It didn't matter whether you were a copywriting great, a lost copycub like me, or someone who strolled in off the street. And if that isn't proof of character, I'm not sure what is.

Your copywriting career will be as successful as you make it. If you're like me, its going to take a lot of work and endless learning to be get there. If you don't want to burn the midnight oil to master it, you'll likely think anything offered by Clayton - or AWAI - is a scam. Becoming a money-making copywriter just doesn't happen overnight.

But if you really want it and are willing to pay the price in sweat equity - the opportunities are endless. So go for it - and use the resources that are out there. They will help. Good luck!

 

I am fairly new and slowly learning the Copywriting world, but I would like to take this opportunity to say, Thank You Clayton. I have been learning through AWAI's Accelerated Copywriting Program and was introduced to Clayton and the Total Package through an e-mail from AWAI. I was a true blessing! His very down to earth, detailed, step by step, explanations on how to write good copy has been a great learning tool. He doesn't stop there though, He shows you the way on how to start your business, run your business, stay in business, and forwards more information from respected business people in his network to help you along, and teach you something new that you need to learn from a different angle. This is all FREE through his Total Package e-mails! I look for his Total Package e-mails DAILY, because I know there is a special piece of info in that Total Package e-mail that is going to help me acheive my goal of being a stay at home money making mom by the time summer starts and my kids are out of school. Thank You, Thank You, Clayton, for opening your world to us all to help us strive to be successful Copywriters and business owners. I am very grateful for your generosity. NancyR

 

Actually, that brings up a point about Clayton's newsletter.

He's a bit like the karate guy that says: "to become a black belt, you don't have to learn 120 different moves, you just have to MASTER 12".

And, the newsletter is about those 12 moves: research, headlines, bullets, closes etc.

But, while the advice helps shortcut the learning process, there's no getting away from the fact you've got to be willing to put in a lot of hard work ... or, that the process doesn't really have the excitement of doing something brand new every month...

So, if you're thinking of signing up, it's worth being honest with yourself: are you committed enough to learning copywriting that you're going to do the grunt work?

(and, even if you decide you are, I still think you should sign up for the free stuff for a while first and then see if you use it)

Hope this helps,

Steve

 

Reporting to mods, try and make your spam a bit more subtle.

 

I'm a new copywriter and in fact I'm considering to get full on involved with the TotalPackage.com and the teaching offered there.

I'm over the fence and I'm the kind of guy who can torture himself by sitting on it forever!
Looks to me like you're just approaching it now, so I hope this helps you out.

Not much more to say about Clayton M, really. Its all here in this thread and the bottom line is you're either ready to go with this as a career path or you're not.

Actually, even if you just want to write better great copy for your own website or products, Total Package and Easy Writers is probably the best place to learn it.

Like I said, I'm green at the copywriting game. Wet wings...real rookie meat...

So I need all the help I can get and I've been around long enough to know that the best learning is around masters who WANT to transmit their knowledge.

I want Mentors who Love teaching.. That's what I want.
And all the giveaways on the TP site convince me that I'm going to get that and more if I put myself into it. Clayton Makepeace makes no bones about that and no mentor worth his salt would do otherwise, don't you think?

So will it cost me some dough?
You bet. Education does.

Will I be watching for chinks in the integrity of the system and its leaders?
Absolutely. Like you, I've lived long enough to have been ripped more than once. If I get a whiff of that, I'm outta there.

But I can tell you that I'll also give myself a good look to see if I really did put all I could into it.. or whether I bailed on myself, or whether I'm clear that the copywriting direction is not on course anymore. Any of those things could happen.

Maybe all that helps, sportsfan.
I just wanted to share these thoughts and in some way maybe be in support of your quest.

Happy trails
Mystic 100

 

Is Clayton Makepeace legit? You better believe he is. I've been subscribing to his Total Package e-letter for about 6 months now. Clayton offers the 3M's in abundance - Marketing information, Mentoring advice, and more ways to make Money than you can imagine. The man is a legend in direct marketing and has made more money for his clients than Carter has liver pills!! Whatever he charges for his tutorial is a drop in the ocean of priceless information and insider tips you'll get from him. I would advise you to run, not walk, to your computer, the post office, wherever you need to go and sign up for his program. If, and only if, you're serious about learning your craft and serious about making a boat load of money doing it.

 

Lookie at all the praises from the posters. ... Their FIRST post.

Well, now, I'm sold.

Somebody has been busy.

 

Is Clayton Makepeace Legit?

Is the Pope German?

OK, so you're a brand-newbie to copywriting.
I know this because anyone who's been studying the
art for at least a week has heard of Makepeace, one
of the highest-paid and most well-regarded copywriters
in the country and probably the world. If you read anything
he's written, you'll quickly understand why he's held in
such high esteem.

Should you sign up for Easywriters? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
This service is best for intermediate to advanced copywriters.
If you don't even know "whos who" in the copywriting world,
you probably haven't been studying long enough to benefit from
this incredible, in-depth training.

But DO subscribe to The Total Package, Makepeace's FREE newsletter.
TTP contains over 400 great articles (and growing), written by Clayton
and a stable of other legendary copywriters. You can improve your writing
skills AND break out of your "newbie" status without spending a nickel. I've
subscribed to several dozen copywriting newsletters over time but opted out
of all but TTP. Heck, many of the Big Dog copywriters like Michael Masterson,
Yanik Silver, Bob Bly, Drayton Bird and Carline Anglade-Cole (one of my personal favorites next to Clayton)
are regular contributors to Clayton's newsletter. (I'll bet you haven't heard of these legends, either).
The Total Package is not only a time-saver, it's pure copywriting gold. I mentioned it's FREE, right?

As to MarketJunctions comment that "It's not really money so much money as it is time and practice,"
I disagree. Practice over time is certainly required, even if you're a "natural." But if you are practicing
the "wrong stuff" (outmoded words, techniques and approaches), then all you're doing is reinforcing bad habits.

So...practice? Oh my, yes! But you've got to know WHAT to practice if you want to get good. Read
The Total Package, practice, and get up to speed fast. Once you've got some training under your belt,
you might be ready for The Easy Writer's Club.

Good luck and keep us posted!

DLC

P.S. AWAI slurred? This is one of "the" top copywriting courses in the country. I don't believe
Makepeace is officially affiliated, but I know he writes for AWAI, Early to Rise and the Agora
conglomerate. You'll be much better informed about all this after subscribing to The Total Package.

 

WTF! You're all PEONS

Nice try

 

Hey dopiitv (Pronounced "dopey TV"?)

Yup... you got me pegged. I'm a peon on this website.
But I'm not a peon to copywriting.

I have a full-time day job (not copywriting) and I make a cool
2-3K per week on the side writing articles of 1,500 words or so,
which generally take me less than an hour.

In case you're math-challenged, that a slick 10K a month or more
from a few small articles.

My primary training? Clayton Makepeace's Total Package newsletter.

And if my day-job as a doctor doesn't work out, I have absolutley no doubt
I could make it full-time as a copywriter.

Peon indeed.

DLC

 

All I'm saying is that its kind of weird how everyone who is praising this service is a Peon, its just odd. either you're all the same person, or clayton marketplace sent you over here. Whichever

Thanks
Mike

 

Ladies and Gents – I gotta tell ya… if you really have to make a fuss about Clayton Makepeace’s information on copywriting and partnering with clients then you should probably do one of the two:

1) actually take time to ready the tons of FREE information he has on his website ( that alone should give you your anwer
2) run like hell from becoming a marketer and copywriter ‘cause you ain’t gonna make it anyway.

Sorry, just tellin’ the truth!!

One of my friends, who just landed a ‘copy cub’ job with Clayton Makepeace, turned me on to him back in December (I still thank the guy to this very day) and I gotta tell you – just one nugget from this Badass Biker helped me get THE missing component I needed to boost my business 3 fold. That’s right, read ‘em and weap - 3 fold.

Oh BTW – that little nugget I needed/got was FREE.

So, make your choice mates – learn from the master or get crushed like a cock-a-roach….

 

lol, will this thread ever close? Spammy spam spam

 

Let's have a few more first time posters singing this guy's name. I'm not quite sold yet. Just a few more shoud do it, and I'll be pulling out my credit card with excitement.

Wait....Makepeace...is that you???

 

Fair enough, my apologies