[redsymbol]

Before you do anything else, read this book:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1484825985

Don't rush through it. Read slowly, if needed, to get full understanding.

Source: I'm a software engineer whose marketing skills have so far generated multiple 6 figures in pretax profit, closing on 7.

[kidgorgeous]

I never comment on hn posts, but I had to login to a long dormant account just to back up what this guy is saying.

OP, if you're actually reading these comments, you need this book. It's a great primer on Copywriting and Direct Response Marketing, which imo is the best form of marketing.

Allright, I'll log back out now.

[murph37]

A lurker logging in just to recommend a book? As a fellow lurker, now I'll have to give this one a whirl. To echo my comment above, what is your favorite part about this book in particular?

[supersrdjan]

I was hoping the link would be for Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz, which is actually on Gary Halbert's (the author of the linked book) list of essential reads. The more advertising/copywriting books I read, the more I discover how much out there is derivative of Eugene Schwartz, who wrote Breakthrough Advertising in the sixties. Although you might not want to get it from Amazon.

[andrei_says_]

I tried but it’s basically drivel.

A guy in jail discovers the benefits of regular exercise and writes instructional letters to his son with the enthusiasm of someone discovering that adding salt to your food makes it taste better and shouting it from the rooftops as if it wasn’t something everybody knows already.

Honestly, what made you recommend this book? What concrete advice in it did you find valuable?

[murph37]

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm always game for a good read. What is favorite thing about this book in particular?

[redsymbol]

You are thinking about it wrong.

This is not just "a good read". And what is my favorite part does not matter.

Because you don't even know how to ask the right questions yet. Think back before you learned anything about coding; back then, how could you have asked anything but naive questions about how you built Hacky? You're in that situation now, with marketing.

Read this book with the intention of letting it rewire your fundamental assumptions about what marketing is and how it works. If you do that, you will finish a very different person than when you started.

[ApolloRising]

After you read the first one that was mentioned - Read this one, same author, buy both: The Halbert Copywriting Method Part III

Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DYP3MMU