Dear Direct Response Letter Subscriber: Subscriber MM writes: "One of the topics I'd like you to cover is what you see as the biggest mistake new copywriters make when starting out." That's an easy one. It's this (and old pros do it sometimes, too) .... The writer comes up with what she thinks is a brilliant idea for a promotion. The mistake is fooling yourself that, just because it's a good idea, the copy is practically guaranteed to beat the control. But often, it just isn't so. For instance, subscriber JF says: "Years ago, an editor of a financial letter took a crack writing his own copy. It bombed. Hard. When asked, his take on the outcome was... 'Heathens!' The readers, he was sure, were just too dumb to get what an opportunity he was offering them. "Another time, a great copywriter wrote a 'brilliant' promo that also bombed. He was so sure there'd been a mistake, he sent a team of marketers down to look for bags full of the letters at the dump, to prove it couldn't be a legitimate dud." The lesson? No matter how much you and your client love the copy you have written, you have absolutely no idea of whether it will work until you test it. A corollary that is even more humbling: a copy idea or approach is a huge winner for Product A. So you make the mistake of assuming it works universally. But when you apply the same style to Product B, you are shocked -- because it bombs! "A few years back I wrote a 20-page newspaper piece for a brick and mortar business that was mailed to 5,000 homes, and it generated six figures for the owner," says copywriter AC. AC goes on to say, "Following on the footsteps of that success, another business owner asked me to create a 20-page newspaper for his business. "I'll never forget how the pores on my face opened as I felt the sting and humiliation when the owner called to give me the results. One reply. One. "It took six weeks for me to feel normal again." Given these facts, I frankly cannot understand how any copywriter, newbie or veteran, can have a big ego. No one has 100% winners all the time -- and anyone who says they do is a liar. Often the test results show that the idea you and the client thought was brilliant bombed. And the letter you all thought was nothing special turns out to be a home run. All of this, at least to me, is quite humbling. It calls to mind my favorite Thomas Edison quote: "We don't know one-millionth of one percent about anything." Sincerely, Bob Bly Copywriter / Consultant 31 Cheyenne Dr. Montville, NJ 07045 Phone 973-263-0562 Fax 973-263-0613 www.bly.com Follow Bob:        I welcome your feedback! Did you like today's message? What other topics would you like to see covered in my e-mails? Please let me know at: rwbly@bly.com As always, please feel free to forward this e-mail to a friend! If you liked this essay, and want to read 75 more just like it, get my book "Don't Wear a Cowboy Hat Unless You are a Cowboy -- and Other Grumblings from a Cranky Curmudgeon," which you can order here: www.bly.com/KindleCowboy Disclaimer: The Direct Response Letter only recommends products that we've either personally checked out ourselves, or that come from people we know and trust. For doing so, we sometimes receive a sales commission.