#430 How to Write Ads That Sell

Claude Hopkins was the greatest copywriter of all time. His ideas were so valuable that when he wrote them down in a book the founder of his advertising firm locked the manuscript in a safe for 20 years.

When the book was finally published it sold over 8 million copies. David Ogilvy said that nobody should work in advertising until they had read the book seven times.

This episode is what I learned by reading Claude Hopkins' autobiography My Life In Advertising and his legendary book Scientific Advertising.

Made possible by:

Ramp: ⁠⁠https://ramp.com⁠⁠

Applovin: ⁠⁠https://www.applovin.com

Vanta: ⁠⁠https://vanta.com/founders

Some of my favorite quotes:

0:00 — "Any man who by a lifetime of excessive application learns more about anything than others owes a statement to his successors."

5:12 — "The man who works twice as long as his fellows is bound to go twice as far, especially in advertising."

5:30 — "If I have gone higher than others in advertising or done more, the fact is not due to exceptional ability but to exceptional hours."

6:48 — "To poverty I owe the fact that I never went to college. I spent those four years in the school of experience instead of the school of theory."