His criminal penalty was 20-years imprisonment.
This crazy hungarian engineered some of the greatest scams in history...
Using a simple persuasion technique passed down by the Godfather of persuasion himself (Aristotle)
Now, here's the gist (See how your ears are itching for gossip!)
In the 1920s;
History's greatest Con man, Victor Lustig.... wanted to scam the great Al Capone into giving him....
$5,000 for FREE!
Now, Al Capone was a dangerous mobster and Lustig knew he just had to get it right....
Else, he was a dead man!
So he came up with a very clever idea...
He went to Al Capone and asked for a $50,000 loan,
To repay with interest after 60-days or so.....
The Capon obliged and Lustig kept the money in a safe for 2-months.
After 2 months, he returned the $50,000 to Al Capone with a sorry face.... Saying the deal didn't go as planned ....and that....
He could have his money back.
This move made Al Capone trust him completely!
And out of pity...
He gave Lustig $5,000 to take care of himself since the initial deal didn't come through.
This was Lustig's original plan
Get Al Capone to trust me enough to shell out $5,000 in exchange for nothing.
Very neat. very smooth. very clever.
And here's the Copywriting lesson
When it comes to convincing a stranger to pay for your products and services....
You have to focus squarely on gaining her trust first!
You have to make her fall in love with your idea and your personality before attempting to make a sales pitch.
And sometimes, this requires patience.
Imagine Victor Lustig had walked into Al Capone's office on day one and...The first thing he asked for was $5,000 dollars!
He would have been beaten bloody!
And most so-called marketers are....
Beaten bloody financially!
When they try to sell too fast.... too soon.... too early..... too sudden...
They come across as desperate...
And once people smell desperation, they start leaving in droves!
Look...
Whether you're selling a product or a service or just something in between...
Learn to build trust first (Think like a conman, but sell ethically)
A clever conman will never try to con you until he's sure he's gained your trust.
And a good Copywriter (unless he's borderline clueless) ...
Will never transition into the sales pitch until he's so deep inside your head, you're completely convinced he is....
The real deal!
Now, a good way to gain trust when selling to strangers, especially with email marketing, is to offer a lot of value upfront for free....
So your prospect is thinking...
"Damn!... if he's giving me all this valuable info for free.... Just imagine what his paid materials would look like"
I get dozens of messages every day from people asking me if I have a course on this or that.... Or If I'm offering a Copywriting Coaching service!
Why?
Because I have a cute face?
Are you kidding me?
It's because I have earned their trust with all the value I put out on Twitter, Facebook... and via my emails.
Hark unto me
If you want to go far in this thing of ours....
You gotta develop the habit of winning your reader's trust before you start selling.. (Whether through emails or social media or right there on your sales page!)
This could mean identifying with her struggles before offering her the solution she needs or WANTS desperately... (Your product)...
Or carefully explaining the opportunity at hand... breaking down the basics to primary 2 level.... so she understands why its genuine...
Or giving her FREE valuable info she can apply immediately with visible results.
And also, it very often means...
Selling with class and finesse.
That is...
Making her understand that you're actually doing her a favour
And that YOU really don't need her money.
Stay frosty.
A.
PS: Victor Lustig was behind the famous "Eiffel Tower" and "Rumanian box" scams.
And I'm telling YOU....
There's a lot you can learn about great Copywriting if you study his biography and read between the lines