COYNE’S COPY

MARKUP
BLUEPRINT SERIES

By Peter Coyne
Copyright © Paradigm Press, LLC, 2020
All rights reserved.

24 23 22 21 20 1234567
Published by Paradigm Press, 808 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD
 CONTENT

Introduction 1

Part I: How to Get the World’s Greatest Sales 4

Letters Sent Straight to You

Part II: How to Know Which Promos Work 14

Part III: How to Get in the Right Frame of Mind 20

to Learn Before Your Study a Word of Copy

Part IV: The Two Ways of Reading That Will Make 25

or Break Your Copy Studies

Part V: The Two Methods for Marking Up a Promotion 29

Part VI: The 8 Things to Watch for In Every Promotion

You Study (Kristi, I’m confident you’ll get value out of 36
this one.)

Part VII: Markup Tools (These will also keep your spouse/
roommate happy!) 39

Part VIII: Az real-life example (Forrest, I’ll do my best to

show you what you’re looking for here.) 47

Part IX: A forum where you can join Evaldo

andI personally in marking up copy like you’ve 48
just learned.
 INTRODUCTION

C. Saad Bouh Sakho sent an email requesting:

“Would you mind sharing how you learned to break
down copy? I’m trying to make it a daily habit so I can
learn from the best.”

He submitted it after a piece I wrote a few weeks

back encouraging everyone to markup one piece of
copy per day.

Chuck Gibson similarly asked in our Facebook group,

AgoraFinancialpp.com/DISFB, “Peter, I think this is
great advice. This is probably asking too much... but,
because you do this (and we should) every day,
it would be fun for us to see your reading/markup
process. Do you do multiple passes, a checklist, etc?
Could you just turn the camera on sometime?”

Forrest Evans asked: “What does this ‘mark-up’ look

like? Is it a breaking down, analyzing, and reverse
engineering of a promotion?”

And Kristi Linebaugh posted, “Quick question:

Peter Coyne email today says mark up promo everyday.
I know to look for guarantees… benefits… Using the
word you… testimonials… story examples… a mecha-
nism… a guru… and a call to action. What else should
I look for?”

Awesome questions.

1
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

How about I address all of these in a free nine-part

series for you guys?

I call it… *drumroll*... Coyne’s Copy Markup Blueprint!

Over 8 different parts, you’ll learn…

• Part I: How to Get the World’s Greatest Sales

Letters Sent Straight to You

• Part II: How to Know Which Promos Work

• Part III: How to Get in the Right Frame of Mind

to Learn Before Your Study a Word of Copy
(C.Saad, I’ll get to your question in this one.)

• Part IV: The Two Ways of Reading That Will

Make or Break Your Copy Studies

• Part V: The Two Methods for Marking Up a

Promotion (Chuck, I’ll address your question
specifically in this one.)

• Part VI: The 8 Things to Watch for In Every

Promotion You Study (Kristi, I’m confident you’ll
get value out of this one.)

• Part VII: Markup Tools (These will also keep

your spouse/roommate happy!)

2
 INTRODUCTION

• Part VIII: An real-life example (Forrest, I’ll do

my best to show you what you’re looking for
here.)

• Part IX: And forum where you can join Evaldo

and I
personally in marking up copy like you’ve just
learned.

Let’s start at square one…

3
 PART I: HOW TO GET THE
WORLD’S GREATEST SALES
LETTERS SENT STRAIGHT
TO YOU

The first step in marking up promotions is…

…having a steady stream of promos to choose from!

To that end, I have such a steady stream that I have

155,484 unread emails.

For real… check it out:

Every single one of them is a secret “backdoor” you

can setup that lets you spy on the secrets and battle
plans of the world’s most successful online businesses.

4
 PART I: HOW TO GET THE WORLD’S GREATEST SALES LETTERS SENT STRAIGHT TO YOU

Imagine the unfair advantage you could have as an

entrepreneur if you could walk in and out of your
competitors offices… listen in on their marketing
discussions… or know what product they’re gearing
up to launch before they actually launched it.

The key is called a “seed account”.

What’s a Seed Account?

A seed account is an email account that you only use
to sign up for different online businesses email lists.

Why’s It Called a Seed Account?

Because all you do is plant a seed (signing up to
mailing lists with your email address) and over
time, the account blooms into a gigantic money
tree that’s worth more than its weight in gold.

The goal is to get on as many different lists as possible

— preferably all lists that use direct response market-
ing to sell products and services.

Then, you use the account for industry intelligence

and to see what your competitors are doing.

Direct response marketing is one of the easiest

industries to spy on your competitors.

5
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

What’s in a Seed Account?

Typically it’s what’s called an “e-letter”.

An e-letter is daily or frequent correspondence from

a business over email.

This Daily Insider Secrets email is an e-letter.

It doesn’t need to be branded, though.

Sometimes it could just be the sender’s name with

a message.

When you’re about to signup for something, you’ll

be offered something of value in consideration for
your email address.

This is called a lead magnet.

Typically, a lead magnet will be a special PDF report…

an e-book… or some video series.

As soon as you sign up to a particular list you should

get a confirmation…

Then, you should start regularly receiving both

content and marketing emails.

6
 PART I: HOW TO GET THE WORLD’S GREATEST SALES LETTERS SENT STRAIGHT TO YOU

Why Do You Want a Seed Account?

1. Get to see what your competitors are testing.
If you see a competitor send an offer over and
over and over and over, you can be relatively
sure it’s working for them. You should save and
study something you see over and over. A good
rule of thumb is if you see an offer more than
3 times in a two week time frame, pay closer
attention to it.

2. You can get good ideas for subject lines and lift
note copy

3. You can click through and see actual promo-

tions and landing pages, which you can draw
from to find a promo per day to markup.

4. You can get ideas for products, headlines, new

promo ideas, new offers, new design, etc.

Your Seed Account Starter Kit.

Here are just some recommended lists.

This isn’t everything, but a good starter kit. You can

add to this list as you see fit...

7
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

This is finance heavy because that’s my preferred

niche.

But, coincidentally, many of the finance lists I’ve

included here are the absolute best at long-form
direct response copyrwriting (writing sales
messages that sell.)

Self-Improvement/Entrepreneurship
T. Harv Eker

Brian Rose/London Real

Tai Lopez

Early to Rise

Tony Robbins

Dean Graziosi

Rich Dad

Finance
Ian Wyatt’s Daily Profit

8
 PART I: HOW TO GET THE WORLD’S GREATEST SALES LETTERS SENT STRAIGHT TO YOU

All of NewsMax’s free e-letters

Tim Sykes

Outsider Club

Crowdability

CryptoKarma

Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings

The Edelson Wave

Investing Daily

Golden Opportunities

Bernie Schaeffer

Energy & Capital

ZeroHedge

Money Morning

9
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

Total Wealth Alert

The 10-Minute Millionaire

Kent Moor’s Oil & Energy Investor

Shah’s Insights & Indictments

Sure Money

Tom Gentile’s Power Profit Trades

Palm Beach Daily

Casey Daily Dispatch

Bill Bonner’s Diary

Jeff Clark’s Market Minute

Sovereign investor Daily

Winning investor Daily

Money and Markets

10
 PART I: HOW TO GET THE WORLD’S GREATEST SALES LETTERS SENT STRAIGHT TO YOU

Wealthy Retirement

Energy & Resource Digest

Investment U

Early Investing

Economy and Markets

Prepper

Survival Life

Concealed Network

Health and Diet

NorthStar Nutritionals

Health Sciences Institute

House Calls

Health e-tips

11
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

Healthier Talk

Wim Hoff

Bulletproof

Dr. Axe

Dr. Gundry

Life Extension

Travel

International Living

Politics

The Blaze Daily

Personal Liberty

Marketing and Copywriting

Todd Brown

12
 PART I: HOW TO GET THE WORLD’S GREATEST SALES LETTERS SENT STRAIGHT TO YOU

Kevin Rogers Copy Chief

Digital Marketer

Recap
To recap step one in your journey to becoming a
mark-up master:

• Create a seed account so you have a steam

stream of
promotions to mark up.

• Please go do that now, if you haven’t already.

• It should take you about half an hour maximum.

13
 PART II: HOW TO KNOW
WHICH PROMOS WORK

The easiest rule of thumb to use to figuring out

which promos work or not is how often the offer
is sent.

If you just set up your seed account yesterday,

you won’t have this context just yet.

But keep watching that account each day, for weeks

and months.

Spend at least half an hour each day opening emails,

and clicking through.

The more you routinely notice a promotion, the

higher likelihood it’s working for that particular
product owner.

But there’s a catch…

Not all product owners are created equal.

Some are far better marketers and copywriters

than others.

14
 PART II: HOW TO KNOW WHICH PROMOS WORK

So, you might see an offer from one particular com-

pany over and over again. But if it’s a good offer
from a weak industry player, you’re probably better
off studying something else.

It’s still worth keeping tabs, because companies rise

and fall all the time in direct response. So a weak
player today could be a strong player years from now…

And, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once and

awhile, too.

So, it’s worth keeping tabs on a wide swath of players.

Overall, however, you’re going to need to develop a

sense of who the best players are.

This part’s like watching a sport for the first time…

You might not know who the best teams or individual

players are…

But by watching games, press conferences, and

commentaries closely and consistently…

And by having friends who already know the game…

And by reading current events and connecting the

dots…

15
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

You become knowledgeable.

Industry familiarity is a marathon, not a sprint.

As you become more familiar, however, you’ll be

able to pick out better promos and ignore the ones
you can reasonably assume will be poorer.

To start, understand this nuance but don’t get

caught up on this. Just commit to marking up one
piece of copy each day. we’ll show you how to do
that over the course of the next 7 days. When you
don’t have full context.

3 Other Things to Watch For…

There are three other things to watch for in your
seed account to know which promos to study and
which not to:

#1 Launches
Launches are less frequent than evergreen promo-
tions that are mailed regularly. They’re worth pay-
ing attention to for a few reasons. First, launches
typically perform better in absolute dollar terms
than normal promos, because — generally speaking
— new sells better. It’s not guaranteed to work. It
might suck in conversion rate terms.

16
 PART II: HOW TO KNOW WHICH PROMOS WORK

But all else held equal, launches produce more

revenue compared to mailing a an older promo
one-off, because the launch is new and exciting and
is hyped up. Typically you can learn a lot about new
product types, too, since the launch is… launching
something. So you can get good ideas for new products.

Also, most launches use long-series that register

people and build upanticipation for the big event.
These series alone are like mini-promotions with
copy and tactics that you can pick up. So when I see
a launch in my seed account, I pay attention to it.
And when I see a launch from a heavy-hitter, I drop
everything and start studying it.

#2 Affiliate Sends
When you see an offer for another product owner
being sent to someone else’s list, that’s a good
indicator the promo is working. Typically, lists that
run other people’s offer only want to send an offer
that’s proven to work.

Every email they send is precious, right? So, the

don’t want to take any chances. So when you see
lots of different lists sending the same offer as an
affiliate, you can reasonably assume it’s working in
some way.

17
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

#3 Releads
Watch out for “releads.” When you look at your
seed account and click through, you might think
you’re looking at a different promotion than you’ve
seen before. But it might just be a new page design,
headline complex and lead on a previously used
body copy.

This is common for product owners who are try-

ing to test angles to see what works best to their
audience… or if it’s an older offer they’re trying to
breathe new life into. So, be a little more astute
than just judging a landing page by it’s design or
HL complex.

Knowing which promos are better than others is like

playing detective.

You need to watch…

Piece clues together…

And keep at it every single day to form muscle

memory and get lots of copy inputs rolling around
in your noggin’.

18
 PART II: HOW TO KNOW WHICH PROMOS WORK

Today’s Action to Take is Simple

• Commit to spending at least half an hour
every day going through your seed account.

• Open emails. Click through. And pick one

promotion to read today.

• To start, just read it. Don’t worry about marking

it up.

19
 PART III: HOW TO GET IN THE
RIGHT FRAME OF MIND TO
LEARN BEFORE YOUR STUDY
A WORD OF COPY

Let’s get into it…

I kicked this blueprint series off with an email I

got from C. Saad Bouh Sakho asking, “Would you
mind sharing how you learned to break down copy?
I’m trying to make it a daily habit so I can learn from
the best.”

It’s a good segue into the next step…

I started to markup copy well once my mentor Joe

Schriefer used me as a beta-test for a system he
created called Copyboarding. The system itself is
valuable for writing copy.

But a coincidental breakthrough I had learning the

system to write copy was that I started seeing the
world in patterns and templates.

20
 PART III: HOW TO GET IN THE RIGHT FRAME OF MIND TO LEARN
BEFORE YOUR STUDY A WORD OF COPY

That breakthrough made me a far more effective

copy reader. Because it fundamentally changed
my mindset.

And that’s what the only thing I want to talk about

today.

It might sound like woo-woo… but success is often a

product of having your mindset right, first.

So, today’s lesson is simple and short.

I Want You to Tattoo the True Mission of

Copy into Your Brain
The mission of a promotion is to sell an extraordi-
nary idea tied to a guru or brand’s product.

The goal is NOT to…

• Look nice…

• Sound nice…

• Break new intellectual ground…

• Explain everything and anything about

the topic...

21
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

Repeat that right now out loud to yourself: The goal

of a promotion is to sell an extraordinary idea tied
to a guru or brand’s product.

That prospect might have a different view of the

world than you do.

He or she likely uses technology and the internet

differently than you do.

He or she might not have as much excitement in his

life as you…

He or she might buy different things than you do.

He or she might have a family… or might not…

They might have social anxiety… or no money… or

lots of money and no happiness…

There are infinite number of prospects and problems

or opportunities.

And that means you need to read copy standing in:

• The copywriter’s shoes, as someone trying to

achieve that mission for their client. And…

• The prospect’s shoes, as someone who has the

particular problem or open opportunity that
product is offering a solution for.

22
 PART III: HOW TO GET IN THE RIGHT FRAME OF MIND TO LEARN
BEFORE YOUR STUDY A WORD OF COPY

All good there?

This is so simple… but most newbies don’t grasp

this simple thing. And so they’ve set themselves up
for failure when reading copy. They’re essentially
wasting their time because it can take an hour or so
to read a good long-form sales letter.

If your mind isn’t primed properly… none of the

good lessons will stick.

What are you trying to get to stick?

We’ll start digging into this in the next part.

Kristi Linebaugh — if you’re reading this, the next

part and the part after that will answer the question
you submitted to me. For everyone’s benefit, she
asked:

“Quick question: Peter Coyne email today says

mark up promo everyday. I know to look for
guarantees… benefits… Using the word you…
testimonials… story examples… a mechanism…
a guru… and a call to action. What else should
I look for?”

We’ll start to get into that next.

For now…

23
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

Your Action to Take Today Is Simple

Now that you have a seed account (covered in
Part I)...

And now that you’ve committed to spending

half an hour every day to open emails in that
seed account and click through to find a promo-
tion to mark up (covered in Part II)…

Print out this sentence and tape it to your

computer or laptop where you’ll be checking
that seed account every day for half an hour:

“The mission of a promotion is to

sell an extraordinary idea tied to a guru
or brand’s product.”

24
 PART 4: THE TWO WAYS OF
READING THAT WILL MAKE OR
BREAK YOUR COPY STUDIES

Most people don’t markup a promotion everyday…

Because most people don’t have a seed account

(which you do know, after reading part I, right?)

And if they do… they don’t know which promos to

pick (which you do now, because you read part II,
right?)

And if they do pick a good promo, they’re not in the

right frame of mind (which you are, because you
taped that sentence to your computer that I told you
to in part III yesterday, right?)

So, you’re in the 1% of copywriters now. Congratu-

lations.

But out of the 1% of copywriters that do these things…

25
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

I’d bet 99.9% of them incorrectly read the promotion

they’ve picked.

And that’s because they’re reading passively,

instead of actively…

Passive Reading vs. Active Reading

Reading passively means you just read through
without thinking very hard about the individual
lines and why they were written.

Typically, you can know you’re passively reading if

your reaction at the end of the promo is something
like: “I thought that was pretty good.” Or, “I didn’t like
that very much.” Or, “That was pretty aggressive.”

Usually if you’re passively reading you’ll have a

high-level reaction that’s non-specific and didn’t
treat the copy like it was written to sell.

Active reading, on the other hand, treats the copy as

if it was meant to sell.

You dissect each and every line to understand why

the copywriter believed that line in that place would
further the sale.

You think hard about why they chose the design

they did…

26
 PART 4: THE TWO WAYS OF READING THAT WILL MAKE OR BREAK YOUR COPY STUDIES

You see if they came up with clever pieces of proof

to strengthen their sale…

Or if they dimensionalized a claim with an analogy

or by doing different kinds of math on behalf of the
reader…

You see how much visual proof there is versus

written proof…

You focus on the type of proof: Is it an anecdote?

A quote from a scientific journal? A quote from a media
outlet? From a rich person? From a subscriber?

You try to see how the copywriter makes the story

better and better and better as the promotion goes
on…

Basically, you think critically about each line know-

ing the person who wrote it was on a mission to sell.

And you write in the margin of the copy to explain

how you think each piece fits in.

I’ll be more specific about the 8 elements you should

watch for in the next part.

These are the 8 fundamental elements that all

contribute to a killer promotion…

27
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

Train our mind to markup for these items… and

you’ll be on your way to mark-up master in no time.

In the meantime, kill the passive reader inside of you.

And get active.

28
 PART V: THE 8 THINGS TO
WATCH FOR IN EVERY
PROMOTION YOU STUDY

1) Reverse Engineer the Big Idea into the

Ordinary Idea
Every good long form sales letter has a big idea. A
big idea is the indirect statement of an idea to an
unaware viewer. It’s immediately understandable,
impossible to categorize and dismiss, emotional
and specific. And every big idea is based on an ordi-
nary idea. An ordinary idea is the direct statement
of an idea. It’s informational, not emotional and it’s
often boring or technical.

Big ideas are truthful and based on fact. They’re not

made up. The ordinary idea and extraordinary idea
rarely use the same words.

You should try to reverse engineer the big idea in

the copy you’re reading into the ordinary idea.
Doing this will help you develop muscle memory
and give you examples of “idea transubstantiation”.

29
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

2) I.D. the Lead Type

There are six lead types in our colleagues’ book
Great Leads (a must read). You should know them
and immediately identify the lead type in the
promotion you’re marking up. Here they are:

• Story Lead: Uses a story to intrigue the reader

about the benefits of an extraordinary idea.

• Secret Lead: Teases a secret that the rich,

insiders, elites or someone unknown knows
that will help the reader achieve their deepest
desires.

• Proclamation Lead: Teases a firm, specific

prediction that will have an impact (good or
bad) on the reader. Teases the benefits of taking
action on the information.

• Problem-Solution Lead: Points out a reader’s

problem, then teases a solution and its benefits.

• Promise Lead: Makes the reader solemn prom-

ise you can keep. If they do X now, Y will happen.

• Offer Lead: Makes a direct offer, like a free

book when you pay shipping and handling offer.

30
 PART V: THE 8 THINGS TO WATCH FOR IN EVERY PROMOTION YOU STUDY

3) Claim/Proof Couplings
You should mark every claim made. And then look
for the corresponding proof. If there’s no proof to
backup a claim, that’s bad and you should notice it.

Every claim should have proof. If there is proof, you

should specifically markwhat type of proof there is.
Typically, the bigger the claim, the more proof
needed. The types of proof are: Social proof (testi-
monials), academic proof (journals), mainstream
media proof (news articles), celebrity proof (rich
people, businessmen, TV personalities, etc.).

There’s also “because” proof, which usually can fol-

low weaker claims. “Because” proof is just when you
declare after a claim “That’s because of X, Y, Z…”.
The statement as fact is good enough to backup a
small claim.

4) Dimensionalizations
Many times, proof can be dimensionalized to drive a
point home. YOu should make notes of these.

In financial copy, for example, if you show how a

particular daily trading strategy identified a play
historically that could’ve made you, $1,000 in one
day… you could say something like… “Imagine making
that every single day.

31
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

That would mean you’re making $365,000! That’s 10X

the national average income.”

That’s poor copy, I know, but I’m just demonstrating

the concept.

Watch for these dimensionalizations.

The can make your copy stronger by stating obvious

facts in a way that subconsciously sells your prospect.

5) Copy Structure
For every section, you should have a note in the
margin to describe what objection that section
handled.

A section is usually defined by each subhead.

When you do this, by the end of the copy, you’ll

have a full “roadmap” of the copy. Showing you
what objections were handled in how many pages.

This gives you a template for any similar type of

promotion that you’re trying to write.

6) Offer
Make note of the offer section, especially any unique
bonuses or a unique ways the copywriter might have

32
 PART V: THE 8 THINGS TO WATCH FOR IN EVERY PROMOTION YOU STUDY

made a particular bonus feel bigger than it might

otherwise have seen.

Our buddy Todd Brown gives a good framework for

analyzing an offer.

Todd says that a good offer is a S.I.N. Offer.

S: Superior offer to competitors.

I: Irresistible by demonstrating benefits.

N: No-brainer, shifting the risk off your

prospect and onto you.

A S.I.N. offer takes great copy, for a great product

and makes it a blockbuster.

But often, offers are treated as an after thought.

After writing 50 pages of copy, the writer is done

and half-asses that last section to just be done with
the project.

That’s no bueno...

In the financial space, we see a lot of the same style

offers. Maybe it’s a couple of free pdf reports and
flash alerts that you can claim as soon as you sub-
scribe to a newsletter.

33
COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

The prospect’s seen that a bajillion times and finds

that BORING!

Figure out what you can add to an offer you’re

marking up to make it superior to what everyone
else is doing... irresistibly beneficial to your pros-
pect... and a no-brainer risk-wise.

7) Design
Design can make or break your promotion. If you’re
reader is old, your text should be big. If there are
visuals, like charts in financial promos… are they
clear? Do they aid the point the words are saying?
You’d be surprised. I’ve seen chart designs that
directly contradict the words in the copy.

What colors are being used? Different colors are

shown to evoke different emotions.

If it’s a VSL, do the slides keep attention? Are the

switching and flashing so many things that it’s
distracting?

Pay close attention to the design and think whether

it helps “show instead of telling”.

34
 PART V: THE 8 THINGS TO WATCH FOR IN EVERY PROMOTION YOU STUDY

8) Data
This one is tricky. If you have a network in the in-
dustry, you can ask someone how a particular promo
you’re reading performed. Like what the average
cast value is, whether or not different headlines or
leads were tested, etc.

If you don’t have a network, you’re going to have

to piece things together as best you can. Try to buy
through the funnel (often there’s a refund policy,
so you can buy to capture the copy in the upsells,
and then refund).

Also, if it’s an offer that’s on display or native

networks, pay attention to where you see ads for it,
and on the url when you click so you can see what
network it’s being run on.

And, like I said in an earlier part, you can watch the

frequency of the offer popping up in your seed
account to know whether it’s working for that par-
ticular list or not. The more you see an offer, the
more you can assume it’s working.

I’ll demonstrate all of this in one of the upcoming

parts where I show you a real markup!

35
 PART VI: THE TWO METHODS
FOR MARKING UP A PROMOTION

Let’s keep plugging along…

I know I’ve been telling you to read one promo per

day. And I meant it…

But there are instances where you shouldn’t.

And that brings me to the two methods for marking

up a promotion…

Method #1: One Day, One Promo

Pretty straightforward.

Every day, you print out a promotion… actively

mark it up… save it… and repeat it the next day.

You don’t really dig into the OF or upsells/downsells.

By the end of a work week, you have five promos

under your belt.

36
 PART VI: THE TWO METHODS FOR MARKING UP A PROMOTION

Method #2: Work-week-long Deep Dive

This second method is a little more in-depth.

It spreads the markup process over five days. So,

one promo per work-week.

Here’s how it breaks down…

On Sunday night, you print or save all the materials

promotion you can around a promotion.

You find lift notes, inserts or advertorials (Inserts

are interstitial ads in email content, or you could
count display or native ads) in your seed account or
online… you print the promo itself… you print the OF…
the upsells… the downsells and the confirmation…

Then, over the course of the next five days you start
studying it systematically like this:

• Day 1: Actively markup lift notes, inserts,

advertorials, display or native ads.

• Day 2: Markup the body copy.

• Day 3: Markup the order form and the upsells.

• Day 4: Markup the downsells.

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COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

• Day 5: Spend a day creating a one sheet outlining

all the components you marked up. Create a
whole file on the promotion.

You don’t have to break it up by these exact days.

You can do it faster or slower.

Just understand this will take a lot of your time.

When to Use Method #1 and Method #2

You should use Method #1 on so-so to middle of the
road promos.

You should use Method #2 on promos that are clear

winners.

Refer back to Part II if you can’t remember how to

tell if a promotion worked or not.

Does all of this make sense?

Let me know in our facebook group,

AgoraFinancialpp.com/DISFB, please.

In the next section, I’ll provide the handy tools you

can use to keep the best swipe file known to humanity.

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 PART VII: MARKUP TOOLS

Let’s get into the tools of the trade…

1) Google Drive
I save all my promotions in a google drive.

You should create one, too.

If you haven’t already made a seed account, you

might just consider using gmail and then you’ll
automatically have a corresponding google drive
account.

I also write my promos in google drive, so it’s a

one-stop shop.

Create a folder in there to keep your swipe file.

Then, you save your landing page or VSL transcript.

Some VSL promos have a delayed pop-up 30-60

seconds in that will trigger when you scroll towards
the “x” out button and offer you a transcript.

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COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

Other promos won’t do that. Instead, you might

need to let them play for need 60 seconds or so,
then actually try to click out.

At that point it’ll ask you if you really want to leave

or not. Like this:

Leave Site?
Changes you made may not be saved.

Cancel Leave

Hit “cancel” at that point and you’ll be redirected

to a transcript.

Then, highlight all and print.

If you want to save to your google drive, you can

actually do that through hitting the “print” button,
too…

Just change your printer to google drive, and it’ll let

you save directly if you’re logged in. It looks like this
for me:

Print Select a Destination

Cancel Print
Print Destinations:

Destination: PDF Print

Save as PDF
Change
Save to Google Drive

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 PART VII: MARKUP TOOLS

Sometimes, promos have dynamic charts that will

pop up only when you scroll past them.

If you try to save or print a promo by opening the

link and just hitting CTRL+A… CTRL+P… it’ll print
the promo blank without any of the relevant charts
or images.

Always quickly scroll through the transcript through

the bottom of the page.

2) An iPad
For those of you living under a rock. This is a popular
product Apple makes. Check it out.

It’ll let you markup the promo digitally.

I have one of the older pro ones and I love it.

3) Apple Pencil
Also a popular apple product. You’ll use it to mark
up the promo. (Hey! Some people are slow on the
uptake. I don’t discriminate. I want everything to be
clear, here…)

4) Adobe Reader App

This is the standard adobe app.

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COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

It’ll tap right into your google drive and let you open
up the PDF C10-12of the promo you saved in your
swipe file.

It allows you to mark up the promo and then save

the marked up version in your google drive.

Again, I keep two copies — a clean PDF of the original

promo… and my marked up version.

5) PDF Merger
There are free and paid PDF merger programs online.

These are helpful when you’ve captured a full fun-

nel in seperate PDFs at each step.

You can go into a PDF merger and put them all to-
gether in one single file to save in your google drive.

6) A Credit Card
Yes, promos are long. But they don’t end at the
“subscribe now” button.

You should also be reviewing order forms… upsells…

downsells… and confirmations.

How can you do that without shelling out tons of

cash?

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 PART VII: MARKUP TOOLS

There’s not a great way…

But to the extent there’s a refund policy… just buy

the thing… and capture the upsell paths.

Sometimes I’ll even buy multiple times to capture

the downsells, too.

I’ll typically print or save the order forms in my

google drive…

And go through the upsell flow and print or save each

step…

Then, I’ll go back to the order form and go through

the different downsells…

This is tedious, but funnels maximize the effort we

all put in.

Studying them is just as important as studying the

promo itself.

7) A Calendar
Set several reminders to put in for your refund.

Sites like ClickBank automatically let you refund

pretty easily. (I bet they cut you off from buying at
some point if you’re a chronic refunder.)

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COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

Other shops might have a higher hurdle to clear.

In either case, you should set a calendar reminder

to make sure you can refund to get your money back
if you’re only interested in the copy instead of the
product.

If you’re interested in using the product, keep it.

That’s a win-win… copy education and a great
product.

8) A Printer/Scanner and Trash Can

You’re old school and or cheap and don’t want to
buy an iPad and pencil?

Fine, you luddite.

Print the promo… mark it up… scan it into your

computer when you’re done… save it in your google
drive… and toss the paper trail in the trash.

Ya happy?

9) Transcription Program
If you have a known working promo that’s only in
video or VSL format but doesn’t have a transcript
or text landing page version, send it in for tran-
scription service.

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 PART VII: MARKUP TOOLS

I use RevTranscript a lot. There are different services

each offering different turnaround times and quality.

Each combination of turnaround time and quality

affect the price you pay. Shop around and find what
fits you.

10) Spy Tools

Sometimes you can’t send a video through for tran-
scription because you can’t download it.

Other times, you might be curious to take a look at

VSL slides at a 30,000 ft. view.

Still other times, maybe you’re a freak and want to

see hidden A/B headline tests buried on a landing
page.

There are different spy tools available out there

to help you download locked videos… and unmask
hidden elements on landing pages.

I highly recommend my buddy Mike Schauer’s

(he writes Russell Brunson’s Funnel Hacker U
newsletter, too, which is killer.) Swiped.co Insider’s
program. It’s paid and might still have limited access.

But he’s built some awesome copy-hacker tools that

let you do that. Check it out. He’ll appreciate your

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COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

business, and I recommend him.

This stuff saved my marriage, guys…

I hope it changes your life for the better, too.

46
PART VIII: A REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE

Each of these hit the 8 elements I outlined in Part V,

in my own way.

Don’t necessarily copy how I do it…

There’s more than one way to skin a cat…

But here’s my showing you instead of telling you.

I said I’d give one example, but I’ll give you three:

MARKUP EXAMPLE #1
AgoraFinancialpp.com/Markup1

MARKUP EXAMPLE #2
AgoraFinancialpp.com/Markup2

MARKUP EXAMPLE #3
AgoraFinancialpp.com/Markup3

47
 PART IX: A FORUM WHERE
YOU CAN JOIN EVALDO AND I
PERSONALLY IN MARKING UP
COPY LIKE YOU’VE JUST
LEARNED

OK, we’re onto the final part of our nine-part

Markup Blueprint.

And that’s how you can get on the frontlines of

marking up copy with Evaldo, me and some of
the best minds who actually write the copy you’re
studying.

Having a group to get the inside scoop from is cru-

cial if you’re going to be great.

That’s Evaldo and my goal in our Weekly War Room

zoom community.

We pick one particular package to study per week.

And then we get together on a call to discuss it.

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 PART IX: A FORUM WHERE YOU CAN JOIN EVALDO AND I PERSONALLY

Usually, that’s at 10am Eastern on Thursdays.

Here’s a screengrab of one of our group calls…

Peter
Evaldo
Chris
Jake
Kristal
Kevin
Elizabeth
Chris Jake Alexa
Paul
Daniel
Alex

Sometimes we’ll have the copywriter behind the

promo we’re studying on the call. It all depends on
if we know them or not.

Afterward, we also share the recording and our

notes for your swipe file.

Then, we reload the following week on a new promo.

The rules of thumb I gave you this week are great to

use on your own.

But the truth of the matter is…

Unless you’re plugged in with a group of copywriters

in the know…

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COYNE’S COPY MARKUP BLUEPRINT SERIES

You’ll never be able to connect all of the dots in

copy. There are too many exceptions to the rules…
and too many surprising results to ever truly know
what’s going on with a promo if you’re just reading
them alone in your basement.

That’s why having a group to fall back on for sup-

port and insight is so important...

Our buddy and Marketing Funnel Automation

founder Todd Brown joined us on last week’s call,
for example.

We were studying a recent promotion he launched

for a new product of his called “Borrow a Bestseller”.

Todd joined us on the call. He gave us awesome in-

sight into how his campaign was working and why
he structured the copy the way he did.

Todd was even nice enough to give his take on

Weekly War Room during the call:

“The folks that are on [this call] right now that

are not part of [Pete and Evaldo’s business]
you need to listen to everything these two
guys say. Those of you that know me know
that I would not say that if I didn’t mean it.

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 PART IX: A FORUM WHERE YOU CAN JOIN EVALDO AND I PERSONALLY

You’re talking about two insanely sharp

dudes running an incredible company. These
guys know how to generate sales. I would
soak upevery single word that these guys
share with you every single week… study
what it is these guys are sharing.”

We didn’t pay him to say that!

We do your best to be abundant and share every-

thing we know on these calls. If you’re serious about
copy or marketing, you should join us this Thursday
at 10am for our next call.

We’re going to be studying the latest hit in our

industry.

You don’t want to miss it.

You can sign up here:

AgoraFinancialpp.com/WeeklyWarRoom

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