The Return of Paul Myers

OK, my old buddy Paul hasn’t gone anywhere, but I’ve talked about him before on this blog, and it’s time I talked about him again. He’s the type of friend that if I make a quick phone call to him (as I did today, to catch up), we end up gabbing for over an hour. Sometimes three.

Paul made his reputation as an advertising copywriter for some of the biggest names in marketing — and then he chucked it all to help people creating businesses with really low-cost products that give a lot of bang for the buck.

The Plug

He has an e-book I want to recommend to you. It’s priceless, in two senses of the word: you can’t buy it, because it’s free (so I’m not making a penny by recommending it to you), and because of the information it has: Need to Know is a basic primer of doing business online that I sure as hell wish I had when I got started in 1994. The only “cost” associated with the book is, you have to subscribe to Paul’s newsletter to get it. If you’re in business online (or want to be), you should be on his newsletter distribution anyway. And if you don’t find his stuff of value, it’s a cinch to unsubscribe from his newsletter too. But I’ll just say that even after all this time, I’m still learning stuff from Paul.

Paul is a unique animal. He’s totally anti-hype. There’s no pop psychology. He speaks plainly and directly (kind of like I do). He tells you how to harness your most powerful desires and turn them (whatever you truly most want) into reality.

That’s a powerful idea. And he delivers. And that’s just “Chapter Zero” of the book.

Getting Real

If you’re doing business online, you’ll love the rest of the book too. Paul goes into great depth on things you need to know to do business online. Things that very few people ever talk about, but that can make all the difference in your success …or failure, if you don’t know these things (hence the title: Need to Know).

There is a section in the book that shows you how to create massive leverage for your business. It’s only two pages, but those two pages are probably worth as much as most paid “business leverage” products.

I’ve said it this way before: Had I been smart when I got started in 1994, I would have paid $5,000 for this book. Only it didn’t exist then. (Paul wrote it in 2008, and has continuously tweaked it since.)

So why does Paul give such value away for free? To get your attention. He surely knows that some people will just grab it because it’s free, and then quit the newsletter distribution. That’s OK: those sorts of people won’t even read the book. He wants the attention of the people who will read it, because it’ll bowl them over like a ton of bricks. They’ll grasp what he’s doing, and that he really knows what he’s talking about, and will listen.

A Different Game

Guys this smart and knowledgeable usually then sell “information product courses” for $1,000-$2,500. That’s not Paul’s game, though; I’m not sure he’s ever had a four-figure price tag on a product. He’s more likely to show you a neat tool that others would sell for a few hundred bucks — but Paul will offer it for $27, or even $17. I’ve gotten quite a few of such tools from Paul myself over the years; sometimes I use them as-is, and other times I’ll dissect the idea and create something totally new that fits into my business like a custom-fitted gear.

I do it because it’s not a $2,500 risk, a “maybe it’ll work, maybe it won’t” product. I’m smart enough to know that most people that spend even $2,500 on an “Internet marketing product” never go through the whole package because it’s too overwhelming. I really like Paul’s a la carte approach.

Hell, just a subscription to Paul’s newsletter should cost a few hundred a year, but that’s free too. I get ideas every time I sit down to read one of his newsletters.

I know what Paul’s working on next, too — I’m greatly looking forward to it, since it’s right up my alley. But he’s not ready to announce it yet. I’ll just say this: if you follow what I do online because you want a business like mine, which really means a lifestyle like mine, you’re on the right track. Keep watching. But in the meantime, follow Paul, too — get on his newsletter distribution pronto! — because that’s where I get a lot of my ideas! It’s called Talkbiz News, a title that doesn’t give you a clue as to what it’s about. So just trust me: if you’re in business online, or want to be, get on his distribution.

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Related Links:

• Paul’s guest post on this blog from 2009, There Ain’t No Such Thing As a Free Lunch, and 2022’s When Scams Become Deadly.
• For content creators, my essay There’s No Such Thing as Writer’s Block.
• How to get what you want, my essay on Planning for the Rest of Your Life.