Welcome To My Nightmare

Dear Friend,

Growing up in New York City in the 1970's, there sure wasn't any shortage of drama.  You had the Son Of Sam serial killer, David Berkowitz (who used to live in the same apartment housing project I did)... the big blackout of 1977, where literally MILLIONS of dollars of merchandise was stolen from retail stores... and of course, there was the the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson firing up the media on an almost daily basis.

But one thing wasn't so real, and that was a SERIOUS event that occurred out on Long Island (a place that always seemed so far-removed from us city kids, even though logistically, it was only a half-hour to 45 minutes away).  The event I'm talking about occurred in 1974, but left its mark on the world forever.

It was the night Ronald DeFeo gristly murdered his parents, brothers, and sisters in cold blood.  And this incident was later turned into a movie, called "The Amityville Horror."

The story has it, that about a year after the murders, a family of four -- the Lutz's (no relation to the town I now live in, called Lutz) -- all moved into the Amityville home where the murders were committed, and were shortly driven out by ritualistic music, ghostly shouts, oozing green slime, unprovoked damage to doors and windows, and odd hoof tracks around the outside of the house.

Now before I go any further, I must say -- what kind of an idiot do you think would move into a place where a serial killing took place?  I wouldn't even like moving into a place where the prior owners didn't bathe very often -- just bad Karma, you know?

And if that's bad Karma, what kind of Karma do you think a serial murder is going to leave you?

But... I digress...

Anyway, years later, it came out that the entire story of the events the Lutz's experienced, was completely made up by the father, George Lutz, and Ronald DeFeo's lawyer.  They made it all up and got hooked up with a screenwriter called Jay Anson, who wrote the screenplay for them.

And why did they do this?

They did it for the same reason why Willie Sutton robbed banks -- they did it for the money.

But what you need to examine, is why their story was so believable.  What about it made it seem so "real"?  After all, how many times have you heard ghosts in your house (not including that one time you came home stoned drunk after the office Christmas party)?

And how many people do you even know who have either dealt with "ghosts" or who even know OTHER people who've dealt with ghosts?

I bet your answer is "No one," right?  Even if you live way out in the styx, you've still probably never seen or heard about ghosts.  (Someone is inevetably going to send me in their one famous ghost story now, I just know it.)

But what you need to be thinking about here, isn't the story itself - because it IS a little bizarre.  What you need to be thinking about is WHY this story, as incredulous as it seems in hindsight -- was so completely embraced by the public and believable.

Why was that?

Any idea?

Well, the plain-and-simple truth here, is that this story pushed one of the MOST important buy-buttons you can push in someone.  This story triggered the magic "curiosity" button, and whether you realize it or not, this is one of the STRONGEST emotional triggers you can use to create a surge of interest in whatever you're doing.

There are a number of reasons why curiosity works so well, and in The Seductive Selling System - http://www.kingofcopy.com/seductive - I devote an entire chapter (Chapter 3) of the 195-page manual to "curiosity," even showing you how to write compelling "blind" bullets using sheer curiosity as your entire hook.

Plus, you even get THREE complete "behind the scenes" secrets to use curiosity to position your entire marketing campaigns in this same chapter.

Kinda makes you... curious, no?

Now go sell something,

Craig Garber

P.S. Only 10 days left to get this month's issue of The Seductive Selling Marketing Newsletter, AND the one-shot ONLY sweet offer to join one of my new coaching programs.  Try it for free, right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

Any comments?

Send them to me by scooting over to the contact form on my "Here's How To Contact Craig" page, and maybe I'll publish them -- I appreciate your feedback!

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