​​​​The Library

Everything I know about consistent sales – sorted by what’s hurting right now.

Seven years of notes on selling with words – 188 articles. You don’t need all of them. You need the three that fix what’s broken this week.

What’s hurting right now?
Csaba Borzási in the studio
188 articles100 legendary sales letters taken apart on video26 podcast interviews1,500+ documented results
Nothing with that word in the title yet. Try a shorter one – “offer”, “welcome”, “headline”, “launch”.

“My list isn’t buying”

People open, maybe click… and then nothing. Usually it’s one of three things: new subscribers never warm up, the list has gone cold, or the campaign never gives anyone a real reason to buy. Start here and you’ll know which one is yours.

Email

How to Get Consistent Sales From Your Email List (the 3-Step Fix I Use With Clients)

Feast-and-famine sales are rarely a traffic problem. My 3-step client process: find the hidden gold, build a nurturing ecosystem, add conversion tools.

7 min readRead it →
The whole shelf · 20 articles
Free book + AI tool
Get The Rapid Lead Activator

How to turn a brand-new subscriber into a buyer in the first few emails. 91 pages, foreword by Brian Kurtz – and it comes with the Rapid Lead Assistant™, an AI tool that drafts your first five emails with you.

Send me the book →

“My offer or page isn’t converting”

No page on earth can save a weak offer. So this shelf starts with the offer, moves to the words, and only then gets to the page – which is the order I’d check them in if it were my money.

Offers & pages

Why Your Offer Isn’t Selling (and the 3-Step Fix From 100+ Client Projects)

A low-converting offer is rarely a copy problem. My 3-step client fix: know your ideal customer deeper, build a right-fit offer, then write elegant copy.

7 min readRead it →
The whole shelf · 36 articles
3 Lessons From a Breakthrough Advertising Study Group5 min readThe “Common Enemy” in Copywriting (and a Fight I Skipped)5 min readThe “So What?” Test: How to Turn Features Into Real Benefits5 min readThe Slippery Slope: the Real Job of Every Sentence in Copy6 min readShould You Offer a Payment Plan? What My Last Launch Revealed6 min readWhat Product Should You Create Next? Let Your Audience Decide4 min readWhy Nobody Finishes Online Courses Anymore6 min readThe Best Copywriting Advice I’ve Ever Gotten6 min read3 Big Idea Archetypes You Can Swipe for Your Sales Page5 min readMissed Two Days of Writing? How I Get Back on Track5 min read9 Years, 2,000 Pages: No Shortcut to Good Copywriting8 min readMarketing by Committee: The $5,000 It Almost Cost Her6 min readWhat’s Actually Missing From Your Marketing Messaging5 min readThe Biggest Storytelling Mistake: Your Hero Has Two Journeys5 min readShould You Use Made-Up Stories in Your Marketing?5 min readGary Halbert’s 30-Day Hold: How to Double Your Sales4 min readHow to Make Your Writing Flow: 70+ Flow Elements to Use5 min readWhy Brute-Forcing People Into High-Ticket Programs Backfires6 min readThe Curse of Knowledge: Why Experts Overcomplicate Courses5 min readHow to Write a Sales Page That Doesn’t Feel Like Selling (Think Like a Prosecutor)5 min readThe Best Copywriting Books (My Recommended Reading List)7 min readConversion Rate Optimization: How to Fix a Leaky Funnel (in the Right Order)9 min readConversion Copywriting: How to Write Copy That Actually Sells11 min read9 Advanced Sales Page Optimization Tips to Boost Your Sales14 min readAnalyzing 7 Proven Bullet Formulas: Why they work and how to use them14 min readCopywriting vs Content Writing vs SEO Writing – What’s the Difference?14 min readMemberVault Review: Pricing, Pros and Cons (Updated)6 min read39 Proven Headline Formulas to Instantly Grab Attention & Boost Sales9 min readThe 5 Stages of Customer Awareness (And How to Write for Each One)9 min readHow to Write Faster, Better & With Less Effort (My 2026 Toolkit)9 min read9 Landing Page Best Practices That Still Convert8 min readHow to Raise Your Prices and Still Sell More with New Luxury Products12 min read
Free cheat sheet
Get the Secret Copy Recipe

I took 100 of the most profitable ads ever written apart and wrote down what they all have in common. One cheat sheet, with a 26-point checklist that finds the holes in your copy before your buyers do.

Send me the cheat sheet →

The Proven Sales Letter Breakdown Challenge

One legendary sales letter taken apart a day, every day, for 100 days – on video. All 100 days are written up below.

The 100-Day Proven Sales Letter Breakdown Challenge – trailer▶

Gary Halbert, Eugene Schwartz, Gary Bencivenga, John Caples, David Ogilvy, Clayton Makepeace, John Carlton… I reverse-engineered one of their letters every single day for 100 days, and the people who wrote some of them started showing up in the comments.

This is where most of what’s on this page comes from. If you only read one shelf, make it this one.

Start here: the copywriter hubs
100The best sales letters of all time, on one pageAll 100 days of the challenge in one list, grouped by copywriter and by type of lead.Open the full list →
The 12 most-read breakdowns
Show all 100 days ↓Show fewer ↑
Timeless classics: Caples, Ogilvy, Hopkins, Schwab… · 18
Joe Sugarman’s BluBlocker Ad: How “Vision Breakthrough” Sold Sunglasses With a StoryDay 2 · 11 min readFrank Schultz’s “Fluke of Nature” Ad: How to Sell Something as Boring as a GrapefruitDay 4 · 11 min readVictor Schwab’s “100 Good Advertising Headlines”: The Ad That Sold Copywriting by Teaching ItDay 5 · 11 min readThe Wall Street Journal “Two Young Men” Letter: Why the $2 Billion Classic Is OverratedDay 25 · 10 min readDavid Ogilvy’s Rolls-Royce Ad: How “The Electric Clock” Sold the Best Car in the WorldDay 27 · 11 min read“They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano”: How John Caples Wrote the Most Copied Headline EverDay 30 · 10 min readThe Man in the Hathaway Shirt: How David Ogilvy Sold a Plain Shirt With an Eye PatchDay 33 · 11 min read“How I Made $100,000 With a ‘Fool Idea’”: The 1929 Ad That Still Works TodayDay 51 · 10 min read“Do You Make These Mistakes in English?”: Why One Small Word Made This Ad Run for 40 YearsDay 52 · 10 min readThe Zippo Lighter Ad: How One Short True Story Proved “The Lighter That Works”Day 69 · 8 min readJohn Caples’ “To Men Who Want to Quit Work Some Day”: The Retirement Ad That Still SellsDay 70 · 8 min readClaude Hopkins’ Van Camp’s Milk Ad: How the Father of Direct Response Sold Milk With Reason-Why CopyDay 72 · 10 min readClaude Hopkins’ Pepsodent Ad: How a “10-Day Test” Sold Toothpaste to MillionsDay 73 · 10 min read40 Headline Ideas From Proven Promotions: The Swipe File I Pull Out When I’m StuckDay 75 · 13 min readMerrill Lynch’s “Personal Invitation”: How a 1979 Letter Sold a Financial Service With a Free LunchDay 83 · 12 min read22 Classic Print Ads That Sold: What 100 Years of Covers, Advertorials and Coupons Still Teach UsDay 90 · 13 min readBill Jayme’s “Psychology Today” Letter: How a 4-Page Quiz (and a Pencil) Sold a MagazineDay 91 · 12 min readHank Burnett’s Admiral Byrd Expedition Letter: How to Sell a $10,000 Trip by Selling a Place in HistoryDay 92 · 11 min read
Modern online: sales pages, VSLs, emails and ads · 18
The Poo-Pourri Commercial: How a 348-Word Script Sold a Toilet Spray With HumorDay 9 · 12 min readEmail Subject Line Examples, Critiqued: What Ramit Sethi Does That Most Brands Don’tDay 32 · 10 min readRamit Sethi’s “Delegate and Done”: What a Modern Long-Form Sales Page Looks LikeDay 36 · 12 min readBilly Mays’ OxiClean Infomercial: How a 323-Word Script Sold Millions of TubsDay 40 · 10 min readPaleo Hacks’ “Paleo Eats” Page: How a Free Plus Shipping Offer Sells a CookbookDay 46 · 11 min readChris Haddad’s “Language of Lust”: How a Gut-Punch Story Sells to the Most Skeptical Market OnlineDays 54–55 · 16 min readRamit Sethi’s “How to Talk to Anybody”: A Sales Page Template Hiding in Plain SightDay 56 · 13 min readFacebook Ad Examples: 13 Ads That Made Millions (and What Their Copy Teaches)Day 57 · 11 min readFacebook Ads That Made Millions, Part 2: 13 More Examples (the Good and the Lazy)Day 64 · 11 min readBioTrust’s “Ageless Turmeric” Email: How a Secret Lead Sells to Skeptical Supplement BuyersDay 66 · 9 min readTaylor Welch’s “Productivity Pack” Sales Page: How a $27 Offer Opens With One Devastating QuestionDay 81 · 15 min read3 Email Copywriting Examples That Sell: A Discovery Story, a Stone in Your Shoe and a Fake Oil ChangeDay 82 · 13 min readPatriot Power Greens: How a Supplement Page Sells “Sold Out” – and Gets People to Buy 4 at a TimeDay 86 · 14 min readCraig Clemens’ “Cat Food Revealed”: How a 45-Minute VSL Sells Cat Food With a Secret, 4 Myths and a Reason for Every PriceDay 88 · 14 min readThe Nerd Fitness Coaching Sales Page: How Speaking Your Audience’s Language Books CallsDay 97 · 11 min readStefan Georgi’s “Stem Cell Restore”: A 2-Part Breakdown of a 60-Page Sales Letter That Sells a SupplementDays 98–99 · 17 min readThe CopyHour Sales Page: How Derek Johanson Sells a Copywriting Course With an “Almost Forgotten Secret”Day 101 · 13 min readRussell Brunson’s NFT Letter: How a Sealed Bank Bag Got Past Customers to Show Up LiveDay 102 · 12 min read

Watch all 100 on YouTube →

>