The Boron Letters

I am blessed with a copy of the original, hand-written Boron letters and have read it several times over. The tactics are priceless and should be considered the Marketer's Bible. This is more than a "How-To" manual, it's lessons learned (with personal insight) from the greatest copywriter ever to walk the face of the earth, Sir Gary Halbert. The Boron Letters is a page-turning thriller into the mind of the World's Greatest Copywriter, along with rock-solid techniques that have withstood the test of time for developing Ad Campaigns that will stuff your wallet with cash. What you will learn are the techniques Halbert used to make himself and clients millions. This is Evergreen knowledge (stuff that never gets outdated) and will work whether you market by direct mail or online. There are some GREAT experts in the copywriting industry (most, if not all, trained by Gary) but, the one person who has received the most one-on-one time from Gary (in both business training and his personal life) is his son Bond, who has done an A+ job carrying the torch forward. It is a pleasure to not only have the added commentary (with added insights from Bond and how the Boron Letters are being applied in a world where marketing mediums are constantly growing and changing) but to have a Kindle version (my precious original NEVER leaves the office). You get more than just business and copywriting strategies that work. You get what Gary did on a day-to-day basis that made his copy rock-solid and kept him at the top of his game. If you are a marketer of any kind, this is a MUST READ and a MUST RE-READ several times a year.

Simply put: this book is much about marketing as it is about life lessons. I've studied Kern, Carlton, Kennedy, and was Neil Strauss' mentee for a time. But, of all that, I wish I'd read this book first. In fact, I wish I'd read it as a teenager. (Bond, you are a lucky so-and-so.) And I say it is as much about marketing as life lessons because... well... it is. The book shares insights on success, being your best, how not to get taken advantage of, how to make better decisions, friends to keep, and dead weight people to throw away. My only complaint is the number of typos. They don't ruin the book, but they do often interrupt the flow. However, these are personal letters collected into a book. That said, I've recommended this book to all my friends regardless of occupation. Now I'm recommending it to you, reader. EDIT/Additional point: You must read this book in the context of the time and place it was written. I recommended it to a young writer who later became apoplectic about some of the language--different time, different place, different circumstances, and different world view kids. If you're easily offended, don't read this book. Or... better yet, read it and take the good while ignoring the less than perfect societal views and use of language.

This book is written in a form of letters from a caring father, Gary Halbert, who is serving time in Boron prison to his son, Bond Halbert. Through these letters Gary is giving advice to Bond related to general health, well-being and conduct in life, as well as to direct marketing and copywriting. The letters also contain brief descriptions of incidents from prison life. Bond says he left them in this book, so that the reader would have an idea under what kind of conditions Gary wrote these letters. Gary walks his talk and is trying to teach his son through examples from his own life. Among those suggestions for well-being is the advice to run for half an hour or for an hour each day, or for that matter to engage in some form of physical exercise, not just for the sake of exercising the body, but because neuro-science has indeed proven that if you move your body, your brain works better, which would then influence your ability to think and come up with better ideas for direct marketing and copywriting. His next suggestion relates to eating fruits and fasting at least one day a week. Again, the idea is that if you have a healthy body, you'll be able to be more productive in your direct marketing and copywriting attempts. Gary then shares wonderful insights for direct marketing and copywriting, though in sporadic fashion, as they occur to him and sometimes he's not sure what should he mention next. In other words, they were written for Bond, who was at the time of writing these letters 16 years old and who also mentioned in the book that his father has been taking him to various direct-marketing and copywriting events or seminars since he was 9 years old. Even though these letters were written in the 80's, many of those insights are timeless, like different tips and tricks on how to attract attention, stimulate interest and desire, and call for action; how to go about getting the leads, to write simple and to read your copy aloud several times until it reads smoothly. Gary would mention what to do and what not to do - for example that you should first find the hot market, and then the product, rather than the other way around. And he'd describe the general process of developing and testing direct marketing packages, for example to start with 5,000 letters, and depending on response increase it to 50,000 or more. Since these letters were written in the 80's, Bond has added his commentary underneath each letter in an attempt to correlate those principles to internet marketing. I got the book in a kindle format, which may differ from the paperback. The edition of the book I purchased contains typos and grammar errors in the commentary, which makes you feel like eating a super delicious apple and finding a worm inside.

Just finished re-reading the infamous Boron Letters, first written by copywriting and marketing legend, Gary Halbert while in jail (on false charges). Amazing. Still impressed by how timeless the principles are, how unique Gary's viewpoint and genius was, and also just what a force of nature he was as a human being. While much of it covers marketing, it's also a book about life--from a man who lived life to the fullest every day. Definitely one of the easiest, yet most instructive couple hours you could ever spend will be reading through these letters, taking notes, and then implementing even a small part of what you learn. As a copywriting professional myself, I can say much of my success has taken place as a direct result of reading books like this, along with The Gary Halbert Letter. You won't find a more valuable copywriting and marketing education anywhere. What makes this Kindle version even more valuable than the original version of the book, is that each chapter now includes commentary from Gary's son Bond--the same son he originally wrote/addressed the letters to while in jail. It's clear that Bond was one of Gary's greatest students (since no one got to be around or hear Gary teach/talk more than Bond did--you could argue he was THE best student). As such, Bond is able to shed light on each chapter in ways no one else can. I'm just glad I now have this book on my phone, iPad, laptop, etc via Kindle--I will be reading and referencing it often.

I really enjoyed this book, written in prison, to his 16-year old son, who adds valuable insights. Highly recommended for anyone interested in marketing. Don't we really market ourselves every day, whether we like it or not? Highly recommended. Kevin Thomas Morgan

In 1998, with a lot of hard work, and quite a bit of serendipity, I got the chance to move to Miami Beach, Florida to meet and work with Gary Halbert. I have written about how all that came about elsewhere, so I am not going to repeat it here. In any case, I drove from where I lived at the time (Oklahoma) to Florida. And along the way, Gary had me stop in Ocala, Florida to pick up some of his information products from his longtime assistant Theresa. Basically, she had pre-selected some things and put them in a box for me. Long story short, I got to Miami Beach, opened up the box and one of the first things I saw was an original hard copy of The Boron Letters. WOW! You see, I already knew about The Boron Letters... because... I had previously read about them in Gary's newsletter. Gary wrote the letters to his son Bond (whom I'll talk about in a minute) under very trying circumstances while in Boron Federal Prison Camp in California. Gary's intent was to give Bond the most concise, impactful education on direct marketing (called mail order then)... and... on how to life a good life in general. But getting a copy of The Boron Letters--at that time--was an impossibility... unless... like me, you were fortunate enough to get one from the private stash in an Ocala, Florida storage unit. But I digress. That night, the first night I arrived in Miami Beach, with all its beauty, glitz, glamour and fun, instead of hitting the town, I instantly, in one sitting, devoured The Boron Letters in a caffeine-fueled frenzy. It paid off almost immediately... in two ways: 1. I got exposed to "secrets of living a good life" I'd never even had a glimpse of before... and... 2. Although it wasn't my motivation, Gary instantly recognized my earnestness... and that... along with doing well on a couple of small projects over the next week, got me a spot as Gary's mentee. The rest is history. I eventually graduated from just being a lowly mentee, to working side-by-side with Gary on many multi-million dollar projects for nearly a decade... until... his untimely passing in 2007. But more than that, we became friends. Great friends. In fact, there are very few days that go by that I don't think about picking up the phone and giving him a call, only to realize I can't. That sucks! It truly, TRULY SUCKS! More than I can even put into words. However, fortunately, his sons Bond and Kevin are still around, are great friends of mine... and... I chat with them frequently. And they're both sharp, super sharp... just like their "old man". In fact, I've said this before, but it bears repeating: Bond is on my short (very short) list of people I turn to when I have a marketing problem... or... for that matter, ANY problem. So when he told me he was releasing an updated Kindle version of The Boron Letters, I was thrilled! I immediately bought a copy to support my friend's effort. Now normally, I'm not into updates of things that are brilliant pieces of work in the first place. However, this is different. Very different. For one, like I said above, Bond is sharp... super sharp! And secondly, those letters were written to him personally to teach him everything Gary had learned in 46 years on "how to live a good life". That being the case, Bond didn't change the original letters at all. All he did was add an update at the end of each letter that reveals what the lessons meant to him... and... how he applied them. Plus, he reveals the overlooked, hidden meanings behind some of the lessons that only he could know because his dad had repeated them to him many, many times... in many, many different forms. I think so much of The Boron Letters that I was in the process of re-reading them for the umpteenth time and taking detailed, handwritten notes when Bond told me about re-releasing them with his commentary. Anyway, I urge you to get this updated version of The Boron Letters and read it immediately. It will be the best 10 bucks ($9.99 actually) you've ever invested in your life's education. Sincerely, Scott L. Haines P.S. No matter where I'm living at the current moment (which I change fairly frequently, BECAUSE I CAN) two things always travel with me... (1) a complete hard copy set of The Gary Halbert Letter... and... (2) The Boron Letters. "I", to paraphrase the old American Express commercials, "never leave home without them."

Interesting premise with the prison setting. Some good nuggets to remember. A bit outdated in the digital world though. Easy read.

One of the guys that I follow...Dan Kennedy spoke so highly of this guy I just knew I had to see what he was about. Granted I'm late to the game....but the information is still useful and still used. There are some racial undertones that I thought were unnecessary but that can be said of Tom Sawyer. Overall, this is a practical how to make money book...the title does not say it, but this guy lays out EVERYTHING you need to do to generate cash. With today's technology...practically everything is mail order. With e-mail list and Facebook and this book there is no way you should not succeed. Although it is very old school, depending on your target audience these old school methods will work just as well. Overall a great book.