Perhaps the best “power education” I have ever received on writing texts and using good old psychology to sell with the written word was when I was just a kid.

You see, back then I used to collect a lot of comics. And back then the comics had some of the best direct response ads you’ve ever seen.

They were written by amazing copywriters who really understood people’s access buttons and exactly what people wanted to buy and how to get them to buy with just a few words.

In fact, I often tell people who use pay-per-click advertising to look at old comic book ads.

Why?

Because those copywriters really understood how to sell, not just generate leads, with just a sentence or two. In some cases, they did it with just a few words (like the “Charles Atlas” ads, for example).

And that’s why old comic book ads are just phenomenal as copywriting aids and tools.

Just make sure you’re looking at the correct ads.

These days, like most magazines and publications, comic book ads are nothing more than large display ads. They have more in common with big shiny business cards than they do with advertisements. And they are a waste of time to look at.

Instead, look for comics from over 20 years ago, from the 1940s to the late 1980s.

That’s when some really powerful ads ran and several different products worth hundreds of millions of dollars were sold with simple direct response ads in comics.