If you are looking for "The Boron Letters" by Gary Halbert for free... You've come to the right place!
Whether you are new to copywriting or you are just looking to save a few bucks on your next copywriting book, The Boron Letters are a MUST READ!
And the best part is the Halbert family gives the entire book away free on their website...
But there's a problem.
If you just Google "The Boron Letters" you will find a bunch of paid options on Amazon priced at $9.99 digital and over $21.00 for print...
Yet, the Halbert family gives them away free (but they don't make it easy to find each chapter)
If you notice, Google indexes the first chapter from thegaryhalbertletter.com here.
But when you read that first chapter, there is no way to make it through to chapter 2... Or three?!?
That's annoying...
But if you flex some Google search skills, you can find all the chapters.
Which is what I did... Searching for one chapter at a time.
(Ya, I'm a copywriting nerd and I just wanted to read it when I was sitting in airports, last week... LOL.)
The links are all here, but if you are new to Halbert's teachings or this book and you are wondering "What Are The Boron Letters About?" read below this massive block of links to learn more...
Chapter 1:
An often overlooked chapter (yet still a good one) about health, exercise and prioritization. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/BoronLetterCh1.htm
Chapter 2:
Things start moving a bit more in this next letter by Halbert and we find him talking more about health. Specifically, eating certain fruits and fasting. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/BoronLetterCh2.htm
Chapter 3:
He talks more to his son about more healthy eating you feel like you get to know Halbert better by this time. He also calls for devolving a strong independent attitude. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/BoronLetterCh3.htm
Chapter 4:
The real takeaway from this part of the letters Gary writes is that "defensive behavior invites aggressive action." http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter4.htm
Chapter 5:
Here we find a bit more tactical information. He discusses making money and the positive attitude that needs to go with it. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter5.htm
Chapter 6:
Now we get into more direct marketing principles. He talks a lot about "becoming a student of markets". He goes into depth on various lists a copywriter or business should seek to target. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter6.htm
Chapter 7:
The marketing lessons keep coming in this section with urging his son Bond Halbert to, "be a student of markets."
http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter7.htm
Chapter 8:
This is a pivotal part in this series where you get a great insight into the person Halbert is. He goes from being tired and upset to inspired and motivated in the span of only 1200 words.
http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter8.htm
Chapter 9:
You'll find more insight on marketing in this chapter with more thoughts on headline creation. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter9.htm
Chapter 10:
This letter dives into how one goes about creating a good marketing promotion. He suggests a couple of must-read books and even creating a swipe file of good elements. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter10.htm
Chapter 11:
Here we have the classic "Pile A" vs "Pile B" idea. One is the pile of mail you'll open first and the second is the pile you think has advertisements in it... Naturally you always want to be in pile A. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter11.htm
Chapter 12:
This part contains tons of tips and tricks for getting your sales letters not just opened, but read as well. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter12.htm
Chapter 13:
If you've ever wondered about how the human brain and your customer thinks about envelopes then this is a perfect chapter to read. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter13.htm
Chapter 14:
This chapter is somewhat outdated because it talks about the business reply envelope. However the parts about having a physical attention grabber are priceless.
http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter14.htm
Chapter 15:
Now we dive into the copy side of copywriting. This chapter is filled with tons of good how-to's for your copywriting business. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter15.htm
Chapter 16:
Here we have the, Attention, Interest, Desire, Action formula (AIDA). This is a classic copy formula that's been used succesfully thousands of times. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter16.htm
Chapter 17:
Next we explore the idea of hand-copying ads. Literally finding successful ads and hand copying them down to help average marketers become truly great. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter17.htm
Chapter 18:
Here Halbert talks about the layout of your letter and how to provide "eye-relife" to your potential customers. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter18.htm
Chapter 19:
This section is all about first impressions. He makes lots of observations on how certain people react to specific situations. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter19.htm
Chapter 20:
This chapter has a few life lessons in it from the lens of being in prison. Also there's a good lesson about when you should NOT make decisions in life.
http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter20.htm
Chapter 21:
This has all to do with propositions and the reason "why" behind sending a letter and how to convey that well in the copy. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter21.htm
Chapter 22:
Here he explains the trick of reading your copy out loud and how you can get a sense for how things should feel and flow with a letter. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter22.htm
Chapter 23:
This is a motivational letter to his son. It's interesting to see the Father in Gary come out here in this one: http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter23.htm
Chapter 24:
This chapter is about scaling your advertisements. Granted this is physical mail, but the principles still apply to age of amazon.com and digital ads today. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter24.htm
Chapter 25:
This is a personal letter again where he starts becoming much more introspective in his thoughts and writings. http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter25.htm
The Boron Letters Overall
In the 1980s Gary C Halbert, one of the most successful copywriters of all time, was sentenced to prison for business tax fraud.
He was sentenced to boron federal penitentiary which was a minimum security prison and began writing a series of letters to his son.
These letters are what later got grouped together and packaged as The Boron Letters book which is an absolute cult classic in the world of copywriting.
In this book Gary Halbert wonders curiously between the ideas of making money, copywriting, family life, direct mail advertising, life philosophy, health, business and more.
You will learn many great lessons about copywriting and direct response marketing, including several specific frameworks to follow that are re-taught in overpriced copywriting courses to this very day.
The business and life lessons he teaches are worth even more... There's nothing like having to sit in a cell to really ponder one's philosophy...
To ask those deeper questions about legacy, about what have I taught my kids, about what we need to share with them to make sure they can live a good life.
Magically, you get the ability to read through this very personal mentorship experience to extract the volumes of brilliant ideas yourself.
Finally, there's just something about the way Gary Halbert strings letters, words and sentences together on a page.
The man had a gift.
And like all people with a great gift, it possibly doubled as a curse (hence him being in prison) but simply reading his prose will make you a better writer.
Understanding how he strings together sentences…
How he uses emotional words and paints word pictures...
How he leverages the power of story to drive his key points home with persuasive excellence.
The value in this book can be experienced on many levels.
I personally believe this is the reason why many copywriters read the boron letters time and time again, to really analyze his style with the hopes of becoming a better writer themselves.
All while picking up great tips on the frameworks, tactics, and mental musings of one of the greatest copywriters of the 20th century.
The Boron Letters is definitely one of those must-read copywriting books and with the link above you can get the whole thing for free.
Enjoy.