Gary Halbert

A great direct marketing friend of mine described Gary Halbert copy as “borderline illegal”. My friend wasn’t saying that Gary was actually breaking any laws but that his copy was so convincing and so effective that it almost took advantage of people.

A lot has happened to Gary over the last ten years. I don't know all the details of his story but here is a super-condensed version of what happed to Gary:

Gary Halbert was one of the biggest copywriters in the world and making a ton of money selling a lot of different products. He also was a big spender so thousands of dollars were going out the door for fancy cars, houses, trips etc.

At some point in the late 80’s, Gary started selling an info product that (for whatever reason) he didn't deliver on. I mean literally didn’t deliver it. He kept a lot of money and never sent the product out.

People had paid mostly by money orders and checks so they couldn't exactly charge it back to their credit card. When the authorities finally showed up at his house where he ran a lot of his operation, Gary claimed that all the orders were stolen and he had no way of giving refunds.

He was arrested and convicted for fraud. I don't know how much jail time he was given for fraud but it was more than a year.

When he got out of jail, he still had his name (mostly) but he needed some cash so he started speaking for Jay Abraham. Jay (being the genius that he is) knew that Gary would probably say yes if he asked and, it added a lot of credibility to the events that Jay was already putting on.

He never really came back to the level that he had in the past but some people say that was because Gary Halbert didn't want to. I have never spent any money with Gary but students have sent me stacks of his old newsletters and I have since become a fan.

There is even a site that features all his old newsletters. The great thing is that the site is free. Something I turn all my customers on to.

Matt Gagnon