Gary Halbert

Gary Halbert is one of the most recognizable names in copywriting and Internet marketing. He began his famous newsletter, The Gary Halbert Letter, in 1986, dispensing tips and tricks for making fast money through copywriting and marketing. Halbert has been referred to as both the Prince of Print and the King of Copy. His Letter, which he eventually posted online in its entirety, has been the foundation of many a modern marketing career and his decades of copywriting expertise, friendly manner and boisterous personality made him an icon in the marketing community. He died in 2007, but his legacy is carried on by his two sons, Kevin and Bond Halbert.

Halbert started copywriting as early as 1974, penning ads for books, marketing programs and other products. In the fall of 1986, Halbert began publishing The Gary Halbert Letter monthly. The newsletter was instantly popular, and he soon had readers in 50 countries. This original print newspaper was circulated at $195.00 for a year’s subscription but, due to his increasing popularity, he started offering lifetime subscriptions at $2,855. Years later, he posted all his back issues online in an open archive so beginning marketers could access his wisdom and expertise free of charge.

Halbert served time in prison in the mid-1980s, during which time he wrote letters to his son, Bond, who he later would call his greatest student. These letters, the first of which was sent during the summer of 1984, were meant to teach Bond about marketing, copywriting and life in general. Halbert writes in his trademark casual, frank manner about everything he wanted his son to learn from his own life. When Halbert was released from prison, he assembled the letters, typed them up and posted them on his website. These letters serve as an additional resource for beginning copywriters, posted alongside Halbert’s newsletters and also free of charge. Since Halbert’s death, his son Kevin Halbert has assumed management of Halbert’s online letter and newsletter archive.

Because of his innovative style, straightforward manner and decades of success, Halbert has become an irreplaceable icon in the copywriting community. Halbert was known for his ability to write about anything, from sex training tapes and diet products to all sorts of books and moneymaking schemes. Most importantly, the copy Halbert wrote could sell all these things, usually with an incredible profit.

Halbert was a good friend of marketing guru John Carlton, with whom he often shared the stage at marketing conferences. He was known for his lively personality and unapologetic approach to voicing his opinion and sharing his knowledge. He spoke and wrote bluntly and worried little about what others thought of him. His provocative style inspired the thousands of people who interacted with him and read his writing to take chances in marketing and sell themselves boldly.

Many claims have been made trying to quantify Halbert’s success. For instance, some say Halbert was, at one point, the biggest buyer of space advertising after General Motors. In the 1980s and early 1990s, rumor had it that Halbert had 20 employees specifically for filling out deposit slips. Regardless of the accuracy of these statements, they convey the prestige and success Halbert achieved during his career. His death was seen by many as the end of the first dedicated generation of online marketers. While Halbert’s work was mostly in print, he also helped pioneer many of the online marketing tactics still used today.

Today, Halbert’s two sons, Kevin and Bond, have continued where their father left off. They continue to run his newsletter archive website as well as advance their own marketing careers. In no small part because of their father’s mentoring, both sons have become marketing gurus in their own right, passing on the lessons they learned from their famous father.