This post is a virtual idea generator

So last night I’m kickin it in a cozy little cabin up in Oregon’s high dez.

Warm cup of tea in hand.

Blazing oranges, yellows, reds out the window.

Rain pat-pat-pattering away on the roof.

Peace.

I load up YouTube and find a video covering a new product from Teenage Engineering, the electronic instrument company.

I hit play.

But before the video loads, I’m served a brilliant advertisement.

This ad is what I want to talk about today.

Now, within seconds I recognize it as a “biz opp” ad.

(I honestly get these ads all the time … Google must have a robust profile on me, lol.)

And I don’t know if this guy intended it, but he placed this ad at a time when investing in real estate is fairly challenging … especially as a way to generate quick income.

The lead of the ad condemns traditional real estate as a clunky and expensive side hustle.

Then, the ad shifts to talk about a different kind of real estate.

One that was potentially much easier to make money with.

He called it “digital” real estate.

And he lauded its ease and speed: Little startup costs, no loans, no on-site maintenance, etc.

Now I can’t say for certain what this guy was pitching. The landing page went to a generic free ebook offer.

But between you and me, it sounded a lot like training for those lead generation sites you can build for local service contractors.

(The idea is that someone sees your site ranking on Google against the keyword “plumber near me,” clicks, enters their info, and then you sell that lead to a service provider.)

But it doesn’t really matter what he was pitching.

Because the valuable copywriting idea I found in this ad was how this marketer presented the opportunity.

Instead of traditional real estate (which is a tough sell right now), he positioned his offer as “digital” real estate.

But the concept remains the same.

Traditional real estate = an asset = income in the form of rent or appreciation.

Digital real estate = an asset = income in the form of selling leads.

Basically, he took the underlying idea around asset creation from real estate … and removed all the friction of it by making it “digital,” which helped pave the way for his offer.

The comparison between the two is especially important, as it highlights the ease of the new opportunity.

Anyway.

To me, it’s an interesting idea. And one that I’m going to try to find more applications for.

Perhaps this email will generate similar interesting ideas for you, too.

And for even more ideas, sign up for my virtual copywriting idea generator … aka, my email list.

David Patrick