10 Amazing Resources to Make You a Better Copywriter

Hey,

Do you want to be a better Copywriter without spending a lot of money?

Craig Balantyne recently interviewed one of the worlds top underground copywriters.

His responses will transform how you think about copywriting! Includes access to two free PDFs.

Enjoy

Barry Dunlop
Team IncomeDiary

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Underground Copywriter Interview
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I recently had the chance to interview a pro copywriter that travels the world with my friend, Simon Black. This copywriter gets to create his work wherever he wants, all because he studied hard to master a high-value competency. He shows you how to do the same today.

Q: Knowing what you know now with hindsight being 20/20 what steps should someone take if they wanted to become an expert copywriter – and all without spending a lot of money?

Answer:

The fastest way to become a good copywriter is to write copy… period. Reading books, buying courses, and attending events can’t hurt but you won’t get good until you actually write copy.

Think about it. You don’t become a good anything (golfer, basketball player, investor, etc.) by reading books and going to seminars. It can help but you won’t get better at anything until you do it and apply what you learned from books & events.

The best education is to get on as many lists as you can – not just any list though – the lists of people you know to be good direct response marketers. It could be an email list or a snail mail list or both. Then you study what they do. Over time you’ll notice commonalities.

You could also buy books. Books are cheap or even free if you can find them at the library. The first book I read was “The Ultimate Sales Letter” by Dan Kennedy. It’s a great start. There are many books written by great direct response copywriters. Read as many as you can. Here are a few in no particular order:

=> Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
=> Advertising Secrets of the Written Word and Triggers by Joe Sugarman
=> Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz
=> The Robert Collier Letter Book (This book earned Robert Collier the distinction of being one of the greatest marketing minds in history.)
=> Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples
=> The Gary Halbert Letter (TheGaryHalbertLetter.com) – Unfortunately, the “Prince of Print” passed away a few years ago but the archives are still online.
=> Gary Bencivenga – Bencivenga Bullets (Free at MarketingBullets.com)
=> Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy
=> The ULTIMATE Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy – I already mentioned this one. It’s the first book I read… plus it makes the list an even 10 resources.
=> Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini – it’s not about copywriting, but it covers concepts every good direct response copywriter uses and should know.

I’m sure there are more but if you read all these and apply what you learn, you will be off to a great start.

You’re not going to become an expert copywriter in 6 months though.  Gurus say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything. There are about 2,000 work hours in a year so working 40 hours per week, it would take you 5 years to put in 10,000 hours. You can get there faster by working more but 10,000 hours sounds about right to me. If it was easy and could be done in 6 months, there would be a lot more experts.

Clients – I don’t look for clients but I remember how I found my first client back when I was broke. I was on a lot of lists and I responded to emails they had sent me asking if they needed any copy written. One of them hired me.

I know people who are on sites like elance - but I am not on those sites because everywhere you go, you hear people saying that’s where you go to find cheap [fill-in-the-blank] – copywriters, webmasters, programmers, graphic designers, etc. I don’t want to be found with all the people who will work for next to nothing.

The best way I found clients was to selectively introduce myself to people at live events. I don’t pass out cards to everyone with a heartbeat. I pick and choose people I think I might like to work with and I end up working with some of them. That’s a great way to find clients but it will probably cost you more than $300 to attend most of these events. Then again, one client will cover the cost of attending many times over – especially if it becomes a repeat client.

Q: Great, and if you had to list 5 proven letters (classics even) that I can copy by hand just so I can get better what would they be (I know Dan Kennedy said he copied more than 500 when he was learning)?

Answer:
I did this once or twice but not often. (my hand was killing me from writing so much). I think I copied a Gary Halbert letter and a Dan Kennedy letter by hand.

Something about writing the letter out by hand or even typing it out gives you a deeper understanding than just reading it. I can’t explain it but that’s what happens. Maybe it’s because you have to think more when you write it out than when you read so there is a deeper psychological connection with the words.

Any sales letter written by someone you know to be a good copywriter or a sales letter known to be a winner will do. You asked for 5 so here are some you can find online for free:

1) Wall Street Journal: Two Young Men

I’m not making this up. I started to search for this letter online but I decided to search for “great sales letters” instead. The first result is a 225 page pdf with “59 of the greatest sales letters ever written…” The second letter is “The Wall Street Journal’s legendary ‘Two Young Men’ Letter.” It follows a simple formula (Winners vs Losers) that’s easy to repeat. That’s probably why it’s one of the most copied sales letters I’ve ever seen.

And there are 58 more great sales letters you can copy. You’ll find them here:

http://www.tvisuals.net/100GreatestSalesLetters_PDF.pdf

The second result in my “great sales letters” search is another pdf with 5 great sales letters – and there’s the WSJ “Two Young Men” letter again. You’ll find the pdf here:

http://www.merlesworld.com/e-books/Greatest-sales-letters.pdf

Anyone that reads the books, study the books, reads them again, and writes out these 250 pages of great sales letters by hand will be a good copywriter. You might even be able to do it in six months… but I would still say it takes 10,000 hours to become really good or even great.

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Go and get great,

Craig

PS - Here's one more thing I learned from Dan Kennedy...

"They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." - #TRUTH

PPS - More Cool Links (Yep, a whole lot more than 10 resources - but we like to over deliver!)

10 Article Headline Examples That Got Us 10 Million Readers

Copywriting Guide Fascinations By Clive Cable

 

 

 

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