It's me again... been a while but I'm back. I'm making a lot of changes in my life right now and would really like to settle into a new career. Copywriting has always intrigued me. What I've learned has come from from a few books I've bought, this forum and my electronic "swipe file" of email sales letters and bookmarked websites with good copy. Up until now, that's been my only way of learning copywriting.

Are there other ways of learning copywriting? I've never seen a copywriting course or program at a college or university (other than some "technical writing" or "creative writing" courses). Sometimes these turn out to be "those who can't do it, teach it." Then there's the AWAI home study course and a few others, like John Angel.

Is that really the way people learn copywriting, in particular, direct response/sales copywriting? It doesn't seem that it's something taught in schools, so where do people learn it? A good portfolio seems to be more important than credentials from an educational institution (as in other professions like graphic design, web design, etc)... especially for something creative and subjective. Meaning, people don't usually get hired by showing their diploma stating that they graduated from Such-and-Such University in Copywriting (at least, not that I've heard of).

You get the basics from a good book. Read a lot of great copy... then you write a lot of copy. That should do it.


I'd start with "How To Write A Good Advertisement" - Victor Schwab.

It seems like the best copywriters are the ones who learned it themselves (and not "at school"... just as I suspected). Kind of like Joe Sugarman. I've read a lot of great copy, and now I can't help but analyze, or at least, notice, good copy and headlines anywhere I go or in whatever I read.

As for writing a lot of copy myself, I could do some very soon... One of my side projects is to build some mini websites to sell a few ebooks I've written. I can write the sales copy for those websites. But after that... what should I do? I'd find it hard to write practice copy for imaginary products, they need to be real. Maybe rewrite some poorly written copy from random websites I come across (and maybe even email it to the site owner)? Or are there people/companies willing to take a chance on a rookie copywriter for paid work?

PS: Thanks for the tip on "How To Write A Good Advertisement" by Victor Schwab. I don't have that book yet. It's one of several I need to add to my library of copywriting books (which is still rather small, not including my electronic swipe file I've been compiling for the last couple of years).

peter,

After you write (and rewrite) your minisites and sell some ebooks, you're no longer a rookie. No one needs to know how long you've been doing it.

You'll have samples...
You'll have experience...
You'll get work.

Just DON'T go telling prospects that you're a rookie.

Here's a copy of a post I made in another thread that I think is applicable here also...

Personally I wouldn't even consider investing in an expensive course until I had purchased many of the low-cost but incredible powerful copywriting resources on the market today, like:

"Tested Advertising Methods" by John Caples
"Advertising Secrets of The Written Word" by Joe Sugarman
"Cash Copy" by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
"Words That Sell" by Bayan
"Phrases That Sell" by Werz & Germain
"The Robert Collier Letter Book"
"Ultimate Sales Letter" by Dan Kennedy

All together you would have about $150 invested and I doubt the content of any expensive copywriting course could top the combined content of these books.

If I had a few more dollars to spend I consider adding:
"Advertising Magic" by Brian Keith Voiles
"Double Your Business" by Clayton Makepeace
"Steal This Book" by Dr. Harlan Kilstein
"Breakthrough Advertising" by Eugene Swartz
"Million Dollar Mailings" by Denny Hatch

My total investment? About $600 between the two shopping lists. And the content? Amazing in its vastness and completeness.

Some of you probably already know this but Bob Bly is selling his own personal sales templates for just $39.

The sites at Copywriter’s Toolkit; A Ready-to use Copywriting Forms, Checklist, Model Contracts, Boiler agreements and Sales Letters

I learned copywriting from salesmanship. I wrote scripts for salespeople and also sales letters -- they are actually much to same, at least they are to me.

Thanks for mentioning this book, Vin!

(Vin is another one of those people who posts and I tend to pay a little extra attention and has answered a question I threw his way on AWAI)


Peter,

I got the AWAI course and it was a great course in the basics and understanding for me.

Then once I knew what the heck copywriting was (which I didn't) and freelancing in it meant, I started to get the "free" education I've seen Vin mention elsewhere by searching out newsletters and information from recommended and working copywriters.

For a 'Two for One' I'd actually recommend studying not just books and courses on copywriting, but anything you can find on 'Relationship Sales'.

My company spends a great deal of money on training it's sales reps on how to build relationships, selling over the phone, and how to be a partner. A solution provider rather than try to 'sell' people.

Incredibly enough, the principles are so similar to copywriting I've used them interchangably in my job.

Besides copy, the additional benefit being learning what business owners want at different levels. How to present yourself, or a product or service, to the CEO or the CFO. Knowing your audience on different levels. What I say when I talk to, or send an email to, the owner of a company is just plain different than what I say to their Chief Information Officer or Director of IT. Another copywriting principle.

Hope this helps.

Michael, that's a great list of books. So far, I only have one of those titles ("Advertising Secrets of the Written World by Joe Sugarman), plus a few others that weren't on the list.

After I've got a few samples in my portfolio (of sales letters for my own products/websites), how might I venture into the world of freelancing? (there's only so much I can write for my own websites at this point). It might be mentioned in one of those books listed above, but until I get them, the curiosity is killing me! Do you people find clients locally, or do they find you? I know that deviates from my original question, but now you've got my curiosity piqued.

Very true. I've sometimes forgotten that some people may not know certain lingo or concepts. When I get a glazed over look, that usually tells me that I don't know my audience. The same can be said for copywriting.

As for the AWAI course, I've heard good and bad things about it. For someone like me, I could potentially learn a lot. For a seasoned copywriter, it could be a waste of time and money. I'd rather get those books suggested above and get ideas from several authors rather than just one.

Also, just by studying the samples of copywriting I've seen, it's given me a more trained eye to spot the good stuff. Sometimes it's repetitive, but repetition is good. It helps me remember things better!