Here's a useful insight:

I'm finding that my best breakthrough copywriting occurs after I take an initial pass at a salesletter, write it all out, then let it sit "cold", unlooked-at, for 2 weeks to a month. (the trick is, completely cold, eg never even peek at it once, during the 'cold time)

The difference is astonishing .. once I look at it again, the flaws IMMEDIATELY jump out ... and I can rewrite it to be a killer page very quickly...

I wrote a trading salesletter for myself last month, early Feb... then went to work on other projects, and now looking at it again I immediately thought to myself:

a) my original headline was terrible - awful! what was I thinking?! And immediately crafted a real Killer headline

b) ditto the subheads

c) the flow of the copy seemed awkward, so I repositioned several paragraphs, and added much stronger subheads and hooks

And now, the Hard part comes in, eg going back through the copy a last time (for now!) with a fine-toothed comb and really doing an intensive rewrite of the initial pitch, to get it from C+ to A- grade copy..


Anyone have similar experiences? It seems I run into a copywriter's wall after a certain point, on a single project, so setting it aside for a few weeks, then revisiting it, really helped me break through the initial barrier I had in writing it.. whew! Nice to see I could rework it..

Ken

Oh yeah it happens...

I always call the first draft I send to my clients a "rough draft". It's usually pretty good, but if I look at it a week later, or when my mind is already on something else, I ALWAYS find something to tweak. I don't think "perfect copy" exists, just profitable copy.

Maybe the closest thing to perfect copy is an unbeatable control... but how many really test to get to that level?

Now the opposite also happens, so watch out!

What do I mean?

I've tweaked copy, had the client say, "oh wow, that's much better..." - I too thought it was better, but...

The CR% dropped...

Had a piece of copy that was doing alright recently for a niche, it was profitable for my client, let's say "good enough" - nothing spectacular though. I tried several individual tweaks and could barely get it to improve - felt like we hit a wall (at least for my talent level and traffic quality).

Then we tried a multi-variable Taguchi test (not MultiTrackGenerator - but similar) 16 simultaneous testing elements, all intermixed creating I don't know how many theoretical combos in the statistical analysis...

Low and behold - the profits doubled - perhaps even tripled after the long test run! Now this sucker is REALLY profitable.

It felt like someone gave me a gassed bulldozer to bust up a wall instead of the carpenter's hammer... turn the ignition, hit the gas, aim at the wall, and the wall is going down! No more endless chipping.

It was tricky to put all the testing elements together so that they would at least come close to flowing well with each other no matter what combo the software dished out.

Imagine writing 2 pre heads, 5 headlines, and 2 initial subheads that don't sound like jibberish if they are mixed and matched randomly... it's tougher than you think if you've never tried, but it's worth the effort!

Of course the end result won't magically get to A level if all the test elements are made from C copy, but for any serious tester, such a tool is really slick.

All the best,

Tim

This has been my experience. I can't work any other way, really. But my "chill time" isn't quite as long as yours. If I can set something aside for a week, I'm usually able to spot the problem areas and fix them quickly. This is why I hate tight deadlines .... if there's no time to let it sit for awhile and come back to it fresh, there's no way the client is going to get the best work from me.

I find it exactly the same way although the time will vary. Ill drop the piece cold, and start on another, finish it, drop it, and start another and so on. When I come back to each one, its's so easy to polish it up, and the wait is well worth it for the client.