Best copywriting course out there

[BrenDavis]

What is, in your experience, the best course available on copywriting?

[indexphp]

The Gary Halbert Letter

Tested Advertising Methods
Scientific Advertising

[Rich Lowe]

Hi,

I like the stuff put out by Scott haines and Gary Halbert. Gary's "motherload" collection is absolutely brilliant.

Rich

[itsallwhite]

I also like the stuff by Scott haines, I am in the MLM business and got a good course about copywriting for MLM, but that was specific to this niche.

[Warren.Richards]

I would suggest you to go for Paul Hancox personal coaching course. He is giving it for just $597. Special discount for warriors and he will help you get first 2 clients after you finish the course.
Estimated time for course completion is 6 months...but it all depends upon your grasping power.

Warren.

[VyctorB_10]

I got a pretty good ebook course by a fellow warrior brother by the name Nick Brighton...

Now ain't no trying to promote his ebook, but he got some crazy dynamic stuff popping up inside there, and also threw in something on Hypnotic Headlines, so if you're down gimme a shout for the ebook free.... thx...



Good luck!



Vyctor~

[arfasaira]

Originally Posted by Warren.Richards

I would suggest you to go for Paul Hancox personal coaching course. He is giving it for just $597. Special discount for warriors and he will help you get first 2 clients after you finish the course.
Estimated time for course completion is 6 months...but it all depends upon your grasping power.

Warren.

I agree with Warren - I asked a similar question a while back and it was a toss up between Paul and John Carlton, but I went for Paul because of the help with getting clients aspect. I am making great progress and so far, he has been fantastic - I am 14 modules in and cannot believe how much I have learnt. Also, I have been promoting my freelance business and he has offered constructive advice on my advertorials which has been very helpful.

I cant wait until it comes to getting my clients - all the courses in the world are not going to help when you have bills to pay and no clients!

Grab it while you can, I promise you will not be disappointed.

[Kevin Rogers]

Hi Bren,

As a senior instructor in John Carlton's Simple Writing System, I'm utterly biased... but I can tell you this course changes lives. I've seen it happen before my eyes in the live mentoring we do twice a year.

At $2K, it ain't cheap, but where else can you be personally tutored by the likes of Carlton and David Deutsch... not to mention lesser-known, but equally talented masters of the art like Jim Curley and Robert Gibson.

If you go to the blog Simple Writing System - John Carlton (non-affiliate link) right now, you can get a free taste with the 3 sample sessions and have a chance to get feedback from those same guys for FREE.

Further, I'll be doing something special this session.... I'm customizing my training to include ClickBank/Info-Marketing elements like prelaunch copy and video sales letters. So watch for announcements if that interests you.

(Sorry for the blatant pike, hope I'm not breaking code here)

[MikeHumphreys]

Asking for the best course is like asking people who should win the local beauty pagent: everyone has their own winner.

You should study some of the free stuff offered by any course offerer to see if their writing style resembles your natural & preferred writing style. That way, it won't feel like you're trying to put a round peg in a square hole writing in a manner that doesn't feel "natural" to you.

My vote for best copywriting course is Clayton Makepeace's Quick Start System. It's HUGE (1100+ pages) and absolutely packed with great training materials.

There's a sample from winning controls on almost every other page... many of them from A-List copywriters like Makepeace, Bencivenga, Deutsch, Rutz, D'Anna, and more. So the chapter on bullet and fascination writing has control samples of bullets written by more than one A-Lister.

That's not even covering the audios & videos that come with it.

I recommend it highly but it's not cheap... it'll cost you about $1500 to buy from Makepeace's site.

Honorable mention is the Simple Writing System IF you go the mentoring route. If you go that route, I'd try to get one of these instructors as I've either worked with them myself or know their teaching skills fairly well... in no particular order: Ben Hart, David Garfinkel, David Deutsch, Kevin Rogers, or Harlan Kilstein.

Dave Raybould is a really good copywriter so he'd probably be a solid choice as well. I don't personally know anyone who's been coached by Dave so I can't offer any opinion on his teaching skills. He might be as good at teaching copywriting as he is at writing it.

Cheap date option... grab a bunch of the recommended copywriting books and study them.

Hope that helps,

Mike

[TheSalesTechnician]

I will have to agree with index and say the GaryHalbert letter. You want to be a copywriter?

Here is the fastest way to get there...

Read the Gary Halbert letter (everything), take out a pen and piece of paper, (or several) and write (by HAND) every word that Gary says, word for word... BECOME his letters..

Then once you are done, do it again about 20 times.

[Warren.Richards]

Go for John Carlton's SWS and opt-in for Guru Gary Halbert's newsletters.

best material anyone can start with.

Warren.

[Loren Woirhaye]

The only books Drayton Bird recommended in his book on
writing sales letters were:

"Million Dollar Mailings" by Dennison Hatch
"The Greatest Direct Mail Sales Letters of All Time" by Richard Hodgson
"The Robert Collier Letter Book" by Robert Collier

Those books are all basically big swipe files of successful letters
with some analysis of what made them work. The emphasis is
on studying the letters yourself and drawing your own conclusions.

Bird is perhaps the greatest living exponent of direct marketing. No kidding.

[Alex Cohen]

Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye

The only books Drayton Bird recommended in his book on
writing sales letters were:

"Million Dollar Mailings" by Dennison Hatch
"The Greatest Direct Mail Sales Letters of All Time" by Richard Hodgson
"The Robert Collier Letter Book" by Robert Collier

Those books are all basically big swipe files of successful letters
with some analysis of what made them work. The emphasis is
on studying the letters yourself and drawing your own conclusions.

Bird is perhaps the greatest living exponent of direct marketing. No kidding.

A copywriting newbie should have some basic teaching first. Without it, studying successful letters is an exercise in futility.

Alex

[Daniel Sanchez]

Wooo....

You guys are tearing this thread to pieces!

The recommendations coming here are so sharp, any single one of these if studied carefully would crank any copywriter's skills into high gear.

Paul Hancox...done the course and frankly I'm blown away...

And I've been through Makepeace and Carlton's courses (both are outstanding in every way).

That said, Paul's course is by far one of the most comprehensive, detailed, easy to grasp courses I have seen. Years of experience poured into every module. Every assignment is a huge "Aha!" moment, regardless of your level of expertise.

He even gives you assisngments to make sure you truly get the concepts and missions really hit a home run...few courses actually do that and do it well <awkward cough>....AWAI?

If you can afford Paul's course, I would get his. He's been writing online copy longer then most people realize and he lives, breaths and loves copy and been very successful at it for years.

If you cannot afford it, I would check out Fladlien's Stopwatch Copy Course. That's decent and quality review.

And if you can get them, Loren's recommendations are bang on.

Some others:

Ben Settle - Copywriter's Cheat Sheet 1 and 2
Victor Schwab - How to write a good advertisement
Harlan Kilstein - Steal this Book!
Drew Eric Whitman - Cashvertising (really great)

...the list goes on and on.

Actually check out the sticky of best copywriting books/ courses in the copywriting forum of WF.

[Raydal]

There are many great courses and copywriting books to choose from.
Most people give their thoughts on courses they have taken which
is quite natural.

But after teaching copywriting for over 5 years now I know that the
problem is not with doing the best courses because you are not
going to get any INFORMATION from those course that is not
available in any of those books listed in the "best copywriting books"
stickie.

The problem I find is that most students need PERSONAL attention
to THEIR writing and the progress they are making. There are
few courses that provide an ongoing critique of your writing
so you can hone YOUR skills.

And those courses that provide critiques to your writing the
critiques are seldom done by the "master" but rather by
other students of the "master".

So what's hard to get are not great courses but great
personal attention by a coach who is willing to guide
you along the way.

-Ray Edwards

[Copydog]

Just go to the FREE archives on
Clayton Makepeace's website.

You can learn all you need to just
by selectively going through the
fantastic copywriting how-to
articles on this site.

Once you've started making money
from what you learn there, buy the
course Mike Humphreys recommends.

I have Clayton's Desktop Copy Coach
course (put together by Tony Flores) –
pricey but also excellent!

[BrenDavis]

hey thanks so much guys!!

keep em coming

[David Raybould]

Originally Posted by Kevin Rogers

Hi Bren,

As a senior instructor in John Carlton's Simple Writing System, I'm utterly biased... but I can tell you this course changes lives. I've seen it happen before my eyes in the live mentoring we do twice a year.

At $2K, it ain't cheap, but where else can you be personally tutored by the likes of Carlton and David Deutsch... not to mention lesser-known, but equally talented masters of the art like Jim Curley and Robert Gibson.

If you go to the blog Simple Writing System - John Carlton (non-affiliate link) right now, you can get a free taste with the 3 sample sessions and have a chance to get feedback from those same guys for FREE.

Further, I'll be doing something special this session.... I'm customizing my training to include ClickBank/Info-Marketing elements like prelaunch copy and video sales letters. So watch for announcements if that interests you.

(Sorry for the blatant pike, hope I'm not breaking code here)

Gonna have to second Kev's vote.

Of course, as a tutor on the Simple Writing System,
I'm 100% biased too

But think about it logically:

Where else can you learn how to create the kind of
sales messages that make your ideal prospect throw
handfuls of money at their computer screen...

... AND get personal tuition from some of the biggest
names in the copywriting world (and me)?

It's a no-brainer for anyone who really wants to get
good, fast.

That's my two cents anyway.

-David Raybould

[colinjoss]

Gotta agree with Kevin and David... Carlton's Simple Writing System is the best.

I went through a bunch of books and courses before SWS but couldn't quite 'get it'.

But when I followed SWS and the teachers advice I finally got it. Now I'm a full time copywriter.

Colin

P.S. I'm also biased. I'm going to be one of the SWS teachers this time round.

[hlsmith]

This is a really good post. I'm a little partial to the AWAI course, of course if you can get your hands on SWS, Gary Halbert's motherlode, Ted Nicholas's books, Dan Kennedy's "Ultimate Sales Letter", Ben Settle's Copywriter's Grab Bag OR Crib Sheet, you'll be doing ok.

But I'll say one thing, no matter how many courses or books I bought, none of the courses made me better until I started WRITING. I mean setting my kitchen timer for 30 mins, and copying sales letters until the buzzer went off.

When I didn't have any clients (and I'm still working to get some), I simply grab good sales letters and copy them out. I don't know what it is -- but there's something "magical" about copying a good sales letter out NUMEROUS times. I've copied Gary Halbert's letters, John Carlton's, Dan Kennedy's, Ben Settle's, Craig Garber's - and I'll tell you that something POWERFUL happens when you copy these letters out.

I don't know how to explain it, but I write better after copying a good sales letter. Just my two cents...

[gjabiz]

The one which works for you.

See, there are as many reasons to study copy as there are people who want to.

A better question, which I would ask, would be;

WHY do you want to study copywriting and WHAT will you be using your newly developed skills on?

I've found there are FOUR kinds of students. (My experience, yours, obviously, varies).

1) The guy who has bought into the "copywriting" as a Biz-OP and thinks he's going to be making 6 figures a few months from now by simply learning what some guru tells him (and for every ONE person who actually does this, I'd wager there are at least 100 who don't get anywhere close to what they "bought into").

2) Business person who is expanding online and wants to write his own copy for his own products. Also the newb Internet Marketer.

3) Writers. They think, "how hard can it be?, I'm a good writer". I give them a serious wake up call.

4) Students of Persuasion. These people know copywriting is a poweful tool. I'm seeing more and more POLITICAL types picking up copy techniques.

There may be several other kinds, these are the basic four I've encountered.

The best course would be the one that is most TUNED to the person, which matches his/her goals and fits in with her personality and work schedule.

Other than that, the BEST is like the most beautiful woman in the world, who is, OBVIOUSLY _______________ .

gjabiz

[48dayscoach]

Recently completed John Carlton's Simple Writing System. Great course. I took the version with coaching... not just the home study package. Either is a great investment. I'm still referencing John Carltons manuals.

Ramon

[KC-Coop]

Originally Posted by indexphp

The Gary Halbert Letter

Tested Advertising Methods

Scientific Advertising

This - and add Ca$vertising by Drew Eric Whitman to the list and you're golden.