How to be a good copyrighter? Advise me :)

Start by spelling it correctly. Copywriter.

I'm a brand new copywriter. I have zero clients and have just recently been studying and taking notes on The Boron Letters, Kickass Copywriting and John Carltons Simple Writing System. Next is The "Entrepreneurs Guide to Getting Your Shit Together" by John Carlton.

I would advise you to take notes and study these materials and do EVERYTHING they say. Don't think about this or that, just DO it. The blueprint for success has already been written, so if you simply follow what those successful individuals have done, you, too should have success. You may not be world class, but you'll be GOOD and you will get clients.

What I am doing to start with is my two products I sell online. The advertising sucks as I wrote the original without knowing anything. Though I did make a few grand, I have re-written the first draft of the copy and it is already LIGHT YEARS beyond what I had before.

After I get my new ad out there, I am going to begin to look at local business ads that suck, re-write them and make those businesses a proposition to run the ad for free and if it converts, they give me a job via contract.

Oh....go through the sticky posts.

Yes indeedo get the basic understanding of what copy is first.

And while you do that, write out world class ads by hand every single day.

If that's too much, write em out every other day - or week. I suggest daily.

Check out the sticky thread, there's a ton of great info for getting started.

Hey it's your life, just mmmake it happen

I highly recommend getting a coach or mentor. I got coaching from Paul Hancox, a fellow warrior. His course is awesome.

There are several experienced copywriters who share great bits of knowledge.

This is my first post and I just want to thank all the copywriters who share their wisdom on this forum!

There's plenty of courses, books and coaching for copywriting that's available for free or if you just take an hour to look for them. My advice would be stop focusing on getting trained.Stop focusing on becoming the best copywriter before your pen has hit the paper yet. This forum is essentially a gold mine of bad copy that you can improve. It's also a place where you can see the basics of copy being used.

Take a WSO thread everyday for the next week or so, and re-write the copy. Don't ask, don't PM anyone, just start writing copy. If you're going to be a decent copywriter, it's not about what you write, it's about how you write. Take these 7+ WSO re-writes and then look over them again next week. Practice makes perfect.

How does someone learn to play basketball? By reading books? By getting a coach? By watching training videos? No. By taking the ball in their hands and doing something with it.

You already have a lot of great resources listed in the stickies above.
You have to take the time to study them then practice your chops
on your own products or try to get copy jobs.

You always have the option of coaching if you want to speed your
progress. Of course hang around other copywriters, here and
other hangouts and learn from them as well.

-Ray Edwards

O.k. if you really want to know about Copywriting. Then why not get trained by some of the best?
Check out Brian Mcleod and David Garfinkle's Training

I am a student Brian and David both are super great guys who just know how to teach things dummies like me can understand.
Best,
-WD

My intrinsic thoughts about and on "Stickiness"

3M make things that are sticky. There's soft stickiness and hard stickiness. Sticktuitiveness...ah! another type of stickiness. Adhering without relent. You cannot learn what you do not do. Teach stickiness to learn about it.

Once I went fishing with my dad and when I cast the line, the steel hook caught in my eyeball. Stickiness, you wont forget that image for a few minutes.

Benefit, problem solution. Creativity cannot be taught or learned. Do and you will emerge.

Weird post

There are two aspects to copywriting: writing technique and selling psychology.

The second is MUCH more important. Even if you master the techniques, if you don't get the psychology, your copywriting will sound great to everyone except the person whom it's written to persuade -- and you'll wonder how you could be writing so well and getting such little response.

I say this because, everything you've listed here: "playing with "hot words", writing strong titles, compelling short introductions..." has to do with technique. If you're just starting out, you're not ready for these yet - especially if you think these are the things you need to be starting with.

TONS of SEO people are getting their asses handed to them these days because they're obsessed with techniques and trends, but have no clue about the psychology of search engine marketing. If you take that same mentality into copywriting, you're going to have a damn hard time.

Get into the psychology first. Start with the first rule: "Join the conversation which is most relevant in your reader's mind." Here's some free videos on the topic to start with:

Could it be read as:

Here's who I am (salutation)
Here's what I've got for you (opening paragraph)
Here's what the thing will do for you (Bullets)
Here's what you need to do now (Call to action)

I'm a beginner as well. Am I way off?

Too many people focus on the techniques of writing copy, where you should be focusing on 'the why'. If you understand why things work and why they convert high, you'll ultimately be a much better copywriter than someone who is trying to imitate different techniques without any in depth knowledge of why these things work the way they do.

I'd rather give my next door neighbor's 6 year old the leftovers of my halloween candy because he'd do a much better job.

Everyone has a different method....just give us all of your ideas without putting each others' ideas down : )
I want to live on an Island and be a copywriter...keep the advice coming people...lots of great stuff. Thanks!!

Don't ask. Do! After that don't ask. Test. THE END!