To All The Broke Copywriters...

Written like the great copywriter that you are!

Thanks Rick. Still don't think I'll ever be able to write as good as you though. You're definitely one of the best.

Nice post.

I too really love postcards. They're definitely one of the best tools that can be used. I know Steve The Copywriter agrees too...he's an expert on postcards.

@Princess Balestra - I don't think there's any doubt you're a very creative person. I enjoy your posts. Thanks.

@Alex Cohen - Yes sales letters and videos have their place. Was trying to open up minds to explore other options including those that are working today.

Not necessarily. Depends on the reader.

You need to know your target audience. Know what type of person is looking for the type of article you put out and target them.

There is an audience for super short 400 word articles. There is an audience for super long 20,000 word articles. And there is an audience for every word count in between. Different people want different things. There is no one size fits all expectation for writing articles.

If you are writing to please Google... Google favors articles that are 2,000 to 3,000 words long. Which is the word length of more traditional magazine articles. In fact studies have shown that the longer the article, the more value Google perceives it to have, and thus the higher ranking it is in search results.

The thing is, that number is only "general" and when you divide up into subjects/topics/niches you start to see some topics the favour is towards shorter 750 word articles, while other topics the favour is towards longer 7,500 word articles.

The trick is to know what YOUR target readers are looking for, and write for THEM. If you try to write for everybody, you end up pleasing no body.

My feeling is that people looking to get into copywriting and/or content writing often focus on the basics needed to get started, figuring out how to do the bare bones of the trade, but rarely do they ever dig below the surface and put some muscle on the bones they built. I think that's why so many fail in this trade. They build the skeleton, but forget to build a network of muscles to hold the bones together. Remember: building your foundation is only your first step, you have to build your tower on top of the foundation to see over the trees and succeed at reaching the top.

By that I mean... after you've learned the general basics of the trade, then you have to learn the advanced step of your niche. Who is your reader? Who is searching for your article? Why? what do they hope to get out of it?

I can tell you EXACTLY who my target reader is:

A female 25 to 45 (maybe as young as 14 or as old as 60, but not as likely). She loves Elves, wizards, unicorns, Dungeons & Dragons, and probably reads comic books, CosPlays at conventions, watches anime, and plays RPGs (table top, CCGs, and video games.) She probably likes the Witcher franchise and the InuYasha series.

Most importantly, she loves Yaoi, Barra, Bishonen, Twinks, Ukes, Semes, Sissies, Transvestites, BDSM, CBT, Monster Porn, and other similar forms of Gay Erotica, which she obsessively reads, and when she can not find more new titles to read, she starts writing gay slash fan fiction porn for to satisfy her need for more gay Elf wizards.

Why is this my perfect client? Because I'm a Yaoi author. The main character of the series I write is a bisexual transvestite Elf wizard. His lover is a gay unicorn. His other lover is a Half-Elf/Half-Demon. He also has 4 wives.

When I'm not writing Yaoi novels to sell on Amazon, I'm on my website writing articles on how to write Yaoi novels and sell them on Amazon.

Meaning my ideal client is the young women who wants to read Yaoi (so buys my books) and then after reading Yaoi wants to write her own Yaoi (so heads to my site to read my articles on doing so.)

She also has a lot of friends on Tumblr and shares her Yaoi obsession with them, recommending my novels to them, then recommending my articles. Together they gather on Reddit and FanFiction.net to tell even more people about my books and articles, and thus she drives traffic from far and wide by telling everyone she can, every where she goes.

She likes reading. She likes reading a lot. She hasn't got time to waste on pitiful 500 word fluff meant to paid affiliate banners. She wants meat on her bones, big articles, packed with information she can sink her teeth into and apply to her own budding writing career. She wants details. Lots of them. Step by step instructions. With examples. An challenges. And writing prompts. And exercises at the end. She wants something the equivalent of a writing course, but without having to take classes.

She's also not afraid to email her favorite Erotica author and ask the question: "Are the heroes in your books circumcised or uncut? Which is better for CBT penal sub-incision fetish BDSM Erotica?" (Yes, that is an actual question one of my readers sent to me and I not only answered it in an article, but I made a whole video series on the topic of writing uncircumcised men in sex scenes and how to properly deal with/write about not damaging the foreskin in violent CBT sex scenes.)

Now ask you - how many content writers out there think "I'm going to become an Internet Marketer and I'm going to do it with Content Writing.".... next go on to pick "How To Not Damage The Foreskin of an Uncut Man in a CBT Erotica Sex Scene" as the nich topic they are going to write about?

Really... ASK EVERY MEMBER of this forum, who write content articles and 90% of them are going to tell you they write "a blog on how to make money" because they think in order to be an internet marketer you MUST write about making money.

Me? I'm an internet marketer, but I don't write about making money. Nope. I write about sex. How to do it and how to write about doing it.

When people tell you to pick a niche, a topic you love, and write LOTS of articles about it... they don't mean, pick a sub-niche of the topic of making money and tell other people how to make money... no... they REALLY DO MEAN: PICK A TOPIC YOU ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT.

What am I passionate about? Well, it certainly ain't making money online, I'll tell you that. Nope. My passion, my niche, my topic: Yaoi. Gay Porn, featuring gay Elf wizards. That's my niche. That's my topic.

And that's why I'm successful.

I'm not wallowing around saying: "How can I find a niche?" No. I'm running like a half crazed screaming fan girl after every gay Elf wizard of every Yaoi novel I can find, and when I couldn't find more, I started writing my own novels, and when I found out there was a whole bevy of other women out there just like me, I set out to teach them how to write about the thing they love best in the word: gay Elf wizards having sex with Liches, Unicorns, Demons, and everything else I can think of to toss in his bed.

That is why I know WHO my target audience is, what she wants and how to write exactly the thing she wants to know.

I took my passion, found a need, filled that need, and turned it into an income vis internet marketing.

Can you tell me very specifically, just like that, who YOUR articles/content/copy are aimed at?

Another thing is that copywriting and content writing are two completely different things, but often people treat them as interchangeable words meaning the same thing; I've done both and I prefer content writing to copy writing. Why? Because copywriting favors short 750 word articles while content writing favours long 4,000+ word articles and I prefer to write long content to short copy.

Now what I do, actually falls into the category of both.

I write content articles, the big ones, teaching newbie writers the trade.

I write copy as well, descriptions and blurbs designed to sell a product (my novels).

And that's where I see long and short coming into play and a place for each. In copy 400 words is often plenty. You want to hype a sale, wet the appetite and drive them to the sales page. That's what copy writing is designed to do, and so then, short and sweet is best.

But no matter the length, no content or copy is going to attract readers at all if it lacks drive and passion. You the author of the words needs to be driven with burning lust for your topic.

Find a topic you are ALREADY passionate about. Something you ALREADY know and love, something you can sing praises to for eternity. Doesn't matter what it is. Knitting. Sewing. Reading comic books. Playing video games. Breeding Ranchus. Collecting Action Figures. Restoring old cars. Growing herbs. Playing chess. No matter what it is... THAT thing, THAT thing that you love, THAT is your ideal niche, the thing you should be focused on writing copy for. Because your drive and passion for it is what ultimately will draw readers in and turn it from just your passion into your full time career.

Once you know WHAT your topic is, then research what others in your topic are doing. Are they writing long or short? Only then is it time to start looking at word count... look at word counts used by your direct competition. Those are the word counts you have to be competing against. Every nich has a different style a different expected word count. It's not going to be the same for every niche.