How Long Does It Take You to Write Copy?

by Daniel Scott

Posted: 15 years ago 12 replies

COPY WRITING

Hello fellow copywriters,

I'm just wondering how long it takes the "professionals" among you to write copy.

I know it takes me a couple of hours just to get my headlines to where I want them... all up a finished sales page would probably take me between 10 and 20 hours. And that's not including research and so forth.

However, I'm not nearly as competent as a lot of you guys are, so I was just curious as to how long it really takes a "professional" to crank out their average sales page.

-Dan

#copy #long #write

MontelloMarketing 15 years ago

Research, writing, rewriting... more rewriting...

3 weeks for me.
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- Dean Dhuli 15 years ago
  
  The actual writing part itself does not take very long
  when you compare it with the other things.
  
  The initial research and the final rewriting part are the
  biggest time takers.
  
  .
  
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  dorothydot 15 years ago
  
  Yes, I agree with Vin - at least 3 weeks, preferably 4. And I greatly prefer to do all the writing at the same time - sales page, brochures, autoresponders, PPC, whatever - and so I give clients a good-sized discount when they request the whole enchilada at one swell foop. (LOL - that's a spoonerism for fell swoop. Does anyone remember the story of Rindercella and the Prandsome Hince?)
  
  This length also allows for not only research but time needed between writings/re-writings to let things "perk" in my mind. Okay, maybe ferment would be the better word. Whatever.
  
  As you can tell, I love playing with words.
  
  Hope this helps,
  Dot
  
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BrianMcLeod 15 years ago

The creative writing is often the easy part for me and probably most folks who write professionally. You get in the zone and it just flows.

I can look up sometimes and find an hour or two has flown by and I didn't even notice.

The REWRITING, however... that can take quite a bit more focused effort.

Lots of "hmmm" happens at this point. My eyes look upwards more often. You might say that my right brain has sent the job out to my left brain at this point.

And then there's the research/orientation part of the job that is another voracious chewer of time before anything else even happens.

I know that there are guys, some right here on this forum, who might laugh at me and say, "what a dope... I can knock out a letter in a day and get $15k + 5 points for it..."

I'm still waiting for that neural path to develop, I guess...

Brian
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The Copy Nazi Banned 15 years ago

How long does it take? Depends. Some stuff I can pretty-well dash off in less than an hour. Other stuff that I don't know anything about can be a struggle. You really got to have a pretty good grasp of what you're talking about otherwise it shows. I try to get to the "essence" of the subject or the product - what's it really about? What does it do? Why do people need it? And I try to write like I'm explaining something to my best mate -

"Dude you gotta buy this wing-wang - its fantastic. It compresses your HD footage right down and you hardly lose any quality - you lose a bit - but its worth it. I've taken files from 2 Gig right down to 100Meg - serious. Oh yeah...if you get it this month you'll save 50 bucks 'cause they got some promo or other. But really...this is Killer...I wouldn't use one of those open-source compressors. Too risky. Know what I'm saying...I mean I've got 300 hours of HD footage in that file and if I lost it I'd just shoot myself - I would."

Like that. That just took me about a minute. But I happen to know a little bit about compressing video footage.

Its like - the biggest fear most people have is speaking in public. But we can all speak in public if we know our subject matter. If you had to give a speech on "My Life at High School" - you could do it. You know your subject matter. Same goes for writing. So yeah, the first step is to find out as much as you can about the subject before starting. Doesn't mean you have to be an expert - you just have to get the gist of it.

And the next - the writing. Best tip I can give you is K.I.S.S. - keep it simple stupid. Write in short simple sentences. Like this. Avoid long words. Avoid clichés "like the plague" because "at the end of the day" your writing will look boring. You'll notice I use dashes - quite a lot. I also abbreviate as much as I can. To make it read like speech. So instead of saying "Let us go over the basic parameters of the HD camera". I would say "Let's go over ..."

Voila! That'll do you (that will do you).

And so ends today's lesson.
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Raydal 15 years ago

That's a hard question to answer because it depends on your level
of preparation to do the actual writing and how free flowing you
do write and your typing speed.

I tend the edit myself as I write which is not a good practice, but
tell my brain that--but after completing the research I write at
about 1 page per hour.

I would also write in intense sessions of 12 hours or so. I give
one project my full attention before moving on to another one. I know
some copywriters would work on more than one sales letter at the
same time. I'm quite monogamous with my sales letters.

Once I'm 'in the zone' then I give that project all I've got so much
that I've often come back to an 'old' sales letter I wrote and kind
of wondered who wrote it.

Well, what can I say? Sometimes I'm so good I want to take notes
on myself.

-Ray Edwards
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wrcato 15 years ago

Once the research is out of the way, I work on my offer which could take about two days. From creation to completion. Then I sit down and write the copy. That alone probably takes two hours.

So I can have a acceptable sales letter in two days.
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James Seward 15 years ago

I normally take three to five days to write a copy... if I am familiar with the subject then it is turns to be quite easy because you already know what you have to write about... However if I am not familiar with it then it gets a little bit more complicated, research is needed and ultimately more time taken to write the copy...
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nikkos 15 years ago

I take less than a day, depends how many costumers I have at the time
And that's with the research
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- BrianMcLeod 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by nikkos
  
  I take less than a day, depends how many costumers I have at the time
  And that's with the research
  
  So you work exclusively in the costume niche?
  
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CalvinB 15 years ago

Well I guess I am not very good at this right now looking at all the posts.
I am trying to get my first sales page up and have been working on it for months but sometimes only one or two hours per week. It makes it difficult to get bac into it but I agree once you start writting it seems to flow but the rewritting takes a lot of time and then of course there is the huge learning curve at the beginning.
When I am done the sales page I think it would be a lot faster if I get someone to write my eBook.
If anyone wants a go at it send me a pm
Thanks,
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Bigsofty 15 years ago

Avoid clichés "like the plague" because "at the end of the day" your writing will look boring

I disagree, the odd cliché makes for easier reading and keeps the flow - real people (that's one right there, how many people aren't real?) talk in clichés. They expect them and it's more like someone talking directly into their head, rather than the poor prospect deciphering all them letter thingies.

Reading's hard work. Give 'em a break.

B.
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