Idiot's question about training as a copywriter

Study the niche. Find controls and copy them by hand.

As for everything else. Do all of the above.

You're going to do better if you pick one niche and specialize in it. Get your hands on every great sales letter ever written in that niche and rewrite as many of them as you can by hand. If people see you as a specialist in one niche, they'll be much more likely to pay you premium fees.

Thanks for the suggestions!

RuthRNM, thank you for a very good point! I'm leaning towards this option right now.

Writing by hand will make me a good copyrewriter. I tried it, got some results, but reading or even listening to video sales copy works much better for me. Besides, that way I can digest much higher volume.

Back to my original question though...

What did you do before you started writing for a fee (for the 1st time)?

Alex

Try writing for some Clickbank products like this:

No Product? Start With Bypass Surgery - The Michel Fortin Blog

Or just take some Amazon products and write letters for those.

Heck, when David Raybould started, he would take random stuff around his house and writer letters for them:

"… you’ve started writing ads of your own for mundane household objects (believe me if you’ve never done this, NOTHING sharpens your benefit-finding chops more than writing a salesletter about your kitchen knives, or shower curtain or whatever)…"

http://thedirectresponseblog.com/2-q...ful-copywriter

Alex,

I've done this in the past.

1. Find a market where there are a lot of people actively searching for a solution to their problems (weight loss, dating, finance, jobs, health)

2. Write the best sales letter you can

3. invest in traffic so you can test it out and see if it converts.

4. on the download page, tell them that it was a marketing test and that you'll
be instantly refunding their purchase and giving them the product for free
once it's done.

5. personally email those who bought and explain that you were doing
market research and that you apologize for the inconvenience. tell
them that once the product is done, you will send for free.

6. get solid conversion numbers. if it sucks, you could start over.

but if it converts and works well, you can then use that proof
to approach other businesses in that niche who have shitty copy.

you can say "this letter has already been proven to convert at
___%.

if you do your homework, you can see which sites aren't converting
at all. that would be about 80% of all sites on clickbank in their
respective markets.

then, with solid numbers you have a lot more leverage because you
can prove that you have a winning sales letter.

then, it's up to you if you want to sell the letter outright
for a fee or even license it to others.

I've written sales letters/ads in markets here in my home town
that i spent money to test and run ads in the paper.

if the copy worked, i then took it further and contacted
businesses in that niche who needed copy. Realtors, personal
trainers, plumbers, etc...

then, you can sell them the copy or license it.

but again, you need proof that it works.

this gives you much more leverage.

this is just an approach I've used in the past.

kinda pain in the butt, but the end result was i just
wanted proof the copy would convert, because i wanted
to approach others with that proof, to use as leverage.

Joe! That's an aaaaawesome link there. Thank you very much. That's what I'm doing right now and now I know how to amplify my efforts. Thanks!

Shawn, I was thinking of this before. And I've heard one of the "gurus" talk about it... I just feel weird about "letting people down", getting them all psyched up about buying and then saying "sorry, this product doesn't exist". But yes, I agree that it's definitely worth a try...

Alex,

Writing stuff on the inter web can take a while to kick in.

You've got to create your epic masterpiece and then get the traffic.

Nothing to stop you using all the suggestions and apply them to "bricks and mortar" businesses.

Sales letters, postcards, flyers posters - the response can be a lot quicker.

And you'll find out how good your copy is a lot faster.

The sooner you get the elation and the adrenaline rush the better you'll feel.


Steve

Yes, good point Andrew, best not to call yourself a "copywriter" nobody knows what the hell it means (well very few do).

I always say - "I write Ads then the (big benefit of what they do).


Steve