BEST Paid At-Home Copywriting Course?

Hey whats up Drew!


First of all, since you spent money on it. I suggest you utilize it 100%.


Its good to practice re-writing sales letters because you will intuitively learn structure. Based on marketing, there are some really great copywriters associated with AWAI.


The Robert Collier letter book has some really old sales letters in it to, and it is highly recommended.


What you want to take from those letters that you are copying is the psychology and persuasion element.


A good thing about studying what you are studying is that you wont be so quick to swipe it word for word, and you will be a more original writer.


Are there instructions on what you should be looking for while you are re-writing these letters?


Also, depending on the following posts, and what you are swayed to do. At least there is a guarantee. You are going to hear from people who have taken AWAI's courses and other courses.


I started with the books. I may take a few courses down the road.


But other than that, study hard and make the most of it.

Well, I don't know.

I will say in the olden days, a DEDICATED writer wishing to leveling up his copy skills, would learn all he could about salesmanship and the business of direct marketing. This provides a foundation to build on.

Then, AWAI has been around a while now, and ever since Copywriting has become a business opportunity, I'm sure thousands of people have taken courses...yet, and maybe it is me...but I'm not seeing thousands of great promotions which convert, either.

My opinion, the AWAI should be your 101 class, then you study and advance your knowledge and skills as you progress to your B.S. degree in copy writing.

Also, little known copy style that works for many online products these day is the simple one page, bullet point style perfected by Bill Myers (a formidable copywriter in his own right) as found here:

201 Video Tips, Tricks & Techniques for Product Developers

A look at almost all of his product offers are sold in this format. I've used it for over a decade with success, and A/B testing with long copy (often by different writers) and this clean product description style converts very well.

Being an old fart, I still advise noob copy people to start with a good sales book and better yet, a part time job selling. J. Gitomer has good stuff and is highly rated on Amazon, he may have a copy program too (NO affiliation).

gjabiz

"Classic" sales letters could only be mailed. They had to be profitable from the get-go or the company would quickly lose their shirts. The ones that were extremely successful were mailed millions of times.

Compare it to modern times. Big guru product launch for a $2K product... JVs send hundreds of thousands of unique visitors to the sales page... guru announces later they had a million dollar launch.

Sounds good until you look at what they paid out in affiliate commissions and when you look at their conversion rates on their sales letter/VSL.

So what the "classic" sales letter lack in modern day lingo, they more than make up with solid copywriting tactics and techniques. A good amount of it you can't pick up from simply reading a book or course. You really need to read and write great copy every day until it becomes instinctive like it is for great copywriters. Some of the things that are instinctive with writing great copy are hard to explain verbally or in print... so they rarely make it into books or info-products. But studying the work of great copywriters -- including writing some of their sales letters out by hand -- will help you learn those instinctive skills.


My experienced advice is based on 20+ years of writing marketing and being a full-time freelance copywriter since 2006. I went full-time within 2 months but I also had very strong marketing and copywriting skills. I also continued to work on honing my chops to get even better... and I still do to this day even though I'm an in-demand copywriter.

Bottom line, if you think taking one course is going to make you a strong copywriter, then I'm afraid you're deceiving yourself. One course may get you to entry level in the field but it's not going to give you the skills and level of expertise to command higher fees consistently. Same with reading a few books on copywriting too.

If you're just looking to pick up a few bucks here or there from an occasional copywriting project, then one course or a few books might help you do that.

If you want to make this career and command 4-5 figures plus royalities, then you're going to have to treat your professional education as an ongoing activity like the top copywriters regularly do.

Best of luck,

Mike

Mike is absolutely right. And so is The Copywriting Engineer -- since you've paid for the AWAI course, get as much out of it as you possibly can. Unless you're still within the refund window, in which case you can always return it and try another course. But the AWAI course is considered a proven system to the skills.

That said...

In my opinion, the last time I saw the AWAI course (back in 2008 or 2009) I found it lacking in depth. Lots of good info and practice, but nowhere as much "meat" as I'd expected. Clayton Makepeace's Quick-Start Copywriting System is much, much more detailed and the best all-in-one course I've seen to date.

Regardless of which packaged course you choose, you'll shave years off your learning curve -- and give yourself a tremendous advantage over your competition -- if you study the masters: David Ogilvy, John Caples, Vic Schwab, Eugene Schwartz, Claude Hopkins, etc. Read everything you can get your hands on by these legends of advertising, and you'll be well on your way.

Don't overlook the modern masters, either. Subscribe to Bob Bly's newsletter and John Forde's Copywriter's Roundtable. And read every issue you can find penned by Gary Halbert, Gary Bencivenga, and Clayton Makepeace.

Best of luck!

I see, so you are a newbie copywriter, you've bought an established program for newbie copywriters and you're immediately questioning what they teach you - based on?...

This is where you find another program, question that, and move on again...

The average person online today would meet more direct marketing style
sales letters in a month than the typical person would meet in their lifetime
before the internet.

The only time most people came in contact with such letters were in junk
mail that they never read. I can see why you would find these letters sound
"dated" and I've experienced the same feeling as well. But I do agree that
it is the principles that count.

The PRINCIPLES of persuasion remain the same just as human nature has
remained the same.

One of my pet peeves is when people attribute to some modern copywriter
a principle that is as old as the hills. This copywriter may have coined a
term that stuck but yet still they are often presented as the originator.

Let me give an old example from the Bible.

It comes from the Garden of Eden and the first temptation. Eve comes to
the tree with the forbidden fruit and the Serpent says to her, "Did God
say not to eat from this tree?"

What did the serpent just do? He joined the conversation that was in
Eve's head? He verbalized her thoughts. Although a negative example
of persuasion, we see that this strategy is thousands of years old.

So "joining the conversation that is going on the prospect's head" is
definitely not a modern idea. Look for the kernel of principles. The
rest is just chaff.

-Ray Edwards

Let's break it down - there are several parts to great copywriting, and you need to excel at each ... but why not break them down one skillset at a time?

HEADLINES: Must capture attention and connect with your audience's painpoints.

PERSUASION: Must paint a picture of how the product will make readers' lives better - how it will help them solve a problem

CALL TO ACTION: ALWAYS end your sales copy with a Call To Action - don't let your readers guess what you want them to do next -- TELL THEM!

URGENCY: Many of the best sales letters and videos use some type of mechanism to create urgency (and therefore, incite action) with the buyer. Whether it's a countdown timer, a limited-time pricing, or an act-quick bonus you include, try to incorporate some type of urgency in your copy.

Lastly, here is a WSO that was advertised for the most recent 'Warrior Ask Me Anything' guest speaker, Joanna Wiebe. Looks like she has the credentials and the expertise you're looking for to guide you (and it's only $7 - and no, this is not an affiliate link):

http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...-7-86-off.html

Mike - If one is self-motivated, one can learn much about the art of copywriting simply by doing research online (thus the list of elements I presented.) That and the de facto requirement of mastering the craft, which is actually committing to sitting down to WRITE WRITE WRITE.

Reference tacitly "comparing it to a $1,000 course" - I simply offered him yet another resource for him to look into (unlike referring him to a course that is no longer available, or only sporadically so on eBay.)

Best Regards,

Mary

I agree. Fortunately he left his articles up at The Total Package -- they contain most of the info that went into his various products and courses.

And Clayton may be a bit less retired these days. He'll be doing a seminar in Atlanta, and it looks like you might be able to buy his Quick-Start Copyriting Course through AWAI. Of course, that might just be old affiliate info... but here's the link if anyone wants to check it out: The Quick-Start Copywriting System

Thanks for the responses everyone, much appreciated. I didn't think anyone had responded to this.

I decided to go forward with the course anyway over the past couple days, and can tell it's really valuable. I do believe now that it will help me a ton.

I'm quite aware I'll have to be continually growing and expanding my knowledge. Sorry, for some reason I assumed you knew that about me when I posted . I'll be ecstatic if I can make a livable income (like, 4-6k per month) 6 months from now working from home. That would be an amazing start for me, and I'd be making more than most people my age are making.

Actually, please let me know if you think that's an unrealistic goal. It's hard to get my head around what kinds of fees I'll be able to charge in 1, 2, 3, 5 months and so on given that I'm devoting a lot of time and energy to learning, reading, and practicing this stuff. I just figured I won't really know until I take action.

I have a few of those books actually, and I'm going to be looking into all those names you suggested. They're all also named and quoted a ton in the AWAI course so it naturally follows that I'll be digging into those afterward.

I really appreciate the feedback again, THANKS!