What do you consider to be Short Copy?

It is relative as Paul stated. Sure, you can use math and theories to define that relativity, but you will not get a definite value of X from a forum of copywriters.

The debate over Short Copy and Long Copy is a Goldilocks complex... The bed is either too hard or too soft. If the copy is too short, then, it does not sell efficiently. If the copy is too long, then, it does not sell efficiently.

Now, what if you find that 'just right' middle? The bridge is just long enough. The bed is just right. The copy sells it's most efficient. That is how long the copy needs to be, and it is relative to what you are selling and to whom you are selling to.

Going back to the Goldilocks complex, the hard bed is just right for Papa bear and the soft bed is just right for Mama bear, but it is not right for Goldilocks nor Baby bear.

So, in order to answer your question properly the others simply stated how it must be relevant to what you are selling and to whom you are selling to.

Paul mentioned a site. Yes, their copy is short... but relative to what? To an Internet Marketing guy selling a $147 product on how to make money online? Sure, it is WAY shorter than that... however, both copy sells to it's efficient potential for the market they are in and to the customers they are selling to. (Heck, we can find copy shorter than that site Paul recommended... Go to your grocery store. What do you see? Grapes $0.89/lb? That is copy which sells efficiently provided you are in a grocery store buying food.)

So, should your copy be short or long? Let your market determine that as a river determines how long a bridge needs to be.

(I know... I fall into that category you refer to in your last post. I, however, was not going to post until you criticized their answers in response to your post. Not all questions can be answered simply by supplying the value of X. If that was so, then, we would not need physicists like Stephen Hawking.)

Don't let it get to you - this section seems prone to making egos out of molehills but it's usually good for a laugh (I mean that in a nice way - not a slap to anyone).

I'm working on a piece of what I'd call short copy now (or I was till I got tired).

To me it says what it needs to say...once. Tells the benefits...once.

This one will be about 3/4 of a page when done. If I started bulleting and re-bulleting and repeating and re-repeating to press the points home....it would then be "long".

I printed out a sales page a year or two ago - forget why I wanted to do that but I was surprised the sales page in print was 17 pages long.

kay

And yet, you don't know how long "short" copy is.

Why, exactly, don't you know that after thirteen years?

Could it be that the question is difficult, or perhaps even impossible?

Because that's largely what the response has been. What do you mean by short? Short compared to what? There's not enough information here to answer the question. Indeed, there may never be enough information to answer the question. Some questions, indeed, simply cannot be answered.

I would hope that "good people" understand this. I certainly wouldn't be so quick to call those who don't understand this "good people."

Methomas, methinks you're making a point you don't
realize that you're making.

Paul,

Thanks for a simply answer to a simple question.

I ask a simply question as to HOW many pages would you consider the break between short and long copy from the professionals.

I had thought the break came at 4 to 5 pages. I wanted some simply answers to compare my thoughts with.

Thanks for the two short and simply answers.

A copywriter walks into a bar after a hard day of writing.

The bartender looks at him and asks: "Why the long copy?"

[ Baa duum tish - (drummer beating out a rimshot) ]

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Everyone defines short copy differently. To me it's 2 pages and I base it on The Wall Street Journal letter which has been sent out millions of times and generated billions of dollars.