is it good enough?

I think anyone who writes enough will eventually come across times when they hate what they write. Still, if you are struggling and you don't want to go to college then why not school yourself?

Depending on the way you learn, you might consider going for any one of the numerous free resources on the web. You could use Thesaurus.com to get alternative words for nearly any word you can think of. This gives you 'choice of weapons' when you write a sentence. After you use the site long enough you will begin to have your choices memorized & that means you just increased your vocabulary far beyond most people - for free.

There are lots of 'how to write better' resources online & I'm sure you know this, but I notice my hang up when I want to get good at something is that I am not sure who to listen to. The way I solve this is by finding someone I can especially admire and emulating them. I can figure out how to add a unique spin later. Try not to add the 'uniqueness' and creativity until you have the basics down is what I learned the hard way. First learn to pound nails efficiently and with great skill, then attempt building something. Does that make sense?

Writing is really not the black magic art it appears to be. It's a training of the mind to put into language what you are already thinking. The thing is, it takes a HUGE amount of practice. Most people, though, tend to be sloppy about the practice part so you can catch up quickly if you are diligent & persist when you feel like reading even another sentence will cause you to vomit.

I would imagine a lot of copywriters have some sort of English or Humanities type of degree. Then again, some of them most likely just have a burning passion for sales and learned to write so they could do it more quickly to more people. Find the copywriters or speakers that you really admire (who are successful, of course) and study every word placement, word choice, the visual effects of the sentence itself, etc.

There really isn't too much you can gain from a degree that you could not go get yourself. Most people simply aren't disciplined enough to do that.

If you need more immediate help, try posting your work here and letting the sharks have a go at you. That, or you could pay someone to work with you to raise your skills faster. The more you want to succeed, the more excuses you will make to do it - instead of excuses for not being good enough.

I believe you can get there so I hope you do, too!

You don't.

See, the problem is - and this is what you eventually figure out - other people have lower standards. You're trying to jump over a six foot bar, and you're surrounded by people who can't jump two feet. You can be getting less than five feet, and everyone around you is saying "OMG, you're awesome, that is just incredible."

But you know you can make six feet, so you keep trying. And every time you don't make it, maybe only getting to five foot eight, you sit there and say "I suck, I didn't make six feet" - and the people around you are all going "WTF, you made five foot eight, that's AWESOME!"

And once you figure that out, and you start feeling comfortable with delivering five foot eight writing even when you know you ought to be doing six foot... that's when you start trying to drill into your head that once you clear six, you're just going to move it to seven.

And on the left side of your brain, the rational side, you'll eventually know this. And you'll deliver five foot eight writing, and then when you can deliver six foot two writing you'll do that, and then laugh at yourself when you start thinking about how you should really deliver seven foot writing.

But the right side of your brain will tell you how much you suck the whole time. Because it doesn't understand limitations. It thinks everything you ever do should be perfect, first time, every time. It doesn't understand that perfect is ONLY in your head. And it will never learn.

EVERY writer hates his/her stuff from time to time. Anybody who tells you differently is lying. There is no hard and fast rule for getting over it.

The whole "write like you talk" thing is good but the truth is that most of us write the way we wish we could talk. If we wrote the way we really spoke during normal conversations with our friends, we'd rarely sell anything.

Just keep at it. The more you work at getting better, the better you will get.

Also, for the record: remember to keep reading. Reading is one of the best ways to improve your writing!

That's the point-- it's the beauty of loving whatever field you are in. You always strive to be better.

As long as you realize your ideal is always just a bit out of your reach, you will succeed.

Only the mediocre are ever at their best.

I always feel that my writing is subpar on many levels, I think the best way to go about things is to write everything out completely, get your point across, try not to run on alot, and then when you have it ready have a friend proof-read it and see what he/she says. Heck! get two or three people to do the same. Most people will gladly read over and give you suggestions, opinions are like butt holes everybody has one and use that to your advantage.

Keep at it. Everyone goes through it, really. "Analysis paralysis" can be debilitating, but you just have to work through it. CDarklock NAILED it. People are hiring you to do something that they cannot do themselves, right?

If you're serious about copywriting and marketing, you're always striving to grow and learn. Take into consideration how much you ALREADY know, though...it's sometimes more than you realize.

I wouldn't let somebody that doesn't know what they're doing evaluate your work, though. They're most likely going to tell you that it sounds good, but in reality, they probably don't know what they're looking for.

It's normal to feel that way, but don't let it keep you stagnant. If you're uncomfortable with something, it's usually indicative of you being a little outside your comfort zone, which is a GOOD thing It means you're growing. You get better when you grow. Allow yourself a little room for some swagger.
~Renee

Take your inner artiste out back and slap the crap out of him...

Tell him to cowboy up and stop being such a wuss.

Then sit the artiste on the bench and put your inner craftsman
in the game.

He'll run the ad, test it, measure it, and improve it.

He ain't skeered a nuthin'... but he hates ****ty numbers.

We're in a business of consistently failing upwards.

Every conversion metric is a measurement of actual versus potential.

In that way, we're all falling short of perfection - just by varying degrees.

Anyone who writes likes some of their pieces more than others... Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!! Sure, there are days when everyone gets stuck in a rut and has writer's block. However, when you're getting paid to do write, you have to find a way around it!

Want to write like you talk? Imagine that you're sitting at a restaurant telling a friend the story. Yes, it may sound cheesy, but after 4 years of college and more than 10 years in newsrooms, I can tell you that it works.

Keep it simple. You can go back and polish it later, but start by just writing and getting your thoughts on paper. In fact, one of my college professors (who produced the CBS Evening News, so he knew what he was talking about!) told us to "chuck all the fancy words you learned for the SAT's and just write."

Its not so much the flavor of your writing - its the substance. Or as Gary Halbert put it - "Being on target is much more important than being facile with words".

If you want to write like you talk - get yourself "Dragon Naturally Speaking" (for PC) or "MacSpeech Dictate" (for Mac). Then edit out the "ums" and "ahs" and "like".

Look at it like this - if someone is telling you something you're really interested in - do you care if his grammar is off or he has an accent?

Write from the heart - in your own voice. Don't worry so much about being "articulate". If you're passionate about something, it will show.

One thing I've found helpful is to read your copy OUT LOUD to yourself before publishing it. It really makes a major difference - it becomes a lot easier to see silly mistakes and stuff that just sounds 'salesy' or, to put it another way, 'rubbish'.

If you are teaching people about online marketing, you have two choices - come across as a friend, or come across as a superior with a deeper knowledge and understanding. The 'talk how you write' technique works well for the first method, but not so great if you are positioning yourself as a figure of authority.