If those resources are the only ones you have studied then
you have a long way to go before you can start offering
your own services. Yes, you need to get your feet wet
by trying to write sales letters but educate yourself some
more before you start offering your services.

Here's a good start.

"Scientific Advertising" Claude Hopkins

"Tested Advertising" Caples (4th edition or earlier only)

"How I Raised Myself from a Failure to Success in Selling" Betger

"How to Write a Good Advertisement" Schwab.

"How to Write Sales Letters That Sell" Drayton Bird

"The Robert Collier Letter Book" - by Robert Collier

"Tested Advertising Methods" -by John Caples

"The Lazy Man's Way to Riches" - by Joe Karbo

"Break-Through Advertising" - by Eugene M. Schwartz

"Advertising Secrets of The Written Word" by Joe Sugarman

"Making Ads Pay" by John Caples

Web Copy That Sells by Maria Veloso

The Architecture of Persuasion by Michael Masterson

Influence The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joe Sugarman

"The Elements of Copywriting" by Gary Blake and Robert Bly

"The Ultimate Sales Letter" by Dan Kennedy

Cashvertising by Drew Eric Whitman

"Write to sell " it is written by Andy Maslen

"Influencing Human Behaviour" by H.A.

"Tested Sentences That Sell" by Elmer Wheeler

"Unlimited Selling Power" by Moine and Lloyd.

Writing for Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias

Bob Bly's "The Copywriter's Handbook"

How To Make Your Advertising Make Money - John Caples

The Copywriters Handbook - Bob Bly

The Adweek Copywriting Handbook - Joseph Sugarman

Sales Letters That Sizzle - Herschell Gordon Lewis

Cash Copy - Jeffrey Lant

Magic Words That Bring You Riches - Ted Nicholas

Ogilvy On Advertising

Method Marketing by Denny Hatch.

My First 50 Years in Advertising by Maxwell Sackheim.

The Greatest Direct Mail Sales Letters of all Time " by Richard Hodgson.

How To Write Advertising That Sells by Clyde Bedell

Ads That Sell by Bob Bly

Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich-- David Garfinkle

Magic Words-- Ted Nicholas

Robert Collier Letter Book-- Robert Collier

My Life In Advertising -- Claude Hopkins

Bird - Commonsense

The First Hundred Million by E. Haldeman-Julius

David Ogilvy's "Blood, Brains and Beer"

"Confessions of an advertising man"

"Million Dollar Mailings" by Denison Hatch

"The Wizard of Ads" trilogy by Roy H. Williams

Making Ads Pay by John Caples

Method Marketing - Denison Hatch

"How to Write Sales Letters that Sell" by Drayton Bird.

Hypnotic Writing -- Joe Vitale

"The Lazy Man's Way to Riches" - by Joe Karbo

Denny Hatch's Million Dollar Mailings

-Ray Edwards

Thanks for that looooong list. I hadn't expected to come across it but have bookmarked it for future reference.I have some of the books but others I will get for myself. I am a writer but not a copywriter but I am trying to learn a few skills to improve what little copywriting ability I have too.

Raydal,

I've been thinking about picking up 'Web Copy That Sells by Maria Veloso'

My personal site is a professional services site. I want to write where I can answer people's questions (my organic search visitors usually find me through typing a search in google). Without making every page an obvious salesletter I want to:

Answer their question thoroughly
Then lead them to want to contact me or download one of my many free reports.

Is this a good book to read to do that? My site consists of hundreds of articles so I could subtly make them a sales letter without actually making it read like a typical direct resonse sales letter, I'd love to do that.

Tiffany Dow recommends that book in a book I have just bought from her. She only recommends the best products so I would suggest it would be a good book to buy. You can get used copies for 1 cent plus postage from Amazon.
This is the link she gave me.

Well. Her link actually doesn't work so I had to find it for myself. I don't know if the book has changed or not. I was just making a suggestion based on what I found out.

Now... if you're asking how to land clients... that's a totally different ballgame
than writing copy.

I've seen many a good copywriter starve because they couldn't land clients.

In fact, I coach copy students, and I'll usually give them a few books
to read, and then i have them create an account on elance, guru, odesk,
and other outsourcing sites to get practice writing proposals.

many copy students i've had go on elance, they were able to beat out
elance writers who had been on there for years.

now, on elance, that's not a hugely tough feat... but it again gives them
practice at writing proposals and landing clients.

these students were already good writers, they just couldn't close the deal and land
a client.

again, landing clients is a totally different game than learning how to write copy.

they are as different as night and day...

For landing clients, i had my copy students get and read the books "tribes" by seth godin and platforms by michael hyatt.

I also had them get and read books by alan weiss.

john carlton's freelance course is good, i've read that many times.

also, i showed them how to use google adwords to land clients.

but there's a difference in writing copy and getting clients.

if you're learning how to write copy... you study copy books.

but in order to land clients, that's a different approach.

Maria Veloso's book is, so far, the only copywriting book I've started and not been able to finish.

I didn't like her writing, I didn't like the structure of the book, and I thought she tried to cover too many topics in not enough detail.

A few books worth looking at for a professional service provider:

Amazon.com: Do the Web Write: Writing for and Marketing Your Website (Numbers 101 for Small Business) (9781551808321): Dan Furman: Books


Amazon.com: Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works (Interactive Technologies) (9780123694867): Janice (Ginny) Redish: Books


Amazon.com: Duct Tape Marketing Revised & Updated: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide (9781595554659): John Jantsch: Books (Less of a writing guide and more an introduction to direct response marketing)

If you really want to sell copywriting services you're going to have to develop your skills.

I think the best way to do that, is by reading the books that have been recommended in this thread and then applying it.

Get into product creation, it forces you to write copy. Write copy for your work until you get good at it, at which point you can sell your copywriting services.

Reading so many books from the huge list Ray provided will just give you information overload.

Here's a little tip for you...

...you want your learning to be made simple. And you want to learn the subject at an accelerated pace? Correct? This being the case, go to either Amazon or eBay and buy just this one book which will prepare you for the exciting journey just ahead...

It's the one by Joseph Sugarman - The Adweek Copywriting Handbook.

This particular book explains the processes behind writing sales copy very well. Laid out very simply the language used is concise and to the point. Perfect for a beginner like you to help understand the basic key concepts behind writing sales copy.

Of course, the only way for you to get good at this though isn't by reading books alone. Yes this will give you some of the knowledge required but books are no substitute for putting in lots and lots of practice.

For practice sake then... which famous copywriter appeals to you the most? Which one most closely resonates with how you envisage your copywriting career development in these early stages? Now, go find their sales letters and build up a swipe file of all their copywriting pieces and written ads (print them out). Then read each one of these sales letters through from beginning to end, right through the entire pile. Those one's which particularly grab your interest - put these one's to one side.

Now pick a favorite. Grab a piece of A4 paper and a pen and write out this ad by hand without changing a thing. Doing this will cement the copy elements and psychological triggers in your subconscious mind. Do this for your top 10 favorite sales letters. Twice over if needs be.

After this go find a product or make one up and write the sales copy for it. When you're done, post up a request here on this forum asking for a critique and one or two guys knowing you've put the effort in, will likely step up to the plate to help you move onto the next step.

Warmest regards,


Mark Andrews

Thank you so much, for every single suggestion!

Without wanting to step on anyones toes, after reading all the posts, it seems there are a few different paths to chose from.

So, I'm going start on one of the books suggested and get some more practice in, then keep repeating that process (depending on feedback and advice, if I'm lucky enough get any more!).

If it's ok (as somebody suggested) I'd like to come back here later and post up an example of my work for critique. That way I know if I am in the right ballpark! It would be humbling to get some real opinions and advice from pros.

Btw, mentoring services were talked about in one of the above posts - what does that cost on a low budget? Is it really worth it nowadays, when you have access to sites like this?

when you hire a mentor/coach... you're basically learning from their years of trial
and error and learning curve... so you can cut most of that out for yourself.

so, you're trading money for years off the learning curve.

the 2 choices you have in this biz are to learn everything you need to know, as you go,
and spend 5 to 10 years doing so.

or, hire a mentor and learn how to get up to speed in about 2 weeks, if that.

Tiger Woods still has a coach, Micheal Jordan had a coach, etc.

Now, sure if you're on a small, small budget, you may not be able to do that.

but its an investment like anything else, really.

you should look at the end result, not the cost.

Do you want to spend 5 to 10 years learning the ins and outs
of everything you need to know, or pay a coach a few bucks
to get a proven process you can use today.

I've sold almost 20 million dollars worth of products
for me and my clients the last few years.

biggest and best thing i've ever done for myself
was to hire a business coach.

the more money i make these days, the more i spend
on coaches.

it is what it is, those who truly know what they
want to achieve will hire others to get them
there faster, so they don't have to spend years
on the learning curve and trial and error.

not only that, but using a coach will help cut
out a lot of information overload that can
come with books and forums like this.

because instead of learning from 30 different
mentors... to the point of being confused as to
"who is right", you can learn from one that has
proven they can get you results, and you follow
that one plan of action.

out of all the things i've ever invested in,
coaching has been and still is my #1 action
that has provided the single largest return
on investment.

Is the thanks button disabled until I have a certain number of posts? (I can't see it...)