You may find this useful:

http://copyhour.com/secret

PS: I've said this before. I write out a piece by hand every day. Been doing it for years.

I've written the one legged golfer ad out by hand a bunch of times because I wanted to study it in small bits. The structure of that ad is burned into my brain more than any other ad I've studied, so I think it helps.

Where could I get a large swipe file of up to date ads? for writing out by hand!

I have access to many of the older ads Gary Halbert recommends you copy.

I also have John Carltons 3 volume swipe file, is this a good place to start? or should I go for more up to date ads?

I think there is a very big danger to copying out salesletters by hand. Its this:

Copying salesletters by hand can lead newbies to focus on HOW THEY SAY IT instead of on WHAT THEY SAY.

Most salesletters are successful for one reason:

They match what the prospect wants, will believe, and will respond to - with what their product and offer are.

The brilliance of most ads lies not in their structure but in their understanding of the people they are selling to and merging that with their product/offer.

The mistake most new copywriters make is paying more attention to how they are saying something - than to what they are saying. This leads to copy which is completely out of touch with their market and thus... fails miserably.

Copying salesletters by hand is a fantastic way to get good at copywriting structures but also has a danger of causing a person to think the magic cure to sales is in "how they say something" rather than on a deep understanding of their customer and offer.

What you say, is so much more important than how you say it.

I can say "I am a billionaire and want to cut you a check for a million dollars today"

Or I could say "BILLIONAIRE WANTS TO GIVE YOU A MILLION DOLLAR CHECK BECAUSE HE IS SO RICH"

Or I could say "Incredible news! Billionaire entreprenuer announces hes giving YOU a million dollar cheque today!"

Whatever way I say it, you want to know how to get the million bucks. Thats it.

I can also say

"Tadpoles are great pets"

"Enjoy the fun and playfulness of the beautiful tadpole"

"They laughed when we bought tadpoles as pets... but not when we needed to feed our cat!"

Whatever way you say it, tadpoles are much less interesting than a million dollars. Copywriting should be concerned with what you say, not how you say it.

While both are important, one is more important than the other.

Copywriting is salesmanship in print, which is ultimately about psychology - not about writing.

Writing out a sales letter won't help you accomplish anything other than remembering a particular sales letter.

What you should be doing is studying the sales letter and understanding why it worked.

Understand the reasoning behind the words.

Thanks for all the reply's so far. It's interesting to see that some still copy copy by hand past the "beginner" stages.


And yes, I'm sure that most do realize that writing these out by hand isn't the only lesson to creating better copy. It does show you how to turn 1 word into 20, and how others build their story instead of a cold sales pitch


It's like reading a book on how to play any sport, yeah, you'll know the fundamental theories, but you will not be any good without practice, practice, practice, before playing your first game. Copying copy would be the practice to get you ready for the game of your live advertisement/sales page, etc..

That's what it seems like to me at least...

my first, exposure to copy writing was the six figure copywriting course by Micheal Masterson. There was a lot of rewriting sales letters in that course.

It is very helpful to write out sales copy. My favorite is the wall street journal " two young men"

Coping copying is a great tool but not the only tool, one also needs to engage the conscious mind as well.

writing succefull copy engages the sub-conscious

Naming each paragraph ( picture painting, pain generating, building intimacy, etc) engages your conscious mind.

In successful copy each paragraph has a purpose, what are they trying to achieve? Learn to by diagraming each and every copy you write out.


- Jonathan

It did help me enormously but more when I isolated different parts
of copy (like headlines, opening lines, bullets, calls to action etc)
and sought out and copied 20 or 30 of the best of each I could
find.

That helped me to improve each area of my sales letters.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

P.S. For the record you can find a ton of Gary Halbert ads
free at hardtofindads.com

And you can find many of John Carlton's sales letters here...
OHP Direct - Golf Instructional - Golf School - Golf Training - Golf Teachers - Golf Tips - Lower Scores -
FightFast.com
Electric Guitar Tips. Claim Your 4 FREE Guitar Lesson Videos.

Perhaps mimicking others' copy will help you get an idea of the structure of good copy, but if you're trying to fit your ideas into someone else's letter, you'll eventually find yourself constricted. The end result will be a rigid letter that doesn't express exactly what you want it to.

Why do you think Bruce Lee was such a good fighter? He broke out of the form that was forced upon him by the masters of the past.

Yeah, you can learn Wing Chun and be a good fighter, but you won't be a Bruce Lee if you're just copying how others write.

I copy them. Then I read them, record it and create MP3s. Then I load them onto my iPod. Then I listen back at my leisure.

I think it helped me a bit when I started out. Bencivenga was a favorite of mine... with a little Halbert mixed in.

But I have an old basketball hand injury that plays up when I write longhand. And I'm only man enough to suck up the pain for so long...

--- Ross

I will always copy good copy if it converts. If it does not apply to what i am writing for then i just replace a few words and make it work!

Yes, it'll help more than anything else. I still do it for an hour every morning

writing has always been a challenge for me. Somehow speaking all comes naturally but I need to crack my head when writing, especially sales letters. Having references always helps