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Snake Oil or a Scientific Process?

by Michael Newman
3 replies
What do you think of the advice that is often given to beginning copywriters -- especially, the one that suggests COPYING great sales letters by hand, do you think it is effective, or is it merely a remnant of copywriting lore and tradition?
#oil #process #scientific #snake
  • Profile picture of the author Memetics
    It's very effective. Eventually you pick up the concepts and methods which made the copy great and then it's incorporated into your mind on an unconscious level. It influences your creativity in the background.
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    • Profile picture of the author marciayudkin
      I'm not sure it makes any difference whether you do it by hand or by typing, but having the actual text of well-constructed sales letters go through your mind and your hands, slowly, does teach you.

      Gary Halbert's secretary learned how to write copy exactly this way, by typing his work.

      In addition, many journalists swear by typing up their own interview notes as a way of getting the material firmly into their subconscious as a first step to organizing it into a finished piece of writing.

      Marcia Yudkin
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  • Profile picture of the author RyanLB
    While I wouldn't suggest outright recommending plagarism, we would all be lying if we said we've never used some source material as inspiration. These are great landing pages for a reason and likely contain elements that we as copywriters would like to incorporate in our own projects.

    If you are worried about it - study a page before you begin writing. Write your entire piece of copy without looking at the source material, and then come back and compare the two when done. They should end up different from one another, and you can always make edits after taking another look at the source material.

    If it works, it works.
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