Daily Routine To Make Copywriting Gains
In How To Start Copywriting, I wrote about the one secret way to get great at writing copy.
With pretty much everything, you can go a step further.
If you are a fiction writer only, or you are allergic to making money, then stop reading right now.
If on the other hand, you’d like to take your copywriting to a new level and make some more money, here is a daily exercise regime that’ll turn you into the James Bond of writing copy.
Step One: Read A Couple of Books (Estimated time: Ten Hours Maximum)
Before we get on to the daily habits, you need to get an overview of what copywriting is. You could read my guide and the books suggested within it, or you could read a handful of books.
Most copywriting books aren’t very long, and they have simple language, so this shouldn’t take you long.
Here are a few to start with:
Web Copy That Sells (My Review)
Triggers (Robert’s Review/Sam’s Review)
Cashvertising (My Review Upcoming)
The Boron Letters (Robert’s Review/My Review Upcoming)
Pick a couple of those. You’ll get the general framework pretty quickly.
Daily Habit One:Hand Copy (40 Minutes)
Writing out adverts by hand will make you better at copywriting. I don’t know how it works, but my current guess is that you have to really slow down and take the language in when you copy it.
Either way, keep a list of your favourite adverts. Head on over to swiped.co or if you’re really serious, go to Copyhour.
Take those adverts and copy them by hand. Do it every day for a few minutes. You’ll know when you can stop, because you’ll find there’s a point where your brain starts to generate ideas at a manic pace.
Some people suggest spending hours doing this. I don’t think that’s necessary.
Step Two: Write A Sales Letter For Something (One Hour Or Less)
I talked about this yesterday.
If you want to get good at something, do it every day. If you can’t do it every day, shift the goal posts to where you can.
You’ve got hobbies. It doesn’t matter what they are. Write a sales letter for a product you’ve used. Do that every day. A few hundred words is all it’ll take unless you’re trying to sell a Ferrari. If it helps, use a template that you’ve discovered with your hand writing.
If you do this every day, then not only will you get better, but you’ll have enough material to make money for quite some time. Try writing one sales letter a day and then keep them in a folder on your pc, in fifty two days (so, less than two months) you can start a niche site and have a post go up every single week for the next year.
Step Three: Work On Sticking Points (15 Minutes)
There’ll be stuff that comes naturally to you in copywriting. You might have a witty sense of humour or an ability to convey the benefits of doing something quickly.
There’ll also be stuff you aren’t good at. You might be terrible at writing headlines for instance. Or maybe your calls to action are weak.
The way to get better at this is to hand write and analyse those particular points for a while. Why do some calls to action work better than others? What makes you click on a headline?
Just like working on your body at the gym, there are going to be weak body parts that hold you back. When you put your focus directly on them though, you’ll find that you get better at them quickly.
Closing Thoughts
This plan is a great way to get good at writing sales letters really quickly.
It can be adapted to direct mailing, websites, writing blurbs and writing for clients. You simply change what you’re looking for and the source material you use.
I’ve given you timings. It’ll take about two hours if you stick to my timings, although you’l find that you’ll get quicker as you get into the habit. You could easily cut down those times considerably.
P.S. Yesterday I wrote a sales letter of about 800 words in twenty minutes. If you could do a couple of those a day for high ticket items, you’d probably have a smile on your face.