The Harsh Truth About 80/20 Learning Copywriting
Let’s rant a little, and tie it into learning copywriting.
A couple of times, I’ve had people come to me with this sort of question. The other day, somebody sent me a message on a forum I visit. Their question was about copywriting.
“How do you hack copywriting?”
And like the other time I got this question, I responded with the stuff I talk about on the blog:
- Hand copy ads
- Make a swipe file
- Read the great books on copywriting
- Start projects where you’ll practice
- Trial by fire: Work in the environment
- Prove everything you can do scientifically
And yet the answer wasn’t enough for either of the guys I told that to.
“But I don’t have the time to hand write ads and there’s got to be a better way.”
Fair enough… so I break down the exact process I talk about in the Best Copywriting Exercise article.
And “That’s still too much work… what would you say are the best things you can do to learn in thirty minutes a day and get professional in a month?”
Or something similar.
This all comes from the same place that all that Tim Ferriss stuff does. Get the four hour work week, get someone to do the work for you and make out like a bandit.
OK.
Copywriting Is Already A Hacked Process
Here’s the thing with copywriting. It’s a hacked process already. Direct marketing in general is a hacked process, because results are what matters and people throw millions into testing and so you get to conclusions quickly.
And that’s what all the best copywriting learning methods are about. You do a ton of work, learn quickly, test quickly and upgrade your skills quickly.
That’s how I learned, it’s how the people I learned from learned… and at this point, it’s how the people who’ve succeeded from what I’ve said have learned.
Take Nate Schmidt, for instance. He does dropshipping and before that he did email marketing and before that … he learned the basics of copywriting.
Now, if you were to look at his successes, you’d think he’d “hacked” the system. And in a way, he did, because he did what I just said.
Nate emailed a ton of guys about copywriting when he started. He tested stuff out and kept going. Then he learned more and applied more. Then he asked around about dropshipping and tested everything and then became successful with that.
And that’s the whole point with copying out ads, rewriting ads and testing stuff… that is hacking the process.
But some people want to not do that: they just want to skip to the bit where they’re an expert.
Here’s the harsh truth.
At Some Point, You Have To Do Some Work
The dream salesmen (like Tim Ferriss) give you is that you won’t have to do any work.
It’s the “six minute abs and eat whatever you want!” thing.
And it’s a sales message.
Sure, you can optimise.
Sure you can find shortcuts and tricks, hacks and tips.
But at some point, you’re going to have to sit down and do the work.
And the crazy thing is that copywriting doesn’t take a million years or a million dollars to learn. You don’t have to worry about whether what you’re doing is the correct path, because every copywriter that has gone before you has done the same thing with success.
So go read some books, write some sales letters, keep testing stuff out and you will get better.
If you don’t then you won’t. Simple as that.