Got a great question from a subscriber this morning.
If you’re just starting out and want a “short cut” way of getting good at copywriting, then I think you’ll find this especially interesting.
Here goes:
QUESTION: I heard about the importance of hand copying ads when starting in copywriting. But in your ‘Copywriting Grab Bag’ book, you say we need to be careful what we copy as just because an internet sales letter pulled in lots of sales doesn’t always mean it’s worth copying due to the brilliance of product launch marketing and pre-selling.
What ads and sales letters should I begin copying out?
BEN: I used to mindlessly copy out Gary Halbert ads.
I chose Gary Halbert due to reading the story of a brilliant copywriter named Scott Haines.
When Scott was starting out, he was in a hurry to learn copywriting, and heard Gary Halbert say on a tape the best way to get good at copywriting — fast — was by copying out the ads of world-class copywriters by hand.
Only problem was, Scott couldn’t find any Gary Halbert ads.
But what he did find was Gary Halbert’s hard-to-find classic book,
“How To Make Maximum Money In Minimum Time” — and so he figured he might as well copy out Gary’s book.
After all, since Gary was considered “The World’s Greatest Copywriter”, copying any kind of his writing would be better than none at all.
Did it work?
It sure did.
For one thing, immediately after copying this book by hand, Scott’s ads started working and making some decent bux.
It also led to him working with Gary Halbert himself.
Anyway, the good news is Gary Halbert writings abound online.
But if you want the exact Gary Halbert book Scott Haines copied out (I mean, why mess around when you can go right to the “source”), I have seen it on eBay recently.
You can see a couple used copies for sale (pretty cheap, too) here:
Ben
