I recently had a copywriting brain fart while reading the Bible.
It happened while reading about false prophets and “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”
You know — the dorks acting like God’s messengers, but twisting scriptures around, and basically having people do the exact OPPOSITE of what God really wants them to do.
And it occurred to me we have a bit of that in the copywriting world, too.
In fact, I call ’em:
And at first glance they LOOK like good teachers.
They SAY the right things.
They ACT the right way.
They KNOW all the right people.
But when you partake of their “doctrine”, you find theirs is truly a rotten fruit indeed.
In fact, listening to one of these guys can not only hurt your response… but put your business in some serious jeopardy, too.
How so?
Because learning copywriting is like opening a feed sack.
If you don’t open it right and pull the string across the top — it’ll rip down the middle instead… with everything spilling all over and making a gigantic mess that’s all but impossible to fully clean up.
All of which is why it’s so important to be able to identify these “false prophets” so you can rebuke them and not be cursed by their “unclean” advice.
Of course, that begs the question:
How can you discern when you’re learning from one of these copywriting “false prophets”?
What are their “marks”?
Well, believe it or not, they have lots of marks.
Some are obvious, some are not so obvious.
For one thing, some of them are still hawking their copywriting services all over the Internet for a few hundred bucks.
I have NOTHING against doing that, by the way.
I think it’s a great way to get your feet wet and get some moolah rolling in.
But it’s when they start filling other unsuspecting peoples’ heads with bad advice, treating opinions as facts and misleading new copywriters with cockamamie theories that don’t have a prayer of working… that I feel a burning dose of righteous indignation.
In addition, another “mark” is… their clothes.
Many of these guys LOVE wrapping themselves in robes made of nothing but stitched-together ads from other copywriters.
And no… I’m not talking about swiping here.
I’m talking about outright stealing other peoples’ ads — sometimes even word for word.
And by the way, you can tell if you’re in one of these preachers’ “flocks” because many of their disciples can’t seem to form an original thought.
Can’t seem to create an original ad.
And get VERY angry when you call them on it.
Instead, everything is “swipe and steal!” — regardless of the moral, ethical and even legal implications.
Anyway, there are more marks to look for.
But those are (IMHO) the two biggies.
Watch your arse.
Ben Settle
P.S. If you’re serious about learning how to write ads that make money, you must study and show thyself approved. To learn at the feet of some the world’s greatest living copywriting masters, check out the appendixes in The Copywriting Grab Bag:
Holy mama I seem to have touched a nerve with this.
I keep getting emails about “who” I’m talking about in this post.
Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not talking about any individual in particular.
More like a mixture of people who I have seen haunting certain marketing and copywriting forums and giving bad advice to people I care about.
It just bothers me because, I remember when I was starting out. I got lucky and latched onto Gary Halbert’s site and got some personal instruction from some very generous people who had no reason to help me other than to help.
But what if I’d ran into someone teaching the wrong way to do it?
Someone who doesn’t care about their customers, doesn’t understand the relationship between copy and the more important elements like list, offer, positioning, etc?
Who thinks stealing other peoples’ stuff (not swiping, stealing) is okay and tells others to go and do likewise?
It’d have ruined my business probably and I wouldn’t even have known why.
So for those of you asking about this particular individual or that particular individual, the answer is no. It’s not.
I’m just talking about “types” here.
I’m FAR from perfect, so the LAST thing I am in a position to do is judge anyone in particular.
