The bold part.... I second that. It's called copywriting because you write copy. The word 'copy', as a noun, refers to material that's meant to be printed. This is usually understood as sales copy, although it can mean any kind of literature.
There are no "stupid" questions. You didn't know and you asked. Stupid people don't ask questions. And you're not stupid, because you asked.
Copy is just the content of an ad, website, tv commercial script, radio script. It's more sales oriented even though that's not always obvious.
The "copy" part confused me when I first started freelancing too. This might help. Take a look: http://www.copyblogger.com/copywriting-101/
Thank you very much. I do have my moments. And like teachers always say, if you have a question, chances are someone else has the same question too. Glad to see we got some great answers on this one.
Spot on. Why do people have to feel like they're somehow superior for knowing something someone else doesn't? No one is an expert at everything... and we all started from the same place. rep++ for you
what people are requesting in forums such as this is not actualy copywriting, A Copywriter is the person who writes advertising copy. This usually includes sales pages, sales letters and other methods for creating excitement and eliciting an emotional response from the reader with the intent of closing a sale. Average copywriters close about 2.5% average. A good copywriter closes around 4 or 5% and anyone who averages over 5% can pretty much write their own ticket. A content writer is someone who writes canned copy (Written information sold inclusive of all rights) to a buyer or writes material to fill web pages, inform and impart knowledge to the reader or other forms of writing not always directly affiliated with sales. This can include blog posts, articles, Web page T&C, privacy policies, EULAs or other such materials.
An interesting question. It can be fun to research where words and there meanings have evolved from. For the most part, what is interesting here is the origins of the word copy as opposed to write. I found this information online at http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=copy&searchmode=none Digging a bit deeper... The American Heritage Dictionary includes 3 Definitions for the word copy If we remember that the Internet and email are quite the latecomers in the scheme of things, using the word copy makes a lot of sense. Copy has always been designed as something to "write again in another place" or a bit more accurately something that we wish to be displayed and distributed. The dictionary definitions of copywriter do seem to all focus on writing for advertising which I suppose is simply a natural progression for the origins of both words. So, to some extent what copywriters write is copied by the act of being published and distributed. Thanks for starting this conversation. I find words and their origins fascinating (occupational hazard I suppose). By the way, did you know that graphite, as in the stuff in pencils, is actually from the Greek word graphein = "write"? Saw that among the information the site pulled up.
People asked me that when I started also. Its just an advertising term used by the first copywriters like John Caples. ie 'long copy ads"
Caples was one of the greats, but the term was alive and kicking prior to his entry into the copywriting world. I'm actually sitting here reading an article from 1910 (17 years before Caples goes into copywriting) and it specifically says "copy writing." Fascinating article. It's about the earnings of "advertising men." For those interested in history, I read an article about copywriting from 1918 tonight. It talked about a copywriter who released a list of the strongest 100 words in the English language. Since this was a banking publication, the writer listed 14 words off the list that might pertain to banking. Six of the 14 are: 1. Achievement 2. Ambition 3. Certainty 4. Confidence 5. Prosperity 6. Facts Don't ask me why I'm reading articles from the late 1800s and early 1900s.
And remember there are several types of copy, and copywriter is used to describe just one of them: -Journalists -Editors -Copywriters (they write Ad copy!) -Article writers -Bloggers -Publishers There are so many types of jobs dealing with copy, that most can't figure out who's doing what. The above list might help you see the difference a bit. -Dave
Hey guys, Interesting conversation... As I see it: Any material that is destined to be reproduced electronically, printed, etc is "copy". The key being reproduced. If it is not destined to be reproduced eg a letter its not "copy". Now he who holds the rights to the reproduction, even if he didn´t write it, is the copyright holder. Copied is simply the past tense of copy... ie if it has been reproduced it has been "copied"... Enough of that and back to building the website Cheers, Angus
Copyright is about ownership, not distribution/reproduction. I doubt most novelists would wish for their book to not be copied in print runs of several million and sold. Without distribution/reproduction of some fashion, copywriting that was performed to sell a product or service would be useless. Sales letters, brochures, and other marketing materials are designed to be sent and distributed to as many people as possible.