I was reading a book the other day by a fellow name Ted Nicholas. He said one of the quickest ways for a person to improve their copy writing skills is to routinely practice writing successful sales letters over and over. My question ... 1. Has anyone heard of Ted Nicholas? 2. Has anyone heard of this technique? 2. Has anyone tried this technique? 3. I'm assuming when he said to write successful sales letter he meant to hand write them. But does typing them give the same results? Thanks for any insights, opinions or thoughts concerning this post.
Well, it's not really an earth-shattering idea. With anything you want to get good at, you have to practice ... right? In this sense, "write" and "typing" is the same thing. But either way gives you the same results because the part of our brain that works in giving us creativity could care less.
Without outside feedback of any kind, I doubt this would do an awful lot to improve one's writing skills. With some of the examples people have posted here and their responses when honestly critiqued, it would seem that many new copywriters have little to no self-critique or self-editing skills.
I would think that analyzing successful sales letters; breaking them down and noting their structure and strategy, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, finding out what they do right, learning the principles they are based on and such would yield much better results than writing/typing them over and over. Though typing/writing a successful sales letter again could help you get acquainted with it on a deeper level. If you can't do this on your own, there are websites that analyze successful sales letters and such. Like http://www.infomarketingblog.com/
Haven't heard of Ted. However, I know the technique works just like I know the sun will rise from the east tomorrow. Whether you type other people's sales letters or hand write them, you will still absorb great copywriting techniques. Stepping in somebody's footprints often will make one position his feet like him/her when walking.
Practice makes perfect in any endeavor. But as someone said (above), you can't go by your own opinion to know whether your practice sales letter are good or not. That said, I don't really understand the technique. Are you supposed to: -- Rewrite existing sales letters word for word? -- Or try to improve upon an existing sales letter? Sounds interesting, either way!
I have heard a similar strategy to this. Writing in your hand makes some good coordination rather than typing it. I'm not sure if this is true or not though.
1. Never heard of the guy, so I googled the name up. I got his homepage : http://www.tednicholas.com/ Here's a list of things I found out about the guy, by his own admission (i) (ii) (iii) As far as I can tell, he writes for affiliate marketers (sales pages, squeeze pages, mailers, etc). 2. The technique sounds logical, but is hardly original. Many have spoken of it. 2. Stands to reason many have, especially the old timers (Excellent numbering system, btw. This will definitely catch on) 3. Depends entirely on your own habits and preferences. Me, I construct the whole article in my head first before I type a word.
While I agree that practice does play a role in improving copywriting skills, you first have to acquire the skills. Feedback is definitely part of the learning process, but you also need to get a handle on copywriting techniques, placement of the call to action, formats for different types of marketing collateral, etc. Copywriting goes way beyond writing sales letters over and over again.
I have found that reading my copywriting material in front of a mirror works really well. It sounds corny, but it works! What it will do is help you "hear" what someone else is reading. A recording, such as on an iphone or other device works well also. Hearing what you write is the key!
Nothing I did whilst learning the art of copywriting helped me more than consistent practice. I used to write a couple letters a day for around 6 months, so I know what I'm talking about. (Sometimes it does get boring though lol) Josiah.
I Googled him and came up with his website: http://www.tednicholas.com/ - apart from that, I'd never heard of him, but then I'm not in the USA.
Ted Nicholas is definitely one of the greats in copywriting. He is reputed to have made over $10 billion in sales for other people, and he's earned a pretty good amount himself too. If he thinks practice makes perfect, then I certainly won't argue. He also says that the headline makes up 90% of the success of any piece of copywriting. I know this to be absolutely true. I run my own approved Google News site, and it's the headline - not the story - that draws in the visitors, which in turn makes the income. A great headline on a mediocre news piece can outdo a mediocre headline on a great news piece - every time! Practice writing copy by all means, but practice writing headlines twice as much at least. John.