The word copywriting actually comes from the advertising term copy, which meant sales or advertising copy. Newspapers and magazines refers to writing. When the editor wanted someone to turn in their work they would ask for their copy. This is where it started and it has stuck. Now it is just an excepted term among advertisers and it stands for sales copy. So a copywriter is someone that writes sales material for a product or service. With the advent of the internet and search engine optimization (SEO) SEO copywriting has come into play. What this means is to insert a specific keyword phrase into body of the sales letter. Copywriters have been around for over a century and yet many people still don't really know what they do. To put it simply a copywriter writes persuasive copy to convince and compel people to buy a product or service. Back in the beginning of the last century it was discovered that business could send sales letters to people and get sales from it. The conversion rate began to be tracked and eventually a control letter system was established. This continued on through the twentieth century and still continues today. Now with the internet a whole new purpose has become available to employ copywriting and the sales page or sales letter now appears in all kinds of places on the web. Practically every time you go to a page selling something there will be a sales page in one form or another. There are the typical long form sales letter, the short form sales letter and the new thing is video sales letter.