So look… You might disagree with me here. You might sneer. You might even think I’m an idiot for saying what I’m about to say. But I’m going to say it anyway. I’d be a liar if I didn’t. Spit it out? OK… With direct-response copywriting I think it’s often better to be cliché than […]
Tag Archives: COPY
As you write more and more copy, you tend to develop your own list of ‘go to’ words. You know that if you’re in a scrape and your brain isn’t functioning properly after a heavy night, you can dip into this universal sack of trigger words and the result will be half decent. But I […]
Questions in copy can be so dangerous… Do you agree? No. And there you go, my question is answered. Just like that, it’s all over. Sorry to waste your time. I’ll speak to you another day. OK. OK. What happened there? Well, I asked a question… You had an answer, and hell… I wouldn’t blame you […]
I blame Dostoyevsky… Even his name is difficult to read. Is that even how you spell bloody Dostoyevsky? Who knows? Who cares? OK. OK. Yes, I accept – he probably was one of the greatest writers that have ever lived… And yes, his novels are deeper than a deep thing that’s very deep. But here’s […]
Too many copywriting gurus go on and on about what they DO know… So to freshen things up a little, here are five things about copywriting that I definitely DO NOT know. 1. I don’t ever know what the best headline is for any particular product or service that I am selling. Even when I […]
One of the most fundamental things you can do in a headline is to make a promise to the reader. In fact, it’s probably one of the most often used techniques when it comes to writing headlines for direct response copy. With financial copy I’m sure you’ve come across many headlines promising that if you […]
Are copywriters born? I’m not so sure. I have a different theory. More often than not it is chance – a strange series of events lead us towards the discipline. It’s what happened to me and it’s what happened for freelance copywriter, Alastaire Allday. For Alastaire it was the perfect outcome – having already worked […]
Pictures paint a thousand words, right? But when it comes to using pictures in a direct-response sales letter, a badly chosen image will more likely lose you a thousand sales. More often than not, in my own sales letters I tend to avoid using stock images altogether. After all, when writing long copy you’re really constructing a persuasive […]
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not (at least on this occasion) having a go at the copy itself… But I was just working through the pile of copywriting products I have to review and I came across this online sales letter for Copywriting Supremacy. I don’t know what’s going on but I seem to be coming […]
At the end of the 80s there was really only one widely recognized skateboarding company: Powell Peralta. Started by two of the biggest names in skateboarding – particularly Stacey Peralta – the company was very successful. Indeed, it was pretty much THE team to ride for. Its elite skating team – the Bones Brigade – actually included […]