It’s one of the simplest, most effective ways of improving your copy…yet most people will never do this. Find out what I’m talking about…
It’s 1938. Very bad things are going down in Europe. Anti-Semitism is rife. The Nazi’s are about to annex Austria. Find out what it’s got to do with copy…
This will upset some copywriters. it will cause other copywriters joy. Find out which category you’re in…
Writing copy to grab your reader’s attention is hard. You might spend weeks testing different ideas for nothing. Even if the product or service you’re selling is great, it doesn’t necessarily make writing captivating copy any easier. But there is an exercise you can do to write copy with a much greater chance of success. And strangely, it involves spending time in your reader’s bed. Huh? Between the sheets Of course, I don’t literally mean…
A quick reminder before I get into this piece… My fiancée Ruth and I…otherwise known as ‘Gluth’…are running the Great Grimsby 10k this year and raising money for the British Heart Foundation. For the many readers outside the UK who are wondering what on earth ‘Great Grimsby’ is…it’s where I’m from. Grimsby is a small fishing port on the east coast of England. And it’s, er, great. Anyhow, we’re over 60% of the way towards…
It’s one of those copy jobs you can’t imagine anyone actually has. You not only get to read loads of books… But your writing appears on every one you do read. Pretty cool. I’m talking, in case you haven’t guessed, about writing the ‘blurb’ on the back of a book. You know…that 200-or-so-word synopsis designed to convert the casual bookshop browser into a buyer. Well, it was my great pleasure this week to interview someone…
Do you have a swipe file? You hopefully do. And if that is the case, rather than read this email, go read this interesting interview with post-punk legend Ian MacKaye instead. But if you don’t already have a swipe file, or you do have one and you’d like to discover some of my own swipe file secrets… Well, I guess you should keep reading. (Though that interview is genuinely interesting too.) The question no one wants…
Imagine you’re living a roguish life as a bank robber in the Wild West… You drift from town to town ‘sticking-up’ the local bank… You’re damn good at it too. Just yesterday you moseyed on in, stuck your gun in the bank teller’s face and delivered your usual “this is a stick-up” line. The teller knew the score straight away and handed over the bag of swag. You moseyed on out. But you have a…
I’ve just published a new book for Kindle… Buy This Now: A Beginner’s Guide to Direct Response Copywriting. Inside I’ve brought together ten simple rules that I recommend you follow when it comes to starting out in your copywriting career. This isn’t abstract stuff. It’s specific advice that you can apply to any copy you’re working on. From understanding the importance of a varied vocabulary to learning how to swallow your creative pride, Buy This…
Often the first few lines of a direct response sales letter are redundant. Sometimes, even the first few paragraphs are too. Look again at the opening of any sales letter you’re working on and ask if it would not be stronger to start a little further in. You see, when we start writing we are heading into the dark. Even with a well thought-out idea and a tight structure in mind, those first words are…