Copy Chief PresentsThe Copywriting Event of 2023: Copy Chief Live – Nashville Your invitation to get “up close and personal” with the industry’s most successful and forward-thinking marketers and copywriters for three days at an exclusive live event Oct 4th – 6th in Nashville, Tennessee. INCLUDING: Parris Lampropoulos One of the undisputed greats of direct […]
Copy Chief Live Nashville Read More »
How’s your business been treating you so far this year? Is it the friend you can’t wait to wake up to? Or the beast looming in the next room? People with “real jobs” don’t quite understand how it can be. This relationship we have with our business. It’s complicated. Sometimes you can feel like you
The 15-Minute “Focus Card” That Will End Your Stress and Fatten Your Wallet Read More »
The dream of becoming a successful freelance copywriter is an alluring one. You make your own schedule. You work with who you want to work with. And you get paid handsomely for all of it. Plus, your job is to learn about psychology and persuasion — skills that improve every single area of your life.
More writing, happier clients: 5 ways to handle the business side of copywriting Read More »
In today’s hyper-connected cyber world, we’ve become “copy blind.” People are reading so much copy… they tune out, go numb, and become blinded by the sheer number of ads they encounter day after day. The New York Times reported that, 30 years ago, people saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day. Today, people
Beating Copy Blindness: Weaving story into every part of the sales letter Read More »
After nearly a decade of trying, I finally need to admit my complete and utter failure at something that is basic for the vast majority of people… I cannot, for the life of me, get a single ounce of quality work done in a coffee shop. I know, I know—it’s totally not cool and
Checklist for great copy based on hierarchy of needs Read More »
One of my all-time heroes is Jim Rohn. An inspiring motivational speaker and author, Rohn also knows how to give good quote. (My favorite of Jim’s is: “Never wish life were easier; wish that you were better.” Incredible.) One subject he talks a lot about is mentors. It’s a subject that has resonated with me
The Beginner’s Mindset and Finding Mentors Read More »
Remember the Wizard of Oz? I’ll always remember that creepy, disembodied head surrounded by pillars of FIRE. That wizard was SCARY, man. And Dorothy went up to that dude and asked for a favor like it was no big deal. Sure, half the room was on fire and the wizard’s temple veins looked like they’d
5 Tips to being a better corporate writer Read More »
1. Accepting a small role in someone else’s success, rather than creating big wins of your own. Freelancers, the good ones, often suffer from what I call “the sickness”. Which means they posses an unstoppable drive to conquer a complex skill such as direct response copywriting, and then hand it over to clients for a pittance,
5 Reasons Copywriters Stay Broke Read More »
Picture it: June. Southeast Texas. HOT. I’m talking swamp-in-the-seat-of-your-pants HOT. I’m on the hunt for a new car because after my car accident, I’d been stuck driving my stepdad’s old Ford pickup truck. The one with the bench seat, the loud engine, and the open-all-windows variety of air conditioning. I arrive at the 5 billionth
The danger in presuming you know what your prospects are thinking Read More »
A few seasons ago, a loud mouthed NFL player — Richard Sherman — aggravated a nation and drew controversy with a post-match interview. If you didn’t catch it before, have a look here: At first glance, Sherman comes across as a brash, ignorant and unsporting meat-head, who uses his air time to settle a score.
How to stand out from the noise — Conor McGregor Read More »
[vc_video title=”#” link=”https://youtu.be/NAuCNZ-Wblo”]
Converting copy into design Read More »
Your fingers are numb. Your brain is mush. And your eyeballs are practically popping out of your face, over-stimulated by the gallons of caffeine you’ve consumed. Man, the all-nighter you’ve just pulled to finally get your sales letter ready before the deadline has taken its toll. But there’s one last obstacle you’re still to overcome:
How do you know if it’s any good? Read More »
One of our Copy Chief classic forum threads about focus, started by Jeremey Hunsicker. Check out his post, and two of the replies he got: I’m 43 years old, and up until about a year ago, life had been pretty easy for me. Skated through college, then a great sales job that taught me a
How to learn focus Read More »
Time for another free peek into the Copy Chief Insider forums… This time Brian McCarthy unveils a problem many of us copywriters have (but seldom confess to publicly). I can’t tell you how many times I find myself constantly fiddling over the tiniest details when editing my letter. The last ad I wrote I kept changing
Agonizing over minutiae Read More »
The first time I met Dean Jackson on the (now) famous white couches in Celebration, FL, he asked me a question… “How long could you sit on this couch and do nothing before it had a negative effect on your business?” I didn’t have to think too long. “I’d be dead in two weeks,” I
Creating recurring revenue Read More »
This is the story of how I was able to “weasel my way” into John Carlton’s world. All the way from a guy he’d barely noticed writing about him on marketing forums — to eventually becoming a friend, trusted insider and podcasting partner. There’s a huge lesson in here anyone can use to skip several
Stalking your mentors Read More »
Chris Tomasulo was the first guy to introduce me to direct response copywriting. He showed me some sites and a few letters that looked weird and unappealing to my untrained eye. Chris patiently explained the psychology behind the copy and why the pages looked the way they did (ugly on purpose was still very effective
Landing your first client Read More »
First morning back in Tampa from Australia. What an adventure. 19,298 miles and 180 handshakes over 7 days. So much to share with you this week from James Schramko’s incredible live event… Including: What I learned from my first time traveling overseas (and surfing), major takeaways from the other event speakers and the future of
Frameworks as shortcuts Read More »
In his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, author Greg McKeown recalls his days as a first year law student in England. On a trip to the U.S., an executive mentioned casually, “If you decide to stay in America, you should come and join us on a consulting committee.” It wasn’t the offer that
Stop being a pushover Read More »
I received an email from a subscriber in Australia yesterday with a common theme. It opens like this… “My question is, how did you find the transition from being a comedian to a copywriter? Was it a hard period for you and your family? Did you learn all the copywriting skills before you made the
How to “make it” online Read More »
My first year into freelance copywriting, I had a serious problem. The Problem: Information overload. You know this one, right? That feeling that there is so much good information about how to make money online and it’s your duty to KNOW ALL OF IT. So you opt in for a ton of free reports or
Kill information overload Read More »
The STORY On a recent Saturday I took a “how to write sketch comedy” class that made me cry like a baby. (And these weren’t tears of laughter, like the kind that come just before you pee your pants.) Now, I have no immediate plans to audition for Saturday Night Live — nor do I
How To Storytell Your Way to a Great Product Read More »
