Join Me Doing Sam Parrs 14 day "Copy That" Challenge

[MitchC]

So if you've been on these forums a while you may remember the 30 day Gary Halbert challenge that was a thing here for a while

An insane 30 day challenge that really would probably take a lifetime to complete

Anyway

Sam Parr has something similar but it's only 14 days

And I imagine the copy is way more up to date than 50's long form sales letters in Halberts

I've been meaning to do it for a while now, as you can probably tell, my writing skills have gone back to being terrible, and I have to write copy a lot so it will be good to freshen up my skill

He sent an email today saying that the price is increasing tomorrow so I decide now is the time and purchased it

What is it?

Every day for 14 days he will send you a different piece of copy to hand copy

By hand copying it you will get better at writing copy, kind of like learning guitar by playing other artists songs

You get an understanding and a feel for the writing and how it comes together

Eventually you get a good enough feel that you can start putting your own spin on it and writing your own

Hand copying is the best way to get better at writing, but it's not the most enjoyable or stimulating thing to do, so I figured I'd start this thread to keep myself accountable and also see if anyone else was interested in doing it

Here's the link if you want to buy it

CopyThat

The copywriting challenge that will actually make your writing better in 14 days. Is it that easy? Yeah, it is.

trycopythat.com

This thread will be weird if I don't share what the pieces I am copying are so I'm thinking it will be possible to follow along without buying it

Once you sign up you get an email saying the first piece will be sent on Monday, so I guess I/we start Monday

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MitchC]

Sorry guys I let this thread die. I did not plan ahead. I decided to start this challenge over the Xmas and New Year period knowing I'd be away. What an idiot. But I guess that's the power of good email copy and a scarcity deadline.

Anyway, I started the challenge today with the first email (probably a good place to start).

The other 9 emails are in my inbox waiting for me. I originally thought it was going to be 14 emails but the 2 week challenge doesn't include weekends. Good. It's even easier than I planned for.

So how was it? Better than I expected honestly. I realised how time consuming this course would actually be to put together last week when I was trying to find a good swipe for a blog post. And then today when I opened the first email I saw Sam has not only found and shared a good piece of copy to copy, but has also added a bunch of notes to it in the margins and explained the technique of the day with a few other examples in the email. Truly a lot of work for $80.

"Making Your Copy Sing" was the first technique.

Varying sentence lengths to keep the copy interesting. Short sentences. And then the occasional really long one to give the reader a break, really letting them read a lot of words in one go.

The copy also had a lot of personality and jokes in it. It was super personal, almost like the author was talking to you.

The piece of copy was a comedians sales page that isn't available anymore.

Originally I was going to share them all here for people to follow along with, but after seeing how much work Sam's put in to the course I've decided not to. You guys will just have to pay $80 or whatever it is to get access. I wouldn't even know how to find this piece to share if I wanted to anyway since it's not available anymore and the copy Sam included has all his notes on it.

So I read the email, printed the piece out, then copied it by hand. It only took about 20 minutes. After copying the piece I felt compelled to take my own notes. Even though the piece was really short and Sam had added a lot of notes, his notes missed so many cool things that I liked about the piece.

But in the end I didn't do that. I realised that no matter where I wrote them, I would never go back and revisit them, so instead I wrote a sales letter in a similar style for my own business. And what do you know? It's the best copy I've written in ages. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet. Maybe I'll use it as really long form Facebook ad text, I've seen that working well recently.

Anyway, here's a cool line from the copy you can steal:

"The opening act, who is seen at the beginning (good place for an opening act) is Jay London."

You may notice I stole it for this post. What an easy way to make a boring but essential sentence funny.

 

[StrikingViper69]

I know people selling these things say that hand copying copy is a great way to learn to write copy... but I'm not convinced. Comparing that to learning songs on an instrument seems like an apples and oranges comparison, which is a copywriting tehnique that exploits logical fallacies.

I'd have thought the best way to learn, after reading a book or two on the basics, would be to write copy for a product and get feedback or even test the offer.

Like you did, using the examples as a starter to write your own copy seems like a pretty good use of the emails you're receiving!

 

[MitchC]

I know people selling these things say that hand copying copy is a great way to learn to write copy... but I'm not convinced. Comparing that to learning songs on an instrument seems like an apples and oranges comparison, which is a copywriting tehnique that exploits logical fallacies.

I'd have thought the best way to learn, after reading a book or two on the basics, would be to write copy for a product and get feedback or even test the offer.

Like you did, using the examples as a starter to write your own copy seems like a pretty good use of the emails you're receiving!

I’m not going to try and convince you one way or the other but have you tried hand copying writing before? There is a reason every good writer swears by it. Even authors do it.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[StrikingViper69]

I’m not going to try and convince you one way or the other but have you tried hand copying writing before? There is a reason every good writer swears by it. Even authors do it.

I saw it recommended for a music composition course and tried it. I came to the concusion that what it does is forces the transcriber to slow down and really pay attention to every note (or in this case word) that is being used.

Copying symbols isn't going to teach you anything, but slowing down and thinking about what your copying will teach you.

If you can slow down your mind and pay attention to each word, I think you'd get the same results without the wrist ache.

 

[MitchC]

Day 2 was all about AIDA

The copy to copy was one of the Boron letters

Strange to copy a letter and not a good piece of copy, it's not even well written

There wasn't many notes, I hope he didn't start out with the best and it's going to all be lazy from here

It did drive home the point of catching attention well though

Very applicable to ads, especially video ads

Don't go straight to selling, catch their attention first

Scroll stoppers are very important, a nice refresher

Overall the first email was a 10/10 and this one was a 5/10. Hopefully the rest are better

 

[MitchC]

Day 3 The Slippery Slope

Today we copied a blog posts introduction to highlight the importance of getting readers to keep reading.

Turning micro-commitments into much bigger ones.

The blog post was a list of 12 things. The author could have just posted the 12, but instead it has a really cool introduction that gets you interested before it goes into you having to read the list of 12.

It's easier to think shorter is better and more likely to get read, but in this example it showed how that's not true, getting a commitment, buy-in, a slippery slope is more important.

It hooks you with a question in the first sentence. Do you know what this is?

You keep reading because you don't but want to.

Then it highlights how easy this is, just 3 minutes, yes or no questions.

You keep reading because you like easy things.

Then it highlights how important it is.

You keep reading because you now realise how much you need to know this information.

It uses an example of someone successful using the list.

You keep reading because now you feel like you are missing out.

If they just went straight into the list I think people would see all the writing and click off the page, but instead the introduction and slippery slope get the reader to commit to reading it.

6/10. The copy was okay, there were a couple more notes, but it wasn't amazing and I don't write things like this example. Maybe I should?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Manasseh Pawlos]

Yo this is awesome! I just finished putting together a pretty word-heavy landing page for an information product - and a lot of what you said lines up with what I've seen by studying other landing pages.

It's easier to think shorter is better and more likely to get read, but in this example it showed how that's not true, getting a commitment, buy-in, a slippery slope is more important.

It hooks you with a question in the first sentence. Do you know what this is?

You keep reading because you don't but want to.

Then it highlights how easy this is, just 3 minutes, yes or no questions.

You keep reading because you like easy things.

Then it highlights how important it is.

You keep reading because you now realise how much you need to know this information.

It uses an example of someone successful using the list.

You keep reading because now you feel like you are missing out.

Love this part especially.

Looking forward to the next post! I'm sure I'm not the only one getting value in this thread.

 

[PeterPete]

Hey Mitch, what's up?

Found your thread by accident and I love it. Good work. You describe the individual emails great.

So here's the situation: Am considering getting the course and would like to contact you, since you have unfortunately described only the first 3 days.

Feel free to write me where to contact you

PeterPete

 

[DustinG]

Did you complete the whole course? How is it?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[MitchC]

How embarrassing!

I couldn't even finish a 10 day challenge. A challenge that only takes 30 minutes each day.

It's just been staring at me in my inbox every day for the last 6 months+.

Anyway, I'm back at it and I've just finished day 4.

It's all about writing simple short sentences and not using passive voice.

The first tip is nothing new, we've heard it a million times. The example on the other hand is exceptional.

Simple, punchy and easy to read.

The second piece - yes, 2 pieces in one day (maybe that's why it took me 6 months?) - is about passive voice.

I understand it better than I ever have after reading that piece, but honestly I still struggle with it and will need to practice more.

I'm about to re-read all of my recent blog posts and make them better.

I thought they were quite good, but after reading writing that's actually good, I realise mine really aren't quite good enough.

I don't even have the basics right with them. None of the first sentences hook you in. And I think even I'll be able to spot plenty of disgusting passive voice in them.

I'll stick them in Hemmingway too. I can't believe I forgot about that amazing free tool so quickly.

Another thing I really like about the passive voice example is how his writing yells at you - without using exclamation points.

It's really quite impressive.

I wouldn't say it sings - it actually yells at you. It's exactly what the author is going for.

Imagine being able to write something that yells at the reader, without using big bold fonts and exclamation points.

That's every copywriters dream. Well it's mine at least.

I rely way too much on exclamation marks in my copy. And I hate them. Every time I type one I cringe.

But until today, I didn't know there was a better way to yell at readers.

Now that I've seen it done, I want to learn how.

I feel even more embarrassed about my exclamation marks now that I know for sure they aren't needed. It's like holding a microphone up to a dead body and expecting to become louder.

I just want my writing to come alive and yell at someone.