Should I learn copywriting?

[Simon Angel]

kgullu must be chuffed to bits that he asked his question.

Dan

@kgullu You can PM me any time and I'll help you out as best I can without leading you into a sales funnel.

 

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[Mathuin]

Well that was an interesting read.

I'm reading Cashvertising whilst I'm at work and I feel I've learned a good bit so far.

 

[nothingness]

I personally recommend everyone learn copy as it changes your mindset significantly from a consumer to a producer, in all aspects of life. It makes life more calmer, more "zen" because you can see how your desires are manipulated desires and not your real desires. You don't really desire the lamborghini you desire what you think people will think of you driving the lamborghini...or rather what the adverts tell you people will think of you, when often the polar opposite is true and most people will think you're a nob who deserves to be robbed, due to their consumer mindset being influenced by expert copywriters shilling socialism...

Start with the Boron letters. You don't need to read them, just write them out by hand. Doing that causes neuron pathways to grown in the brain and is far more efficient than reading material.

If you want to see how effective copy is on the populace in general, I would refer you to the guy who sold cigarettes to women, and the guy who sold fluoride (a toxic waste byproduct) to the public as a dental aid.

"Torches of Freedom" was a phrase used to encourage women's smoking by exploiting women's aspirations for a better life during the early twentieth century first-wave feminism in the United States. Cigarettes were described as symbols of emancipation and equality with men. The term was first used by psychoanalyst A. A. Brill when describing the natural desire for women to smoke and was used by Edward Bernays to encourage women to smoke in public despite social taboos. Bernays hired women to march while smoking their "torches of freedom" in the Easter Sunday Parade of 31 March 1929,[1] which was a significant moment for fighting social barriers for women smokers.

Toxic Treatment: Fluoride's Transformation from Industrial Waste to Public Health Miracle | Origins

While Florida calls itself the Sunshine State, from a geological and economic perspective, it could just as accurately be known as the Phosphate State. The so-called Bone Valley of central Florida contains some of the largest phosphate deposits in the world, which supply global agriculture with...

origins.osu.edu

 

[Simon Angel]

I personally recommend everyone learn copy as it changes your mindset significantly from a consumer to a producer, in all aspects of life. It makes life more calmer, more "zen" because you can see how your desires are manipulated desires and not your real desires. You don't really desire the lamborghini you desire what you think people will think of you driving the lamborghini...or rather what the adverts tell you people will think of you, when often the polar opposite is true and most people will think you're a nob who deserves to be robbed, due to their consumer mindset being influenced by expert copywriters shilling socialism...

Start with the Boron letters. You don't need to read them, just write them out by hand. Doing that causes neuron pathways to grown in the brain and is far more efficient than reading material.

If you want to see how effective copy is on the populace in general, I would refer you to the guy who sold cigarettes to women, and the guy who sold fluoride (a toxic waste byproduct) to the public as a dental aid.

Toxic Treatment: Fluoride's Transformation from Industrial Waste to Public Health Miracle | Origins

While Florida calls itself the Sunshine State, from a geological and economic perspective, it could just as accurately be known as the Phosphate State. The so-called Bone Valley of central Florida contains some of the largest phosphate deposits in the world, which supply global agriculture with...

origins.osu.edu

You sold me on reading The Boron Letters.

It's funny how simply spreading knowledge in an articulate and fairly objective way did more to convince me than a sexually-deprived, authority-kneeling nerd throwing a temper tantrum. Thanks.

 

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[Johnny boy]

I would imagine it's common sense you should have a functional ability to communicate and convince people using written words.

Simply having "understandable" copy is enough to get by if you have any decent business. If there is a decent market, you're advertising decently, you have decent customer service, you have a decent product or service, then you should be okay with decent copy.

You should consider offering "copywriting" as a service if you are an extraordinarily talented communicator. Someone who can argue anything. Someone who can tell a captivating story and have everyone on the edge of their seats listening. Someone who can throw an egg at the teacher and somehow talk their way out of it in the principal's office.

If you're that type of person, offer your talents to the world and use that priceless skill for business purposes.

If that isn't you, or you are more like a kid with Asperger's, then maybe you should do something that is more 'up your alley'.

I keep hearing people talk about 'copywriting' all the time. Somewhere, someone is selling a course and throwing around buzzwords and people are eating it up....

When you think about business, think of it like sports. You can do things because you like them, but if you want to get paid for it, that is a different story. Which things are you good at? Are you good at building things with your hands? Are you good at managing people? Do you pickup computer related things really well? Are you an excellent writer and communicator? If you're at a 3/10 at something you might get it to a 6/10 skill but if you are at a 7/10 in something you can develop it to a 10/10 and really succeed. People are doing stuff because it's "hot" right now and not because they have any advantage or skill they can develop in that area.

Imagine if someone said "Do you think I should become a pro basketball player? It's really hot right now". That's what I hear when people say "should I do X? It's really hot right now". Is it a fit for you or your situation right now is the question.

 

[Johnny boy]

Copywriting doesn't have to be "verbose" -> usually straight-talking copy tends to outperform verbose copy. Copy that is aimed at getting a result out of people is different than copy aimed at brand-building for gigantic organisations.

Agreed.

6th grade reading level is fine 90% of the time.

Make statements that pack punches.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Nuh-uh Tudor. Test results first.

What are you, 12 years old? A fast way to lose credibility is to consistently demonstrate the emotional maturity of teenager. You want a picture of his dick too?

You've been banned from the thread.

 

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[Speed112]

I've avoided engaging in this thread despite it being right up my alley, because you know... didn't really want to get associated with the monkeying around. I'm glad that's resolved now.

With that being said, I completely agree with @Johnny boy in that you shouldn't learn something with the expectation of being a professional at it, unless you've already got the aptitudes and predilections to eventually master it.

In my case, I was already a good communicator, writer, and conflict-resolver. I was the guy who argued with the teacher or the principal and got them (and the people behind me) to change their stance. And when I first started working with businesspeople, the easiest way for me to add value to their business was by improving their copy.

Way before I even knew what Copywriting was.

Only a year or so after practicing it professionally did I learn about its true value and potential, started "studying the greats" and skyrocketing my rates.

...and I started by copying out by hand great ads and sales letters. Including some of the Boron Letters.

It's definitely a good way to do it.

It's not "Practice makes perfect" but "PERFECT PRACTICE makes perfect." and emulating works that have already been proven effective, finding out what they have in common and makes them perform, is one way of doing that.

But, most importantly, I would recommend anyone, business owners especially, to study and learn copywriting. Not to master it, but to become aware of the techniques and principles of influence being used all over to control your behavior. You can use them yourself for good, to help more people, but you can also protect yourself from malevolent actors.

It helps you learn sales, marketing, persuasion. It teaches you about many topics you would otherwise be ignorant of, and forces you to research subjects thoroughly and identify both rational truth, and emotional desire.

And, most importantly, it helps you become a better communicator - to build better relationships, develop your emotional intelligence, and otherwise grow into a better person.

They don't teach you this stuff in school. Because it gives you awareness and power.

So you will have to teach yourself.

And if you discover that this is something you can perform well. If you enjoy it and can use it to help others...

Then you may dedicate yourself to it and turn it into a very lucrative activity.

Hope you learn a ton!

 

[Black_Dragon43]

I personally recommend everyone learn copy as it changes your mindset significantly from a consumer to a producer, in all aspects of life.

It does... but imo it also skews your perspective in a way that's not 100% healthy to building a business.

Namely the copywriting mindset makes you think that, as Halbert used to say, "you're only one sales letter away from being rich". The goal is basically write this one promo, make money. That works, BUT, your offer better be something damn special targetted really well, typically to people who have bought something similar before.

Most businesses, by far, do not fall in that category. That's why most successful business owners out there have never studied copy. The mindset of most business people, as opposed to the one of copywriters, is persuasion through repetition.

Repeat the same message often enough, as Hitler said, and it becomes the truth. This is why big brand agencies invest a lot of money to create the right PR atmosphere and blast their messages through all possible channels.

Now as a beginner, you don't have the resources to do the same. But, if you start locally, you can also build brand. Think about someone like @Andy Black - he's built a brand in this community for Google Ads, and probably in a few other places as well. You can start locally offline, or online. But you'd still need to consider what your message is, and then repeat it often enough till it sticks and you build brand. The necessary condition here is that it's local - in the sense that the same viewer comes upon your message multiple times. If there are too many viewers, and the chances of them encountering your message again are virtually non-existent, then obviously any branding effort fails.

And I dare say that this is also the reason why Halbert was a feast and famine kinda guy... he was always broke because he never really built brand, and had to start from 0 with a new promo, even though he had promos that made him $1M/month.

 

[Antifragile]

Should I build on this talent and dedicate myself to getting skilled in copywriting? Thank you

No.
Clearly.
Look at the mess it caused in this thread.

 

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[MTF]

And I dare say that this is also the reason why Halbert was a feast and famine kinda guy... he was always broke because he never really built brand, and had to start from 0 with a new promo, even though he had promos that made him $1M/month.

If you make $1M a month and you go broke, it's not because you don't have a brand. It's because you have terrible money management skills (or don't have them at all).

In his time, saving the income from only one such big promo would set him up for life.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

If you make $1M a month and you go broke, it's not because you don't have a brand. It's because you have terrible money management skills (or don't have them at all).

That’s true. At the same time, look at someone like Bill Gates. Even if he HAD terrible money management skills 20 years ago, he’d still be raking in the dough due to the brand/asset he’s built (short of actually selling that brand/asset and then spending that money ofc)

Money management becomes more important if you don’t have an engine that consistently brings in the cash for you. In my opinion, building a real business is such an engine. I don’t see a successful sales letter, sales funnel, or promotion to be such a business, regardless of how successful it is. That will work for some time, and then stop working. Because ultimately it depends upon your genius to make it work, finding new product to sell and so on.

Imo, a CENTS based BUSINESS is always going to be a more reliable cash engine.

 

[Kaan Gullu]

As a sponsor of this forum, I've elected to delete my posts here as they derail the thread, and are probably upsetting for the OP.

Copywriting doesn't have to be "verbose" -> usually straight-talking copy tends to outperform verbose copy. Copy that is aimed at getting a result out of people is different than copy aimed at brand-building for gigantic organisations.

Copy or coding, either is a high-value skill though. However, please don't be deceived, in that neither coding nor copy are a business, and neither are enough to run a profitable business. Depending upon who you work with writing copy, you'll only do a small part of what makes a business successful. Which is why I encouraged you to read the copy greats, like Halbert. You'll get to understand much more about what makes for a strong business and how to create success in a predictable fashion (or as close to it as possible).

Is sales what comes first for a business? Maybe, but I do think copywriters tend to think of sales as a one-off event rather than a multiple-touch process. For most businesses, it takes multiple touches to convert a person into a paying customer. Which means that there is no trick to the sale... just multiple contacts and persistence. Whereas copywriters tend to think in terms of sales letters... mail this text, and get buyers.

Yeah I'm definitely not going to aim to make copywriting my cents based business goal I merely want to use it as a profitable skill as I know that can help on your fastlane journey

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

Yeah I'm definitely not going to aim to make copywriting my cents based business goal I merely want to use it as a profitable skill as I know that can help on your fastlane journey

It’s a great skill to have. I started in copywriting myself !

 

[MTF]

That’s true. At the same time, look at someone like Bill Gates. Even if he HAD terrible money management skills 20 years ago, he’d still be raking in the dough due to the brand/asset he’s built (short of actually selling that brand/asset and then spending that money ofc)

Money management becomes more important if you don’t have an engine that consistently brings in the cash for you. In my opinion, building a real business is such an engine. I don’t see a successful sales letter, sales funnel, or promotion to be such a business, regardless of how successful it is. That will work for some time, and then stop working. Because ultimately it depends upon your genius to make it work, finding new product to sell and so on.

Imo, a CENTS based BUSINESS is always going to be a more reliable cash engine.

That's a good point and a good lesson for @kgullu as well. By all means learn copywriting, make money with your sales letters, etc. but ultimately remember that you need to build an ASSET.

IMO it doesn't necessarily have to be a brand (though a productive business with great reputation is definitely one of the strongest assets). If Halbert invested his earnings into real estate (to rent it and have consistent cashflow) he would have been fine financially as well.

 

[Kaan Gullu]

I personally recommend everyone learn copy as it changes your mindset significantly from a consumer to a producer, in all aspects of life. It makes life more calmer, more "zen" because you can see how your desires are manipulated desires and not your real desires. You don't really desire the lamborghini you desire what you think people will think of you driving the lamborghini...or rather what the adverts tell you people will think of you, when often the polar opposite is true and most people will think you're a nob who deserves to be robbed, due to their consumer mindset being influenced by expert copywriters shilling socialism...

Start with the Boron letters. You don't need to read them, just write them out by hand. Doing that causes neuron pathways to grown in the brain and is far more efficient than reading material.

If you want to see how effective copy is on the populace in general, I would refer you to the guy who sold cigarettes to women, and the guy who sold fluoride (a toxic waste byproduct) to the public as a dental aid.

Toxic Treatment: Fluoride's Transformation from Industrial Waste to Public Health Miracle | Origins

While Florida calls itself the Sunshine State, from a geological and economic perspective, it could just as accurately be known as the Phosphate State. The so-called Bone Valley of central Florida contains some of the largest phosphate deposits in the world, which supply global agriculture with...

origins.osu.edu

Right so I have the book now should I just write it all out?

 

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[nothingness]

The problem with Halbert was, he was just a copywriter. He wasn't fastlane because his work came and went, just like cpa affiliate marketers when the offer closes. You don't need to be a copywriter to use copywriting. It's an essential skill I think everyone should learn but not to become a copywriter but to become a more successful human.

That said, if you were to alter your business model to take an equity slice for the company you are working for instead of cash, you could make it into a very fast lane business model.

 

[Antifragile]

Ultimately, OP - you should be asking yourself a strategic question. Don’t focus on yes/no; expand your vision. It’s not just about copy writing (or which I do for my own business while also paying 6 figures to my marketing company!). It’s about choosing what’s best for you.

Here is an example of a strategic question.

If you’re saying Yes to this,
what are you saying No to?

 

[juanalou]

Copywriting is writing entertaining words to influence someone to make a decision.

Brain surgery is all about precision, facts, and procedures.

Bro, you're an insult to the profession and an amateur LMAO.

 

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[kebman]

Somebody said "you can always outsource your coding" but.... You can always outsource your copywriting xD In fact that's how my friend made a living for years. He'd juggle copywriters left and write to make a buck. It really just depends on what you'd like to have the most control over. With that said, I've tried my hand at copywriting, and tbh it's not really worth it compared to what you can earn as a freelance programmer or consultant, unless you start a copywriting firm. But then you have to be technical either way, and know the silos and not least the people, at least if you want those big contracts.

 

[Kaan Gullu]

Somebody said "you can always outsource your coding" but.... You can always outsource your copywriting xD In fact that's how my friend made a living for years. He'd juggle copywriters left and write to make a buck. It really just depends on what you'd like to have the most control over. With that said, I've tried my hand at copywriting, and tbh it's not really worth it compared to what you can earn as a freelance programmer or consultant, unless you start a copywriting firm. But then you have to be technical either way, and know the silos and not least the people, at least if you want those big contracts.

How was your experience with copywriting could you expand further on that?

 

[kebman]

How was your experience with copywriting could you expand further on that?

I was well liked. Or rather, my work was well liked. None of them really knew me since I worked remote. I worked for a contractor who reeled in all those companies you've heard about. It was my friend who got me in. He would keep on juggling, and as he needed some extra work he'd invite me along. I juggled some too, when he needed a break. Meaning that he juggled other copywriters that we outsourced our stuff to. Personally I did it just to check it out. It was OK, but he sadly never took it to the next level.

My experience; it was really frustrating and boring. The writing was easy enough, but the pay was rock bottom compared to what I'm used to. But sure I guess you can make a decent living in a cheap country of it, if you're very structured.

So.... Are you very structure? I am, but... the stress and boringness really got to me, and then the low pay and corpo attitude got to me even more (some of those mid levels are real aholes), so I decided to quit.

(With that said, I have some distant family who earns like a 100k a year on translating stuff, which is basically the same as copywriting, so depending on how you set up, you can do ok.)

Anyway, what I really wanted to do was encourage my friend to take his juggle act away from the contractors, and start his own business. But he was too much of a pussy to do that. He told me he hated administering, but it's administering - and selling big customers - that could've med both me and him the big money in that biz.

So why didn't I, then? Well, first off I had better opportunities. Second, I don't think it's worth losing a friendship over stealing his juggling act like that. It would just have been a dick move.

So sure, become a copywriter! Learn some SEO and silos. Do it for a year or two to get to know the biz, but dude.... Bro... You're not on the Fastlane Forum to become a copywriter, are you???

So when you're accomplished, start making friends that can write for you, and juggle. Outsource.

This is not advice, btw. This is entertainment. A cool story. If you follow this as advice (which it is not), then you risk getting fired or possible even getting sued if you juggle without the knowledge of the contractor.

Either way, when you master the juggle, then move the juggle away from the contractor and start your own copywriting / SEO business. (Again, not advice.....) Start reeling in your own fish, write contracts, and manage copywriters to do it for you. Then manage managers to do that for you, because you get bigger projects. Then go public, and retire off the dividends. Or something. I don't know. I never went that far myself, but I'm sure that's how you'd make the big mo on copywriting...

So what am I really trying to say here??? Well, first off the likelihood of earning good money on programming is bigger than earning big money on copywriting. But it would seem to me that starting a copywriting company is easier than starting a consulting or computer company. Because there's a ton more writers than there are programmers, and you basically just need a stable of willing writers to start a copywriting company. Then again you just need a stable of salesmen to start a sales company. And, hell, if you know a ton of programmers, then why not start a IT company?

Once you get to the administrative side of things, it really doesn't make a ton of difference. When you're there, it's more about knowing the business, but even more so, knowing how to sell and how to close a deal. But perhaps hire a lawyer to do the fine print. What do I know, I'm just thinking big here.

So perhaps what you should really do, instead of both learning to program or how to copywrite, is to learn how to sell. Because if you don't know how to sell, then it won't make a lick of difference what business you're in, you'll always stay on the floor and manning the steam engine, instead of doing the big stuff - and earning the big mo.

That's how my uncle did it. He outsold the directors at 18. The directors felt intimidated, and made him sell lower tier stuff. But the damage was already done. So he contacted a competitor, who decided to bet on him. He used the money to buy machines and start one of the first computer companies in Norway, in direct competition to the guys he sold for at first. If they'd just treated him nice, they'd kept him, and wouldn't have gone bankrupt because he steamrolled them with his own company at 20. I mean, he made it, but the success kinda made him a bit of an a**hole. But that's an entirely different story.

tl;dr programming > copywriting, but selling > programming & copywriting. Make. The. Deal. Write. The. Contract (hire a lawyer for the fine print tho). Then retire in your yacht.

 

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[Kaan Gullu]

I was well liked. Or rather, my work was well liked. None of them really knew me since I worked remote. I worked for a contractor who reeled in all those companies you've heard about. It was my friend who got me in. He would keep on juggling, and as he needed some extra work he'd invite me along. I juggled some too, when he needed a break. Meaning that he juggled other copywriters that we outsourced our stuff to. Personally I did it just to check it out. It was OK, but he sadly never took it to the next level.

My experience; it was really frustrating and boring. The writing was easy enough, but the pay was rock bottom compared to what I'm used to. But sure I guess you can make a decent living in a cheap country of it, if you're very structured.

So.... Are you very structure? I am, but... the stress and boringness really got to me, and then the low pay and corpo attitude got to me even more (some of those mid levels are real aholes), so I decided to quit.

(With that said, I have some distant family who earns like a 100k a year on translating stuff, which is basically the same as copywriting, so depending on how you set up, you can do ok.)

Anyway, what I really wanted to do was encourage my friend to take his juggle act away from the contractors, and start his own business. But he was too much of a pussy to do that. He told me he hated administering, but it's administering - and selling big customers - that could've med both me and him the big money in that biz.

So why didn't I, then? Well, first off I had better opportunities. Second, I don't think it's worth losing a friendship over stealing his juggling act like that. It would just have been a dick move.

So sure, become a copywriter! Learn some SEO and silos. Do it for a year or two to get to know the biz, but dude.... Bro... You're not on the Fastlane Forum to become a copywriter, are you???

So when you're accomplished, start making friends that can write for you, and juggle. Outsource.

This is not advice, btw. This is entertainment. A cool story. If you follow this as advice (which it is not), then you risk getting fired or possible even getting sued if you juggle without the knowledge of the contractor.

Either way, when you master the juggle, then move the juggle away from the contractor and start your own copywriting / SEO business. (Again, not advice.....) Start reeling in your own fish, write contracts, and manage copywriters to do it for you. Then manage managers to do that for you, because you get bigger projects. Then go public, and retire off the dividends. Or something. I don't know. I never went that far myself, but I'm sure that's how you'd make the big mo on copywriting...

So what am I really trying to say here??? Well, first off the likelihood of earning good money on programming is bigger than earning big money on copywriting. But it would seem to me that starting a copywriting company is easier than starting a consulting or computer company. Because there's a ton more writers than there are programmers, and you basically just need a stable of willing writers to start a copywriting company. Then again you just need a stable of salesmen to start a sales company. And, hell, if you know a ton of programmers, then why not start a IT company?

Once you get to the administrative side of things, it really doesn't make a ton of difference. When you're there, it's more about knowing the business, but even more so, knowing how to sell and how to close a deal. But perhaps hire a lawyer to do the fine print. What do I know, I'm just thinking big here.

So perhaps what you should really do, instead of both learning to program or how to copywrite, is to learn how to sell. Because if you don't know how to sell, then it won't make a lick of difference what business you're in, you'll always stay on the floor and manning the steam engine, instead of doing the big stuff - and earning the big mo.

That's how my uncle did it. He outsold the directors at 18. The directors felt intimidated, and made him sell lower tier stuff. But the damage was already done. So he contacted a competitor, who decided to bet on him. He used the money to buy machines and start one of the first computer companies in Norway, in direct competition to the guys he sold for at first. If they'd just treated him nice, they'd kept him, and wouldn't have gone bankrupt because he steamrolled them with his own company at 20. I mean, he made it, but the success kinda made him a bit of an a**hole. But that's an entirely different story.

tl;dr programming > copywriting, but selling > programming & copywriting. Make. The. Deal. Write. The. Contract (hire a lawyer for the fine print tho). Then retire in your yacht.

Thanks for the detailed response. I'm basically asking because I'm juggling what skill to commit myself to. I DO NOT intend to make copywriting or programming my career but just use it as a way to gain side income and now that I think about it I guess build up my network as well. I'm 17 and have been learning coding for just under a year and a half but I started to question it because i don't truly have a passion for it and because to be deeply honest I don't know if I want to step up to that next level to start earning actual decent income but I'm not fully sure on that feeling yet. So basically here's a rundown, I've been learning frontend for just under a year and a half and am starting to doubt it, Copywriting seems to me to match my traits and skills and something I could do pretty well in. Someone also recommended backend development to me but I haven't looked into that yet.

 

[FlorianR]

Hey guys,

I'm 17 and have been learning coding for just over a year now (see my first post) but recently came across copywriting that I think I'd be far better off learning and dedicating my time to to ultimately use as a profitable skill. As far as I understand, copywriting is essentially writing out text in a way that sells or advertises well. I think I'd be better suited for this as writing in a verbose tone has always been a pretty great talent of mine. I excel in these types of subjects at school. Should I build on this talent and dedicate myself to getting skilled in copywriting? Thank you for any responses or comments.

Both coding and copywriting are high income skills that can make you a lot of money.

Whatever you decide, stay 100% commited and focused on one of them for at least 2 years. Avoid shiny object syndrome, go deep and become a master in one area

 

[MichaelPSkipper]

Here's an interesting letter from Gary Halbert that made me think about you @kgullu - what do you think?

Thanks for sharing this work. Copywriting is something I plan to study and his examples are inspiring.

 

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[Ed Schimmel]

There is one important benefit for learning to code above writing copy. When you master coding you can write a system that earns money for you, like a SaaS product. Once the product is ready, you won't need to spend a lot of time on it anymore. It is earning money for you, just as MJ describes in his books. Writing copy is limited to the number of hours that you can work on it.

But as you are 17 years old and more looking for a side hustle, this probably not really applicable. In your case, I would choose copy-writing as it seems it gives you more joy.

 

[Andy Black]

 

[Black_Dragon43]

Once the product is ready, you won't need to spend a lot of time on it anymore. It is earning money for you, just as MJ describes in his books. Writing copy is limited to the number of hours that you can work on it.

But as you are 17 years old and more looking for a side hustle, this probably not really applicable. In your case, I would choose copy-writing as it seems it gives you more joy.

Does this product sell itself?

 

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[Speed112]

Writing copy is limited to the number of hours that you can work on it.

This is not entirely true, but I guess the flipside is only limited to a top% of copywriters. You can create banger offers that become the control for some product or business and negotiate royalties based on gross sales or other forms of revenue-sharing.

A-list copywriters pretty much all have a portfolio of offers that generate continuous passive income (I've had a couple sales letters that held on for a few months) which can turn a 4 figure project into a 6 figure project with the same amount of hourly investment. I'd say about 10-15% of offers can fit that bill if you're adequately skilled.

With 20-30h investment per offer, if you do at least one per month, you can exceed $1k/hr average through royalties within a year or two. And once you've proven that and accrued some cashola, you can create your own products and sell those to get 80% profit margins instead of 3% royalties. In perpetuity and using other people's time/money.

You also get to build a ton of other skills on this journey that you can use to build a proper info-based business or amplify other businesses you can buy into.

I'd say the copywriting path is way more fastlane than software development, because the skills you need are tangential and complementary. With software you have to build multiple pillars of ability so to say in order to truly go fastlane, in my opinion. And I say that having started with a programming/engineering background and trying to build SaaS solutions 9 years ago or something. Copywriting is a lot more reliable, but takes longer to go passive and you can't really delegate the vertical as easily/cheaply.

Going passive right off the bat without the skills to build a solid team and manage an enterprise is quite tricky. I've failed multiple times at it. Maybe it's because I went way too hard on the Lean approach hm.

 

[bracknelson]

If you're already good at writing entertaining shit then just go for it. You don't need to learn anything. Just start applying for copywriting gigs.

Most copywriters I've seen so far would be better off calling themselves "copypasters" because they all seem to regurgitate the same crap they read from X famous copywriting book or course. I know zero famous copywriters and took zero courses and I'm doing pretty good. I did, however, have a lot of business knowledge from my past successes and failures, and seeing as you're 17, I doubt you could say the same. Nevertheless, getting your hands dirty is the way to go.

I like your point "if you're good at writing then go for it". and yeah if you have an interest in writing then start with copywriting.