I’m a tad exhausted and with good reason.
I’ve just handed in the VSL I’ve been working on for the past month.
It’s been a huge pile of work. In fact, an amazingly huge pile. Contributed in part by the fact it’s also the first project I’ve done while working with my copywriting coach, a copywriter himself, and somebody who’s much more successful (and better at writing copy) than I am. All of which is making me reminisce…
Specifically, to a moment about a year after I started writing copy.
At that point, I had read a couple of copywriting books. I had raised my rates to respectable levels. And I had done some small- and medium -sized projects for various clients, mostly with positive feedback (“Wow this looks great”) and even with some positive results (“We used your copy and it made 30% more sales than what we were using before”). And I remember thinking to myself then,
“Well, that’s it. I’ve arrived. I’ve read those two books. I’m making decent money. I have good feedback and results. And I guess I’ve mastered all there is to know about this copywriting thing.”
Well, it’s now about three years later. And I’m amazed by how complex and complicated copywriting really is.
When you read copy, that’s not obvious.
It seems simple or even simplistic. And if you have any pretensions to being a writer, you think to yourself, “Pff, I could do this myself easy.”
What you don’t see is all the hidden high-level work that goes into choosing exactly those arguments, presented in that order. You also don’t see all the hidden low-level work, polishing each sentence, and possibly each word, in a 30- or 50- or 80-page promo. In other words, what you don’t see are the hundreds of other permutations of this exact sales letter that existed either on paper or in the copywriter’s head.
Now depending on how you look at it, that can either be inspirational or brutal.
Brutal, because the fact is, copywriting continues to require a lot of work. As you get better, you just see different things (and more of them) that can be improved.
Inspirational, because if you’re looking for a craft that you can really work on for years to come, then this is it. Plus, it apparently pays royalties as well.