Learning Copywriting By Hand-Writing World Class Ads

[Bensettle]

I've always been a big fan of hand copying successful ads as part of learning copywriting.

Recently someone asked me, if there were only three ads/sales letters to copy out by hand to learn from, which ones would they be, and why?

Here were my answers:

1. Gary Halbert's "How To Have The Best S-x Humanly Possible" ad -- for learning how to write bullets.

I misspelled the headline on purpose to avoid any forum filters.

But I'm sure you can figure out the missing letter

2. Gary Halbert's "How Even A Plain Looking Woman Can Make Herself 350% More Attractive" ad -- for learning how to weave a story into an ad.

(Ol' GH sure knew how to pick products to sell, didn't he?)

3. Gary Halbert's ad for his "Motherload" swipe file product -- because he gives examples of copywriting that are worth studying right in the ad.

You can find two of these ads on his website (you may have to search for the first one online somewhere).

Now I'm curious what others have to say about this.

If you hand copied ads when you were starting out, which ones did you learn the most from, and what were the lessons?

Ben

[JosephRatliff]

I learned the "keep your headlines to a main benefit, and as short as possible" from writing the Rolls Royce ad...

"The Only Sound You'll Hear Is The Electric Clock"
(I don't have it right in front of me...but it's in my AWAI "Hall of Fame" book)

[Bensettle]

[AnitaAshland]

Do you have to copy them by hand? Does typing them out count?

I took the AWAI course when I first started out and back then I typed out the Wall Street Journal ad many times and a few others in the AWAI book. But I've gotten out of the habit.

[Bensettle]

I don't know if writing out ads is really any better than typing out ads.

I've heard some people argue about it (dudes like that really need to get a life, eh?)

However, there was a Gary Halbert letter where he said his assistant had the "neurological" imprint of his writing after typing out a bunch of his ads over the years.



Ben