How to Become a No-Limit Copywriter

“Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul
can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.”
— Albert Einstein

In Issue #143

How to Become a No-Limit Copywriter
by Krista Jones

I’m a big tennis fan, and last week I watched in amazement as Jo-Wifried Tsonga reached the Australian Open final. If you’re not familiar with tennis, the Australian Open is not just any ol’ tournament. It’s one of four major tournaments in professional tennis.

Ranked 38th in the world, Tsonga wasn’t expected to reach the final. Not even close. On paper, he should have lost after two or three matches (there were seven matches in all).

What made Tsonga’s run particularly fascinating was that he had considered quitting not long ago. His professional career has been besieged by injuries and he had never before reached the final round of a tournament. Yet, he managed to beat the Number 10, 8, and 2 seeds in this major tournament before reaching the final. And he often made it look easy.

It didn’t matter much to me that Tsonga lost in the final to the Number 3 player in the world. He won me over during those two weeks, and I look forward to watching his brilliance for hopefully years to come.

As for him, well he more than doubled his career prize money by claiming $600,000 for his efforts. Not a bad two weeks at the office.

So how did Tsonga do it?

For starters, he lost a noticeable amount of weight over the past year. And he reportedly worked harder on his game than any other French player.

What does all of this have to do with copywriting? It shows us what is possible when we decide to excel at something. It demonstrates the power of mastery.

Michael Masterson says that it takes about 5,000 hours to master a skill. Based on my previous learning experiences at work and play, I’d say that’s pretty accurate for me.

How can you take advantage of this theory?

With regard to copywriting, think about the goals you have set for yourself. Have you allocated enough time to accomplish them?

I know people who have been saying they want to learn this or get better at that for as long as I’ve known them. They read books about it. Some even attend seminars. Yet nothing much has happened.

The reason? They don’t spend much time doing the things they need to do. I’m not throwing stones. I’m guilty of it in certain areas too.

So let’s look at it this way.

If we put 1,000 hours of focused energy into our goals over the course of this year, what are the chances that we’ll get much better at the skill we want to improve?

One hundred percent.

At year’s end, you might not be a master, but you will at least be competent. And you can make a high five-figure or even a low six-figure income at that level.

Then next year you can work toward mastery—the level where you work without mental, skill, or financial limits.

Isn’t that what we’re all striving for?

Resource Referral: Heading Toward Genius

To become a master in any field, you need continuing education. That’s why I recommend that copywriters subscribe to Monthly Copywriting Genius. It’s a monthly dose of continuing education that you simply can’t do without if you’re serious about succeeding in this business.

Every month MCG takes a blockbuster promotion and breaks it down, analyzes it, and tells you why different elements in it worked, making it easy for you to see how you can incorporate its success into the next letter you write.

In addition to the analysis, you get an in-depth interview with the promo’s writer that reveals the very secrets that made the letter a blockbuster. These tips, techniques and secrets will help you strengthen your copy and make it more effective – driving up your response rate – making more money for both yourself and your client.

That’s all wonderful in and of itself, but here’s the part that puts this service over the top for me. When you join MCG you also gain access to all of the archives. I refer to these back issues all the time when I get stuck working on a promotion. It’s about as close as you can get to being able to pick up the phone and call one of the top copywriters in the business and ask their advice.

We’ve told you all about the merits of this service before. There’s a very good reason for that. MCG gives you a powerful edge over the average copywriter.

Check it out today.

Scroll Call #6: Write-4-Success by Laurie Cauthen

On January 19th, seven out of our twenty members were able to brave the snow storm in Atlanta and meet for our inaugural quarterly networking dinner meeting. Two sisters even came from as far away as North Carolina.

Before dinner we did an exercise where we wrote down five things that we are grateful for now and five things we want to accomplish and be grateful for in the coming year.

After that, everyone filled out an oversized check with the amount of money they wish to obtain this year.

I don’t know how each of them felt about the goal-setting, but for me it has been very effective so far.

I first did the exercise a while back. And I’ve gotten positive results as a result. Here are a few examples of what I mean…

I submitted my first article today for my hometown newspaper The Herald-Gazette. I also submitted photos for an additional cha-ching. (Thanks, Lori Allen!) I got the idea to write for them after filling out my gratitude page a few weeks ago.

I am creating a product in partnership with a 25-year veteran in marketing and a master copywriter who specializes in the development of self-help products.

I got the idea to ask to partner with him after writing a pretend check for the amount of money I would like to receive this year. I look at this check every morning and throughout the day to help me focus on my goals.

The money to me is not the true motivation, but the accomplishments I have always wanted to achieve certainly are. Whatever money comes as a result of my efforts will simply be the by-product.

I’m starting to get so busy now that I have to really keep myself organized and on track. Just this week I have had to meet no less than four deadlines for writing projects.

Now that I think about it. Heck, I can live with that problem!

At the conclusion of our meeting we celebrated with a cake that was decorated with our networking group’s name—Write-4-Success. Isn’t that after all what we’re doing, word-by-little-word and loving every minute of it?

I encourage you to form your own networking group in your state. Through these contacts you will develop lifelong friendships, possible business partners and so many other possibilities.

Until next time….