Are You Guilty Of This?

“I strive for the best and I do the possible.”
–Lyndon B. Johnson, former U.S. President

In Issue #175

Editor’s Correction: I received several messages in response to the incorrect tax tip that was published in Issue #173. According to the IRS, your income tax refund is not classified as taxable income for federal purposes. I apologize for passing along incorrect advice from my former accountant. Thanks for writing in and setting me straight.

Main Essay: Are You Guilty Of This?
by Krista Jones

Want to know a common mistake many aspiring copywriters make?

See if you can guess what it is when you read the following message from Angeline:

Dear Krista and Monica:

This is incredible—I open your email on Saturday morning at 12:10am.

Let me tell you what happened just a few hours before I read the latest “Copy Protégé.”

Around 4:15pm on Friday, I am doing research for my Six-Figure Course, final project men’s supplement letter.

I Google “hydrilla verticillata” to do some research for the letter and come across “the letter” on a former AWAI student’s website.

She has her version of the letter posted as a sample. I read it. It is really good. I start to read her other samples. This girl is a fantastic copywriter.
I mean her version of “the letter” is better than the original letter (I think I’ve found it online).

Now I feel extremely inadequate as a copywriter. There is no way I can ever come up with the words she came up with.

I must be crazy thinking I can ever be a copywriter. I mean you can learn techniques, but the stuff this girl was coming up with is just a “natural talent.”

Now it’s 8:55pm, I meet my boyfriend for a glass of wine. He can tell I am very unhappy. I have been studying, writing, living, and breathing copywriting for almost a year.

He asks why I am so unhappy. I tell him that I think I am going to totally give up on this “copywriting dream”! I tell him about the letter, the research, and the girl’s letter.

He knows how hard I have been working for the last year and tells me I can’t give up.

Back to Saturday at 12:10am, I come home, check my email and open the latest “Copy Protégé.” I read the article titled, “Getting Unstuck” about Mandy Marksteiner’s story.

Thanks for sharing your story Mandy! It’s Saturday 12:38am; I’m going to sleep. What a day. I hope tomorrow I will wake with a renewed outlook about copywriting.

Another AWAI student working on the “final project”,

Angeline P.

The mistake I’m talking about is more than letting the final assignment of AWAI’s Accelerated Course in Copywriting stop you cold. It’s a more global problem. One I struggled with myself.

The mistake is letting the fear that you’ll never write as well as the pros get the best of you.
Who hasn’t seen a promotion written by Bob Bly, John Forde, or Paul Hollingshead and thought, “My God, I’ll never be able to write that!”?

Or maybe, like Angeline, you’ve come across something a NEW copywriter has written and you had that same thought.

If you’re doing that to yourself, stop it! Your job isn’t to write like Bob, John, Paul or anyone else. It’s to find your own voice and style and to be the best copywriter YOU can be. Your voice. Your style. Your way.

I’d go on, but I prefer to let Angeline’s words finish today’s essay for me. She sent me the following message the next morning:

“After a good night’s rest, on Saturday at 9:00am, I realize that I need to just focus on making my writing the best it can be—NOT to focus on how good other writers may be.”

Yes!

Resource Referral: How Do I Know If My Copy Is Good Enough?

One way to get over feelings of inadequacy is to get the same kind of copy critiques that the pros get. By that I mean critiques that focus on the deep issues within your copy—the big idea, the premise, and errors that will stop your copy from being successful.

You can those types of critiques on any copy you write with Accelerated Training Service’s new and improved Unlimited Critique Program. Not only will you get the same types of critiques that Monica and I get, but the reviewer will continue to work with you until the copy is good enough to drop in the mail or put on the Internet. It’s a terrific program that I wish had been around when I was starting out.

If you often wonder if your copy is good enough, sign up for the Unlimited Critique Program today and get ongoing feedback on every spec assignment, client project, and self-promotion piece you write.