As part of my coach­ing pro­gram, stu­dents can ask me unlim­ited ques­tions via email. One com­mon ques­tion I seem to get is, “I’m new to copy­writ­ing, where do I start?”

Since my coach­ing stu­dents also get access to any of my dig­i­tal pro­grams, they also get access to my Copy Doc­tor web­site, where I share over 50 hours of saleslet­ter and copy cri­tiques, recorded on video. It’s a great start.

But one stu­dent said some­thing that struck me:

“I learn bet­ter by doing than by watch­ing. Is there any­thing you can recommend?”

Great ques­tion. Some peo­ple are more visual (they learn bet­ter by watch­ing), some are more aural or audi­tory (by hear­ing), oth­ers are more kines­thetic (by doing or feel­ing). And I also thought it would be a great ques­tion to cover on my blog. So, here goes…

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Yes­ter­day, I had a tweet burp.

(If you’ve been liv­ing under a rock in the past year, a “tweet” is a brief, text mes­sage on micro-​​blogging plat­form Twit­ter.)

I call it a “tweet burp” because it’s some­thing like a brain fart. But I pre­fer “brain burp.” Rea­son is, unlike a brain fart where one for­gets some­thing basic or says some­thing mean­ing­less, what I thought, and sub­se­quently tweeted about, was sur­pris­ingly meaningful.

And for some, even profound.

They are tips on how to Twit­ter bet­ter. (Try to say that 10 times in a row really fast!) Let me share it with you by post­ing some of the high­lights here.

Some of these tips are not extra­or­di­nary, of course. Most of them are sim­ply com­mon sense. But they are some of the things I do in my own social media involve­ment that has proven to work well for me. I rec­om­mend you do the same…

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What’s the most impor­tant part in copy­writ­ing? Is it the head­line? The bul­lets? The ben­e­fits? The tes­ti­mo­ni­als? The guar­an­tee? The offer?

Nope.

While all impor­tant, none of these are as impor­tant as this sin­gle yet pow­er­ful ele­ment. It trumps all the oth­ers by a long­shot, and it’s the one ele­ment all copy must absolutely have to suc­ceed. Once I tell you what it is, you’re going to smack your head and say, “Of course!”

But, it’s not what you think — at least, not in the way you think…

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Even though we decided to post­pone the mul­ti­me­dia copy­writ­ing sem­i­nar in south­ern Cal­i­for­nia due to the fires there, my friend, copy­writer David Garfinkel, asked me about it:

“(One of my coach­ing stu­dents) asked if you will share detailed test results like what to say vs. what not to say, what to wear in video, and other nitty-​​gritty like that, at your sem­i­nar when you resched­ule it. Those would be excel­lent points to cover for a seri­ous direct mar­keter. Any­thing you’d like me to tell him?”

Valid ques­tion. So here’s the answer I gave him, along with a few tips…

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Last night was an awe­some call! Some of you who are not on our list may not know this. But we had David Garfinkel, known as the world’s great­est copy­writ­ing coach …

… Craig Per­rine, known as the relationship-​​building copy­writer, famous for being instru­men­tal in build­ing lists com­prised of over 7,000,000 sub­scribers (that’s seven mil­lion!) in an incred­i­bly short period of time …

… And, last but not least, mas­ter copy­writer and my dear friend, Peter Stone, who joined us as an impromptu spe­cial guest.

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Writer’s block?

It’s a com­mon prob­lem among copywriters.

Finally, you can break through the blocks and bar­ri­ers that are hold­ing you back from writ­ing truly com­pelling copy once and for all — or any­thing else that’s stop­ping you from the wealth you deserve.

My new course, co-​​authored with copy­writer David Garfinkel called “Break­through Copy­writ­ing” (David is the mas­ter­mind behind the sys­tem), has unof­fi­cially launched. (Actu­ally, it’s really a pre-​​launch, as the offi­cial launch is April 1st. But until then, there are few extras for a few lucky peo­ple — avail­able by invi­ta­tion only.)

Click here to break through!

(Warn­ing: this is not your typ­i­cal “copy­writ­ing course,” too.)

Have you ever picked up a book off the shelf at a local book­store, read the front and back cov­ers, opened it up and, after read­ing a few pages, just couldn’t put it down?

Do you remem­ber, after buy­ing the book, how you flipped each page with an almost excru­ci­at­ing curios­ity because the story was so tan­ta­liz­ing, you became increas­ingly riv­eted to the book with each sub­se­quent chapter?

Copy is, or should be, the same.

Look at it this way: good copy makes a good case. But great copy tells a good story. They say that a great copy­writer is also a great sales­per­son. But all great copy­writ­ers and all great sales­peo­ple also have one thing in common…

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