How To Write Like the Top Copywriters

There is a special short-cut to becoming very good at copywriting very quickly. All you need is a great sales letter, a pen and a notebook. The process I’m about to share with you is recommended by all top copywriters in terms of understanding what makes a good sales letter work and developing the habits of legendary copywriters. It’s strikingly simple but profoundly effective.
Here’s the secret: hand copy top performing sales pages and letters by hand. Yes, it is that simple. It’s so simple that many people shrug it off and skip this step while trying to get good. If you hand copy 100 letters by hand you will be well ahead of your peers, believe me.
The first (and most challenging) part of the process is to find a sales letter to copy from. Whatever you do, don’t go around the internet looking for a sales page that “looks” good. You could be staring at a visually impressive piece with next to no sales. Only use proven masters.
The people who have written million-dollar sales letters include John Carlton, Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy, and Harlan Kilstein. If you Google “____ sales letters” and put your copywriter of choice in the blank, you’ll find places to download the prized sales letters. Be forewarned that a lot of these will be copyrighted, so make sure you pay for the content if the author has put it on sale. I paid about $150 off Amazon for Harlan Kilstein’s collection of sales letters (called “Steal This book”) and it was worth every penny. Remember that you are investing in your career as a copywriter or in your ability to write powerful sales copy as a business owner.
Next, get notebook/pad and a pen. It’s very important that you copy by hand and not type it up. There’s something about actually handwriting that drills the rhythm of the copy into your brain.
Copy the format of the sales page or letter as much as possible. If a word is underlined, then underline it when you re-write the piece. If a line is in bold, I will put “(b)” in front and at the end of the phrase. If a line is in italics, I will put “(i)” in front and at the end of the phrase. Some people I know will just make the ink really heavy for bold, or make their handwriting fancy for italics, but not all of us are that dexterous.
Do this for the entire sales letter, and not just part, so you get the flow of the sales writing into your veins. If you can, finish the whole sales letter in a day. The less you stretch out the hand-copying, the better you’ll adopt the patterns of the great copywriters.
This is easy to do, and will really pay off as you increase you copywriting skills. Good luck.