Thousands upon thousands of newbie copywriters have leaned on “Copywork” (hand-copying ads to learn how to sell with words) to grow their skills

I was fooled too.

Some have even spent 497 American monies, out of their OWN pocket on a course called…

*Cough*

HourCopy…

(…Or something that sounds VERY close to that anyway.)

Which is a program where you spend a whole hour hand-copying winning ads…

Every…

Single…

Day.

But there’s something online copy gurus hide from you

Firstly because selling swipe files is STUPID easy.

And secondly, because these same marketers know that once you start investing time into writing ads for an hour every day, your ego will get in the way and simply REFUSE that hand-copying doesn’t actually make you a better salesman, it simply sucks.

‘cause that means you’ve wasted your time and money, and that makes you feel silly.

So people refuse to acknowledge that they got bamboozled out of almost 500 smackaroos.

Our egos simply lock ourselves in and keep us from admitting we swallowed the lie hook, line and sinker.

It’s the PERFECT scam.

(And easy to sell, too. That’s why you see so many people doing it)

If you’re a copywriter you know that repetition legitimizes.

The more often you say a thing, the more people believe it.

And that technique has been used on YOU as well as thousands of others to mistreat you, take your money and waste your time…

Simply because it was the absolutely easiest thing to do for some online copy guru.

All these dweebs had to do was to ride the reputation of one the greatest copywriters of the 20th century: Gary Halbert.

The inventor of Copywork, Gary Halbert, claimed that hand copying ads would “imprint it”.

(Somehow)

And it almost makes sense because…

To this day...

Artists are still told to “study” the works of the great masters, where the artist has to make a copy of a famous piece of art. But there is a vital difference that newbie copywriters aren’t yet aware of.

In order to replicate a painting, you have to be able to discern colors, value and actually use your tools to such a degree that you can replicate the original piece. You know. You have to be able to paint. The accuracy of your final piece shows how skilled you are, because the same skills that go into copying a masterpiece are the same skills that go into creating it, in the first place.

But in order to hand-copy an ad you don’t need ANY skills at all, except the ability to move a pencil across a piece of paper.

You could hand copy ads in Mandarin, Japanese or Korean… ANY language where you don’t even know the letters…
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手抄销售信并不能教会你文案写作。

セールスレターを手書きで書き写しても、コピーライティングは身につかない。

세일즈 레터를 손으로 베껴 쓴다고 해서 카피라이팅을 배울 수 있는 것은 아니다.

…and still create an accurate piece of sales copy.

But the question we need to ask ourselves is:

How many times do you have to copy those lines above to learn Mandarin, Japanese or Korean respectively?
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You know the answer: It’s a waste of time because you don’t understand what’s going on. No one’s teaching you the principles, you don’t know what to look for.

Learning a skill is about pattern recognition and being able to decide when to do what. About feedback.

And hand-copying doesn’t give you feedback on whether something sells or not, it gives you feedback on whether you typed out the same sentences as the sales letter does.

Photocoping winning ads has the exact same proven effectiveness: None.

And we know, because scientists have tested the effectiveness of rote memorization.

It’s horrible.

A complete waste of time.

But people WILL dig in harder and tell themselves that at SOME point it’ll make a difference.

But the ones who DO learn, never JUST hand-copy those ads. They add in something extra.

And it turns out it’s the “extra” that does the skill development.

And when you take out the hand-copying and ONLY do “the extra” people learn faster…

Because they’re no longer wasting their time on copying winning ads when they could have spent that same time writing winning ads.

But wait!

Why DID Halbert advocate for Hand-copying ads?

Because…

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*Drum Roll*

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​The Prince Of Print wanted to hire a protege who’d eat shit, and not question ANYTHING Gary asked them to do.

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Halbert wanted the closest thing he could get to a eunuch who'd just say “Yes master” and then go do whatever.

And to Halbert, who was famous for his trolling…

…copywork was the stupidest and most mind-numbing test he could come up with.

Go ahead, ask his son (Bond Halbert) if you don’t believe me.

Unfortunately Halbert's hiring needs have poisoned the marketing community when it comes to showing rookies how to learn copywriting.

Halbert was VERY persuasive -but also abusive- towards rookies.

And his mentality has stuck around.

I’m not the only person saying it, either.

Sensible people in the space are chiming in, too.

For instance:

Colin Theriot of “The Cult Of Copy”...

(Hi Colin 😁)

…is on record as saying that “people who learn from copywork never do just copywork.”

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One of the guys behind the Copy That! YouTube channel got asked about hand-copying and he answered:

(Paraphrased)

“You can hand-copy ads if you feel like it. It won’t actually teach you anything, but if that’s what you need to suffer through to sort of prove to yourself that you’re actually going to go through with this career change, then go for it.”

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Heck I have half-a-mind selling my own program and calling it CopyMinutes, Not CopyHour because you REALLY do NOT need to spend an hour every day hand-copying ads when a few minutes would suffice.

And there is tons, and tons, and tons, and fuggin’ TONS of actual real-world research, done by actual professional scientists (not scuzzy marketers) to back up that claim.

So the real question is: are you willing to keep hand-copying ads because Gary Halbert (hallowed be his glorious memory) needed a protege who’d eat shit and he found a way to sift through the pile of people who wanted to work for him?

Are you a shit-eater, or…

…are you the more sensible type who’ll say: “Okay, what’s a fast and effective way to get this done?”

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Hardship is not what determines your skill development.

Quality of education IS.

This is YOUR time…

YOUR money and…

YOUR dignity on the line.

Choose wisely.

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​See how to ACTUALLY grow your skills using winning ads​

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