How important is copywriting to you?

erifdekciw

erifdekciw

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May 3, 2008
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Is anyone here actively working on their copywriting skills? Do you think copywriting is an important part of this 'sector' of affiliate marketing?

One thing I noticed about the "big time" copywriters is that they usually write long sales pitch / CB style offers. I don't really see any top level guys working in our area of affiliate marketing. The reason I say that is because when I look at most landing pages that your typical CPA affiliate promotes, they are usually pretty bad when it comes to their sales writing ability. Most people in this affiliate space seem to put more effort into disguises. Or trying to pass off as an authority figure...

Now obviously those are pretty strong factors in getting sales, but why is there a lack of good copywriting in this affiliate space? I've always wondered why you never see any bad ass direct response copywriters come in and dominate with their level of sales writing ability.

I remember back in 08 when anyone could throw up a website and make money. When I look back at my work I just laugh at how bad it really was, but I was still making 200-300% ROI. I can't even imagine what kind of ROI a decent copywriter would of been making back then.

But even today I see a lack of good salesmanship in most affiliate landing pages. So whats the deal here? Has it come to point where disguises and fake authority trumps writing salesmanship? Or maybe the really top guys don't want to be involved with this side of the industry and would rather make money off their own products (which is obviously the best way to go, but there is still a lot of money to be made on this side of the fence).

Does anyone on this side of affiliate marketing actually care about copywriting or has it basically come down to who can get away with cloaked landers the longest?
 
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if you have ever read The Gary Halbert Letter then you probably know the whole newspaper farticle pitch was ripped from one of his newsletters. There are some badass affiliates out there who write their own copy, but then the entire industry just rips it from them.
 
Copywriting is important. Crappy copy doesn't convert near as well as compelling sales copy. I dust off a couple of copywriting books every now and then. An oldie but a goodie is called "Tested advertising methods" by John Caples and a more modern book for longer type pitches is "Hypnotic writing" by Joe Vitale. Joe does some internet sales copywriting and flogs products, so he puts out some good examples.

It's pretty funny that what was popular years ago is still popular now. Weight loss, health, money worries etc.
 
It's critical. When I sell you in radio I have words plus voice, on tv words voice and pictures, in person all of it plus presence and body language. People are working videos into landers but copy has to do a lot of the work that you can slack on - like the lack of dialogue in porn- its not as important. Your site needs great copy like a porn vid needs hot chicks. Critical!
 
Not only is copywriting vitally important, the headline alone is 80% of your ad. You can mess with graphics all you want, but most people just read the headline and decide in a split second whether to move on or keep reading. Headline testing is probably the most important way to increase your ROI.
 
Totally agree with BlueYonder that the Headline of your subject is 80-90% of your add. Mostly peoples decides to read the article or not if your Headline is attractive or not.
 
In that book above that I recommended by Jim Caples ( I bought an old copy from amazon) most everything focused on the headline. This has always been the most important aspect of marketing.
 
Clients/customers/buyers are live humans and you need to find good words to meka them believe that your product is worth buying. Good article or a small description can be crucial. If a person reads a google translated text or some nonsense, then he will think that the seller is not serious and is probably a scam. Conclusion: copywriting is important.
 
Copywriting is like singing. Everybody can do it, but only a small portion are good enough for people to want to listen.

Far too many write their own copy when they shouldn’t. Hell, I do it myself. It happens because good writers don’t come cheap; they need time to soak up what the client does, cranking up billable hours.

To get good, study the masters: Bill Bernbach, Howard Gossage, Tim Delaney, Ed McCabe.

If the headline consistently pulls 80-90% of the weight in your ad, fire the art director.
 
BlueYonder said:
And nailing the sale. Never forget to tell the customer what you want them to do, be it buy this, sign up or whatever.
Click to expand...
And multiple times. On my main money site, I have a CTA at the start of the article, and one at the end. Decided to remove the top one the other day, thought it'd make the site prettier, Google would like it, and it wouldn't affect the CVR that much. Jesus Christ, was I wrong. The CVR tanked from 33.3% down to 2%. (Needless to say, after about a week to make sure it wasn't just coincidence, it got changed back)
 
Aff marketing and copywriting is interesting. It is a lot different than your CB style copywriters. Usually you hire a copywriter to write you a killer sales letter and that's it, maybe split test some headlines. What I see AFF doing more is A LOT more testing. Which I think is smart. I also notice that aff landers don't use story as much as CB style letters. I think Stephanie pointed this out once too, you guys need to create more cool stories in your copy. At the end of the day, I guess all that matters is if you can stay profitable.
 
After the Google recent updates copy-writing is now becomes a essential part of my link building services.
 
For me personally Copy, selling, angles, etc. are what my campaign successes and marketing skills are based on. Am I the best traffic buyer out there? Do I always run things by the numbers or use the best tools possible? Nope.

I've written a bit before about how I've noticed most AM's seem to lean towards more of a creative side or more of a math/statistical one, and it's reflected in how they create their campaigns. I'd say everyone is a little bit of both, and it's somewhat based on the background a lot of people have coming into AM. programmer, developer, salesman, etc.
 
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