Are most copywriting services ineffective and meaningless?

Aug 09, 2008

If you believe this blog post then most copywriters (including yours truly) are committing a fraud by perpetually convincing their clients to let them write for them. I agree that this particular blog post intends to sell a copywriting course and hence it needs to create the negative hype (the writer could have been more creative had he taken copywriting seriously), quite often I come across such claims, that you don’t need a copywriter for your website and you can write on your own for all your business, marketing and blogging needs.

Actually I have no problem with the learning part; of course you can learn copywriting and then there is no need to hire a copywriter if you can do all the writing for yourself. You can also learn kung fu. You can have your own haircut. You can pull your own tooth out. You can buy your own plane and learn to fly.

My problem is, somebody telling that copywriters are ripping you off by telling you that you should hire a copywriter for your copywriting needs when you can learn the skill yourself. Then they will say that web designers are ripping you off because these days it’s quite easy to make a website. What about sending your children to school? Can’t you teach them on your own? And what about that PC you bought last month? You could have easily assembled one for yourself.

We all provide different services because there is a demand for them. If you are a software programmer you would rather spend your time coding than first learning how to write marketing copy for your website and then writing that copy for yourself. Similarly if I want to write I don’t need to create my own word processor if I can get one in the market within a few hours.

It is really silly to tell people that the service provider is committing a fraud by not letting you know that you can learn the same thing. Of course you can learn it provided you want to learn it, provided you have got the time, and provided that you have got the inclination. Recently I came across a copywriter’s website and he charges $5,000 per hour to write copy for his clients. I don’t know whether the claim is true or false but organizations do pay a lot to good copywriters and there is a valid reason for it.

We all have different skills and preferences. Some people are good singers, some write well, some are great programmers and others are awesome visual artists. Take for instance blogging; some bloggers are so great at it that they receive thousands of visitors every day and some receive merely 40 to 50 visitors. They can all write but it isn’t just writing that brings you blogging successes. Lots of other factors are involved. It will be highly stupid if we start telling people that they can create highly successful blogs by merely learning how to install a blogging software and how to publish blog posts.

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3 Responses to “Are most copywriting services ineffective and meaningless?”

Are most copywriting services ineffective and meaningless?
August 9th, 2008 at 5:28 am
[...] Content Writing and CopyWriting Blog Copyright © internet sc_project=3641399; sc_invisible=1; [...]
ramiro marques
August 9th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Good point! 9 in 10 new blogs disappear after 6 months of blogging.
Charles Cuninghame
October 17th, 2008 at 12:08 am
You’re spot on Amrit. There are 3 good reasons for hiring a copywriter:
1. They can do a better job i.e get better results.
2. They can do it quicker.
3. They can do it cheaper - for most business owners, time is precious resource.