I remember when I was a kid my dad asking me what I wanted to do when I grew up.
‘I don’t know,’ I said.
‘Well, what are you good at?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know—writing, I guess’, I said.
‘That won’t get you very far,’ he said.
Not that my dad is down on writing. He was a writer himself, and he’s one of the biggest readers I know. In fact, my love of literature comes entirely from him. No. His point was that (at that time) writing didn’t seem naturally to lead to any particular career. Being an author was unrealistic—pie-in-the-sky. He did later suggest I might become a journalist, though.
It’s funny how times have changed. One might have thought that writing would diminish in importance as new technologies overtook the world. In fact, as we’ve got more high-tech, writing has become more and more significant, with some studies showing that the average person now reads more than ever before.
Put simply, if you want to be a renegade entrepreneur and make money online then you must become a good (or at least passable) writer.
These days in the ‘online entrepreneur’ community, copywriting is rightly all the rage.
‘Learn to write great copy’, we’re continually told, ‘And you’ll always be able to put food on the table. Write excellent copy and you’ll be rich.’
Not for nothing is Ben Settle something of an underground icon, with Gary Halbert and co like gods peering out from behind the clouds.
Look, I buy into all of this totally. Copywriting almost certainly is the most important skill any of us can acquire if we want to sell online. Because after all, people tend not to buy anything that costs real money without reading about it first. And whether or not we press the purchase button will depend to a large degree on the language used and how persuasive it is.
But. I want to raise a shout-out for other forms of writing too. Great copy, as we are frequently reminded, is not art, it is there to make people buy things.
But equally, other forms of writing are not there to make people buy. Other forms of writing, for example, fiction or essays or memoirs, are there to communicate complex and subtle thoughts, memories and emotions. And that clipped, abrupt ‘copy’ style doesn’t work for everything.
The reason that blogs are still a great way to build up an audience is because, through writing, the blogger is able to draw an audience into his or her world. This is accomplished through writing that is not just ‘copy’, but that is emotional, real and human.
I am certainly learning as much about copy as I can. I too have to put food on the table, after all. But it would be a shame if the only type of writing that is favoured in 2018 is copy.
More importantly, it actually makes commercial sense to learn to write in registers other than the purely commercial.
P.S. And yes, I’m aware of the irony here . . . If you’d like an hour’s FREE Skype consultation with me and you are interested in building your own money-making niche websites, do remember to head over to Kyle Trouble’s PRO NICHE SITE course and reserve your place before the end of this week (19th August).
If you book through my link before the deadline then you will get that free hour’s coaching with me for zero dollars—the RRP is £200, so you really are getting a great deal, on top of Kyle’s already excellent course.
SIGN UP FOR PRO NICHE SITE NOW. (And claim your free 1hr training with me).
