Gary Halbert's 30 Day Copywriting Challenge (Tej Dosa Edition)
Gary Halbert is a legend. In every sense of the word. But, his 30 Day Copywriting Challenge? It’s a little overkill. And more geared towards learning rather than implementing in the real world (IMO).
As a result, when I started my copywriting journey, I created a 30 Day Copywriting Challenge of my own (that I shared inside Issue #1 of the Tej Dosa Letter back in November 2018).
This challenge took me from $0 to $3k. Then $3k to $5k even faster. I know that sounds too good to be true (and you may not generate the same results as fast), but worry not grasshopper (Gary Halbert voice). This challenge will have you making dolla dolla bills in no time.
Note: A close friend of mine wanted to learn copy a few months ago, so I sent him this 30 Day Copywriting Challenge. And he followed it to a tee. And made ~$1000 his first month.
Here’s the challenge (do this in the next 30 days if you want to quickly learn copywriting and start making $$$’s):
Requirements: ~4 hrs of work/day (minimum). Bleed the blood of optimism. A focus on learning (not making money). A willingness to eat shit. Daily consistency. And bucket loads of persistence. (If you don’t have that, don’t start this!)
Phase A (Immersion): Day 01- 10: Eat, breathe, sleep copy. I’m a HUGE fan of immersion. Once you’re learning something new, you want to overload your brain as much as possible, so you can make 10x the progress in half the time. At a minimum, you need to set aside 4 hours each day (including weekends).
Get a copy of:
(1) AdWeek Copy Handbook by Joe Sugarman
(2) Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
(3) Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy
But, what about Cashvertising? F Cashvertising for now. It’s a great book, but it summarizes too much stuff. You need to learn the structure of great copy before you learn anything else. So read the above 3 books. Don’t take notes. Just read. And question what you’re reading. Make connections.
Should you read one of these books, then the next? No. Read all 3 at the same time. I know this is controversial advice, but here’s why you should: You want to overload your brain with proven copywriting approaches. By seeing copywriting attacked from 3 different perspectives, your brain will make connections between each book. And get you caught up to speed ASAP.
While you’re reading the above, you need to also watch these 5 infomercials on repeat (Use YouTube):
(1) Proactiv
(2) P90x
(3) Total Gym
(4) George Foreman Grill
(5) Snuggie
Ask yourself:
What structure is this infomercial following?
What makes these infomercials similar to one another?
How are these infomercials capturing my attention, fueling my desire, motivating me to take action?
I recommend creating a Google Doc and analyzing each. Why? Because reading isn’t enough. It’s an ideal way to learn the principles of direct response. But you need to see these principles in action if you want to master copy, so analyze. Start with infomercials. Just the above 5 (because they’re the highest selling infomercials of all time).
But that’s not all. You also want to analyze long form sales letters (the classics) because they’re the holy grail of Direct Response.
Go on Swiped.co and pull up these 5 sales letters:
(1) Famous Dollar Letter by Gary Halbert
(2) $2 Billion Wall St. Journal Letter
(3) They Laughed When I Sat Down At The Piano, But When I Started To Play...
(4) Why Haven’t TV Owners Been Told These Facts?
(5) The Lazy Man’s Way To Riches
Create new Google Docs for each. And study the sales letter extensively (just like you did with the infomercials). Once you’ve studied both the classic infomercials and sales letters, it’s time to move onto modern day sales letters.
Go to Clickbank.com -> Affiliate Marketplace -> Click on the below categories
(1) Health & Fitness → Diets & Weight Loss
(2) Self Help → Success
(3) Self Help → Marriage & Relationships
Sort results by ‘Gravity’. And click on the #1 sales page from each of these categories. Then analyze it.
Now, you should have a Google Doc with breakdowns for each infomercial, old school sales letter, new school sales letter. Good. Take some time off. And shut the newly created ‘copywriting’ part of your brain down. Once you come back, create a new Google Doc titled ‘Master Copywriting Doc’. And go through all your separate Google Docs and look for any common patterns. Whenever you see a pattern between two or more letters, transfer that insight onto your ‘Master Copywriting Doc’ — it is here where you’ll be building the ‘Copywriting’ part of your brain. By the end of this exercise, you should have a MASSIVE ‘Work In Process’ Google Doc that you keep adding insights to while you improve your copy chops.
Phase B (Sharpening Your Pencil): Day 11-20: Now we’re onto Phase 2, but this doesn’t mean the Immersion phase is over. You still need to either review or read one new copywriting book/week while you’re in Phase B and C. And analyze one new sales letter a day while building your ‘Master Copywriting Doc’. What books should you read after you’ve digested the above 3? Choose from this list: (1) Boron Letters (2) The Gary Halbert Letter (3) David Ogilvy On Advertising (4) Triggers (5) Cashvertising.
Okay, now let’s get into what Phase B entails — Phase B is about honing your copy chops. And making money. Here’s what you’re going to do:
Each day you’re going to pick out something you no longer use inside your home and create a killer ad for it (using proven techniques from your Master Copywriting Doc) and then sell it via Craigslist.
The purpose isn’t to make money (which is a nice side benefit). Purpose is to write such great ads that people reply saying, “Wow this is one of the best ads I’ve seen on CL” — which is an easy response to generate because people suck at selling via CL (since it’s not really necessary). Regardless, you want to hone your muscles. And practice putting copy in front of traffic. We’re using CL, so the traffic is free.
In addition to selling one new thing a day via CL, you also want to do the below:
Find an online info-product. Any product. And create a new long-form sales letter for it. ~2000-3000 words.
This should take you a week. So, treat it as if it’s real (who knows if it’s good—you can run traffic to it later and make affiliate commission). But that’s not the point. Point is you’re applying what is inside your ‘Master Copywriting Doc’ by creating a marketing promotion for a real product. At the end of this phase, you should have sold at least 7 things inside your home and written a long form sales letter from scratch (in addition to reading a new copywriting book + analyzing one new SL a day + building your ‘Master Copywriting Doc’.)
If you think this is a lot of work, it’s not. Analyzing a letter and building your Master Doc will take one hour a day. Reading will take 20 minutes. Writing an ad for CL will take another hour. Writing a long form SL will take 2 hours a day. That’s just 4.20 hours/day. Easy stuff.
Phase C (Pitching): Day 21-30: By now you should’ve started making money via Craigslist. So continue slanging one new product a day via CL, but we’re also adding one more task to your daily schedule.
You’re going to send 10 pitches a day (minimum) selling your copywriting services or a high ROI offer. Again, if you’ve immersed yourself in copywriting and focused on building your ‘Master Copywriting Doc’ — this part should be easy. All you have to do is create a short pitch and send it. Then repeat.
Who should you send it to? Only to people who know what Copywriting is and are looking to hire copywriters. Here’s how you find those people: (1) UpWork -> Search for ‘copywriting’ (2) LinkedIn -> Search for ‘copywriting’ (3) Cold Emailing -> Go to ClickBank -> Pull up any person selling on it (they will know what Copywriting is because they’re clearly using it to sell their products) and pitch em via email.
10 pitches a day minimum. In the beginning this will take time. You will test a bunch of pitches until you find a pitch that starts working. Once you do, double down on it. And use it until it stops working (I created one pitch which made me 6 figures alone). Don’t overcomplicate it.
If you do the above, you’ll have sold 20 things on CL. Sent 100 pitches. And even with a VERY shitty 2% Conversion Rate will have landed 1-2 clients in 30 days — which should make you 4 figures with ease.
But above all, you’ll have quickly learned the ins and outs of copywriting. And started making dolla dolla bills. Maybe even enough to say goodbye to the 9-5 life for good.
And just like that, BAM… Challenge complete and you’re no longer on the sidelines wanting to learn copy, but knee deep in the copy game with dirty (and profitable) hands!
I shared the above with you because this is how you want to move. Too many people spend too much time wasting time and delaying what needs to be done in order to produce results.
Get in the pool. Rest will follow.
Thanks for reading! :-)
Your friend,
/tej