You DON'T Need to Be a Professional Copywriter to Write on Substack, but...

If you want to sell anything (subscriptions, books, programs), you need a basic understanding of persuasive writing.

Welcome to ‘Copywriting Tips’ — where you can glean some basic principles of persuasive writing to sell more subscriptions, books, programs, etc.

Welcome to Copywriting Tips, a new section for Free and Paid subscribers who want to improve their ability to market their writing effectively without feeling sleazy.

If you write a Substack, you’re in sales

That might not sit well with you. And I get it.

You’re a novelist, a memoirist, an essayist, etc.

But guess what?

At the very minimum, you sell free subscriptions.

If you offer a paid tier on your Substack, you’re selling a paid product.

Forget the age-old writer’s belief, more recently made famous in the film Field of Dreams:

“If you build it, they will come.”

I’d rewrite that for accuracy this way:

“If you build it, you need to learn how to sell it, but in a way that doesn’t leave you or your readers feeling like you both need a shower afterward.”

Persuasive writing doesn’t have to feel sleazy

In this series of posts, we’ll examine how some basic tenets of modern copywriting apply to selling free and paid subscriptions.

And who knows… you might fall in deep-like with writing sales copy! 🥰

What to expect in Copywriting Tips

My first online business was copywriting. Later, it shifted to teaching marketing to copywriters, and I published a book called Becoming Irresistible: How To Pack Your Copywriting Business With Five New Clients Every Month. I mention this because I approach persuasive writing from both sides — as a marketer and a copywriter.

1. Every other post will be paywalled. Paid Members enjoy perks that free subscribers don’t (At $30/annually, it’s a no-brainer to become a Paid Member).

2. No yellow highlighting or Ronco tactics are required. You’ve probably seen the TV commercials where Vince, demonstrating the amazing functions of the Slap-Chop, barks out, “But wait, there’s more…” or a sales letter with nearly every line highlighting yellow. We WON’T be doing that.

3. You’ll learn the basics of persuasive writing techniques. Persuasive writing is using language to present information in the manner that your reader’s brain already expects. It’s the practice of directly meeting a customer’s psychological expectations—more on that in the next post.

I’m glad you’re here. It shows initiative and a desire to grow in your chosen niche.

Let the persuasive writing begin! ✍🏼