I've spent the past couple of weeks reading Karon Thackston's copywriting course, and boy-oh-boy is it a winner! Karon spent five long months putting down on virtual paper everything that she's learned in her 20+ years as a veteran copywriter. In fact, she told me that the hardest part was consciously making note of what comes naturally to her when she writes. I understand that perfectly, as that's the same thing I do when writing or speaking about search engine optimization. But, man, when you can get that natural process stuff down on paper, it really makes for killer material, and a great learning experience!
The major focus of the course is online and search engine copywriting, since Karon's been into that since 1999.
The course itself is actually a jam-packed, 150+-page .pdf file, which could be read as a book if you wanted to be lazy and just learn the basics. However, if you're serious about learning how to write great copy, you should take the course in the manner in which it was intended. That is, read all the lessons and try to complete the assignments. This is a self-paced, self-scoring course so you've got to use your own willpower for that one though, since no teacher will be standing over your shoulder waiting for you to hand it in!
What I like best about this course/book are the real world examples Karon uses. She doesn't just *tell* you how to write great copy; she explains why certain techniques work and why others don't, and provides stunning examples to back it all up. In fact, her writing samples were so good that I'm seriously thinking about signing up for some of the services she wrote about (a personal coach was one that sticks out in my mind -- if only I wasn't such a procrastinator!).
And that, my friends, is the crux of what Karon will teach you, if you decide to give the course a spin: you too can write copy in a way that truly entices people to take action. The good news is that it's priced extremely low at only $89.00. A whole heck of a lot cheaper than if you signed up for a copywriting course at a University or Business School, and most likely, a whole heck of a lot better!
You can get all the details or purchase the Step-by-Step Copywriting Course here: http://www.highrankings.com/copywritingcourse.
