Makepeace or Carlton?

Hi,

I saw your question and wanted to add my advice. I love John Carlton. The man is gooooood, plus he learnt his trade from Gary Halbert himself! John also has a great course on copywriting called 'The Simple Copywriting System'.

Clayton also is a heavy hitter. He has his 6-Figure Copywriting course which is also great.


But know this: John writes for preety much any niche. He's versatiole and adapts to different topics. Clayton on the other hand, focuses on the financial market.

Which of them should you choose? I'd go with John Carlton, but do not neglect to study Makepeace's course and blog. He dishes out awesome information daily!

I like the way John Carlton teaches. When I read Carlton's Kick Ass Copywriting Secrets Manual everything he taught just seemed to make sense to me.

All the tips and tricks he spoke of were truly amazing. Once I started reading the manual I couldn't put it down. I don't have SWS but I assume it would be just as good or better.

-Bill

Well, the first step, before investing $1000s in a course, would be
to read the masters.

If you're on Clayton's list he sends out a list of 19 books you
should get familiar with. I've read most of them, but a few are
out of print and only available at insane collector prices, so
I skipped them - notably Sackheim and Reeves I think. The rest
are all in print. In any case, the OOP books are influential enough
you'll pick up the same info reading Ries & Trout and other
more recent stuff. Drayton Bird's books on copywriting and
on direct marketing are two of the best ever.

No high-end course will substitute for the groundwork of reading
the advertising classics.

I prefer Makepeace's style personally so he's the one I follow
closest.

Hi Mike

Your Hollywood analogy makes alot of sense. Both you and Paul Hooper-Kelly talk about the importance of finding the teacher who I connect with and I did just that earlier in the day reading through their blog posts, whatever salesletters I could find and I have decided to go with Carlton as a starting point.

I'm choosing Carlton first because his writing style surprisingly makes me feel good and subconsciously gives me the confidence that I can do this.

I was heavily leaning towards Makepeace but I found his course seeming to be extremely deep and as I want to get cracking as soon as I can, Makepeace will be for when I have gotten some success after applying Carlton's teachings

Thanks Mike!


Hi Loren

I just signed up with Clayton's list and will be looking to get the 17 classics as soon as I can. While I agree with you that reading the advertising classics will give me a solid groundwork, I find myself able to grasp things better with interactive sessions...albeit not directly but I think the SWS course will allow me to learn from Carlton's verbal teachings and the students who attended through the DVDs.

Thank you for highlighting the importance of the classics


Hi Paul

As mentioned in reply to Loren, I too find myself preferring the interactive involvement. I find books to be too theoretical for my brain to absorb.

I will be popping by the bookstore though sometime soon to get Schwab's book as per your suggestion. I do know for sure though I want to learn copywriting and so will be going ahead with getting Carlton's course but in the meantime will devour the free resources available



To everyone who responded, thank you so much for all the advice. They have provided me with a lot of food for thought.

Shaleniie Devi's Must-Get Copywriting Gold List

(1) Carlton (undergraduate)
(2) Makepeace (masters)
(3) Gary Bencivenga's DVDs (phD)

Together with these courses, I will be reading the classics and all these, I believe, will give me a well-rounded basic education on copywriting and I look to applying my learnings as soon as I can.

Now on to formulating my plan to make the money for Carlton's course.....

Shaleniie Devi

hI ALL

I can comment on Clayton's course cause I got it.

Its very through and has chapter for each copy component i.e offer, ps, headline and so on. Has a chapter even devoted to Eugene Swartz's 'Breakthrough advertising'. You get some good extras like a special report about 50 pages long that talks solely about using emotional words to get the prospect involved.

However what I did find was that almost all the examples shown in the course were to do with health market and financial market. So if u r writing copy for these 2 markets or specialize in this field, then all the more Clayton's course may work wonders for you.

But there were not any examples to swipe relating to 'biz. opp' market which was to honest I was expecting.

But neverthless its a amazing course (over 1000 pages) that really gets you thinking. Even though I am no copywriter, but after having read it, I am driven to experiment with writing copy myself.


smak

I've heard so much about this DVD set but I did not see it in his bundle offer.

Well hopefully it will be a surprise addition when I place my order

Shaleniie

As someone who trained under Carlton and I'm on the faculty of the Simple Writing System I recommend you wait until it opens again.

Not only do you get a great step-by-step course with tons of bonuses, you also get to work with a world class mentor.

It might be Scott Haines who worked with Gary Halbert

David Deutsch who is a leading copywriter for Boardroom.

Mike Morgan who's become the GoTo Guy for launches.

Warrior Kevin Rogers who is the most patient teacher on the forum.

or many other superstars.

It's the chance to work with one of these people and write your own letter that makes it unique.

And John checks in on your work nearly every day.

And as far as the "Retirement DVDs", the event was great for the networking and for a simple formula offered.

Is it worth $5000 for the recordings? No. Not in my opinion. It is certainly NOT a course in copywriting.

Hi Shaleniie,

I expect the next SWS live mentoring session to happen in March or April, but the date has not been set... at least not to my knowledge.

But, you can get the course materials anytime the simple writing system website, then join the mentoring session at equal discount when it opens. In fact, I often recommend people go through the system on their own once before the mentoring... it makes the time with your coach even more valuable.

Best,

Kevin