a single source, nothing corroborates it

Draft in plain text and hand it to an editor

Writing in a document with no styling removes the option of retreating into layout while the persuasion is unfinished, and the copy then dictates the design rather than being poured into gaps. Everybody needs another set of eyes on it, including people who write about copy for a living, and a good editor mostly cuts length and swaps flat verbs for loaded ones.

The method

1. 01

   Draft in plain text so you cannot fall back on design while you are supposed to be persuading.

2. 02

   Write the copy first and let it dictate the layout; designing first and pouring words into the gaps is the worst order.

3. 03

   Get someone else's eyes on your copy: everyone needs it, including people who write about copy.

4. 04

   Have an editor cut the length and replace your flat verbs with loaded ones.

What it returned

• He abandoned Photoshop for a Google Doc for the rewrite

• Amy Hoy names this as the mistake she made redesigning her own product's page

• Amy Hoy kept his structure but removed redundant sentences and swapped in words like sabotaged and drove

Sources

• Step-By-Step Landing Page CopywritingNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Time for a rewrite · 2013-02-19