It’s something you cannot avoid…

At some point in your course creation journey, you’re going to need to write material.

It could be content for the course, or any number of other essentials to publicise the course – ‘about me’ pages, emails sign up pages, adverts, press releases, sales letters…

At first, this can be a little intimidating…

Particularly when you switch on your computer and find yourself staring at a blank page thinking, “What on earth am I supposed to write?”

But this scenario never needs to happen.

Not if you use the approach I’m going to recommend in today’s email.

Because I want to show you what is, without a doubt, the most useful tool that anyone in business can have – that goes for writers, marketers, publishers, designers and product creators of all kinds.

Never start working on a course without one of these…

I’ve trained a lot of copywriters, editors, course authors and marketers over the years, and I always insist they start creating their own swipe files.

A ‘swipe file’ is a collection of advertising, marketing and editorial material that you can use for ideas, inspiration and templates.

It can include…

• Headlines, opening paragraphs, images, adverts, sales letters, social media posts, blog posts, press releases and articles that are clearly working well.
• Any course ideas or adverts for courses which have caught your eye and made you think, “wow, I wish I had thought of that!”.
• Favourite articles, chapters, introductions, quotes and conclusions from courses you admire.
• Material produced by your competition, or the top players in your field of interest.
• Advertising from yesteryear that sold information products, for instance, classified ads, billboard ads, newspaper advertorials and vintage books. These could be from a few years ago, right back to the 1940s!

When you have a proven piece of copy in front of you, there’s a starting point for your writing, because you instantly have a template to follow.

Think of it like a map left by a traveller who has pioneered a difficult route for you.

It’s not just the words that are important but the framework and structure… the tone and style… the images… the pricing… the offer and bonuses.

When you understand what makes a piece of writing work, you can use similar strategies in your own course materials.

Questions you should ask about every great piece of copy

With any piece of copy you find, ask yourself the following questions:

• What emotion is the copy trying to tap into? What might the target reader feel? What did YOU feel?
• From looking at the material, what is it that the customer really needs, wants, hopes or fears?
• What images (verbal as well as visual) were used to engage the potential customer?
• What kind of tone of voice is used in the copy? What kind of language? Why do you think they chose that approach?
• What is the big promise? What problem does it offer to fix? Or what goal is it helping people achieve?
• How are any potential objections or concerns answered in the copy? What are those objections? Do they apply to what you’re doing?
• What’s the offer and why did it work, do you think?
• How is the whole piece structured? What points did they start with, and then how did they layer on more ideas, twists and surprises?

When it comes to creating your own piece of course content, or advertising, make sure that you address each of these points.

Try and mimic the style, flow and energy…

Try and tap into the same emotions…

See if you can match the promises, and deal with the same potential objections.

Don’t copy the work – as this is plagiarism – but instead use it to create your own version.

It’ll not only improve the quality of what you do, it will save you from staring at a blank screen wondering where to start.

OK, let’s look at ways you can create your swipe file…

How to build your own swipe file

To build a swipe file, you need to become a collector.

That means getting into the habit of saving things…

Take cuttings, tear out articles, scan sections of courses, take screenshots, download images, copy and paste chunks of text, save links.

You’re looking for anything related to your course subject matter…

But also seek out anything that’s well-written in ANY topic area, as you can always translate the techniques to your own subject.

Don’t just rely on what you happen to stumble across…

Study your competitors. Visit their websites. Read their courses. Like their Facebook pages. Follow them on social media. Sign up for their emails.

Use Google to find courses, articles, blog posts, ads and forums where you can find examples of people who are advertising, marketing and creating products related to your own. Find the big players and see how they are going about business.

To get a constant stream of ideas without manual Googling, you can try something like Feedly www.Feedly.com

From $6 a month, this content aggregation site will allow you to set up a newsfeed of information in different categories related to your course.

You can create folders for different themes, then add new content sources into the folders as and when you find them.

Feedly will compile a “news feed” that you can tap into whenever you need material for your swipe file.

Go into the past for inspiration

You should also dig into the past – as there are decades worth of advertising classics that will inspire you, as well as more recent campaigns that you can get your ideas from.

To help you do that, here’s an interesting resource…

Swipe File https://swipefile.com is a website packed with classic ads, new ads, home pages, headlines, templates and examples.

It includes everything from examples of pricing structures and testimonials, to ‘about me’ pages, email sign up forms, Facebook posts and even restaurant signs.

It’s aimed at copywriters but will also be of great use if you are marketing or writing content for any kind of course.

How to organise your swipe file

I recommend you use Evernote https://evernote.com to help you collect and organise material.

This platform allows you to save articles, quotes, PDFs, webpages, notes and all kinds of online material.

When you find something useful for your swipe file, clip it to Evernote, using their webclipper tool. That’ll save it either in full screen captures or just the bits that you like.

You can then put the material into categories for easier locating later on. For instance, you can collect pieces by subject matter, or by format – for instance, headlines, Facebook posts, offers, email sign up pages.

Evernote even gives you the option to scan offline documents so you can add newspaper and magazine clippings into the mix.

Everything is automatically saved and synced across your computers and mobile devices, so you can add to it from anywhere (and access it from anywhere).

As a final tip, when you find great material for Evernote, add your own notes and comments so that you can later recall why you saved it, why you liked it, and what you thought it could be used for.

You’ll thank yourself for this further down the line!