r/copywriting

Am I the only one who now actively notices whether a post or piece of information is written with AI or not?

If I do find it it written by AI or sounding like it, unless it’s fact-based or informative I automatically disregard it or don’t value the input

Examples are businesses using AI to write their generic content or posts. Or Reddit posts that are slop.

What do you think or do?

Over the last few weeks I've manually audited landing pages from Reddit, BetaList and founder communities.

At first I thought conversion optimization was mostly about headlines, CTAs and button colors.

The more pages I audited (and the more conversations I had here), the more I realized those are usually symptoms, not root causes.

The biggest recurring patterns I've documented so far are things like:

- Unclear messaging in the first 10 seconds

- Message mismatch between sections

- Weak or missing trust signals

- Poor objection handling

- No compelling reason to choose this over alternatives

- Weak offer positioning

- Lack of audience clarity

- Traffic quality being blamed on page design (or vice versa)

I'm documenting every audit in a structured format:

- Customer's likely first thought

- Source of friction

- Why it happens

- Suggested improvement

- Expected impact

The goal isn't to become another "landing page roast" account.

I'm trying to build a Conversion Intelligence Database—a collection of recurring conversion patterns that can eventually power an AI-assisted audit tool grounded in real examples instead of generic advice.

One thing I'm realizing, though, is that traffic and audience fit are much harder to learn than landing pages alone. Those problems often don't show up by simply looking at a website.

So if you're an early-stage founder and you're comfortable sharing context about your traffic, audience or funnel, I'd genuinely love to study it. I'm not selling anything—I'm just trying to understand why some businesses convert while others don't.

I'd also appreciate hearing what recurring conversion patterns you've noticed from your own experience.

We all have the way we do things that works for us, I want to hear about what works for you. As much or as little detail as you want, what are you doing differently to bring clients in?

I know, I know.. the practice of copy comes from actually doing it.

But I listen to a lot of audible books while I’m at my FT job to deepen my understanding of the theory of copywriting and marketing before I go home and practice.

Just wondering if anybody has any good recommendations I can pop on my list?

Mucho appreciado.

Can i just post it here? If so then here's an example -

Title: you're losing big opportunities by putting in more effort.

Imagine it's 3 am in the middle of the night, turns out you've been working from 6 in the morning but still barely able to finish half of the tasks you assigned or allocated to yourself.

The problem you might think is that "Oh, i didn't do enough" or "I should push myself harder" but wait, what if i tell you it's not.

What if i tell you the more effort you put-in that way, the worse it is for you in the long-term.

Yes, just as you heard. Sometimes, Doing more can do more harm than good. You will ask then "What am i to do?" and the answer is simple, you must first find your problem and identify an approach to the problem that works.

Let me explain, You're confusing "progress" for being "busy" by thinking "I've been productive if i have been doing work all day long" in this case you may not have been as productive as you'd thought.

Then here what is the problem? The problem might be your thinking (that you're doing a lot just based on a feeling)

Before you find a solution to a problem you must know 'what' the problem actually is. You might say "I know what my problem is, it's not being able to complete all my tasks" or

"Not being able to see progress inspite of doing so much" but is that really the problem? or is the problem in your approach to all this.

You see in physics, the first thing you do after you see a problem, is to find an approach to it. i.e. know what to do with it, if your approach is wrong then that means no matter

how much you try in solving the problem you won't find an answer. What you will find instead, is a lot of furustration and anguish.

Feel free to leave your thoughts about this in the comment section.

What I'm doing rn is going through Meta Ads Library and make my way to their landing page, if I see that their landing is not that good then only I mail them with a Spec Copy (didn't get any reply after going the extra mile).... I have done it once but not feeling like doing it again.... Mppphhh... Is this the way, I have to send more emails? or is there a more effective way.

Pls help me out guys.

And how do you make stable money by writing landing pages ?

You can tell this was written by AI in about three seconds.

Not because AI is bad at writing. Because the human using it gave up after the first draft 😅

I saw this last week while reviewing a landing page. The copy was clean. Grammatically fine. Nothing “wrong” with it.

But that was the problem.

It said things like “built for modern teams” and “save time with better workflows.” The kind of lines that sound okay until you ask, “Would a real customer ever say this out loud?”

That’s my AI copy smell test now.

Does it say a lot without taking a position?

Does every sentence feel like it could belong to any company?

Does it use words nobody says on a sales call?

Does it make the reader nod, but forget it five minutes later?

That’s usually not an AI problem. That’s a laziness problem.

AI is great for speed. First drafts, rough angles, messy notes, headline options. Solid kaam ⚡

But judgment still has to come from the person holding the keyboard.

The best copy has fingerprints on it. A real objection. A weird customer phrase. A tiny detail from that awkward pricing call your team still remembers.

AI can help you get to the page faster.

It cannot care on your behalf.

So maybe the real test is simple:

After the AI draft is done, did a human actually show up? 👀

Is AI copy getting better, or are people just getting lazier?

This brand probably paid six figures for this homepage… and the headline says absolutely nothing.

monday.com’s homepage currently says:

“Outpace everyone with the best AI work platform.”

The design looks clean. The brand looks serious. The sentence looks confident.

But as a buyer, I’m left with one very basic question:

What does this actually help me do?

“Outpace everyone” feels like something someone says in a meeting after too much coffee. “Best AI work platform” sounds like a label, not something that actually helps a customer understand what they’ll get.

Here’s the problem with big-brand copy.

It often tries to sound bigger than the buyer’s problem.

But buyers do not wake up thinking, “I need the best AI work platform.”

They think:

“Our projects are scattered.”
“Nobody knows what’s stuck.”
“My team is losing time chasing updates.”

So I’d rewrite it as:

“Keep projects moving without chasing updates.”

Subline:

“See what’s stuck, who’s responsible, and what needs to happen next — all in one place.”

Less grand. More useful.

A homepage headline should not make people admire your positioning.

It should make them feel understood in five seconds.

Is my rewrite better, or did I just make it worse?

Just looking for some advice. I'm a freelance health & fitness journalist and I've written for lots of major publications (a couple of newspapers, lots of magazines, BBC, various others). I'm looking to diversify my income streams and trying to pick up some copywriting gigs (also, it pays so much better and journalism is sadly not in a good way right now). And basically, I'm not 100% sure if I'm going the right way.

I've started cold emailing relevant marketing/content managers of health and fitness brands but haven't got any responses. I've literally started this week so I'm well aware I need to be patient but don't want to waste my time if ppl think this is a terrible way to try and locate work.

I also have a lot of PR contacts who work in various health and fitness agencies, but the content/marketing team tends to be very separate (often in-house marketing with PR agencies)... So could contacting PRs a good route?

Would also love to know standard rates (in the UK). Have done some Googling but when I compared to what Google/ChatGPT thinks is average for journalism (It thinks it's waaaaay higher than what I think), I'm just not sure if a day rate should be like £350 or if that's extortionate (or really cheap??).

For context, I have about 5 years journo experience, lot's of big titles and writing in this field and have done some copywriting in the past including newsletters, blog posts etc.

TL;DR - is cold pitching a waste of time? And what's the going rate these days?

Hey guys I’m slowly transitioning into creative strategy & e-com copywriting. I’m seeking advice from successful creative strategists and copywriters specialized in performance marketing.
What’s your process like to come up and write creatives? What tools do you use for research and writing? Do you think creative strategy and copywriting are still legit or it would be better to learn something else? Thanks so much in advance

Or: How much do you trust your perplexity research? For example when it delivers a persona or when you need help with a message hierarchy?

Thank you!

Im doing a site-wide copy refresh for a client right now and the sheer amount of corporate jargon they want to inject into the conversational flows is actually driving me insane

We literally spent weeks nailing down a casual, relatable brand voice for their main pages. But then we get to the support widget scripts and suddenly they want the automated greeting to sound like a victorian butler. "Greetings esteemed visitor, how might our enterprise assist you today"...bro nobody talks like that

I even got them to ditch their bloated legacy software for a simpler alternative to live chat just so we could have a cleaner interface that doesn't scream "we are a massive faceless corporation", But they are dead set on filling the actual text boxes with the stiffest copy imaginable

It just feels like companies get terrified of actually sounding like real people the second they have a direct line to a customer

end of rant I guess, just needed to vent before I go try to convince this guy that saying "hey there" won't instantly bankrupt his business.

What is a reasonably salary for a junior copywriter with about a year of experience at a small/mid-sized agency in a major, high cost of living city?

For added context, I started as an intern at this agency and have been doing consistent freelance work for 35/hr for the past 8 months. They’ve recently brought up the idea of taking me on as a full time junior copywriter, but were clear that it’s not an official job offer yet and they would need to know what salary I would ask for.

This would be my first big job out of college and I would love to work there and finally get a break from part-time jobs and gig work. I don’t want to lowball myself and I think that having so much experience with their clients and inner-workings does give me an advantage, but all the research I’ve done on entry level salaries varies drastically. Would 60k be reasonable? Please help.

Im doing a site-wide copy refresh for a client right now and the sheer amount of corporate jargon they want to inject into the conversational flows is actually driving me insane

We literally spent weeks nailing down a casual, relatable brand voice for their main pages. But then we get to the support widget scripts and suddenly they want the automated greeting to sound like a victorian butler. "Greetings esteemed visitor, how might our enterprise assist you today"..bro nobody talks like that

I even got them to ditch their bloated legacy software for a simpler alternative to live chat just so we could have a cleaner interface that doesn't scream "we are a massive faceless corporation" but they are dead set on filling the actual text boxes with the stiffest copy imaginable

it just feels like companies get terrified of actually sounding like real people the second they have a direct line to a customer

end of rant I guess, just needed to vent before I go try to convince this guy that saying "hey there" won't instantly bankrupt his business.

I've written a long-form B2B direct mail sales letter aimed at business owners doing approximately $2M–$20M in annual revenue. Most of these owners have likely tried to scale before and hit a ceiling tied to their own involvement in the business.

They opted in via email first, so they've already raised their hand and expect a sales letter. They're not being ambushed by one.

The objective isn't to close the sale from the letter. The goal is to get qualified owners to book a call for a two-day executive workshop.

Framework this was written in

I'm drawing on a few specific direct-response traditions, so it helps to know the lens before you read:

• Gary Bencivenga's proof-fusion approach, where claim and proof are fused into a single unit rather than a claim followed by separate evidence. If a section feels like it's making an assertion and backing it up right in the same breath rather than stacking proof afterward, that's intentional.
• John Caples' emphasis on headline and lead testing, direct and curiosity-driven openers over clever ones.
• Ken McCarthy's direct marketing principles, particularly around speaking to a specific, identifiable buyer rather than a generic audience.
• Eugene Schwartz's market sophistication and awareness levels, meeting the reader where they are in terms of problem awareness rather than assuming they already believe they need this.

I'm not asking you to grade me on whether I nailed these, I'm asking whether the execution actually works on you as a reader, regardless of which tradition it's borrowing from.

Who this is for and how to read it

The reader is a business owner, not a marketer. They opted in expecting to receive this letter, so they're primed but still skeptical, busy, and have seen a lot of consultant pitches before. They may or may not believe their revenue problem is tied to their own involvement in the business, that's part of what the letter has to establish before it can sell anything.

If you're willing, it would help a lot to read it once as that owner would, just taking it in the way they'd experience it. Then, if you have a second pass in you, I'd love to hear where the technique itself broke down for you as a copywriter.

What I would appreciate feedback on

• Does the headline make you want to keep reading?
• Does the lead pull you in?
• Where did you lose interest, if anywhere?
• Which claims need stronger proof?
• Does the mechanism feel genuinely differentiated?
• Does the offer feel compelling enough to book a call?
• If you wouldn't book the call, what stopped you?

I'm not looking for grammar or style edits. I'm looking for honest, direct feedback. If something isn't working, I'd rather hear that than polite encouragement.

Here's the letter:
https://revenuearchitect.ca/letter

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to take the time to read it.

There are so many free resources out there claiming to teach copywriting, but the quality varies wildly. Some are genuinely useful and others are just thinly veiled sales pitches for paid courses.

I've been trying to build a solid foundation without spending a ton of money upfront, and I keep running into the same problem: it's hard to tell what's worth your time until you've already spent it.

I've gone through a few YouTube channels, some free email courses, and a handful of swipe files I found on various sites. Some clicked, some didn't. The stuff that helped most was usually focused on fundamentals like understanding the reader, writing clear headlines, and studying real ads that actually converted.

Curious what the community here has found most useful. Specifically:

Did you learn more from structured courses or from just reading and deconstructing great copy on your own?

Are there any free resources you'd genuinely recommend to someone just starting out or trying to sharpen their skills?

What's one thing you wish someone had pointed you toward earlier in your copywriting journey?

Not looking for a list of paid programs, more interested in the stuff that doesn't cost anything but actually moved the needle for you. Would love to hear what worked and what felt like a waste of time.

It seems like not a lot of people necessarily wanted to get into copywriting, but rather fell into it.

How did you all find your way into this industry? If your willing I would be curious if you are a freelancer or agency employee as well.

Hi guys, I’ve been working on my copywriting and editing career for a few years now and have finally been offered a position with a good salary.

However, it’s basically a proofreading position for internal and external documents at a defense contractor company.

I’m very conflicted about this role. I’m not developing or building military tech, but I would be supporting a company that does, and I don’t know how I feel about that on moral or ethical grounds.

Has anyone been in a similar position? Am I being dramatic about my consent or participation in this industry or should I just play it safe and avoid this kind of work altogether?

What’s writing for defense contractors like?

My brother in Christ, you are living in an era where LLMs can code fully functional video games, did it not once occur to you that typing words into a google doc for blog posts and granny pages being your only value proposition might lead to a predictably catastrophic situation for your job prospects?

I've genuinely seen people here claim the companies that laid them off are all going to collectively beg on their knees for forgiveness after they supposedly realize just how much "better" real content writing is compared to "soulless AI"

That is sheer delusion, and only rings true for skilled direct response copywriters (ie people who's words actually lead to results in a business, not just words on a granny page)

I know I just sound like I'm making fun of you guys but in all honesty i'm just perplexed at the kind of mental model required to spend years learning no other skill than literally typing up words for a blog and then turning around and complaining when the job opportunities such a "skill" dry up