26 Copywriting Courses You Can Take for Free (or Very Cheaply)

You better take one of these copywriting courses if you’re going to be an entrepreneur.

There is no way out of it.

You will absolutely cripple your business if you don’t know how to sell with words.

Most people will want to take a shortcut. But I know you are a true entrepreneur — one who will want to kick butt and take names later.

You don’t want to waste your time going down an imaginary path that doesn’t exist.

(I also know you’re flipping impatient, so I’ll hurry up and get right into it.)

So, keep reading if you want to know the cheapest ways to learn copywriting — you won’t be disappointed and I’ll make sure the ride is fun.

6 Reasons Why Everyone Needs to Take a Copywriting Course

Good copywriting courses can teach you how to use words to improve sales in your business by 10X.  

Yeah, I hear you. You’re running a business and you don’t have a lot of time. 

But at the very least, you should know enough about writing copy so you will know how to hire a decent copywriter. If you know absolutely nothing about writing copy, how will you know what to look for in a copywriter if you need to hire one?

I know you’re riding the fence on this, so here are a few more reasons why you need to learn copywriting.

Reason #1 – You Don’t Have to Be There

That’s right, Doobie, you don’t have to be physically present. You can sell to people in Slovenia while you sip coffee in Florida. Just send out a well-crafted email message or mail a sales letter and let the copy work its magic. 

Reason #2 – Copy Never Gets Tired

Once your copy is online, it will work for you 24/7/365. It’s like the Terminator; it won’t ever stop unless you pull the plug on it. (Which is a big reason why content marketing has become a $412 billion industry.)

Reason #3 – It’s Easily Duplicatable

Imagine that you sent 5000 sales letters through the mail. Now, imagine you sent out salesmen to do the same job. It would take them years to do the same number of presentations as the letters did. If you put your sales copy online as a blog post or an article, you have can potentially reach millions of people. 

Reason #4 – Save Tons of Money

Hmmm…. Let’s think now. Training salespeople can be expensive and sales letters can remove those costs. You don’t have to spend gas money to drive to prospects’ homes. 

If you use your copywriting online, sales pages can replace thousands of dollars of traditional sales costs. Your copy can appear in a lot of different places if you know how to market your business.

Reason #5 – You Can Make Tons of Money

It’s exciting to think about all of the different ways you can make money with copywriting. You can write for different kinds of clients who have different needs There are blog posts, ghostwriting, sales copy, course creation, video scripts, email marketing, product copy, infographics, podcasts, etc. 

And if you just want to work for yourself you can create your own written products and sell them. (I have written my own DVD course on how to use Corel’s PaintShop Pro and I sell it on Amazon.) 

Just imagine how much you can make with just 3 or 4 of these ideas!

Reason #6 – You Are Only Limited by Your Creativity

I love being creative. There are so many ways you can take what you’ve already written and turn it into something else.  

This is called “repurposing”. 

Repurposing is when you take some copy you’ve already written and turn it into something else.

For example, let’s say you wrote a series of blog posts on fishing poles. So, you decide to combine those posts into an eBook and create an ultimate guide to fishing poles to sell online.

Or you’ve written a book and you want to take small snippets of it and post them on LinkedIn to get people interested in a product or service you want to sell. You can take an infographic and turn it into a video and post it on YouTube.  

As you can see, there are quite a few ways you can repurpose content.

Here are the Free CopyWriting Courses (Sheesh, You’re Impatient)

Now that I’ve convinced you beyond a shadow of a doubt that you need to take a few copywriting courses, I’m going to tell you which one’s I think you should take.

I will tell you about all of the free resources that you can use first and then follow up with the ones that cost money.

Most of the free copywriting courses that you can get online are in eBook format. However, don’t think for a second that they can’t teach you everything you need to know. I’ve been a teacher for 20 years, and I’m kind of old school –  I think you can learn better with the written word.

If you just watch videos, so much information can go by very quickly.  If you read, you can take in the information slowly enough to let the information sink in a bit.   See?

So, just because some of these are free eBooks you shouldn’t blow them off. (As a matter of fact, if you don’t already have these eBooks on copywriting you should download them. What could it hurt?)

Top-of-the-Line Free Courses That are Ebooks

Make Your Site Sell

This eBook is an excellent way to start learning how to write persuasive copy. It is written from the perspective of how you would write copy if you were selling something from a site you’ve built.  It was penned by millionaire Dr. Ken Evoy ( He is an actual medical doctor) who sells a website system called SoloBuildIt!

A serial entrepreneur, Dr. Evoy created a series of products through the years and sold them online before developing his website system.  This 241 page eBook will take you step-by-step through the entire process of writing compelling copy. It breaks each step down into easy-to-learn components so that you can learn the basics. This was one of the first books that got me interested in copywriting and it’s an excellent primer for beginners. 

 Copyblogger’s Copywriting 101

This is another free course that is written by someone who actually built an online fortune.   Brian Clark started his content marketing empire with a mere $1000 and has become one of the major authorities of copywriting online.

This 87 page eBook is one of the best free copywriting courses you can get on the Internet.   Every year I dig this document out of the archives of my hard drive and read it.  It’s easy to forget the basics if you don’t review them.  If you’re just starting out, this free eBook is an excellent resource.

The ABC of Copywriting

This is a beginner’s book that explains copywriting in a clear and concise manner.  Written by Tom Albrighton, you can learn all the basics of copywriting with this 98-page eBook.

One of the things I personally like about this copywriting course is it has a section on the psychological techniques you can deploy.  Most of the books on copywriting seem to pass over this subject, but it is a very important part of persuading people to spend.   This section alone makes this a book worthy of your attention.

Better Than the Best Free Copywriting Course

This is another eBook that’s free once you sign up for it by copywriters Clive Cable & Barry Dunlop.  These two writers have a different tack on how they teach beginning copywriters.  They teach you to look at copywriting more from the perspective of your readers rather than what you can learn and spit out.

The exercises they teach you to start with begin with the prospects and readers in mind.  It’s only 46 pages long, but it’s been written by two very successful copywriters who can help you get started with their lessons and insights.

Excellent Online Copywriting Courses that are Free

These are courses that are just sitting online waiting for you to take them for free.

Now, just to be transparent here, most of these courses will tell you just enough to get started. In other words, they’ll get you down the road of getting started but at some point, they’re either going to upsell you to a better course or sell your their services.

But, they are still EXCELLENT at teaching you the basics.

The Kopywriting Kourse

Neville Medhora is not only one of the best copywriters I’ve been following for years, but he is also the funniest. One of the things that I love about this guy is the way he creates stick-figure illustrations to make a point clear. So, not only is his advice and instruction excellent, but the way he presents concepts and ideas are funny and a lot of fun.

He does some of the coolest things too.

It’s not uncommon for him to walk down the street and tell a shoe repair shop owner he can make his signs better. He then photographs and documents how he changed the sign using his copywriting abilities. I just love stuff like this because it’s outside the box of what most copywriters do.

Before I forget, his Kopywriting Kourse YouTube Channel is excellent too, and you should watch as many of his videos as you can.

QuickSprout’s Complete Guide to Copywriting

If you don’t know who serial online entrepreneur Neil Patel is, you must be living under a rock.

He is the ultimate Internet businessman with a string of highly successful companies he’s built over the last 20 years.

Neil is super-great at online writing and SEO and a lot of what he’s learned is from studying and practicing copywriting techniques he’s learned as a businessman.  One of the first companies he started was QuickSprout and he created an incredible online guide to copywriting that you can read there.

The thing I like the most about Neil’s approach is that if you follow his advice, you’ll get where you need to go.  He gives you the best advice in clear, simple steps to get your copywriting skills up quickly.

Quick Course On Effective Website Copywriting

This is a short course by Peep Laja, but very powerful.  Peep gives you six basic steps of writing copy that will get you started immediately. So if you’re pressed for time and want to get started today, you can use this as a guide to get started.

However, a word of caution here.  If you are going to sell a product for yourself and needed to come up with some copy to sell it, this quick course can help you do it.  However, if you want to start writing for clients, you’ll need more study, time, and experience than what you’ll find here.

The Unbounce Landing Page Course

If you’ve studied any of the material I’ve directed you to above, you should have a good idea of how to start writing copy that converts.  The reason why learning direct response copy is so important is because it is fundamental for writing for the Internet.  If you know how to write a good sales letter, you will easily see how it applies to blog posts, email sequences, and sales pages online.

Just to prove my point, you should take Unbounce’s Landing Page Course.  This copywriting course makes it easy to write copy for landing pages with actionable steps you can use right away.  If you take this course, you’ll see why learning sales copy is so applicable to writing for the web and creating landing pages that sell.

Hubspot Content Academy

Hubspot has all kinds of excellent free courses you can take for free.  One of the courses you can learn a lot from is their content marketing course. In case you don’t know, content marketing is one way copywriters can make a ton of money.  Blogs, articles, ghostwriting, white papers, etc. are all ways you can make money writing for others online.

The thing I like the most about Hubspot Academy’s Content course is it focuses on using storytelling.  Storytelling is very important in the world of content, or writing advertisements. if you don’t believe me, you should check out one of the most successful ads ever written below.

The Cult of Copy

Colin Theriot is a hard-core copywriter.  I’ve taken his paid courses and they are excellent, so anything you can glean from his free stuff is going to help your copywriting out tremendously.

He makes a ton of money from his Facebook Cult of Copy pages because they are loaded with all kinds of great copywriting information.   (Yeah, there’s more than one Cult of Copy Facebook page, so make sure you check out his other ones.)

Cheap Copywriting Books You’ve Just Gotta Have

Remember when I told you that you could learn copywriting cheaply? (Please go back and look at the title.)  Well, one of the ways you can do that is by going the old school route and buying books on the subject.

Below is a partial list of the books I’ve purchased and read over the years on copywriting.

The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy

If you don’t have this book a part of your copywriting courses, then forget about becoming a copywriter.  It is so important and yet cheap to get your hands on that you can’t possibly be serious about copywriting if you don’t have it.

Dan Kennedy is a master info marketer and copywriter and his advice on how to write copy that sells is indispensable.  If you can get on his mailing list, do it. I still get great sales letters from him in the regular mail and I add them to my swipe file for study and inspiration.  (I once got a 50-page sales letter from him. Yeah, you read that right, 50 pages!)

The Copywriter’s Handbook by Bob Bly

Bob Bly has to be one of the hardest working copywriters alive today. He has approximately 90 published books.  And if that’s not impressive enough, he has tons of eBooks, DVD courses, and other materials that he has written over the years. (Not to mention all of the high-profile companies he’s written copy for.)

This book tells you all of the basics of running a copywriting business and how to write copy from the ground up. It is indespensible to any copywriter who needs a quick resource on this art.

Secrets of a Freelance Writer by Bob Bly

This is another great book by Bob Bly on how to set up and run a copywriting business.  100% essential to your resource library.

The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert

Gary Halbert is considered to be the Holy Grail of copywriters. This book was written as a series of letters by Halbert to his son, Bond, while he was in prison. It doesn’t say why he was there, but he talks a lot about his time there and the things that were going on.  (I don’t believe I’ve ever read a how-to book from someone in prison before. But that’s just me.)

He is the undisputed master of writing high-response copy and he lays out many of his secrets in this book.

How to Make Maximum Money in Minimum Time by Gary Halbert

This book is kind of old but it has been updated by Halbert’s son so that it is more relevant in a technology-driven world. Because he was such a master communicator, it is not only very insightful on how to write copy, but it is also entertaining to read because he’s so good at writing stories to illustrate his points.  In this

Ogilvy on Advertising

This book is written by one of the top advertising execs ever to walk the planet.  Beautifully written and illustrated, this book is a must for anyone trying to learn the art of copywriting.

Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

This is a very popular book that most copywriters recommend to students.  It is by one of the most famous and successful and famous copywriters ever.  This text shows you how to get into the head of your prospects and the processes involved in getting them to buy.

7 Steps to Freedom by Ben Suarez

This book is MASSIVE.  It goes into every step of information marketing in great detail including how to write sales copy.  It was recommended by Gary Halbert in an article on how to write copy, so I bought it.  This book is out of print and dated, but you can still get older copies of it at Amazon.

Cashvertising by Drew Eric Whitman

I’ve seen Mr. Whitman’s lectures on video and he is a lot of fun to watch.  He dresses in a lab coat and gets into the psychology of how to write advertising copy for clients or your own business with great enthusiasm.  The thing that impressed me the most about his book is how he tells you what you need to know in order to start making money with your words.

But hey, you’re in luck!

Here is an hour-long interview with Drew Eric Whitman on how he approaches writing advertising copy while going deep into the psychology of it.

Copywriting Courses That Don’t Cost Much (But are Really Worth It)

Yep, these courses will cost you some money, but they are very affordable.

Just to put this into perspective, if you were to go to a Dan Kennedy Copywriting Seminar, it would run you between $3000 – $5000.

No kidding.

The Freelance Writer’s Den

I am a member of Carol Tice’s Freelance Writer’s Den and it runs me a mere $25 a month.

Her subscription site is loaded with courses on how to get copywriting clients, interview them, and reel in big money.

I don’t know the exact number of courses she has on her site, but it is large.  And not only that, she features top-drawer, professional copywriters who give you all kinds of great advice on how to write, promote, and thrive with your copywriting business.

Udemy Copywriting Courses

Udemy has all kinds of copywriting courses, some of them bad, some of them good. One of the good courses I’ve found on Udemy is Len Smith’s and Sean Kaye’s Copywriting Secrets – How to Write Copy that Sells Course.

Another great course Udemy copywriting course I’ve taken is Freelance Copywriting: How To Succeed As An Elite Copywriter by Clare Lynch.  Ms. Lynch is a Cambridge University professor and owner of her own agency has created an awesome course with 42 lectures.

So if you have no idea how to get copywriting clients and write for them this course is perfect for you.

Many of the courses on Udemy are in the $20 range, but if you want to take the courses that are taught by seasoned copywriters, they charge more.

For example, Clare Lynch’s course will run you around $50 which is still an excellent value and you’ll learn from a seasoned pro. (By the way, you will have access to your Udemy courses indefinitely and most of them have ways you can get great advice on how to write copy.

Resources You Need to Keep On Your Hard Drive

T.J. Rholeder’s 63 Free Ebooks – T.J. R. is another great copywriter/entrepreneur who really knows copywriting and how to use it to bring in wads of cash.  He is giving away 63 eBooks on the subject of copywriting and starting and running businesses. THAT’S RIGHT, 63 FREE E-BOOKS!!!

Colin Theriot’s (The Cult of Copy guy mentioned above) Blog Posts and Rants – This guy’s blog posts are so good, I copy them and turn them into .pdf files ( same thing as an eBook.) I can then reference and learn from them all I want.

Warrior Forum’s Copywriting Posts – I know I didn’t mention this forum, but there’s a site online called the Warrior forum where a lot of copywriters hang out.  Heck, if you contribute enough to this group, some of these seasoned copywriters will even mentor you.

Bob Bly’s Swipe Files – You remember I mentioned Bob Bly earlier in this post.  He has samples of the stuff he’s written for clients and you can even copy or download them for your own swipe file.  There are a ton of them on his site you can learn from.

Conclusion

I know that this was a rather extensive list of copywriting courses as well as resources, but I think it’s important for you to learn as much as you can about your craft.  There are a couple of things I want to tell you before you run off to conquer the world.

First, take the online courses and turn them into ebooks. (This goes for helpful blog posts and other resources online as well.)

Highlight and copy the text into a word processor like Microsoft Word and instead of just saving it as a Word file (.docx) you can save it as a .pdf file. Save them in places on your hard drive that you can pull up at a moment’s notice.

This will give you loads of files you can use as lessons, inspiration, and ideas.

Second, learn the different kinds of copywriting. You don’t have to just write a direct response…but you should learn it. Remember you can do ghostwriting, white papers, blog posts, etc. However, I strongly recommend you learn direct response at the onset.

Why?

Because you’ll learn all about the importance of headlines, subheads, and writing which influences people.

Before you go off to conquer the world, here are a few words of wisdom to help you on your journey to learn copywriting.[ctt template=”6″ link=”ff8pi” via=”no” ]“I can fix a bad page. I can’t fix a blank page.” ― Nora Roberts[/ctt]

In other words, get to work and start writing.  You can take all the courses in the world, but until you actually start learning and practicing this craft, you’ll never get any better.

If you have any comments please leave them below.