One of those weeks, very interesting.

Gordon,

I'll throw in my $0.02.

Perhaps it's good to step back and ask, "what is an org like AWAI doing right and what are they failiing students at?" (I know, what you are offering is superior to awai on many levels but hear me out).

If some numbers I saw recently are any indication, they're failing the students because they're not finishing. Why are they dropping off? Bad course? Uninteresting material? No sense of accomplishment? Disinterest in the industry? Lack of follow up?

Perhaps with the 30 lessons, you could incorporate what AWAI is doing well. I'm not even sure what that is but they seem to be able to market themselves well. They also have a variety of courses, sales letters, non-profits, business niches, etc. etc. Maybe they do variety well. Maybe not.

As a total newb myself, I see a large but unknown world of copywriting out there. Sure, there are a ton of resources to see and study, but what happens in the real world when the business owner is asking me what my expertise and copy can do for him?

For instance, I've been exploring local businesses lately. The common thing is, find what someone's doing poorly and rewrite it. To someone like me, I have no idea what that means. Sure I can understand taking a totally crappy hand-painted sign and revise that, but what about the small ad in a newspaper or yellow pages that needs rewritten or the web copy that works but is not stellar? How does an ok ad get to be a great ad that pulls the reader in within such a short space? Or even as you recently mentioned, buy the chattel item on CL and write a great craigslist ad to sell it. What are the elements of a great CL/FB/Bing ad?

Or, what are the different types of copywriting for local businesses? I know good copy is good copy is good copy, but how can you spot a crappy brochure from a great brochure, as an example?

I guess what I'm rambling on is to give the student a broad overview of what copywriting is while he is doing the assignments - or even have some assignments of looking at the crappy stuff and fixing it. Perhaps the student doesn't have a particular interest until you go over that "module." Then it clicks for that student. And then that becomes "the thing" to focus on.

Is this making any sense?