A sharing of my copywriting story. Curious to hear the experiences of other members of this community and their takes. My family once came from an upper-middle-class background, but in the last couple of decades, we have progressively fallen from that economic situation. As a result, frivolous spending was not something that we could afford to do. Also, as a result, opportunities to reduce spending and save money became of high interest to them. Over the years, I have had to talk my parents out of signing up for a number of scams that prey on older individuals using all the persuasive copy tricks in the book and the typical funnel structure. And thanks to this, I subconsciously created a very strong connection of persuasive copy, landing pages with VSLs = Scam or at least a highly exaggerated or inflated claim. Things like: Here is this secret that this person is willing to share that the government wants to keep from you… Municipalities hate people who use this little-known tool that could save them 50% of their power bill… You get the idea I viewed it as a tactic to be used when the product or offer itself could not be explained in very simple English. All smoke and mirrors, without ever admitting the offer was just predatory junk targeted at people least able to afford wasting money. Combine that with the endless stream of biz opp charlatans promising financial freedom for the price of thousands, sold to opportunistic yet naive viewers. It really left a genuinely sour taste in my mouth. Now let's catch up to the present, to when I began learning copy. To be frank, I hated it because of those deeply entrenched notions I had. It felt like learning the tools of manipulation rather than those of persuasion. I also think this played a role in my aversion to sales and cold outreach, but that's a story for another time… Eventually though. I had to face a realisation. The copy and mechanisms used are just tools. Like fire that can cook your food or warm your body, it can just as easily burn your house down. The fire doesn't decide which one happens. The hand holding it does.