🇺🇦 Eddie Shleyner

Founder of VeryGoodCopy.com, essayist

Hello, thanks for stopping by. I’m Eddie 👋🏼

I’m a conversion copywriter, content marketer, and the founder of VeryGoodCopy, a newsletter about copywriting and creativity read by millions of people each year. Join over 80K email subscribers—including copywriters, marketers, entrepreneurs, and other smart folks—who've subscribed to the VeryGoodCopy Newsletter and bought 𝘝𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘊𝘰𝘱𝘺: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬:

◾ “VeryGoodCopy shows you how to write, and how not to write. How to think, and how not to think. Eddie is a damn good marketer. I recommend him.”
—𝗗𝗥𝗔𝗬𝗧𝗢𝗡 𝗕𝗜𝗥𝗗, 𝗢𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗹𝘆 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿

◾ “Please, God, can everyone involved in advertising—and not only copywriters—just read this book…I loved every moment.”
—𝗥𝗢𝗥𝗬 𝗦𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗗, 𝗢𝗴𝗶𝗹𝘃𝘆 𝗩𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻

◾ “Eddie is a fantastic copywriter.”
—𝗔𝗡𝗡 𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗟𝗘𝗬, 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙒𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙨

◾ “Eddie Shleyner. Where to begin? Not only a fantastic writer, a historian, a gentleman, someone I'm proud to call a colleague. VeryGoodCopy is a copywriting goldmine. I often go there for inspiration. Eddie is the real deal.”
—𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗬 𝗗𝗥𝗬, 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀.𝗰𝗼𝗺

◾ "Eddie Shleyner is one of the few people who can articulate what makes great writing great."
—𝗝𝗨𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗡 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗜𝗥𝗢, 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝘃𝗲

◾ "Eddie Shleyner is a brilliant writer who understands the art of persuasion — and teaches it — in a way few people can. I'm jealous of how he can say so much in so few words. Big fan!"
—𝗞𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗡 𝗥𝗢𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗦, 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝘆 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗲𝗳

◾ "Eddie Shleyner, now there's a fella who knows something about copywriting."
—𝗗𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗧, 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝘅𝗶𝘁 𝗙𝗶𝘃𝗲

◾ "VeryGoodCopy is likely the very best reading you'll do on any given day about copywriting."
—𝗞𝗜𝗠 𝗞𝗥𝗔𝗨𝗦𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗛𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗠, 𝗔-𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗽𝘆𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿

◾ “Eddie gets it. He’s a joy to work with and does so at the highest level.”
—𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗧𝗧 𝗗𝗜𝗞𝗞𝗘𝗥𝗦, 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿, 𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗢𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻

Read hundreds of free "micro" lessons, interviews, and courses about copywriting, creativity, and storytelling on VeryGoodCopy.com.

You can also the "Featured" section below for more information about my products and services. 

Thanks again for being here—and enjoy!

Founder

"One of the best copywriting blogs around." 
- Wistia

"One of the content marketing industry's best copywriters." 
- HubSpot

VeryGoodCopy.com is a blog about the art and science of written persuasion. Over 53,000 people subscribe to receive weekly micro-articles about copywriting, content marketing, and psychology.

It's also a direct-response copywriting and content marketing agency that ships clear, concise words that sell.

Click the link below to learn more.

If you want to do A+ work, this mindset applies to all writing... scripts and novels, vignettes and short stories, sales letters and love letters and anything else.

Enjoy!

Founder of VeryGoodCopy.com | Join 95K newsletter subscribers

 Experienced vs. inexperienced writers:

How I write (and you can too):

0.
So I almost always want to know three things before I start writing a “micro-lesson” for VeryGoodCopy:

What’s the story?
What’s the lesson?
And what is the word count?

𝟭.
The story:

I typically find the story 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵. It could be—and often is—a personal anecdote, something from my life, some happening or experience with my wife or kids or parents or friends. But it could also be about something I saw on tv, or read in a book, or witnessed at a gas station or the grocery store or, or, 𝘰𝘳—

I mine all the things that happen in and around my life—be they significant or mundane, painful, embarrassing, or joyous—for creative material, for relatable stories.

“Everything is copy,” said Nora Ephron. Damn right.

So where the story comes from is secondary to how it made me 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭. If it made me emotional, that’s a sign it will make someone else emotional.

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader,” said Robert Frost. Damn right.

𝟮.
The lesson:

If the story 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀 me of something I do for work—some concept, principle, or technique I use to write or think better—I have the lesson, the takeaway, the thing people can apply to 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 work (or life).

𝟯.
The word count:

I rarely write without a predetermined word count, which, believe it or not, I leave to chance. I simply ask the Machine to pick a random number for me. I open ChatGPT and type:

"Pick a number at random between 166 and 475."

And whatever arbitrary number the Thing spits out, that’s how many words I’ll aim to write. I don’t always hit the word count (usually because I run out of time and need to move on), but when I do—when I land on the 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵 number—the writing almost always feels more intentional, which I like.

Then, it’s like a puzzle:

How can I put 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 story and 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 lesson together in precisely 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 many words?

______

Thanks for reading! 
That’s how I write.
Feel free to 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 ↓

This is a short essay about copywriting. Enjoy!

The miracle:

Resist the (very natural) urge to do 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴...

And instead, ask yourself 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 question...

Next time you're editing copy:

You can use this technique to transport The Reader anywhere, into any situation or circumstance, good or bad, painful or pleasant...

Oh, how compelling this can be. 

Enjoy!

Writing immersive stories:

The miracle:

I watched a 60 Minutes segment I’ll never forget…

The late Ed Bradley interviewed a family—a religiously devout mother, a painfully quiet father who was so shy he couldn’t even look into the camera, and their ten-year-old daughter who was in a wheelchair because she was born with spina bifida.

Every year the family pilgrimaged to Lourdes to pray for a miracle. Bradley was incredulous about this. He didn’t understand their journey to the shrine. The trip didn’t make sense to him: the cost, the effort, year after year—and yet the small girl was still in a wheelchair, so weak she had to be strapped in to stay upright.

“What do you pray for?” Bradley asked the girl.

You know what she said?

“I pray my father won’t be so shy,” said the girl, looking at her dad. “It makes him feel so lonely.”

This answer seemed to stun the interviewer, who fell silent. Ed just sat there for a moment, speechless. Finally, he looked at the mother and said something like:

“Every year you spend so much time and so much effort to come to this place in hopes of a miracle,” he said, “but you have no miracle to show for it. Why do you keep coming back?”

You know what she said?

“Oh, Mr. Bradley,” said the mother, looking at her kid. “You don’t understand,” she said, “we 𝘨𝘰𝘵 our miracle.”

______

I’ll never forget it as long as I live.

I’ll never forget how this amazing child was able to hold space for someone else’s pain before her own—and how this affected Ed Bradley, his entire perception and understanding of Lourdes:

It’s a place that, more than anything else, reveals a person’s character, who they are.

“Oh, Mr. Bradley...” she said, “we 𝙜𝙤𝙩 our miracle.”

______

Copywriting icon John Carlton once told a room full of business owners:

“You’re probably not gonna find your product’s story in the company line.”

That is, the most compelling narratives—marketing or otherwise—are not necessarily clear and obvious. No, usually, the deepest, most profound, most resonant and moving insights are inconspicuous, hidden away.

As copywriters, such a big part of our work is to uncover these unobtrusive truths, to notice them, recognize them, and bring them to light.

Thanks for reading! Did you enjoy this piece?

taplio