I saw this little ad in a publication recently:

The Most Recommended Path to the Writer’s Life

No matter what path you want to take to the writer’s life, knowing how to write persuasively is at the heart of it. AWAI’s Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting gives you everything you need… from learning the skills to getting great clients… and everything in between.

The Accelerated Program comes with 586 pages of training material, 20 practice exercises (plus free critiques!), tips on how to market yourself, access to our member’s-only job board and so much more!

Do you see what’s wrong here?

Right! It describes a product in terms of its features (586 pages of training material, 20 practice exercises, etc.) instead of benefits. The features/benefits rule is the very first thing you learn as a student of copywriting.

Whoever wrote this copy must have forgotten that. This just goes to show something I’ve noticed about skill development. The mistakes that experts make are rarely sophisticated mistakes. They are usually very basic.