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Online copywriting course · eight weeks · New York

Copy people skim.

The headline, the lead, the proof and the offer, the way the great ad men and women worked them out, rebuilt for sales pages, launch emails and the feed. Eight weeks online, with a red pencil on every assignment.

Enroll for January 11 Watch an ad get edited
  • Next cohort Mon, Jan 11
  • 60 seats
  • Self-paced from $349
  • 30-day refund

Before & after

One ad.
Five edits.

A 1934 ad for a percolator that never existed, marked up the way we mark up your work. The ad is invented. The mistakes are the real ones.

If it ran today · illustrative

Read past the headline
31% → 64%
Scrolled to the price
12% → 38%
Clicked “Order”
0.8% → 3.1%

We invented these numbers to show the shape of a good edit. They aren’t student results, and they aren’t a promise.

The course

Eight modules. One red pencil.

Each module opens with an old ad on the screen and closes with a page of yours on the table. Lessons run 8 to 15 minutes. The writing is the point: every module ends in an assignment you’ll actually use, marked up by hand if you’re in the cohort.

42lessons, about 9 hours of video
8assignments, each one for your own offer
120vintage ads in the swipe file
4hours a week, give or take

  1. The Reader 6 lessons

    Research before you write a word.

    You leave witha sheet of 30 phrases in your buyers’ own words.

    See the lessons
    1. Why the best ads were mostly research
    2. Mining reviews, comments and support emails
    3. The 20-minute customer interview
    4. Finding the words they use, and the ones they don’t
    5. One reader, one page
    6. Swipe study: a cold cream ad built from letters

  2. The Headline 6 lessons

    Clear beats clever.

    You leave with25 headlines for your offer, ranked, and the one you’ll test first.

    See the lessons
    1. What a headline is for
    2. Fourteen headline patterns that keep working
    3. Specifics: numbers, names, places, times
    4. Subject lines, video titles and hooks
    5. Write 25, choose one
    6. Swipe study: a railroad’s eight-word promise

  3. The Lead 5 lessons

    The first fifty words.

    You leave withthree opening paragraphs to test against each other.

    See the lessons
    1. Start where the reader is
    2. Cutting the throat-clearing
    3. The phone screen is the new fold
    4. Five leads: story, news, question, promise, problem
    5. Swipe study: a typewriter ad that opens on a desk

  4. The Proof 5 lessons

    Details are proof. Adjectives are claims.

    You leave witha proof bank: the facts, numbers and stories your page can lean on.

    See the lessons
    1. Show the test, not the result
    2. Testimonials that sound like people
    3. Numbers, honestly
    4. Demonstrations in text, video and screenshots
    5. Swipe study: a raincoat left on a roof

  5. The Offer 5 lessons

    Make the next step obvious.

    You leave withyour offer in one paragraph, with a guarantee you can stand behind.

    See the lessons
    1. Writing about price without flinching
    2. Guarantees that mean something
    3. Bonuses, bundles and why most of them hurt
    4. Deadlines that are real
    5. When the problem is the offer, not the copy

  6. Long Copy 6 lessons

    The sales page, start to finish.

    You leave witha full draft of your sales page.

    See the lessons
    1. The long-copy ad as a sales page blueprint
    2. Subheads that tell the whole story to a skimmer
    3. Objections, answered in order
    4. FAQs that sell, honestly
    5. The pricing section and the order button
    6. Live teardown: three student sales pages

  7. Short Copy 5 lessons

    Email, social, ads: the poster rule.

    You leave witha seven-email launch sequence and a month of hooks.

    See the lessons
    1. One idea, seen at a glance
    2. A seven-email launch sequence
    3. Hooks for short video and social posts
    4. Paid ads: writing for the scroll
    5. Product pages for the 11 p.m. shopper

  8. The Red Pencil 4 lessons

    Editing, which is most of writing.

    You leave withyour sales page, edited line by line, and a checklist for the next one.

    See the lessons
    1. Five passes: cut, specify, simplify, prove, read aloud
    2. Editing a machine’s first draft
    3. What’s worth testing, and what isn’t
    4. Final critique: your page, marked up live

The swipe file

120 old ads, taken apart for parts.

A swipe file is a drawer of ads worth stealing from. Ours comes with instructions: every ad gets a one-page breakdown of why it worked and how to use the idea this week. Six from the drawer:

These six were drawn for this page, with invented brands. The 120 in the course come from Maxine’s own collection, 1925 to 1965.

CALDWELL LIMITED Supper in Chicago. Breakfast in New York.

Caldwell Limited · railAd 014

A before and after, in eight words

The sixteen hours in between are skipped, so the reader fills them with clean sheets and a dining car.

  • Hero headlines
  • Video titles

Draft on Monday. Sales page live by Friday.

DUNMORE’S TOOTH POWDER DUNMORE’STOOTH POWDER · 25¢ 14DAYS Whiter in 14 days, or your quarter back.

Dunmore’s · tooth powderAd 037

A number, a deadline and a guarantee

Eight words leave the reader only one thing to doubt: the product. And the guarantee answers that.

  • Offers
  • Guarantee boxes

Your first launch email in 7 days, or your money back.

MAYFAIR TYPEWRITERS QWERTYU Is your letter being read, or only opened?

Mayfair · typewritersAd 052

The question they can’t leave alone

You can’t read it without wondering about your own letters. The ad spends the rest of the page selling the cure.

  • Subject lines
  • Openers

Is your email being read, or only opened?

GARROW RAINCOATS MARCH 31 We left one on a Seattle roof for 31 days.

Garrow · raincoatsAd 068

Show the test, not the result

It never says “waterproof”. It tells you what they did and lets you reach the conclusion yourself, which is why you believe it.

  • Proof sections
  • Demo videos

We sent 212 subject lines to one list. Here’s what won.

HALSEY BISCUIT CO. For the four o’clock slump.

Halsey · biscuitsAd 081

Name the moment, and you own it

Everyone already has a four o’clock. The ad moves the biscuit into the reader’s day instead of describing it.

  • Social hooks
  • Product names

For the Sunday-night “I should be writing” feeling.

FERRIS RADIO The ball game in the kitchen. Dinner on time.

Ferris · radiosAd 103

Two benefits, no adjectives

Each sentence is a picture. Nothing about tone, cabinets or craftsmanship; just the life it buys you.

  • Product bullets
  • Feature lists

Your launch emails, written. Your weekend, back.

Maxine Hart, in cut paper. She’d rather you looked at the ads.

Your teacher

Maxine Hart has never once let “innovative” through.

Maxine wrote ads in New York for nineteen years: appliances, a regional bank, a ferry line and more mattresses than she’d like to admit. For six of them she ran a copy department of eleven, and reckons she has edited around 9,000 pieces of copy.

In 2019 she left to write launches for course creators and small shops, 140 so far, from a $38 knitting pattern to a $6,000 coaching program. She started Golden Age Copy in 2021 because the same five edits kept fixing everyone’s pages.

She collects old magazine ads from flea markets in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. There are 1,400 in flat files in her studio on West 38th Street; 120 made it into the course.

“If the reader has to work it out, you haven’t finished writing it.”Maxine, on most first drafts

19years writing ads in New York
140launches written for creators and shops
1,400vintage ads in her collection
3,200students since 2021, in 41 countries

Your assignments are also marked by Rhiannon Bly, who has written 60 launches for course creators, and Felix Amadi, who spent eight years writing product pages and ads for a furniture maker’s online shop. All three use the same red pencil, and the same rule: every mark comes with a reason.

Who it’s forThe honest pageRead before you buy

For people with something good to sell.

And a page that doesn’t do it justice yet. It isn’t for everyone, so here’s the plain version before you spend a cent.

Yes, if…

  • You sell a course, coaching or a membership, and your sales page undersells it.Most of our students. Modules VI and VII are built around your real offer.
  • You write your own launch emails and dread every one.You’ll leave with a seven-email sequence you can reuse.
  • You run a small shop and write product pages at 11 p.m.Lesson VII.5 is for you, and short.
  • You’re a freelance writer ready to charge for sales pages, not blog posts.Your final critique doubles as a portfolio piece.
  • You draft with AI and can tell the result is flat, but not why.Lesson VIII.2 shows you exactly where to put the pencil.

Not yet, if…

  • You want templates you can fill in without thinking.We have templates. They still need you.
  • You need a launch next week.Give it eight weeks, or hire a copywriter for this one.
  • Your offer isn’t settled yet.Copy can’t fix a product nobody wants. Start with Module V, or wait.
  • You want guaranteed numbers.Nobody honest can promise them. Our refund is the promise we can make.

Pricing

Three ways in.

Same lessons in all three. What changes is how much of Maxine’s red pencil you get. The January cohort runs Monday, January 11 to Friday, March 5, 2027.

Self-pacedNo. 01934

The Course

$349

or three monthly payments of $119

  • All 8 modules and 42 lessons
  • The swipe file: 120 ads, each taken apart
  • Templates for sales pages, launch emails and product pages
  • Lifetime access, including every update
  • The student forum
Start today

StartsThe day you join

Live cohort60 seats

Course + Red Pencil

$890

or three monthly payments of $305

  • Everything in The Course
  • 8 live sessions with Maxine, Tuesdays at 7 pm Eastern, recorded
  • Every assignment marked up by hand within 72 hours
  • A live critique of your finished sales page
  • A cohort group for the eight weeks, and after
Take a seat

StartsMon, Jan 11, 2027

One to one4 a month

The Private Edit

$2,400

one payment, the course included

  • Maxine edits one sales page or launch sequence, line by line
  • Two rounds of marks, each with a reason
  • A 60-minute call to walk through every change
  • The full course, yours to keep
Ask about a slot

Next openingFebruary 2027

The 30-day refund, in plain words

Do the work for a month. If your copy isn’t better, reply to your receipt and we’ll refund you. No form, no exit interview. Cohort seats are refundable until the second live session.

Prices in US dollars. Paying through a company, or buying five or more seats (20% off)? Write to [email protected] and we’ll send an invoice.

Questions

Answered plainly.

Still wondering? Write to [email protected]. Maxine answers the inbox herself on Fridays, which is why the answers are short.

How much time does it take each week?

About four hours: 70 to 90 minutes of lessons, the rest writing. Self-paced students usually finish in ten to twelve weeks. Nobody’s timing you.

Is it all old ads?

No. Every lesson starts with a vintage ad, because it’s the clearest way to see a technique working. Every lesson ends on a modern page: a sales page, a launch email, a product page or a 30-second video hook.

I sell an online course. Is this for me?

That’s who most of our students are. Module VI builds your sales page and Module VII your launch emails, for your real offer rather than a practice one.

Do I need writing experience?

No. You need something to sell, yours or a client’s, and four hours a week. Recent students include a dog trainer, a cardiologist and a man who sells hand-tied fishing flies.

What about AI writing tools?

Use them if you like. Lesson VIII.2 shows how to brief one and how to edit what comes back. The judgment stays with you, and judgment is what we teach.

Will my numbers look like the ones on this page?

The numbers beside the percolator ad are illustrative: we made them up to show what an edit can do. Better copy often lifts sales, but your offer, price and traffic matter just as much. We won’t promise you a number, and you should be wary of anyone who does.

What if I can’t make the live sessions?

They’re recorded and posted within a day, and you can send questions ahead. Your assignments are marked either way.

How do refunds work?

Thirty days on the course: reply to your receipt. Cohort seats are refundable until the second live session. The Private Edit is refundable until Maxine starts marking.