Aswipe file is a collection of writing examples that helps you improve your writing skills and to write cope faster as you follow proven techniques and structures.
This article discusses:
What is a swipe file?
How to create your own swipe file
What’s in a copywriting swipe file?
What’s in an email swipe file?
What’s in a swipe file for bloggers?
Use a swipe file to fine-tune your style
How to create a swipe file
Do you ever read someone’s work and wonder …
I wish I could write like that.
So engaging. So persuasive. So full of personality.
How does she do it?
All writing gurus tell you: read a lot and write a lot, and you’ll become a better writer.
But does that advice make you shake your head in frustration?
Because it doesn’t quite work?
Joining a writing course or hiring a coach is a faster way to improve your writing skills.
But creating a swipe file is free, and it’s the learning method most pro writers use to improve their writing. They study other people’s content and create a collection with proven writing examples.
Shall I show you how?
The idea of “swiping” is well known across different creative pursuits
In his book Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon shares the following examples:
- The Beatles started as a cover band.
- Kobe Bryant watched tapes of his heroes and copied their moves.
- Comedian Conan O’Brien tried to copy David Letterman.
And I’ve written before how Picasso studied a 17th century painting by Diego Velázquez and created 44 new paintings based on that one painting.
What is a swipe file?
A swipe file is a collection of writing examples. These examples can be anything from headlines to blog post openings, and from sales emails to landing pages. Pro writers use swipe files to inspire their content and improve their skills.
How does a swipe file help improve your writing skills?
A swipe file helps you understand writing techniques as you can see how others write. It also provides templates for your own writing. A swipe file can even help you overcome writer’s block and save time, as it provides suggestions for headlines, email subject lines, content structures, and more.
How to use a swipe file without plagiarizing
The purpose of a swipe file is to study techniques and templates. Never use it to paraphrase ideas, let alone copy sentences word by word. To avoid plagiarizing, you may prefer studying texts outside your niche.
How to create your own swipe file
The examples in your swipe file are only useful if you understand why a piece of content was written in a certain way.
So, to create a swipe file stop reading and start analyzing content. Try figuring out why a piece of content is engaging or not, why it’s persuasive or not, why it’s inspirational or not.
In the old days, swipe files were paper folders with printed sales letters and adverts torn from magazines. These days, professional writers keep their files digitally. You can set up a series of folders on your computer and dedicate each folder to a specific type of content such as landing pages, about pages, sales emails, or blog newsletters.
You can also use an app like Evernote to organize your swipe file. Evernote allows you to use tags and / or folders, and you can add new content to your swipe file from your smartphone, tablet, or computer.
Only add pieces of writing to your swipe file that demonstrate good writing.
What’s in a copywriting swipe file?
A copywriting swipe file can include home pages, about pages, sales pages, service pages, and adverts.
You don’t need to include all. What is your focus?
For instance, if you specialize in writing sales pages, you only need to put sales pages in your swipe file. If you want to learn more about writing sales pages for the food and drink sector, add only sales pages from that sector to your swipe file.
- What is the purpose of this page? What action should the reader take? Is that action clear?
- What arguments are provided for taking that action?
- How are features and benefits communicated?
- How does the page build credibility and trust? Why do you believe the content?
- How is the information arranged? Is the most important information communicated first? And the least important information last?
What’s in my copywriting swipe file?
What’s in an email swipe file?
An email swipe file can include welcome emails, educational emails, blog newsletters, and sales emails.
By studying and emulating good email examples you can get more opens and clicks.
- Why does the subject line entice you to open the email?
- What is the purpose of the email?
- Is all the information relevant or can the email be shortened?
- What is the first line? How does it engage you so you want to read on?
- How does the writer entice you to click through? Do they make you curious? Do they promise you’ll learn something?
What to put in your email swipe file:
What’s in a swipe file for bloggers?
A blog post consists of several elements: a headline, an opening paragraph, subheads, the main body of the post, and a closing paragraph.
You may want to study each of these elements separately, and include them separately in a swipe file
- What is the big idea in the article? Which problem does it try to solve?
- Does the structure of the article work? How would you improve it?
- Why does the headline grab your attention? Why does it make you curious?
- Why does the opening paragraph pull you into the article? Or why doesn’t it?
- How does the closing paragraph inspire you? Or does the article fizzle out?
- Do the subheads make you read on? Why or why not?
What to put in your blog swipe file:
Use a swipe file to fine-tune your writing style
A swipe file can even help you understand the different elements that influence writing style.
Which writers do you admire most? Why do you like their style so much?
- Does the writing have a pleasant rhythm? Are sentences long or short?
- Is the word choice formal or informal? Which emotional or sensory words are used?
- How abstract or vivid is the writing?
- Which creative writing techniques—such as analogies, imagery, and word repetition—are used?
What to put in your swipe file for writing style:
Take charge of your learning
I’ve read piles of books about copywriting.
Books are useful to help understand writing techniques.
But books are often not practical enough. So, complement your learning by studying content because this allows you to understand how techniques are applied in practice.
This is the exact method I followed to become a writer: First, understand the techniques by reading text books. Then, understand the practical application by studying real life content.
Don’t try to study everything in one go. It’s overwhelming. Where do you think you can improve most? Which type of content is most important for your business now?
Focus on one type of content or one writing technique at a time.
Experiment and play
The fun of learning a skill is that we can always get better.
Whether we’re learning to write, dance, play the piano, or illustrate, we can experiment with our style. We can observe how others work and integrate their techniques into our work.
We can play with different words. We can explore writing techniques. We can experiment.
This is the beauty of creativity.
Enjoy!
Recommended reading on improving your writing skills:
3 ways to read and improve your writing skills
Deliberate practice: 4 proven principles to practice your writing
20+ writing examples to inspire your work
Indeed you’re an enchanting marketer, like I literarily feel relaxed reading this post.It’s so engaging and captivating. Thank you so much, this is surely going to be useful in my email marketing for law firms. Thank you so much ma’am Henneke. It will be my pleasure to be one of your students soon enough.
What a lovely compliment. Thank you so much, Francis. Happy writing!
A small addition: We collect some gold dust for our own swipe file by searching for the yellow press headlines in Readly or Yumpu
Yes, magazines can be good sources for headline inspiration!
Hi Henneke, thanks for your article. They are always succinct and provide valuable nuggets of wisdom.
If I intend to learn about making emotional short films, what questions should I have in mind when I go and ‘steal’ from the films which have already done it?
Or do you have any books resources/books to recommend in that aspect?
Thank you.
Hi Troy, I don’t really know anything about film making but my initial ideas would be to pay attention to the story arc. How does the film open? And how does that hook you? How does the story develop? Also, of course, it’s useful to pay attention the the cinematographic tools. How are emotions expressed in imagery? When does the camera zoom in and when does it zoom out? Some storytelling books are written by filmmakers (or script writers) including Save The Cat! by Blake Snyder.
Great article with great lessons. I’ll sign up for email writing lessons to become a better writer.
Thank you, Alice. I hope you’ll enjoy the “snacks.”
Thanks for writing this article Henneke. It’s encouraging and persuasive copy. So persuasive, in fact, I signed up for your short email course.
I am looking forward to reading and learning more, but in the meantime I desperately need to impose some order on my swipe file life. It is all over the place. On paper, in pixels, and in my head.
Google Keep is my current favourite for ‘one tool to rule them all’. It’s forever free across multiple devices and I like its sticky note simplicity.
Only time will tell if consolidating my swipe files will help me become a better copywriter. But I suspect, as you say, it’s mainly a matter of analysis then action. Here’s to more writing action!
I tend to be quite disorganized and I’m not so good at keeping my swipe file updated. But as I keep writing this blog, I’m forcing myself to keep studying how others write and put new ideas into action. I think we all have to find what works for ourselves. I always admire people who are more organized than me.
I hope you’ll enjoy the snackable course. Thank you for stopping by, Ian. I appreciate it.
Good point. I learned better writing by copying writing that I liked, over and over again. Eventually, your mind gets the hang of the flow and feeling of the message.
Yes, I’ve heard more people doing that. I’ve never had the patience for it.
Thanks for such a great article! I’m an avid collector of “inspiration”, but the most that ever gets me is a few hours of deleting and reorganizing bookmarks. Now I have a plan for how to USE that inspiration to improve my writing. Thank you!
Great! I’m glad this was helpful. Happy writing!
Informative! Educative! Appealing!
Here is what I am searching for a long time.
The post educates and inspires me a lot.
Right, this is a proven system to improve writing.
Thank you so much for sharing the tremendous post
I’m so glad this post is inspiring you 🙂
Thank you for stopping by, Hasan.
You’ve provided so much great information here, it will be the first content added to my swipe file! Thanks so much!
Great! Happy writing, Susan 🙂
Great read. I had never thought of this before. Now I just need to find time to create one
Thank you, Kimmy. Happy swiping! 🙂
It’s funny, I was looking up how to create a swipe file 😉 and you came up. I truly enjoyed this post because of the questions (how to) of building a swipe file.
I’m glad you find this guide useful, Sara! Thank you for stopping by, and happy swiping 😉
Well, was searching for how to do a swipe file and one of my favorite writer’s came up top 🙂
Thanks Henneke
Isn’t it lovely when that happens?
Thank you for your compliment, Todd. I appreciate it 🙂
Henneke,
I could agree more with this. Especially with the swipe file part. I make it a habit to create specific google docs folders for this specific thing.
The place it helps me the most though is emails. It helps me break down and decipher various patterns for emails that actually work.
Great post on this and I’m a HUGE fan of swiping.
– Andrew
Yes, I’m with you – it’s great to see how others write emails and see whether we can borrow a few ideas to improve our own emails, too.
Happy swiping, Andrew! 🙂
A lot to learn in such less time! But if one is able to segregate inspiration, content, ideas and randomness it reduces the learning time.
Thanks, Henneke. You’ve saved a damsel in distress.
While reading good content and writing, I’m always anxious that I would soon forget this over a period of time. So I started using Pocket and Innoreader with tags. But when good content dump increased, it increased my anxiety too! Hopefully, swiping will solve this too 🙂
Swiping will also encourage me to focus, analyze and not feel lost after reading fiction. Due to limited leisure time, I’m overwhelmed to read fast and get to know the story (at the back of my mind other thoughts hit me hard, “You just have 6 hours to sleep, exercise, cook – stop reading fiction.”). After I finish the book I regret of not enjoying the writer’s storytelling style. Then I go back and re-read the underlined/marked sentences, and feel accomplished.
Cheers!
I’m always happy to save a damsel in distress! I’m sorry to hear you’ve been feeling overwhelmed.
I remember when I started to learn how to write, I lost the joy of reading. I couldn’t read anything without analyzing it. I now make a conscious effort to stop analyzing and enjoy my reading. Reading fiction has become a relaxing activity again.
Happy reading (and writing)!
Great point about Evernote. I use it to grab entire web pages, highlighted portions of a web page, they let you grab an entire PDF. I even will forward an interesting email to the email address that Evernote gives you so you can email yourself data, files, etc. You can even select which folder it’ll go in by indicating such in the subject line of the email. On and on, it’s a fabulous tool for writers.
And I cannot withhold myself from commenting on your drawing. I’m looking at the first two rows of books and I think to myself: “Oh, no seriously cute person in this drawing. What a bummer!” But alas, the third shelf reveals what we have all come to love.
Ha, yes! Henrietta is hiding behind her book. I don’t think I can draw pictures without her 😉
I know someone who subscribed to me snackable course using an Evernote email address, so they could keep all emails on file. I probably use only a tenth of what’s possible with Evernote. Perhaps even less!
Thank you for stopping by again, Stan.
A nice class. In my field if photography and graphics, we say plagiarism is first form of admiration.
I just hate to repeat what others do, but often take screen shots and put them in my “ideas folder.” Very often it’s pure art and not photography but it gives me ideas to start and expand in my own style.
Naturally, I have a general idea when I start but most often the “me” surfaces and I get a happy result.
Thanks Henneke.
I save on Google Keep. Its free. Wish they had folders.
Yes, I like how you describe – how those screen shots give you inspiration to get started and how the “me” surfaces when you start to work.
I don’t know Google Keep. You may want to check out Evernote – the basic version is free, too. You can use folders and / or tags.
Hi Henneke,
I have a swipe file for headlines why not writing. Understanding why they work is the hard part. That can be tough at times.
I know where to go to study emails. My inbox, from you. They always make me want to click away. Nice.
Barry
Ha! Yes, feel free to swipe my emails 🙂
And I agree that it’s not always easy to understand why headlines (and other pieces of content) work. That’s why it’s useful to read text books to understand the theory of good writing.
Hi Henneke. I know all of the most successful copywriters use swipe files. I remember when I was first learning how to build my website there were a lot of people trying to entice me to join their lists by offering free swipe files. It makes complete sense. I know that athletes watch videos of past events to analyze their performance and see how others perform. As a software developer I always kept examples of other peoples’ code from projects that I worked on so that I could learn how something was done.
Excellent posts Henneke. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve also seen people offering free swipe files. They can be useful, but I also like the process of creating your own swipe file; that in itself is a good learning process because it forces you to think what is good and what isn’t, which voice resonate with you and which don’t.
I didn’t know software developers swiped code, too. But it’s of course also a good way to improve coding skills.
Thank you for stopping by again, Ben!
Wow! Amazing tips on improving writing skill. I have always admired other people’s work but never thought of creating such swipe file. But now, I’m surely going to make one.
Great. Go for it!
Happy writing, Sajib! 🙂
Aha. Now I get it. You build your own writing guide. Clever enough!
Yep, that’s it. That’s a great way to phrase it.
And from a creative perspective, when you build your own writing guide, you choose the examples that resonate most strongly with you. That’s how your swipe file influences your voice and your writing. You won’t find sleazy or hypey sales texts in my swipe file! 😉
Haha, I need to come check it out sometime!
I have heard about swipe files before, but never in this way. Most people advocate using them as templates. That is not much to my liking. I hate the steal-like-an-artist-philosophy when it’s interpreted like that.
Hello again Henneke, I think it comes down to the fact we innately know what we want to tell the reader but, when it comes to writing it down, words sometimes fail us.
I do not have a swipe file, but I have a ‘structure file’ that ensures I tell the reader what I want them to know, then I tell them, and finally I tell them what I told them. My problem is I have a bad habit of wandering ‘off topic’ causing me hours of back tracking and editing to get to the point.
I will give your swipe file advice a try – I trust your insight too much to ignore it.
All the best from wintry Sydney. Paul
I hope you don’t get too much distracted with a swipe file when you want to write your book!
When writing a book, I like to think of each chapter as explaining the what, why, and how of something. So, I explain to them *what* they’ll learn in a chapter and *why* they should care about that, then I give the exact steps (the how) to reach that learning goal, and then at the end summarize what they’ve learned and encourage them to take action. It seems similar to your structure of “what I want them to know, then tell them, and finally tell them what I told them.”
It’s rainy in England today. Thank you for stopping by again, Paul.
Henneke:
I’m so with you—I love collecting words, too! I like Evernote and now often file swipes and research right in my Trello notes for easy access and help with organization as well.
It’s helpful to recognize that maybe some people can work and do well as freelance writers without having a fortune to spend on courses and coaches and more courses, oh my, and your weekly contributions to offer exquisite expertise to your subscribers is much appreciated, at least by this one! See why you are one of my favs in all the enchanting writing kingdom:)) Have a super writing swiping week, Henneke and thank you, truly. Sue-Ann
Yes, I know. It would be lovely to think that everyone would join my writing courses, but I know that’s not realistic. (It’d quickly burn me out, too 😉 )
Thank you for your kind words, Sue-Ann. Always grateful for your comments!
Wow, this is a super important post for any freelancer to see. Well done Henneke! I’m going to share this with my readers.
Thank you for sharing and for stopping by, Jacob. I appreciate it!
Great advice as always Henneke! I’ve set up swipe files but have to admit that getting to studying them is what misses in my ‘to-do-cycle’, I mean to do so but now have so much to get through that it’s disheartening.
The only one I do consult is the interesting word one, always good to play around with ;o)
Thanks for a great reminder to get on this!
Rather than trying to get through your whole swipe file, could you try to study just 3 or 4 relevant examples for the writing task you’re working on? I get quickly overwhelmed, so I often find it easier to study a limited number of examples.
Happy writing, Mariken. Thank you for stopping by again.
Great suggestion, Henneke. When you have been writing for a while, and even if you feel you do a good job of it, I find I receive a quick burst of creative energy when I check out how others write. I tend to forget about my swipe file. Thanks for the reminder. 🙂
I’m the same. I seem to have a seasonal pattern in using and updating my swipe file. When I make the effort, I always learn something new. A fresh burst of creativity as you say.
Thank you for stopping by again, Cathy. I appreciate it.
You did it again!
My brain is growing more every Tuesday! Haha!
I love this title for two reasons: It is fascinating as a title style, and it mentions free things. 😉
Ha yes … the power of FREE. Don’t we all love free things? 😉
Thank you, Katharine, and happy Tuesday! 🙂
Henneke–I love swipe files. I’ve used them for years for different types of marketing. BUT, this is the first time I’ve seen it put into writing and explained. Using the idea isn’t copying. Happy marketing, Heidi Cohen
Thank you, Heidi. I agree with you – it’s not about copying. Some people get upset by the idea of “swiping” because they think it’s plagiarizing, but as long as you swipe ethically, i.e. use your swipe to study techniques, formulas and templates, then it’s a great tool.
Thank you for the information. I never heard of a swipe file before. I will give it a try. Have a great day.
Yes, give it a try. It has helped me a lot!
I couldn’t have agreed more Henneke,
The most popular advice on the internet as to how to master the act of writing is to “read a lot and write a lot”. It’s indeed a great advice per say but most times, it doesn’t really give you much. You’ll keep on making same mistakes over and over again.
Reading and writing a lot can only enable you to get used to writing but often times, it won’t enhance your tone of writing.
I’ve always come across fascinating words each time I’m reading a book or a blog post but, I’ve never thought of putting those into a swipe file, ” what a great mistake”.
Recently, I was reading a book titled Think like a man, act like a lady and man, the words and sentences used on that book is mind blowing. I was even imagining how good they will sound in a blog post.
I will put this in practice Henneke.
Thanks a lot for the eye opening
Yes, well said, Theodore: How do you stop making the same mistakes over and over again?
The best way is to hire a coach or take a course with personal feedback. But if that’s not an option, then reading text books in combination with creating a swipe file is a great option.
I like collecting words 🙂
You’re right Henneke,
I might consider getting a coach actually. Any suggestion on that? Do you offer coaching?
Thanks
I don’t do one-on-one coaching, only my writing programs (which are like online group coaching programs with individual feedback): https://enchantingcourses.com/
Pk ma,
I just joined the waiting list. Looking forward to September when it’ll be released.
Thanks and keep being awesome 🙂
Hi Henneke,
I have been using swipe files for over a year, I came to know about the term “swipe files” a short while ago, though.
I am so glad you presented an awesome tutorial to take my swipe files a notch higher. I think evernote web clipper is also very useful to get the exact section of a page you’d like to keep.
Thanks for the write up!
Have a great week ahead!
-Swadhin
Yes, I like the Evernote web clipper, too. I also use it to bookmark articles for research purposes.
Evernote is an amazing tool – even the free version is great.
Happy swiping! 🙂
Yes, yes, I use a swipe folder to collect Headlines, Creative Ads, Best Landing Pages, and Copywriting examples.
Won’t you share your swipe file with your readers?
I’ve shared part of my swipe file here: https://www.enchantingmarketing.com/copywriting-examples/
More details are in my writing courses 😉
Hi Henneke,
This is an exceptional headline: How Pro Writers Nurture Their Skills (Without Paying for Expensive Courses)
Irresistible! It’s going to be the first entry in my swipe file. 🙂
What do you think about the advice to copy ads / copy by hand daily?
Do you do it?
Yes, that’s a proven headline formula: How to [Achieve This] Without [This Pain]. You can swipe it 🙂
I’ve never copied writing by hand. Some people highly recommend it, but it somehow doesn’t suit me.
Thank you for stopping by again, Rohi
My sincere thanks for Henneke for creating a must follow strategies.
These are like sweet cookies loved by all kids.
With best regards,
Singaravelu
You’re welcome, Singaravelu. I’m glad you enjoyed the cookies! 🙂
What a great list of reminders of what to look for when analyzing what works and what doesn’t. Swiping is very common in sport to learn the finer details of the experts…watching skills, strategies and plays. And in many ways we internalize it better than when someone spoon feeds us with the information. Thanks for this!
I don’t know why it keeps amazing me how many similarities exist between sports and writing. They’re both skills, so why do we think we need to re-invent the wheel?
That’s what fascinates me about why people who are masters at one thing often excel in many areas. They keep taking and reapplying the same lessons. Curious people love learning and engage in trying to understand the concept behind the recipe. In today’s barrage of information, we tend to just skim and accumulate knowledge, instead of truly trying to learn. It’s knowledge hoarding. Knowing lots of stuff but never applying it.
Yes, that’s such a good point. The internet encourages us to hop around without applying anything. There’s always a new shiny course or a new shiny book.
I guess that when people have learned to get out of their comfort zone, then they become more comfortable with learning different skills. I’ve noticed that I was more comfortable learning to draw after I had learned how to write (though publishing my drawings was still super-scary!). Learning to write had changed my mindset; it made me realize I could “create things.”
Thank you Henneke. A light just came on.
Great. Happy swiping and happy writing, Geraldine!