Copy Life

Let’s take a look at two internet marketers, and tell me which one you’d rather be.

1. Johny- Johny has designed a full out campaign for making money online. He has set up plenty of good blogs, websites, review sites and used various methods of generating high quality traffic. His website is one of the top ones on the web by design and style, and it is a professional website. Even though he generates thousands of hits a day on his websites, he has a tough time converting those visitors into sales and has to work for all of his money that he makes online. Eventually, he will quit and be another failing internet marketer.

2. Billy- Billy spent two days on his one website as opposed to Johny’s month and Four websites, but Billy has mastered the art of writing an effective sales copy. So no matter what, when people visit his website he draws them in and makes them feel compelled to purchase his product or service. He is able to form a foundation of trust with the customer, and they feel a sense of satisfaction from what he is offering. Billy makes them feel like if they leave his website and never come back, the product they are missing out on can potentially change their life. He works ten to fifteen hours a week, and makes thousands of extra dollars a month online.

You see the difference? If you want to make money online and effectively work from home, you need to learn how to plan and create a sales letter that will convert visitors into buyers. These sales letters will determine whether or not you ever make any money. Just take a second to think about the last product you purchased. Why did you purchase it, well because it was a high quality product that you thought could benefit you. That’s all an effective sales letter is, and learning some of the proven techniques to writing one will boost your online profits in a matter of now time.

It doesn’t matter how good or long you’ve been writing sales letter, more often than not you will have to go back and tweak your page anyway. But the beauty of the internet is that this can be done in a matter of minutes so it isn’t to much of an inconvenience. So my suggestion to you in order to make online sales? Learn the strategies and find out what it takes to create a sales letter that will convert every one out of ten visitors instead of one out of every hundred. It will make your life easier, and help you create a consistent stream of online revenue.

Copyright © 2006
It’s true, we were all taught in school to express ourselves differently on paper, than the way we speak. To follow rules of grammar, and inject an artificial air of formality.

Forgetting about this training when you write web copy is one of the best thing you can possibly do, unless you’re selling to the academic community. And forgetting about it may not be as easy as you think.

Do you write like you’re speaking to a friend across the table?

Maybe even use a little slang, now & then?

Or do you worry about your high school English teacher committing suicide, if he or she were to ever stumble across your stuff?

If so, do yourself a favor. Get over it.

Marketing Communications should never be about trying to impress. Prospects should never have to think about what the heck you’re trying to say.

So keep your sentences short.

Avoid big words.

Keep plenty of free space around your copy, so it looks easy.

The mind can only really think of one thing at a time. If you want your prospect to concentrate on something, make sure your points don’t require more than a split second to understand.

Look at the below example, taken from an ad for a special day care course for kids. It’s put on by a government agency that promotes apple agriculture in their region.

The point of the text is this. “Bring your kids here, because we’ll teach them something, instead of just baby-sitting them”.

Read the example, and then the revision in plain talk.

EXAMPLE

This program encourages students to conduct simple investigations of apples. Students experiment, observe, and keep records as they become ‘immersed” in a multi-sensory study of apples. Students will make notes in learning logs as they investigate and discuss the activities. In the learning logs the students simply record what happened during the activities and their reactions to what happened.

Students may later use their notes as the basis for language arts activities, such as writing poems. Writing first serves as a tool for learning and later becomes one of the possible end-products of the lessons.

PLAIN TALK REVISION

Hey Mom and Dad, kids love to learn about apples. They’re naturally curious, and learn best by tasting, smelling, squeezing, rolling, & tossing.

It’s so much fun.

They love sharing the experience with their classmates, and can’t wait to write home about what happened. And the feelings they express in the special diaries we give them are priceless.

You’ll be giving your kids a head start at putting their thoughts down on paper. One of life’s most important skills.

And what better way to get them out of your hair for a while?

Can you dig the difference?

I do a lot of work in the computer networking field, and often need to read product specs & documentation. And it drives me nuts!

Why is this stuff so full of techno babble, hyperbole, and long-winded bafflegab? Is all of the rocket science talk supposed to impress me into wanting to do something with their gadgetry?

Almost every product or service imaginable has a technical side, and you can never over educate. But it shouldn’t feel like school.

Maybe you think you’re selling a commodity, and there’s not much to the customer’s decision, but price. Think again. There is always a technical differentiator.

One of the greatest skills you can acquire is to be able to boil the froth off complex concepts, so that they become easy to understand.

Customers crave facts, and proof, even logic in order to feel comfortable with their decisions, once you’ve stirred up their emotional desire.

Inject them painlessly with web copy that comes across as “plain talk”!

You’ve got a website and it’s selling some copies of your product. You want to sell more, but how do you properly test the changes you make in order for you to know how you are improving your sales?

Internet Marketers talk a lot about testing your sales copy and your website, but very few talk in detail about the methodology of this testing. It is very easy to get confused and undo the changes that were increasing sales!

I remember when I was at school in my chemistry class performing experiments to blow things up, make acids to eat through the table and stain my lab coat and being taught how to properly test an experiment. What is interesting, is this is probably the most valuable lesson I got from the chemistry class (apart from the effect certain metals have when exposed to water). It is certainly the lesson that applies the most to my life now.

My chemistry teacher was an interesting man, he didn’t tolerate people who didn’t listen or didn’t want to learn but he was a passionate man when it came to chemistry. His fingers were stained from handling chemicals and he took an almost perverse pleasure in gassing the class or waking them up with a sudden explosion.

Then one day when he had given us a series of experiments to perform, he taught us about testing. When performing an experiment there are often many things you want to change in order to perform the experiment properly. The trouble is, as an impatient teenager waiting for lunchtime you are tempted to make all the changes at once.

“No lad,” the teacher told us, “You can’t make all the changes at once. If you do that, how are you going to know which change to the experiment caused it to work?”

Of course, this concept hadn’t occurred to any of us, we were all just interested in lunch.

He leaned back in his chair into his reminiscent pose, “In order to properly perform this experiment you need to make a single change at a time and then measure the results. Then, and only then, will you know which change performs the best and gives you the desired results. Sure you can make all the changes all at once, but what if you undo the change that works?”

These very words came back to me when I started my Internet Marketing career some years ago. If I am making changes to my websites or sales copy to monitor the conversion rate then I need to make a single change at a time, drive a sufficient amount of traffic to it, and then analyse the results.

If the conversion rate has increased, then I keep the change. If it has decreased, then I discard the change.

By performing my website testing this way you will know exactly which changes best affect your conversion rates (and profits) and be able to stack them on top of each other to gain the highest possible conversion rate for your site.

With three to five seconds to capture your potential customer’s attention, you’ve barely any time to work your magic. This is why it is absolutely vital that in addition to proper site design you take the time to really develop your copy.

Imagine your site’s visitors as wild animals. You’ve set out the bait by marketing your site properly, by submitting your site to search engines, by practicing your SEO training (or paying someone else to do it for you), but a wild animal’s curiosity only takes it so far before its instinct is to bolt. If you don’t make the risk all that much more enticing, the wild animal will sniff at the offering, but they won’t stick around. Before you know it, you’ll be staring at their furry little hindquarters as they bound back into the dense cover of the World Wide Web. This is where igniting their interest comes into play.

Grammar: Not Just Someone to Have Around During the Holidays

I’ll be honest. I don’t continue reading a site’s content if I come across poorly constructed sentences, misspelled words, improper use of words, etc. It establishes a particular image in my mind of who the owner of the site is, and I don’t want to make an important decision such as purchasing an item, donating money, or registering for something when I think the wizard behind the curtain is Bubba from the Bayou with a second grade education (no offense, Bubba). I’d much rather associate myself with an educated individual; someone who can back up their claims.

Make certain that you are properly represented. If you write the copy yourself, have it proofed by someone who knows. If you are absolutely enlightened and realize that you don’t have what it takes to put together a sentence correctly, God bless. Hire a professional. The money you’ll spend is worth the PR, trust me.

The First Shall Be Last, and the Last Shall Be First

During my education, I took a series of speed-reading courses. One of the methods for quickly surmising the message of a paragraph was to read the first sentence, or two, and then jump to the last sentence.

My friends, people do this. It is a cold, hard fact of life, so take advantage of it. Your first sentence in a new section, or paragraph, should designate the purpose of the message you’re attempting to deliver. The last sentence should restate the message using different language.

Short, but Sweet

Bear with me while I return briefly to my previous analogy. The wild animal will sniff, sniff, and then, if they become intimidated, they’ll dart. This is why you need to provide your visitors with just enough to give them reason to bite, and then offer them a method for obtaining additional information. Don’t overwhelm them with an absurd amount of content right off the bat. Give them a taste of what it is you’re offering, and then present them with a way to get more information whether by following a link, expanding hidden content, or contacting you directly (the best method in most cases, really).

Flava, Baby!

Last, but not least: write with character. Don’t present bone dry information unless you absolutely have to. Make your content enjoyable to read. It’s hard enough to sit there and stare at a screen emanating light while being oppressed by fluorescent overheads filling out TPS reports; don’t make it any more difficult for your readers to stay awake than necessary. Provide your readers with an enjoyable experience and you’ll not only retain readership, but you’ll make it memorable.

Who knows! Maybe you’re site will be the next water cooler topic.

Learning how to write an effective sales piece is the closest thing to picking money off a tree in the world. You can literally turn your thoughts into money over and over again.

But of course, it is not an easy skill to learn. It can take years, but, by studying the basics you can increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts tremendously with a few simple concepts, and do it in just a few days.

Most sales letters follow the same formula no matter how long or short they are. As a rule of thumb, long sales letters always out perform shorter ones , as long as the content is relevant.

In other words, it should be exactly as long as it needs to be in order to produce the sale. (The more you give, the more you will get.)

There is rarely a sales letter that is too long. Remember, this is not for you. It is for your prospects, so take yourself and your feelings out of the subject, and make it as long as it needs to be to get the job done!

Creating a sales letter that holds a customer’s attention until the end and takes them through a planned emotional journey is the art.

That is what takes years to learn. How to suck someone into your sales copy and spit them out at the other end with a hysterical urge to whip out their credit card and buy from you.

There is a formula. Some may even call it manipulative. This means you must be very careful and use this power with caution and for good, or it will come back to haunt you.

There is no way I could even begin to scratch the surface of how to write compelling sales copy, as it takes years of practice to master, but here is the basic format for most sales letters, and you can use this anywhere! Emails, phone calls, websites, conversations, etc.

Ok, back to the structure: Headline: Qualify them. This mentions a benefit or a pain that the reader wants or has so they can raise their hand and say “He is talking about me!”

Story/Problem: Expose their pain. Build a relationship through a story. People get pulled into stories and find it hard to move on until the end, just like reading a great book. The solution; I found a solution. Here is what happened and how it will help you.

Educate: This is how and why it works. Offer; Here is how you can get it and ease your pain/increase your pleasure. Know what you are really selling.

I will tell you right now it is not your company and it is not your product. You are not selling ORAC values or compensation plans. You are selling a way to avoid pain or acquire pleasure.

If you are selling a health product for example, you are not selling the ingredients of it. You are selling a longer and healthier life. You are selling relief from a painful ailment so grandma can play with the grandkids again.

You are selling prevention and peace of mind over the fear (pain) of failing health. When you are marketing your opportunity, you are not selling compensation plans or training calls or a debt-free balance sheet.

You are selling pleasure through the attainment of wealth. You are selling pride and achievement. You are selling the education of their children. You are selling their dream car. You are selling the solution to painful bills and a frustrated spouse. You are selling a solution (to pain), and benefits (pleasure).

“John, if I could show you how to make guaranteed $2,000/mo within nine months so your daughter Suzy can go to college and become a doctor like she has always wanted.”

“And if I could show you how to do that without making a major investment and without spending more than one-two hours a night on your business, is that something you would be interested in?”

Assuming those are the reasons why John gave to you, do you think the ingredients of your product or the date your company was founded will really matter to him? Nope. Sell the solution. Sell the benefits.

How do you tell the difference between a feature and a benefit? Most people cannot. It is rather easy actually. This little trick is priceless and will shock you the first time you test your emails and other writings with it. After every sentence you write, jump into the shoes of your prospect and ask this question: “so what?” Come on, try it.

This was taken from a well known MLM company’s website and reflects the norm throughout the industry.

“Designed with the part-time member in mind. An incentive to achieve with rewards at every level. Dynamic Compression on the 2% Emerald bonus and on the Diamond Override Bonus! My Biz Bonus for 20% of CV on new Team Member’s cumulative orders, for the life of the new member’s orders.

Plus, a Consumer Bonus that pays 50% of the CV on the first order on new CDPI sign-ups! A Top Distributor’s reward for bringing in new business and new volume. The highest overall payout of any major company in the industry, great awards and recognition.

Now read each sentence and ask the question, so what?(Please do that now). See what I mean? It is meaningless until you show me how I can benefit from it! Now let us turn these features into benefits.

An incentive to achieve with rewards at every level so as your business grows, so will your compensation. Dynamic Compression on the 2% Emerald bonus and on the Diamond Override Bonus which will maximize the size of your check and put more money in your pocket! The highest overall payout of any major company in the industry will ensure that your time, money, and efforts are invested wisely, and that you earn what you really deserve!

See the difference?

If you’re writing marketing materials, such as an e-mail to sell a service or product, you may believe your sales copy is about generating sales. It is and it isn’t. You hope, in the end, you will get sales from your marketing materials; the purpose is to build a relationship between you and the potential buyer. We call this “relationship marketing.” You don’t want to hard-sell, because a direct, pushy sell usually alienates potential buyers. You want to build a relationship first, at which point sales will flow (if you do your relationship marketing the right way).

Relationship marketing puts the “CUSTOM” back in customer. You would think this would be logical, but many copywriters think this approach is a radical idea. Inexperienced copywriters focus on attracting potential buyers for a single transaction, rather than providing excellent service and support. If you want to turn buyers into long-term customers, then you will do the service and support, because the bottom line is making money long-term.

Relationship marketing evolved from direct response marketing in the 1960’s. In the 1980’s it evolved into building long-term (relationship) customers rather than relying on just single transactions. This marketing philosophy is called your customers’ “life cycle,” meaning, you offer a range of products/services, as people need them. To do this successfully, you need to write good, compelling copy, among other things.

Why would focusing on existing customers be more profitable? If you’re constantly spending money and resources to attract new customers, your profitability suffers. You aren’t building a loyal base of people who stay with you. Called “churn,” these people won’t come back to you. Another term to keep long-term customers and increase their loyalty is called “defensive marketing.” Customers who have already opened their wallets will continue to spend money on future services and products. If you write compelling sales copy for your website or other marketing tools, then those wallets are going to open often.

You can also view your customer lifetime value as a long-term asset. You value assets and treat them accordingly. Keep your customers (assets) happy and they will remain loyal. Loyalty is worth money to your business, since the cost of keeping an existing customer is only about 10 percent of the cost of getting a new one.

No one person is the same when they come to you for a product, service or opportunity. Everyone needs something specifically for THEM. If you’re marketing online, first communicate and build a relationship with people. You can use many methods, such as: e-mail, instant messaging, community forums, blogging and websites. You want to show them what you have to offer and get them to your website. That takes work. Once they’re on your website (and reading your great copy), get their e-mail address by giving something away instantly. The instant reward keeps them interested.

Provide quality information, well-written and properly researched copy. This adds credibility. If the copy is good, and it motivates people, this will often translate into program registrations, or sign ups for a newsletter, or requests for product information — even orders. THIS is the beginning of your relationship, NOT the end. This is where you start your long-term relationship with your customer and offer value added extras. Show them how to get the best value and use out of their purchase(s). This more than anything will set you apart from your competition. This step will reward you with word-of-mouth referrals and customer retention.

Have you ever visited a site that just screamed, “buy this product”? We’ve all seen them, and asked ourselves how the site owner put together such excellent copy. It’s really no mystery once you’ve learned the proper copywriting techniques. Here’s how:

- Make your copy believable. The first rule of successful copywriting is to make your copy believable. Avoid exaggeration, and be aware that people are not going to immediately trust you enough to accept whatever you tell them! By being honest, you are making a great effort to gain the trust of your visitors and your bottom line is likely to show the result.

- Start headline writing by brainstorming several options. No one – not even the most seasoned copywriters – get a headline right on the first try. So accept this and get started brainstorming headline ideas. Try creating one around each of the major benefits of your product. Other great ideas are to write a few in the style of “How To…” or “Discover…”. You’ll find that the more you write, the easier it becomes to create great headlines. And when you’re done you can combine them to create the perfect one.

- Guide prospects toward purchasing – don’t push them. Pushy sales people do nothing more than irritate potential customers. And by writing a sales letter that is full of hype, you’re putting that pushy sales person in front of every prospect who visits your site. A better approach is to use persuasion and honesty to guide people to buy. Concentrate on pulling in your readers by giving them a solid emotional reason to believe what you say – a strong testimonial or a sincere thank you from an appreciative customer. This will go much further than demanding sales copy.

- Make a groundbreaking announcement in your headline. Of course this only works if you truly have something interesting to announce. But when you do, this is a great way to grab a reader’s attention. The announcement should cater to the desire of the reader to improve some specific aspect of their life. Tell them that your revolutionary approach is making a difference in so many lives… and then tell them HOW.

- Never be afraid to review your existing copy. On average, professional copywriters spend more time editing than they do writing. If they don’t get it right the first time then chances are you won’t either! So if your prospects are not responding in the way that you had hoped, take some time to review your copy and rewrite the sections that need work. Test different styles of copy and track the results so that you know what is working – and what is not.

- Work on the parts of your copy that will be read the most. Although all of your copy is important in it’s own way, there are five parts of every sales letter that you should pay particularly close attention to. They are your headline, subheadings, first sentence of every paragraph, first bullet point in a list and the PSs. These are the parts that will be read the most. And if they’re compelling, potential customers will want to learn more.

So get started today by using even one or two of the tips and see what a difference they can make!

You should become a manuscript or book author’s ghost writer, copy editor and proof reader. However, if you’re only starting to think about a writing career, I suggest you get a bachelor’s degree in English or whatever language; perhaps in language studies, English literature, creative writing, or English in general. A master’s degree or higher is even better. I myself have a combined degree in journalism, fine arts and creative writing.

Once you have that, you need to get some experience. You could be hired by literary magazines, especially at your school, or you could write articles for newspapers, perhaps starting your own column. You can also acquire writing jobs on the Internet by looking up work. I suggest avoiding the low paying bidding jobs and going for regular posted work at sites like Daylo, or other freelancer’s sites – where writing work is posted for free.

Once you have a few writing credits, you can begin your ghost writing career. I would suggest trying to get hired by a book ghost writers service, as there are many on the Internet. Another possibility is you can start your own service, as I did; mine is called Rainbow Writing, Inc., and we hire people who either have a lot of professional experience, a good educational background, and/or show a lot of writing talent. I have over thirty years of experience at writing, especially as a book ghost writer, copy editor and proof reader.

Once you get on the Internet, you will need to search engine optimize your website, post lots of articles with your credit box attached to them, or hire pay per click or other services to get advertising exposure. Then you can begin to acquire clients. You may start by offering a free five to ten page rewrite of a chapter the client sends you; this is what is generally expected of a book ghost writer and copy editor. You can quote a price, and I would start fairly low early on in your career, unless you have prior writing experience. Ask the client what he or she can afford, but stay reasonable, so you can keep your costs low and pay your bills.

As book ghost writers, copy editors and proof readers, we all need to make sure our clients are satisfied with their results. So while you are in the writing field, make sure you read copiously and on a regular basis, write short stories, poems and articles on a regular basis to refresh your writing skills, and be sure to work on a novel or two of your own. This will keep you handy when it comes to being a book writer for others as well. Another possibility is to keep a daily hardbound journal of your writing or simply comment on your daily activities, thoughts and dreams. This sort of thing can keep you really practices; I kept such a journal for over twenty years.

As to scheduling, it’s a good idea to take on as many clients as you can handle. Don’t overload, but you’d be surprised how much work you can do once you get into the swing of it. Try to get a book ghost writer job done in two to three months. If you charge $5000 per book at first, you can make $20,000-30,000 a year if you keep up on a regular basis. Once you have more experience, you can begin charging more money.

When you are a book author, ghost writer, copy editor and proof reader, you will find you are working a job that really consumes your time, so make sure you take the time to perform your other daily activities of family life, and set aside a one hour period every day to exercise. Book writers are one group of people who have the “sedentary lifestyle pattern” hazard, so in order to avoid getting sick, you must exercise. If you don’t want to go outside and walk, purchase a cheap treadmill. Those work quite well.

Book authors, ghost writers, copy editors and proof readers all need to maintain the standards of our profession. When you are a ghost writer of any kind, chances are you won’t be allowed to take credit for your work. It’s supposed to belong to the works true “author,” who is the person paying you to do the ghost writing. Even if you do most or all of the work, your client is the author of it and is the one who receive the credit, unless you make some other arrangement. If the client is willing, you can be coauthors with him or her, or make some other such arrangement, such as you getting credit and a percentage of book sales in lieu of upfront payment.

By the way – the method of payment for a manuscript or book ghost writer is upfront. You get paid in advance, in installments usually as the book is being written. This is the main advantage of being a book or manuscript ghost writer, copy editor and proof reader – upfront payment. You need to sound the client out on his or her budget, set a total price, and then ask for the first installment payment once you have been hired.

You might also sign a contract with a non disclosure clause with the client. The contract might be three way, if you are working for a ghost writing agency, or two way, if it’s just you and the client signing it. A non disclosure clause states that you won’t discuss the book’s contents with anyone not designated by the client as someone with whom you may do so. Also, copyright laws in the USA and several other countries treatied with the USA, such as England, Canada and Australia, state that the author of the ghost written work retains full copyrights. You can check with the US Copyrights Office on the Internet to read the full scope of these laws.

Basically, even if you write the whole work yourself from research and you get nothing but basic ideas for the book from the supposed “author,” he or she is still considered the true author of any such ghost written book, and will still hold full copyrights to all original material within it. This is, however, subject to whatever agreements you and the client make.

After the job is proof read, paid for and delivered, ask for a reference, also asking the client if it’s okay to run an installment from the work on your website – with a credit that you are the ghost writer. Also, when the book is published, ask the client to include a reference to your name, perhaps within the Acknowledgements, as the book ghost writer.

You also don’t have to stop as just the manuscript or book ghost writer. You may also be able to help your client set up to get his or her book published. This largely involves contacting literary agents and publishers. I would suggest contacting small publishing houses, and not the larger ones, unless you have a celebrity client with a large scale best seller on your hands. Due to confidentiality issues and ethical issues, you can’t maintain contact with literary agents and publishers on a regular basis, but you can acquire lists of these people in order to contact them. Some more disreputable manuscript and book ghost writers also set up deals with literary agents and publishers where they are sent clients’ work that the agents and publishers were sent, in order to edit it for them. Under the table money is made this way. It’s not considered to be ethical practice.

It’s satisfying to complete a client’s book manuscript and then find him or her an agent and/or publisher. You can get a percentage of book sales this way, or by negotiating a deal with the book’s author while you are being the book ghost writer. Sometimes a client will want you to work “on spec;” instead of paying you in advance, they will ask you to take a percentage of the book’s profits. Unless you’re sure the book is going to sell broadly, it’s not advisable to do this, or you could end up working for free. But once you’ve got a book publisher’s attention, anything is possible.

Lastly, be sure and enjoy your new career. Writing can be a fulfilling line of work, so if you keep at it, you can have tons of fun working for authors, getting the first time one’s books written and published, and in general, having a “blast” as a book author, book writer, ghost writer, copy editor, and proof reader.

Get out there, now – and write!

Writing good sales copy is an art. Unless you’re a professional copy writer it takes a bit of crafting to compose a sales letter that drives huge sales.

That doesn’t mean it can’t be done. The craft of writing sales copy that sells means effectively relating to your visitors, properly selling them on your product’s benefits and creating trust.

Here are 8 secrets on how to write sales copy that’s sure to draw plenty of interest:

1. Use an Attention Grabbing Headline & Sub-Headline

You sales copy must grab attention immediately or you can kiss them goodbye. Web surfers are skimmers so you need to draw them in quickly if you want them to continue reading. Your headline should be in bold fact type with words that create curiosity that persuades them to read further.

Follow your headline with a sub-headline that highlights the best benefits of what your product is about. Use color to stimulate the reader’s senses by creating your headline and sub-headlines in different font colors.

Test your headlines often. Changing just one word can increase a reader’s interest by over 1000%. Do this by creating a few good headlines and test them to find out which ones create the most interest.

2. Create a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Your USP is your angle or sales position that you use to help your products stand out from the rest. For example, offering free delivery, a money back guarantee or a bonus offering can make you stand out among your competition. Offering something that helps you make your business ’special’ is what you need to find. Once you find it, emphasize it in your sales copy.

3. Prove Your Credibility

The internet is full of false claims and untrustworthy scammers, so internet surfers want peace of mind that you are a trustworthy business and are going to make good on your claims. Additionally you will want to move out ahead of your competition. To accomplish this, your sales copy need to include the following:

- Brief explanation of your background along with how and why you are knowledgeable in your field

- Include testimonials from existing customers

4. Emphasize the Benefits

Display proudly the benefits of your products. Do this with concise and to the point bullet points. There are items that convey how your product or service will benefit your potential customer.

For example, let’s say you sell a running shoe that has a special arch support, the feature would be the arch support and the benefits might be more comfort and longer endurance. Effectively communicating the benefits will give you the edge over your competition.

5. Instill an Element of Fear

Here’s where emotion can make an impression. Your reader has arrived at your sales letter because they need help. It may be to resolve a problem, make life easier, find more time, earn more money, whatever it is; they are looking to you as a possible solution. Determine what it is the reader will face if they don’t resolve their problem and spell them out in bold letters.

6. Include a Guarantee

Always offer a guarantee. A buyer is much more likely to make a purchase if they know they can recover their money if not satisfied. It eliminates the risk to them. This means offering a 100%, no-hassles, no-questions asked, money-back guarantee. If you offer a quality product and project confidence in its value, you won’t have many returns.

7. Offer at Least one Good Bonus

If you can over-deliver in value your customers are more likely to buy. Seal the deal by including a few good bonuses that make your product offer more appealing.

8. Initiate a Call to Action

Make that call to action. Tell your visitors what to do. People want to be directed on where to go. For example, use phrases like:

“For more information click here”

“To get your free trial click here”

“Order here”

If you simply make a suggestion or make it hard for them to figure out what they should do next, you could potentially lose sales.

9. Include Your Personal Handwritten Signature

In closing your sales letter, add your own personal handwritten signature. This adds a personal touch and projects a sense of sincerity. You can do this by scanning in your signature to a separate file and adding it to your sales copy. It’s also a good idea to include it on your website and/or blog.

10. Use a Postscript (P.S.)

Below your signature include a P.S. that restates your main offer and add to that a ’special bonus’. Your special bonus should include a time limit. This adds urgency to your viewers buying decision.

Studies have shown that after reading the headlines, a viewer will often skim to the bottom of the sales letter and read the P.S. first, so displaying your offer information along with a time sensitive bonus is not only appealing, it will also capture the skimmers.

Most Network Marketing companies encourage their distributors to purchase lots of pre-designed flyers and brochures from their catalogues. They promote the fact that it takes a lot of the guess work out of doing it yourself. All you have to do is buy them, hand as many out as possible and wait for your phone to ring off the hook! Sounds great…but does it work? Not really.

Companies make millions of dollars on their literature alone. It’s basically another product they get you excited about. The reason it doesn’t work to help you grow a business is because no matter how fancy and slick the message looks on card stock, it won’t work unless your target audience has a connection with it.

There is an art and science to writing the kind of compelling copy that attracts your target audience. I’m talking about the people who have a want, need or desire for what you have to offer. Not everyone wants your product, but if you know how to craft the right message, you can easily attract the right person. Keep reading to find out how it’s done.

Hidden Secret #1: You need to understand your target audience. Who is your market? It’s not your next door neighbor or the person standing in front of you in line at the grocery store who is going to want to reach out and grab your product from you. What are their fears and desires? What makes them tick? Knowing who they are is the only way to write the kind of ad copy that will make them want to call you.

Hidden Secret #2: Determine what you are trying to accomplish. Do you only want to get a few people who are serious about doing a business, or do you want to get a lot of people who can give you a lot of retail sales? The more hoops people have to jump through to get to you, the more serious they will be. Let your copy do the funneling for you. The more specific you get, the less time you will spend weeding through people who aren’t serious.

Hidden Secret #3:  Keep the price out of your copy. The more you elude to it, the fewer the response you will get. Instead, focus on the pain your prospect has that will make them want to contact you and try your product. Create a picture of how it will make their life easier and more enjoyable. Marketing is about solving specific problems of the consumer. Don’t let the attraction of money steer you away from helping people.

Hidden Secret #4:  You need to make extensive lists of the benefit of your product or service. Write them all down. The more specific you can get, the better. You should be focusing on the word benefit so much that you almost get sick of hearing it. That is how important it is to writing compelling ad copy. How is your target audience going to specifically benefit from taking your products.

Hidden Secret #5:  Be Specific.  If you are in the weight loss industry, losing weight is not specific enough as far as benefits go. Think of other things that can happen to your prospect if they use your product to lose the weight. Is it all- natural? Will it solve other health problems along with the weight loss? The more specific, the more serious your prospect will be.

Hidden Secret #6:  The end of your copy should totally resolve your prospects problem with your benefit. You found the solution, and it starts with getting a free report or expert guide. You are the expert and the more they know that, the better your results will be. Never end with a price. Just show them how they can get even more information from you.

Hidden Secret #7:  Do not focus on gimmicks just to get people to call you. You will waste all of your time trying to convince them to use your product instead of helping people who really want it. Ads highlighting free samples or coupons will only generate people looking for hand-out. They might generate a few sales, but you won’t find the kind of people who will explode your business.

96% of all network marketing distributors wind up quitting because they do not get proper marketing education. My business didn’t grow until I learned the right techniques, and they weren’t taught by my company or upline. Attracting the right audience comes from practicing the art of writing ad copy, not buying pre-designed flyers. Apply the secrets above and you’ll be well on your way to making your home-based business a success.