Just found a cool little video on Youtube explaining the difference between writing good copy and writing good articles.

Technorati Tags: article writing, copywriting articles, copywriting training

JUST-IN-TIME COPYWRITING: Secrets of the “Overnight” Promo Writer

Maybe you’ve heard of “just-in-time” manufacturing. This is where companies streamline the production process so they can fill orders almost the moment they’re made.  The more nimble these producers are, the more valuable they are in their market.

Well there’s also a way for you to add “just-in-time” copywriting to your stable of skills.

And the secrets that make it possible are pretty simple. In fact, most of them are shortcuts that have already been figured out and perfected for you by other writers. 

Here are some of the ways you can make it work …

1) FOLLOW THE FORMULA(s):

This might be the most obvious of the secrets. 

Surely you’ve seen a formulaic movie you’ve loved, read a formulaic book you couldn’t put down, or heard a verse-chorus-verse pop song that worked just fine.

In sales copy, there are formulas too.  Identify them and use them as framework for your next sales letter. The one you might already know best is AIDA, short for “Attention-Interest-Desire-Action.”

That’s a basic start-to-finish template for what your promos need to make happen.

Another is the Four Ps, or Promise-Picture-Proof-Push. That is, launch out of the gate with a big Promise headline, get quickly into a vivid Picture of what you’re saying or selling to draw in the reader, load him up with lots of Proof (testimonials, studies, track record, and the like) so he can rationalize the emotions you’ve awoken in him, and then Push him to act, in a way that connects your big ideas and promises to the product you have on offer.

By themselves, the formulas are just theory. But you can put them into practice by actually keeping a blank ‘framework’ document on your computer that lists each element of your favorite formula, in outline form and with some more detailed prompts underneath.

When you’re ready to start your next promo, simply fill in the blanks to organize your research and best copy ideas. You’ll find your second pass through, where you’re actually doing the copywriting and crafting, going much faster because you’ll have organized all the work beforehand.

2) BUILD A “PLOT-LINE” LIBRARY FROM PAST CONTROLS:

There are only so many classic ‘plots’ for stories. (I remember an article claiming every Hollywood movie, for instance, was built around one or another of 13 recycled themes).

If that’s true for movies and literature, it’s definitely true of direct marketing letters. Visit your swipe file and pick out the winners.  Take apart the best controls to see how they were put together.

I’ve called this the “filet of soul” approach to package outlining – where you carve away the copy and extract the bones of its outline.

Use a similar outline to build your own promo, using your own research and prose.  Keep a file of outlines for use later on.

This is also a great way to get jumpstarted when you’re stuck.  Just be careful about how much you borrow.  You don’t want to get accused of plagiarism.

3) CREATE YOUR OWN PROMO CONSTRUCTION KIT:

For products you write for over and over, ready yourself ahead of time with a “toolbox” of key elements. This is especially useful for sales letters that use the same sidebars between packages.

For instance, you might not know the lead of your next promo for “Widget X,” but you know testimonials will come in handy.  Write the testimonial sidebar. 

Then write one with news clippings. 

Write another with a third-party endorsement letter.  Then drop them all into a folder on your computer desktop called “Widget X Credibility Sidebars.”

The first time through, you’ll spend lots of time crafting and re-crafting these pieces. The next time through, you might even polish them further.

But the more frequently you go back to working with the same product, the more you’ll find you can revive and reuse all that polished material.

4) PREPARE MORE:

For the writer who gets lost or loses steam, spending more time on the outline before actually writing can be tedious at first, but helps speed the process. 

Especially valuable: Spending extra time at the beginning to narrow your headline or lead down to the single most powerful Big Idea. This may seem like the opposite of a speedwriting technique.

But the reality is, sometimes the reason it seems to take forever to capture a copy concept on paper is because you just haven’t figured out exactly what you’re trying to say.

An added benefit: Even though making your idea more narrow might isolate some of your audience, you more than make up for it by having a much more memorable and powerful impact with the customers you do target.

One way to do this is to always be doing the reading and research on products you work on often, even between marketing campaigns. Why? Because when the time comes to write down a sales pitch with authority, you’ll already have most of the key concepts at your fingertips.

5) PREPARE LESS:

Even though I just told you it’s easier to write faster when you’re better prepared, there’s a flip side to that coin. That is, sometimes the trouble copywriters have with getting a promo done quickly is TOO much preparation.

Maybe you know the novelist, Lawrence Block. Block is a big believer in just plunging in and letting momentum take him where it will. The speed, he says, comes across as energy on the page.

Outlining is good.  Research is good.  But once you’ve poured your coffee and cracked your knuckles, sometimes the best thing to do is just start typing.

6) BUILD A LIBRARY OF GRAPHIC TEMPLATES:

Some writers are more visual than verbal.

I even know a few writers who actually write their copy inside a desktop publishing program.  If you know Quark or Adobe InDesign, this tip might work for you too.

Start collecting a library of graphic templates. 

Ask designers to give you their files on CD. Use the files to create graphic templates with notes to yourself – “track record goes here” or “sales close starts here” and “main headline goes here.” Then, next time you’re in a rush, fill in the blanks.

What if you don’t know diddly about graphic design software?

Then do it on paper. Get together as many blank pages as you think your finished sales letter will fill and staple them together. Then get a black marker and outline the “shape” of your copy. Draw rough sidebars where you think they’ll go, sketch in the pull quotes, mark out space for images you might want to include.

I’ve done this and not only does it help keep you focused on what you do – and don’t do – to get the copy working, but it also gives you a much better feel of how the customer will see your finished piece.

 7) DON’T RE-INVENT THE WHEEL:

Of course, if being “unique” is the soul of a good pitch, you don’t want to be the guy whose every sales letter is a mirror image of the last one.

Still, some things are just so much the same between files it would be a shame to start from scratch each time.  That’s why even the best copywriters build a kind of “riff library” they can go back to for re-crafting repeating elements in their promo pieces.

For instance, keep a generic guarantee paragraph that you re-write between packages. 

Do the same for the reply page. 

Look for parts that will need roughly the same information, from one promo to the next, like track record sidebars, lift letters, and mini-bios of gurus and experts.

Copy and paste the old one into your new document, change all the relevant details, even reinvent the look and some of the way it’s structured if you can. But the point is, it’s often easier – and quicker – to adapt than it is to start from scratch.

Even if you only keep the formatting of the original pieces, you’re developing a de facto checklist of elements you know you’ll need to include. That saves you time.

And isn’t that what this is all about?

Contributed by John Forde
Guest Contributor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE™

Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

The trouble is that nobody really wants to be a salesman. The stereotype isn’t one we all aspire to be.  Somehow, salesmanship has come to be synonomous with hype and BS. We think of them as sneaky, out for nothing more than your money, not really interested in whether what they’re selling is actually any good, and even less interested in whether it’s any good for you.

Yet copywriting has a totally different image. This is something to be desired. Everybody wants to be a great copywriter. It’s an ‘art form’ for goodness sake. The top copywriters can charge as much as they want for their services. But aren’t they just salesman? Worse than that - aren’t they just salesmen who hide behind the written word?

Now don’t get me wrong. Right now, learning copywriting is my number one priority. (and yes, if you’re reading this, you’ve already realised that I need to learn it pretty damn quick, no need to point it out). But I don’t want to be a salesman (or in my case saleswoman). See, I don’t like ’sales’ people.

Nobody does. They stalk you. You go into a store and they’re all over you like a rash. How the heck can you enjoy the shopping experience with someone hanging round, watching your every move, pointing out the benefits of why X is better than Y (and you know the main benefit is in the size of the commission!), looking at you with disgust if you happen to cast your eyes over towards the ‘bargain’ counter.

Unfortunately the ‘offline’, ‘real world’ stereotype salesman image, has made us cringe at the thought of becoming that stereotype. And why? Because we don’t want our prospects to view us as greedy, selfish, out for the sale at all costs.

So instead we turn to the much more caring, customer focused instead of sales focused, copywriter. But is the copywriter nothing more than a well disguised salesman in sheep’s clothing?

Perish the thought! Here’s someone who isn’t ’selling’ anything. They’re just telling us a story, ah, but what a story. Surely a Pulitzer prize winning novel couldn’t have you turning the pages as quickly!

And by the time you get to the end, well so what if you’ve never even heard of whatever it is they’re talking about, you know you need it anyway. How could you possibly live without it? You’re sold, without being hounded, without being stalked, without being pestered, without having your experience ruined. In fact, you’ve had the best ’shopping’ experience of your life, and not a salesman in sight. That’s what makes it so special.

So give me a copywriter and leave me to enjoy my shopping in peace, thank you.

Technorati Tags: copywriting, selling

I can’t imagine a better starting ground than with The Total Package. I mean, can you imagine working with Clayton Makepeace?

Well, I’m not one to keep you hanging round so head on over and sign yourself up now.

Remember, “Shy Bairns Get No Broth”.

Technorati Tags: copywriting, copywriting tips, john carlton, training

You see copywriting can only ’sell’ when it has someone to sell to. That’s where your keywords and SEO come in. They are what bring you the visitors. Copywriting doesn’t bring traffic. NO matter how good it is, no matter how seductive your technique, no matter how explosive and dynamic your powers of persuasion, your copywriting prowess will not bring you traffic.

What will bring you traffic is SEO (search engine optimisation) and making sure that what you write contains the right amount of the right keywords, in the right places. This gets you picked up and shown on the search engines. Obviously the better your SEO, the higher up those search engine results you will be found.

And that is why it’s important to not forget about optimising your content, not only for the sake of converting visitors to sales, but also to make sure you get those visitors there in the first place!

Sure you can use paid advertising - but why throw away good money, when you can get all the traffic you want (and more) simply by putting a little extra thought into your copywriting.

Check out Kimberley Clay’s article over at Ezine Articles. Gives some pretty cool tips on getting tons of traffic just by making best use of SEO in your copywriting.

Technorati Tags: copywriting, SEO

While your sales copy is what will make your readers buy, your keywords are what will enable them to find you in the first place.

It doesn’t really matter how great your copywriting skills are if they go unseen. Similarly, no matter how thoroughly you research your keywords at attract the right target market, it will all have been fruitless if your copywriting isn’t strong enough to convert.

Getting the balance right can be tricky so it’s worth spending some time on both aspects. Many a great copywriter fails to make the sale because they overlook the importance of keywords and keyword research when drafting their copy.

Don’t make the same mistake.

Technorati Tags: copywriting, keywords

According to Clayton (and if you’re serious about copywriting you really should listen to Clayton) there are:

18 Numbers Every Direct Response Marketer
and Copywriter MUST KNOW
To Produce Bigger WINNERS More Often
and Bigger MAILINGS More Often

Check out what they are here.

Technorati Tags: copywriting, winners

Boost Your Internet Sales 1,000%
In 90 Days or LESS

In this issue:

• Why the Internet will at least DOUBLE in size in the next four years …
• Why that’s not necessarily a “good” thing for Web marketers …
• 3 “Waking Nightmares” stalking Internet marketers now …
• The one missing ingredient that can easily multiply the response to most Web promotions today …
• A one-second IQ test for Web marketers …
• And much, MUCH MORE!

Dear Business-Builder,

Hiya. Hope you’re doing great.

Me? Well, it’s 3:45 AM on a Saturday morning and I just woke up, made my way to the office and sat down to write this issue for you.

What a guy – right?

So what would you like to talk about today?

What’s that you say? “The Internet?” OK, what about it?

“… How business owners, marketing execs and copywriters could be – should be – making about ten times more money than they are now?”

Amazing how great minds think alike, isn’t it? That’s just what I was thinking about!

Alrighty then – here goes …

Internet gurus – especially the hypesters who want to sell you a book on “How to Make a Gazillion Bucks by Noon Tomorrow on The ‘Net” – will tell you that the Web is a godsend for anyone looking to get rich quick.

They shout about how hundreds of millions of people browse the Web and read their e-mail every day – and that thousands of them are just dying to buy the product you’re selling.

Well, there’s no doubt that the World Wide Web is huge. According to the CIA World Factbook, 223 million Americans – roughly 74% of the U.S. population – now have Web access.

Throw in the rest of the English-speaking world – and millions more around the globe who are fluent in our language – and it’s a pretty good bet that well over 300 million consumers and business people can read and respond to your English-language sales messages.

300 million prospects not enough for you?

Ok …

• If you translate your e-mail blasts and websites into Spanish, you’ll pick up about 76 million more prospects in the U.S., Mexico, Central America, South America and, of course, Spain.
• Add French, German, Russian, and Portuguese sales messages and you can talk to 116 million more future customers.
• And if you can figure out a way to make your sales messages readable to Web nerds in China and India, you’ll pick up another 313 million prospective customers.

That’s about 805 million prospects in all – and still, the Web is just getting warmed up …

2 Billion Web Users by 2010

Altogether, about ONE BILLION people on the planet have Web access at this very moment: That’s one out of every 6.5 human beings alive today.

In 2005, about 136 million new folks joined the Internet community for the first time. That’s 248 new Web users every minute … more than 15,000 per hour … and more than 372,000 per day, 365 days a year.

At that rate, the number of people on the Internet will DOUBLE AGAIN – to about 2 billion users – in the next 2 years!

And even that “2-billion-by-2010″ number may prove to be a gross underestimation.

The wildest wild cards? China and India: Nearly half of the world’s population lives in those two countries – about 2.4 billion souls. And so far, only about 13% of those folks have found their way to the ‘Net.

If you asked a roomful of 100 Chinese and Indian folks, “How many of you use the Internet?” – well, my guess is that almost nobody would understand a word you said – because they all speak Chinese or … uh … Indian or something.

But even if you went the extra mile and asked them in their native tongues, only about 13 of them would stand and be counted.

Ask a roomful of 100 Americans the same question, and 74 of them would jump to their feet. The way I figure it, that’s only slightly less than would jump up if you’d asked, “Who wants free beer?”

My point is: Internet use is 12 times greater per capita in the U.S. than in China and India. But that’s changing – and FAST.

See, when it comes to economic growth, China and India are punking us – big time.

Here in the good old U.S. of A., our economy is expanding at the sedate, “civilized” rate of about 3.8% per year. But India’s economy is growing nearly TWO TIMES FASTER … and China’s is exploding by double digits – nearly THREE TIMES FASTER.

That means every day of the year, millions of Chinese and Indians are packing their knapsacks … leaving the farm for the big city … getting jobs … opening bank accounts … becoming consumers … and discovering the incomparable joys of something called “disposable income.”

And every day, millions of these new consumers are using a part of their newfound disposable income to join the Internet community.

The thing is, the combined population of China and India is more than EIGHT TIMES LARGER than ours – so …

• When per-capita Internet use in China and India reaches just 25% of what it is in America, they will have 380 MILLION users online – nearly half as many surfers as exist in the entire world today.
• When Internet use is only half as widespread as it is in the United States, China and India will have 760 MILLION consumers online – almost equaling today’s entire Internet community.
• And when they finally catch up to the U.S. – with 74% of the people in these countries finally joining the World Wide Web – there will be a staggering 1.8 BILLION Chinese and Indian people on the ‘Net.

That’s more than one and a half times the number of Internet users in the entire world today!

So when folks tell you that the number of consumers on the Web is huge and getting huger – and that any self-respecting business owner, marketing exec and direct response copywriter would be certifiably insane not to make their Web-based marketing a big, BIG priority – they are NOT blowing smoke up your skirt.

Especially since reaching those hundreds of millions of prospective clients on the Web is unbelievably cheap …

Just like direct mail
– but with no printing or postage costs!

Twenty years ago, if you had told me that one day, I’d be able to reach all the prospective customers I wanted to without paying a penny in printing, postage or letter shop fees … and without paying through the nose for print space or TV and radio time … I would have probably smiled and backed away from you v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.

I would have instantly pegged you as a raving lunatic. But I would have been wrong. Thanks to the Internet, you actually can reach millions of prospects without spending a dime on any of those things – and that’s huge …

When I write a direct mail package, I know my client is going to have to cough up an average of $550 to mail it to every 1,000 prospects in his universe. That’s $55,000 to send it to 100,000 potential customers … and $550,000 to send it to 1 million prospective customers.

On the Web, you can post a website that millions will see for five hundred bucks – and then blast a million e-mails to drive folks to your site for next to nothing!

So yeah – the Internet is huge and cheap, just like the hypesters say it is.

And yes, marketing products and services on the ‘Net can make you a bundle. I know lots of Internet marketers who make tens of millions – even a hundred million or more – every year on their Web promotions.

But there is just a little bit more to it than that …

What Internet Hypesters Don’t Tell You

Wouldn’t it be great if the guys trying to sell you ridiculously expensive books, courses and seminars on Internet Marketing were right?

I mean – how great would it be if all you had to do was toss a site up on the ‘Net, send out a bunch of e-mails for free or nearly free and then go goof off on the beach while the Web filled your bank account to overflowing for you?

Unfortunately it’s not quite that easy. Before you can become the world’s next Internet mogul, you’d better get used to dealing with the three waking nightmares that plague more and more Internet marketers every day …

Nightmare #1 – Delivery Disasters: Because direct mail, print, and TV and radio advertising cost serious money, marketers are extremely careful to send solicitations ONLY to people who have demonstrated that they are ready, willing and able to buy the product or service being promoted.

Not so on the Web: Due to the fact that e-mail marketing is cheap – or even free in some cases – Web marketers have filled our e-mail boxes with far more junk mail each day than the U.S. Postal Service has ever delivered in a week.

As a result, all the major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) now screen your mail and block as much of the obvious spam as they can. And if you’ve bought a new computer or upgraded your software in the last few years, it’s a good bet that your own machine is blocking even more.

Nevertheless, we all still get dozens of junk e-mails every day – and at the same time, these automated spam filters are often guilty of throwing out the mail we want along with the junk!

I, for example, sometimes have trouble getting an issue of THE TOTAL PACKAGE to people who have asked to receive it – even after my issue has passed our own spam-checking programs with flying colors.

Heck, I’ve even had personal e-mails from good friends blocked or re-directed to my junk e-mail folder!

Needless to say, if you’re marketing a product on the Web, this kind of wildly erratic delivery can KILL the response to your promotions.

Nightmare #2 – The Competitive Challenge: Remember when Amazon was the ONLY major bookseller online? Google the word “books” now and you’ll get 1.5 BILLION hits!

Remember when eBay was the only major online auction? Google that word now and you’ll get 409 million hits!

Remember when Yahoo was the only major search engine? Type “search engine” into a search engine today and you’ll get 277 million hits!

I remember when I could search for “Copywriting” and see only a handful of hits. These days, I get 10.7 million – and another 767 million for “marketing.”

Plus “weight loss” gets 91.2 million hits … “hair loss” gives you 17.2 million hits … “erection?” 26.6 million hits … “real estate:” 667 million hits … even “rutabaga” gets 720,000 hits!

Sure – you can spend a fortune on search engine optimization and Pay-Per-Click advertising on Google and the others – or maybe spend big bucks in other media to send people to your site.

If you’re very good and very lucky, your prospective customers might find you on, oh let’s say … the first five or ten pages that get served up.

The point is – the days when Internet marketing was cheap or even free are gone forever. The cost of getting your site noticed is rising – and will only get costlier as the number of websites on the ‘Net continues to explode in the years ahead.

Nightmare #3 – The Credibility Catastrophe: To me, this is the biggie – the monster that, unless some computer geek somewhere has a flash of inspiration and SOON – has the power to forever KILL the Internet as a marketing tool.

See, all direct mail, print, TV and radio advertising in this country is closely regulated by the Federal Trade Commission as well as other government agencies. When they catch someone lying, cheating, or stealing (or even “misleading”), regulators can shut them down in a heartbeat.

Not so with the Internet. It doesn’t give a flying fig what regulators or politicians say or do. If Washington proclaims something they’re doing is illegal, they can just pull up stakes and move to another country where the laws are more lenient, or the officials more bribable, or both.

And so, the Internet has become the sleaziest of all the channels available to marketers – with armies of scam artists filling your e-mail box with fraudulent promotions and other swindles.

• Like the jerk whose e-mails look exactly like an official communication from an eBay member, asking you to “sign in” – provide your user name and password – to answer a question.

  Once you do, he has full access to your account, enabling him to re-route money due you to him!

• Or like the creeps that put out official-looking e-mails from Amazon.com telling you that your credit card is no longer valid and asking you to “log in” and give them a new one.

  Fall for that one, and you can bet someone else will be living the high life on your money in no time flat!

• And like the hordes of swindlers who fill your inbox with unsolicited e-mails swearing that they can make your bank account, your hair and your male member grow while making your waistline shrink.

  Listen to any of those swindlers, and you might as well flush your paychecks down the toilet along with the very, very expensive urine you’ll be producing!

No wonder more and more consumers only believe about half of what they see on websites – and nothing that they read in their e-mail boxes!

Needless to say, this is NOT a good thing for honest marketers.

BOTTOM LINE: With spam filters and other problems depressing e-mail delivery rates … with skyrocketing competition on the Web lowering individual website traffic … and with rising skepticism among consumers hammering readership rates, click-thru rates and conversion rates …

… The cost of making sales on the Web is rising and many promotions – even ones that once brought big bucks to marketers – are flagging.

In short …

The Web is Growing UP;
It’s Time Web Marketers Did Too!

Frankly, most Web marketers have been spoiled rotten.

Sorry guys, but you know it’s true!

For more than a decade now, the fact that your medium was brand-new and your prospects were wide-eyed has allowed you to get rich without ever having to think much about the strength or weakness of your Web-based sales copy.

So, you’ve written the copy yourself – or cheaped out by hiring neophytes to write for you.

And the fact is, the copy in 99% of the e-mails you blast and 99% of the websites you build is so weak, it would have long ago sent any direct response mail, TV or radio marketer into bankruptcy.

Now, with the Internet maturing and becoming more competitive … with the costs associated with driving prospects to websites rising … and with the average ‘Net consumer growing older, wiser and more skeptical – amateur night is over.

Suddenly, many Web marketers are beginning to find themselves in the same boat as their peers who use other advertising media – desperately searching for ways to boost response.

This simple fact of life
presents a truly dazzling opportunity
for every business owner, marketing exec
and copywriter reading this!

The other day, I was studying a series of landing pages hosted by one of the nation’s most successful Internet marketing companies.

Now, this company has it all. It has hundreds of wonderful employees who are experts in all the nuts and bolts of Web marketing. One word from the Prez, and the company’s Web division can conceive a new website before 10:00 AM … have it written by lunch … and have it designed, programmed and making sales by quitting time.

In short, the owners have built a Ferrari of a company – with all the high tech talent and infrastructure they need to dominate their industry …

… But instead of paying for high-octane fuel – powerfully compelling sales copy created by proven professionals – they’re pouring cheap kerosene into the gas tank!

Fact is, if they ever try sending their Web sales copy out via snail mail, they’ll be lucky to recoup 10% of the money they spend on postage!

Nevertheless, on the low-cost Web, the company’s lousy copy generates nearly $100 million a year in sales – and they’re laughing all the way to the bank.

The fact that they’re getting rich doesn’t mean that they’re smart. To the contrary: It’s proof positive that ignorance truly is bliss.

Because if their copy didn’t suck, they’d be making $1 billion a year instead of a lousy $100 million. And since everything else is already in place, that 1,000% increase in sales could happen in the twinkling of an eye.

Unfortunately though, the company’s copy will probably continue to suck – and the owners will continue leaving 90% of their sales on the table – because they just can’t quite bring themselves to pay a top copywriter a commission on the increased sales he or she could produce for them.

And so in hopes of helping any reluctant Web marketer reading this to see the error of your ways, allow me to offer this simple, one-second IQ test …

What would YOU Rather Have?
100% of $100 Million?
… Or 90% of $1 BILLION?

If you said, “100% of $100 million,” you may as well stop reading this now, go get your resume in order and prepare to go to work for one of your competitors.

Because your company is about to get its head handed to it on a not-so-silver platter.

But if you instantly recognized that paying a top copywriter 10% of sales and settling for 90% of the $1 billion increase that stronger copy could bring you is the smarter move … because IT WOULD MAKE YOU NINE TIMES RICHER … then do this:

1. Go to the head of the class, and …
2. Call one. NOW!

And if you’re a copywriter looking for a way to make big bucks fast, do this …

Spend a day surfing the Web. Find a site that’s obviously making money, but the copy is stinking up the room. Call ‘em up and tell them you’ll multiply their sales in 90 days or less – and all you want is 10% of what you produce for them, or better yet, 20% of the increase in net revenues that you generate.

Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

It doesn’t matter what you are selling - books, DVD’s, home entertainment systems, homes, gardens, business opportunities - whatever it is, the ability to sell the advantages and benefits of YOUR product over and above that of your competitor, is the single biggest skill you require.

If you can’t learn it yourself, or if you don’t want to wait until you’ve learned the copywriting art before you start making money, then your only option (apart from settling for a mediocre business) is to pay an already established copywriter to do the job for you. Can you really afford the thousands of bucks these guys charge?

Doesn’t it make more sense to invest in some great copywriting training? Isn’t it better to be able to write your own attention grabbing copy? Copy that will have visitors drooling at your website? Copy that your visitors are quite simply unable to resist? Copy that will continue to put money into your bank account, not only on the day you put it out there, but for years to come? Long after you’ve forgotten all about it!

Copywriting is expensive for a reason. The returns it brings. Even the biggest pile of garbage can be made to sound an unmissable, must have, pile of garbage, if the copy is written well. How do you think folks can sell so much rubbish on Ebay? How come people are fooled into buying the ‘last remaining copy’ of a digital e-book?

Copywriting training is the best investment you will ever make in your business. Period. You can learn traffic, you can learn website design, you can learn e-mail marketing, but COPY is what sells.