Joe Sugarman, Headlines and Online Sales Copy

Someone asked me about a comment in one of Joe Sugarman's books...

"...all elements (the picture, the caption, the headline,etc.....) should make the prospect want to read the first line of copy.

Do you agree with Joe's ideas Andrew?"


There's some truth to this but it's an oversimplification.

When in doubt always go back to fundamentals.

Fundamental 1: The most valuable asset you have in a business is the trust you've built with your clients.

Fundamental 2: Advertising is salesmanship in print.


There are plenty of ways you can get people to read the next line of your copy.

You could put up a headline like...
"Read the next line on this page and I'll GIVE you $500 cash immediately."

But that's not going to work really well for you when your prospect realizes you're NOT giving him $500 cash immediately.

So building trust and credibility - especially online - is essential.

That's why online promotions are so effective.

You're usually referred to a product launch by a third party then you're exposed to a series of educational sales messages before you have a chance to buy the product.

It's a bit like having a friend coming over to your home with one of his friends every 3 or 4 days for 2 weeks.

They don't try to sell you anything they just tell about this great new adjustment you can make to your car that increases gas mileage by 30%.

First you see your friends car with this new gas mileage widget.

Then you see your new guests car with his "super-widget" and he lets you take his car for a drive.

Then they show you how much money they're saving on gas and help you work out how much money you would save in just 3 months (you'd save twice what the widget costs).

Then after a couple of weeks your friend tells you that mechanic who installs the gas widgets has spot free if you want one put in your car.



The other key is understanding that you are making a sale - advertising is salesmanship in print - so really getting to know your prospect intimately makes a huge difference.

Talk to real live prospects and see what process you have to go through to persuade them to get to the point where they want to buy your product.

That's the same kind of process you have to go through on your sales page.

So you have to be aware that everything links to everything.

Most poor copy is not because of a stinky headline or the wrong color font.

It runs deeper than that.

It's usually because you haven't done your homework getting to know the product you're selling and the prospect you're selling to.


When you understand where your prospect is at THEN you can create a headline a story and an opening line to a story that will stop him dead in his tracks.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

P.S. Just as an aside I think Joe Sugarman's books are excellent.

You do have to keep in mind though that while fundamentals stay the same the technology changes the way we apply them.

One of the key points I'm trying to get across in the post about opening lines in sales copy is that you have to work harder and harder to get surfers to stop and read your sales copy online.

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

Chunking and Online Copywriting

I don't know if bite sized chunks of information delivered online will lead us all to have bite sized brains but I do know that you need to stay open minded and keep adapting your marketing methods.

As a professional online copywriter I've worked with many different clients in many different industries.

Online the long sales letter was king for years - mimicking offline mailed sales letter - a proven format.

But the possibilities online have evolved.

There's simply no reason to think you only have one chance to market your product to a prospect.

If you capture their contact details you can market to your prospects over and over in a whole variety of ways giving small, highly targeted chunks of information.

Online there's no extra cost in doing this.

You can use web pages, reports, audio video, feedback forms, chat boxes, offers of free telephone consultations - the list is endless.

Online marketing as a medium is maturing and the savvy marketers are now harnessing its strengths and combining those with other forms of marketing.

No one tries to sell you a large, custom designed pool by mail.

They will come out to your property and give you a personalized quote.

But mail can be an excellent way to generate leads for the pool installer.

In the same way we need to understand and work within the limitations of online marketing and harness its incredible strengths intelligently.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

Copywriting Quote Is Copy Worth $5,000+

Here's a question about the cost of copywriting:

"I have read that copywriteing can cost $2,500-$5,000."

"I hope it wont cost that much. I have seen bids on some of the freelanceing sites for around $400."


My simple answer is that you should expect to pay $2,000 to $10,000+ for a sales letter and accompanying emails, optin forms etc to make your site profitable.

But if you want the right answer you need to ask the right question.

Look at your site and ask yourself if I convert 5 times more visitors into paying clients how much is that really worth to me?

If I can pay up to $1 a click when I do pay per click advertising and still make a profit instead of only being able to pay 15 cents a click what kind of difference will that make to the potential market I can sell to (hint: it's an ENORMOUS difference).

If I'm making $1 to $5+ a visitor because all my copy is finely crafted to create the maximum number of sales per visitor how many more affiliates will I end up with?

How many more joint venture partners will I pick up because they're making many times the profits from the people they send to my site?

Cheap copy is not cheap and it's exceptionally rare that you can find a good copywriter bidding for the lowest price on a freelance site. Marketing professionals know how to market themselves.

Do you want the copywriter who only knows the lowest, least profitable marketing strategy - discounting?

Long term (and often short term) good copy pays for itself over and over.

And good copy and a well refined marketing process gives you easier, more profitable access to hungry markets through pay-per-click, affilliate and joint venture promotions.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

How Long Should My Copy Be?

This age old, nauseating question keeps coming up wherever people discuss copywriting.

There's a simple answer...

Your copy should be as long as it needs to be to make the maximum number of sales.

But if you want the right answer you have to ask the right question.



Here's a little online marketing secret most online copywriters haven't discovered yet.

If you've got your prospects email address you don't need to give him every piece of buying information in one hit.

You can send your prospect to a series of "report" or "review" style sales letters or sales letters with video or audio - each one explaining in detail one major benefit of your product or focused towards one specific type of prospect.

If you have a lot of valuable bonuses as part of your product offer you could have single sales letters just explaining the benefits of one of those bonuses followed by a line like "And this is just ONE of the products you'll find in your XXXX package"

You don't have to treat your sales letters like "one night stands" online.

This approach has other advantages.

You can link at the bottom of your main sales letter to all the other report or review style sales letters with well chosen hyperlinked keywords.

This will give you more pages indexed on Google and pretty much eliminate your chance of getting slapped by Google if you're bidding on Google adwords.



Also if you have an email optin form on every page and you link to these pages from your squeeze page it multiplies your chances that someone will sign up with a genuine email address.

If you have a 40% optin rate on your squeeze page that means the majority of your visitors are clicking away without every looking inside your site.

You're likely to pick up quite a few of these visitors with this multiple sales page strategy.

The biggest key is to make your sales letters look and read more like content - especially at the beginning.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

Email autoresponder sequence secrets

I was asked recently do I need to give a free report to get visitors to subscribe to my email list.

First you should think about your own online surfing habits.

What entices you to sign up with your email address?

You also have to think about giving your subscribers serious motivation to read the emails you send them.

So I would not recommend a single free report.

What would be far better is if you break up that report into a series of 7 reports.

Then you could offer "7 FREE Reports: etc"

What would be even better is if you read some of those reports onto audio and give people the chance to download the audio series free as well.

The quality and real value of the gift you give in that first email will have a profound effect on the number of your subscribers who click through to your subsequent emails.

I've set up email lists where you can get over 60% of the subscribers to click through to your site from an email.

Many email marketers are lucky to get a 5% click through rate.

The secret to creating a powerful email list is to really think through how you can give outstanding value to your list FIRST.

Then think about creating a sequence of emails where you might send out links to quality content in 2 emails then a link to a product offer then 2 more links to quality content and so on.

Also read...
Autoresponder Copywriting
Email Marketing - Quality List Versus Quantity
Copywriting To Capture Emails
Multi-step Marketing To Explode Your Profits
Opening A Sales Email
3 Powerful Secrets Of Online Copy FREE Report

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

Famous "Dollar Bill" Sales Letter

Many people think Gary Halbert invented the idea of attaching a dollar bill to the top of a letter to get his reader's attention.

But the dollar bill letter was around long before the great Gary Halbert started writing copy.


Here is a copy of the original famous "Dollar Letter".

Pinned to the top was a crisp, new dollar bill - a real dollar bill.

This letter got an astonishing 90%+ response.

From 175,000 copies of this letter mailed, $270,000 was sent back PLUS more than 90% of the $1 bills mailed out with them.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

From the list of more than 150,000 people who gave that $270,000, further subscriptions raised nearly $14 million dollars.

Here is the text of the famous dollar bill letter...



Dear Mr. Jones:

Here's a dollar: Yes, it's a REAL dollar - nice and clean and new.

Keep it if you want to, after you've read this letter - but I don't believe you will, then.

Here's what it's all about:

I've made an investment of a thousand dollars in human nature - human kindness. I've mailed a thousand dollars - in a thousand letters to a thousand people picked at random. I have done this because I believe that every one is really kind, way down inside - that no one is REALLY heartless and that the only reason why folks do not help where help is needed is just because these needs are not IMPRESSED upon them hard enough.

"And that's the mission of each of my thousand dollars - to impress the importance of a need. This thousand dollars is my subscription to the XXXX Hospital - and I'm investing in the belief that every one will bring back several more - at least another - with it. So our subscription - which I'm starting in this way will be at least two thousand - maybe five - for there's going to be a lot of you who will send a five or a ten or more - when you mail my dollar back.

Remember - both my dollar and your dollars go to help crippled children.

Will EVERY ONE come back?

Will everyone bring something more?

Are people really kind - or REALLY heartless?

Have I made a good investment?

What is YOUR answer?

Sincerely,
xxxx


Also read...
41%+ Response From This Headline Secret
Gary Halbert Copywriting Video
Famous Letters (Little Known Wall Street Journal Letter)
Famous Eugene Schwartz Ad

Lazy Man's Way To Riches
Wall Street Journal Letter
Claude Hopkins: Schlitz Beer Ad

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

Email Marketing - Quality List Versus Quantity

Many new online marketers assume that having a huge email list of subscribers is the key to online success.

As a professional online copywriter I would take a quality list over quantity any day (within reason).

In the internet marketing niche a very high percentage of emails entered in "squeeze pages" are false.

You enter email addresses to take a look inside these sites why would you think your visitors would be any different.

Ultimately you're far better off having a list where you can send an email and know that 20% to 80% of your subcribers will click through to you site.

I've worked with clients with massive lists where they were lucky to get 1% of his subcribers click through from a link in an email.

It's important to note that list quality is determined by many factors and you should have a strategy if you're selling products to your list so that quality is maintained.

For example you might give two emails with links to high quality information, audio or software before you send one email to a page where you're offering a product to buy.

The prospects and clients on your list likely to be the most responsive to your offers are also the ones who will unsubscribe very quickly if you breach their trust.

Also read...
Autoresponder Copywriting
Copywriting To Capture Emails
Multi-step Marketing To Explode Your Profits
Opening A Sales Email
3 Powerful Secrets Of Online Copy FREE Report


Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

Getting started making money copywriting

There are many easy, low pressure ways to start out copywriting.

Just do copy where there can be no comparison to other copywriters and ANY result makes you look like a genius.

This is easy work for a starting copywriter.

Let me give you three examples from my own experience of starting out...

1. I put up websites for small business owners.

Simple one page lead generating sales letters online usually offering some kind of free consultation or advice if they called or emailed.

In some cases these business owners already had websites so I just changed the home page or one of the internal pages.

Since they were generally getting no sales from their websites they thought I was a brilliant "marketing consultant" when they got some real leads.

Since most small business owners now know there's money in having a business website and they're often paying several thousand dollars to hire web designers to put one up this can be quite a lucrative market for a starting copywriter.

If you desperately wanted an income you could walk down any street in town and ask the business owners if their websites are making them any sales.



2. I wrote lead generating reports for small business owners.

Each report was high quality information that led the reader to take up some kind of attractive offer right there in the report.

These were delivered online and offline and often I would have the business owners make over their business cards to include the "FREE report" offer.



3. I wrote letters to past clients asking for referrals, reports to send to the new people referred and letters to existing clients with offers for another product or service.

In some cases just the most basic letter asking for referrals would result in tens of thousands of dollars in business for my clients.

Do you think they were happy with me?


In all these situations it's important that you market yourself as a "marketing consultant" not a copywriter.

Most business owners don't know what a copywriter is.

Also most business owners have a very limited amount of time.

You'll get a ton of business if you offer to do everything for them.

Tell them you'll set everything up and all they have to do is deal with the new business that comes in.

This is an easy way to get started but you will have to learn some marketing basics.

I highly recommend anything by Jay Abraham.

Go to this page to download your FREE Jay Abraham marketing report worth $295...
Jay Abraham pdf

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

P.S. Also read:
How To Make A Great Living As A Copywriter Fast
Make Money As A Copywriter
Making Money As A New Copywriter

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

Opening Lines In Sales Copy

Writing a great opening line can massively increase your response rate.

Most people know that headlines are important but every word and image that appears in that first screen shot or on that first page of your copy is absolutely vital.


Recently I rewrote a sales page for online split testing software guru Frank Bauer.

The rewrite increased the response by around 100%.

Then we started split testing a few other changes.

When we changed the opening line the response jumped by another 95%.

Never underestimate the power of an opening line.

Here's an opening line from a novel that kind of gets your attention...

"Long ago, shortly after my mother's blood was sluiced from the streets of Changeover and her body was burned upon a funeral pyre, I suffered what the experts called a 'breakdown.' That seems to be a woefully inadequate word to me."


Then in the same gruesome tone here's a great opener by brilliant copywriter Brian Keith Voiles where he talked about his surgery for a brain tumour...

"They Cut Across the Top of My Head From Ear to Ear, Peeled My Face. I thought I Had Died When I Saw Myself In the Mirror.."

When you read an opening line like that it forces you to keep reading.

I talk more about opening lines in this post...
Secrets To Story Telling That Multiplies Your Sales

And in this post...
This Opening Line Sold Over $2 MILLION

And also this fabulous post...
Ted Nicholas Famous Letters

In sales copy it pays to write the most compelling intriguing opening line you can devise.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

The one book you must read to be a great copywriter...

Probably the most important book you could ever read to sell more effectively and write copy more effectively is "How to Win Friends and Influence People".

The great copywriter Eugene Schwartz said...
"You must read Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends And Influence People again.

"That book is one of the greatest books ever written and everybody should read it every 2 or 3 years."


In a recent interview the world's most "ripped off" copywriter John Carlton said "How To Win Friends and Influence People is the salesman's bible.

"Anyone who hasn't read Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence People - you need to do that right away!"


Selling in person or in print is all about understanding human nature and How To Win Friends And Influence People is still one of the best books ever written to help you understand human nature and work with it when you're trying to persuade people.

Many, many years ago I went to a business seminar where the speaker asked everybody who'd read Dale Carnegie's book to stand up.

Then he asked them to sit down if they'd read it just once, twice, three times, on and on he went.

When he got to six times I noticed the people left standing were all visibly wealthy (I knew a few and had a fair idea of how much money they were making).


It's the kind of book you need to read over and over and apply to really grasp the fundamentals but when you do it can change everything.

Also read...
3 Powerful Secrets Of Online Copy FREE Report
How To Write Great Sales Copy FAST
Sales Letter Format
Copywriting Driving You Crazy?

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

Creating Passive Income As A Copywriter

I had a great question today from another copywriter starting out.

He said "You mentioned that any business should have a way to survive the death of its leader or CEO."

"I notice you're a copywriter and I'm wondering how you've prepared your business so it could survive your death."

This is a key question for any business person.

How do you set up your business so it runs without you?

Usually in business you create policies and procedures for every action that's performed in your business so you don't have to be there for your business to run effectively.

This is even more powerful if you create policies and procedures around key marketing tasks performed in your business AND create an ongoing review process to improve those policies and procedures.

The other area you need to look at - especially if you're running a small operation like a copywriting business is creating more passive income.


Here are four things I do to create a business that can run without me...

1. I spend at least a third of my work time doing copy for my own high value, high quality products that are delivered digitally and don't require my input.

See these two pages for examples...
Free copywriting web design videos
and
Free 32 minute joint venture secrets audio

Online sales pages like these run for you on autopilot and are good spinoffs from promoting yourself as a copywriter.


2. I have deals with some clients where I do the copy and help create the product, they sell it on their website to their list and traffic and we share the revenue 50/50.

Generally I do this with clients I know well who are highly honest and ethical in their dealings (most of my clients actually).


3. I try to negotiate deals for the copy I write where I get an ongoing percentage of sales on TOP of my fee.

This is not always practical but think of it this way...

If you get 2% of the turnover of all the sales copy you write in a year and you write 25 sales letters in that year you'll make a substantial income and that income will grow year after year.


4. I do joint ventures where I help online business owners I know and trust makeover their website copy, email copy, add reports, upsells, downsells etc etc in exchange for a percentage of the turnover from that site.


This should give you a few ideas.

It's important to note that the deals involving clients are great deals for them too.

It might take 6 months to a year of my percentage to get paid what I normally would charging a copywriting fee up front but after that it's all income.

And from their perspective they have no risk and for a large period of time they have a copywriter tweaking their sales copy and sales process - increasing their profits.



Ultimately as a copywriter or any kind of business owner you want to create passive income and business systems that run without you.

That way you have a real business instead of a job where you run your business.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

How to write great sales copy fast

The fastest way to learn how to write great copy is to write great copy.

This sounds a little crazy but stick with me for a minute.

If you just write out by hand or type out the greatest sales letters ever written then you'll quickly learn the format of a well written sales letter.

You can go online and steal an online sales letter from any of the good online copywriters (like Michel Fortin) and type in these greatest sales letters using a html editor like NVU (free and excellent).

That way you'll also learn how to format an online sales letter.

You can do all this completely free.

You can get the nvu html editor free, you can swipe Michel's online sales letters free at...
http://www.successdoctor.com/services/

You can go to http://www.hardtofindads.com (the largest online digital swipe file in the world) and you can join free.

There you can access some of the greatest sales letters in history and type them out into your online sales letter - changing the words as you go but keeping the same format.

Check the "Big time million dollar display ads" and type out some of these great ads...

"Lazy mans way to riches"

"One legged golfer"

"Do you make these mistakes in English?"

"Steal yourself rich"

"Wall St Journal ad"


From the Gary Halbert section of ads you might want to type these out...

"The amazing secret of a marketing genius who is afraid to fly"

"How to make maximum money in minimum time"

"Face lift in a jar"


This process of writing or typing out a proven sales letter every day is a powerful introduction to copywriting.

And it won't cost you a cent.

If you're using proven online sales letters as templates you're also learning how to format online copy and writing online copy is probably the easiest way to hit the ground running as a paid copywriter these days.



Once you've got the basics of copy into your head you might want to start learning WHY web site copywriters use certain elements to sell - what works based on split testing and what doesn't.

There are a couple of f*r*e*e videos on the insider secrets of web design that sells here...
FREE copywriting web design videos

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

P.S. Also read...
Eliminate Writers Block Forever
How To Write Articles Fast

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

Secrets To Story Telling That Multiplies Your Sales

How do you tell a story in your online sales letter so it increases your conversions?

The biggest secret is to find the right story in the first place.

First think of your prospects.

What are their fears, their needs and their wants.

And what are their most likely objections to buying from you.

Once you've got that in your head you go story hunting.



If you have testimonials look at those first.

You're looking for a catchy before and after story that will appeal to your prospects.

If your prospects think they just don't have enough time to use a system you're selling (for example) you might use the testimonial of a guy who was working 3 jobs and raising 2 boys by himself.


You can contact the person who gave you the testimonial and see if he'll let you do the whole copy from his perspective (which can be very powerful).

But the main element of the story is to go from the pain, the fears and the desires I had and the real, proven success I got from this product.

If you have a good story of your own you can use that too.

There are several other ways of writing stories but this kind of story is usually the most effective.



A few more more vital tips on using stories to sell...

1. You can learn this one from many great novels...

In a sales letter the first line of the story must FORCE your prospect to read further.

Check some of these great opening lines from novels...
"The small boys came early to the hanging."

Once you've read that first line you HAVE to read the next line of that novel - the Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett.

Or how about this gem from the Foetal Attraction by Kathy Lette...

"Female friends had told me that giving birth was like shitting a watermelon."

Gets your attention doesn't it!


Or this one from Barbara Kinsolver from her novel the Bean Trees...

"I've been afraid of putting air in a tire ever since I saw a tractor tire blow up and throw Newt Harbine's father over the top of the Standard Oil sign."

That last opening line also leads into another vital storytelling tip...


2. Compelling writing is specific.

Notice Harbine said the "tractor tire" blew up and threw "Newt Harbine's father" over the top of the "Standard Oil sign".

She didn't write "I saw a tire blow up once and throw a guy way into the air."

Using specific language in this opening line makes you think "who is this Newt Harbine?"

Which is a nagging reason to keep reading.

It also gives you a great mental picture of a gas station and someone's father (almost certainly a farmer if he's blowing up a tractor tire) getting blown up so high he goes over a Standard Oil sign.

You can see it in your mind because the detailed description calls in images of things you see every day.

So you can relate to it.



Use details in the stories in your copy. Rewrite and ADD detail.

Instead of "I made over $20,000 for this copywriting client with my first project" use "My emails and sales copy made Bill Jones $20,038 in online sales in just 48 hours first time out. And they were preorders for a golf product he hadn't even made yet!"

Or instead of "the home I was living in" how about "in my old panelboard home on West St Wilmington."

Being specific brings color and life to your stories and helps your readers relate (they might live in an old panelboard house too).


But the biggest key which is consistent with all the copy you write is to get into the mind of your prospect and think about what they want, what turns them on and write a story that appeals to them deep down where their pain and fear lies.

Deep down in the places where they have dreams they never dare to tell anybody.

I talk more about the most important part of your story...opening lines in this post...
Opening Lines In Sales Copy

And in this post...
This Opening Line Sold Over $2 MILLION

And also this fabulous post...
Ted Nicholas Famous Letters

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

The biggest secret to selling online

Here's one very important area that is neglected with online marketing and outstrips nearly any other method I've seen.

And it's pathetically simple.

Ari Galper from unlockthegame.com uses it to make over $40,000 in sales every month from quite modest traffic.

Those of you who are familiar with Ari's site would probably say "oh yeh using online chat boxes to engage your site visitors" and you'd be only half right.

What Ari is doing and many online marketers are doing that runs under the radar is calling their prospects on the telephone or engaging them in other ways OFFLINE.

Two of the great weaknesses of most online marketers...

1. They fail to understand the very real value of the prospects they generate online

2. They don't capitalize on the value of those prospects by engaging them offline (phone calls, direct mail, fax, etc etc)

When you do this you immediately set yourself apart from other online marketers and other websites.

You and your staff become a real live people.

And you overcome most of the objections your prospects have to buying online automatically.

Selling products online by definition is difficult because you must build trust then get your prospects to use online purchasing methods which require a degree of technical expertise.

(Online between 25% to 75% of sales are lost AFTER your prospect has already decided to buy).


Think of your online business as a retail store...

How many sales would you lose if you let your customers come to the sales counter and let them follow written instructions on how to make their purchases...

Let them swipe their own credit card and scan their own products.

Even the stores that do this have a customer service attendant right on the spot to help people who have any problems.

You know - a real live person to talk to.

Think about your own behaviour.

How many times have you gone to a store ready to buy a big ticket item and asked for help?

Isn't it strange that when you're just browsing around you find the sales assistants annoying pests but as soon as you want to buy something you want to talk to someone - ANYONE!


You can overcome most of the weaknesses of online marketing simply by looking at it as part of a sales process that is performed online AND offline.

Also keep in mind that those prospects who come to your websites can be worth a small fortune if you engage them offline.

If you were making 2-7 times the sales you make right now how much would each visitor to your site be worth?

Also see...
Gary Halbert Video Triple Your Online Orders
Gary Halbert Video Triple Your Online Orders Part 2
3 Powerful Secrets Of Online Copy FREE Report

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client

3 Powerful Secrets Of Online Copy FREE Report

Read On To Discover The PROVEN Insider Secrets Of Increasing The AVERAGE
Sale From Your Online Business To $700 Or MORE...

Are You Making These Mistakes With Your Online Marketing?

3 POWERFUL Secrets Of Online Copy Even The Greatest Marketers Alive Are Neglecting...

(Download this full report as a pdf file completely FREE at...
http://freelanceonlinecopywriter.com/3SecretsOfOnlineCopy.pdf)


You can experiment and split test a thousand different factors to improve the response from
your online copy but taking a step back and anyalyzing a few key, fundamental areas can
improve your copy, your business profits and client loyalty.

You know what it's like...

You're constantly busy and it's just so easy to get caught up in the details and the nitty gritty of
online marketing and go off on tangents that take you away from critical marketing
fundamentals.

If you want to massively increase the bottom line profits of your business in the short and long
term you need to constantly keep your eye on the big picture so you always understand where
all the small pieces fit in and how important or unimportant they are...


Neglected Marketing Fundamental Number One

Online Your OFFER Is Everything...

The first and THE most fundamental key to multiplying your response online is your offer.

Sometimes we need to review all our online copy, all our product offers and all the products we
have in development and ask the fundamental question...

“What Can I GIVE
Online...”

Your attitude online can either shine online or it can stink.

Either way it really shows to anyone and everyone who visits your website and has any contact
with you.

What happens if you really go out of your way to GIVE to your prospects and clients online?

Giving to your prospects and clients way beyond anything you've done before.
Let me tell you a story.

I did a piece of copy for Michael Senoff at hardtofindseminars.com.

If you don't know Michael he has a site that gives away literally tens of thousands of dollars
worth of high quality audios, transcripts, reports and more completely free.

There's interviews there with Jay Conrad Levinson, Carl Galetti, Brian Keith Voiles and audio
from Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy, Ted Nicholas and John Carlton.

The site is PACKED with high quality stuff you'd pay a FORTUNE for anywhere else.
But on Michael's site it's FREE.

Now the copy I did for Michael was an offer for an hour's worth of marketing consulting PLUS
$700 worth of Jay Abraham tapes or other appropriate marketing materials.

Both for just $700.

As an introductory offer if you qualify you could get the first 15 minutes of consulting free.
Now Michael and I are friends.

We exchange emails regularly.

But immediately after he launched the copy for this offer the steady stream of emails stopped
abruptly.

The phone in his office was ringing off the hook – every man and his dog wanting to take him
up on the consulting offer.



Now why did we settle on the figure of $700 for this offer?

Well I simply asked Michael “What's the average sale from your business?”

The answer: $700.

Think about that for a minute.

$700...

“Would You Like An Online Business That Has An Average Sale Of $700?”

Michael also sells products online with prices in the $3,900 even $5,900 range.
Here's the lesson.

Online you can deliver as much digital product as you like FREE or for next to no cost.

You can give your prospects and clients HUGE value.

And if you take the attitude of “What can I give?” then you can have an average sale of $700 or
MORE...

And regularly sell high ticket items worth THOUSANDS of dollars each.

That leads to the first online copy secret and even the greatest marketers online aren't
capitalizing to the fullest on this secret.

Your offer is EVERYTHING and online you can deliver almost exponentially more value at
minimal cost.

Add value to all the offers you make with a heap of high value targeted, related products
delivered online.

This works in the offline world too...



(Download this full report as a pdf file completely FREE at...
http://freelanceonlinecopywriter.com/3SecretsOfOnlineCopy.pdf)

Free Audio "13 Secrets
Of Online Copy"
Email:
Name:

More FREE High Value Online Copywriting Secrets Than Any Other Site On Earth. Andrew Cavanagh's Online Copywriting Blog

Products From Andrew Cavanagh:

Offers Unleashed: How Many Of These 17
Profit Multiplying Offers Is Your Website Missing?

Make $1,500 Today: This 48 Page Report Reveals
The Simple Step By Step System For Selling Your Online
Marketing Skills To Businesses Right In Your City

$500 In 24 Hours Without A Website: From Offline Store Front
To Online Gold. Charge Local Businesses To Explode Their Sales From Walk Past Traffic And Turn That Traffic Into Long Term Online Income (Perfect For Copywriters)

Online Gold For The Offline Business: The Definitive
eBook On How To Use Online Marketing To Power Up
The Profits In Any Brick And Mortar Business


Make My Website Sell: FREE 11 Minute Video
Insider Secrets Of Web Design That Sells

$7 Secrets: How I Made Over $3,000 In Just 7 Days
By Selling A 30 Page Report For $7

Make Money Copywriting: 34 Insider Secrets To Making Money
As A Copywriter And How To Land Your First Copywriting Client