Research!
This will appear one of two ways for you, obvious or something you have overlooked. When I say research I mean more than your competition! Before you can write a letter of copy you will need to know your product and market inside and out, up and down, right and left! You're going to need to research key points. You'll need to know;

• What the product is.
  Are you selling a website subscription or a tangible good? Are you selling website access per month or are you selling per minute?
  
  
• What the features are.
  You have got to know what the product can do or will do for the customer once they pay for it. There has got to be a value conveyed.
  
  
• What others are saying about the product.
  Getting testimonials or checking the net for reviews will give you all the information you need! Check message forums or simply google the product.
  
  
• What the benefits will be.
  Show your potential customer how they will benefit by going with your product over the competition's.
  
  
• Know what the target customer is concerned with.
  Are they looking for cheap price or are they looking for quality? What bonuses or improvements can you offer?
  
  
• The typical dollar amount of the purchase.
  How much is your prime demographic usually spending for similar products? How does your product compare to the price?

Give 'Em A Reason!
Create a list of features, facts and benefits. List the benefits, then elaborate on them. You're trying to give them as much ammunition as you can to get them to convince themselves to buy your product. The biggest part of selling someone is making them feel as if it was their idea. When idea is theirs, they want to do it. Think about it, people need to pay bills, but they want to buy other stuff - hence - generally, people are in debt!

Headlines; "HELP - SAVE ME!"
Headlines need to be akin to a cruise missile; explosive and precisely targeted. The headline "HELP - SAVE ME!" sums it up pretty well, doesn't it? Right to the point. You're headlines, too should be so precise. You don't want to have something like this: "Naked Girls, Click Here". That is very general and non specific. That would be what I would call a napalm ad... messy and around the target.

You want yours to look something like this: "Dripping Wet Porn Star Pussy - Right Here." You've got a couple different things going on here. We've got a thing - pussy. Who it belongs to - Porn Star. What it's state is - Dripping Wet! The more detail you give about what is behind that link, the more reason they have to or not to click it. If it's something they will not be interested in, there is no point in wasting a click. If it's something they are interested in, you don't want to miss something they might want!

Call To Action!
Just as important as the details and headline, you've also got to include a "call to action" or an order to do something. After you've got their interest peaked then you want to tell them what to do to further their interest, "click here", "visit this website", "call now", etc... Just make sure you tell them to proceed further into your sell.

Format Your Ad!
When formatting your ads you want them to be well balanced not only with color but sizing and spacing. They need to be easily readable! If you can't glance at it in 2-3 seconds and read the whole ad, shorten it, format it and eliminate non-essential information.

Here's some examples:



Bad Ad:

LolliHotties.com! Girls playing with lollipops.

Good Ad:

Hot, Horny Teenage Twat Being Filled To The Brim With Sticky, Wet Pussy-Juice Covered Lollipops! -Watch our hotties lick 'em clean!- Click Here Now For Free Samples!

Not only do you want to format your text using appropriate, subtle colors and font sizes and styles, you also want to use bolding and highlighting to point out key points in your sales pitch.

Finally keep the the formatting, and coloring limited to only the minimal of use. Now by minimal I mean effective use. Use only as much as is appropriate to get the point across and be noticeable at a glance.

Paint A Picture!
When writing and talking about benefits, key points and features of the product you are selling, you want to be as descriptive as you possibly can in pointing out every detail you can to help the reader form a visual of everything you are talking about.

I hate to use "Mikey D's" if you know who I'm talking about, but they have the best descriptions in their advertising. Listen on the radio and you'll hear them talk about their "warm, fresh baked, fluffy short stack pancakes. Their hot, deliciously spicy sausage, all served up with a piping-hot cup of gourmet coffee." Now, keep in mind that was all fast-food mass produced and it sounds like a morning slice of heaven!

Listen to TV and radio ads and think of how you can use their descriptive ideas for your own ads. Before you talk about a product or feature, give at least one or two descriptive words before you say the word. By doing this you are building up a very crystal clear image in the reader's mind.

Details! Details! Details!
Before you sell anyone on a product or service, you really should try it yourself. A product that has you convinced will allow you to convince others of it without sounding or coming across as being a B.S.'er.

A person who goes to buy a car does not just go jump in the seat of the first one they see and say "I'll take this one". The just don't. They always have questions before hand. No one is going to just see your product and buy it with know information what-so-ever. So, I tell you, give them more details than they could ever ask for! Tell them every possible thing you can able your product or service. Who cares if they are not going to read every word, most people skim when they read anyway, if you can throw in something that could catch their skimming-eyes then you can catch them onto something that might make them buy!

Again, you are trying to build up reasons for the reader to convince themselves that it is a good idea in their own mind to buy from you!

The Sale Price Dance:
I say dance because this can be a touchy subject but one that can make you a ton of money. There are three ways of selling something. You either sell on price, and price alone or you sell on quality or demand. When you are selling on price, you'll want to advertise the price everywhere! You want to make sure that the reader will not get a better deal anywhere else, period! Mention the price every other word it's free!

If the product is being based on quality or demand, you're ahead of the game. If the product is of very high quality people will pay more for it simply for that fact. Generally people selling on price are not fulfilling quality! You cut quality for price and it works the same in reverse, raise quality, you can raise the price. However, when dealing with quality or demand, you do not want to mention pricing until the sale page. Pump them up and get them sold on the idea of accessing your limited or extremely high quality product, then let them see the price when ready to buy.

If you offer a better product, a better service or better quality people look for that after they have been burned by price in the past and will come to you with extra cash in hand.

The best, though is selling on demand. When your product is in high demand and you are the only one or one of the only ones to supply it, you become the source. The source can dictate price and profit the most. If you've got what no one else has, you name the price. This works best on niche products. For example... "midget amputee lesbians" will sell by ratio far better than simply "lesbians" will. No one has midget amputee lesbians! You are the source.

Lock In Credibility:
You want to lock in credibility to your claim by giving them some kind of "insider" benefit. Something you know they will get when they buy. It could be either really good service, really quick completion time, or something that is far better than the competitor. Something that You personally have found to be of great importance to the potential customer. You've got to give credibility to your claims.

Avoid Traffic Leaks:
When you are trying to sell someone on a product, you want to remove all distractions and outside or external links to other websites. You want to basically talk them into the sale, then present it to them with no interruptions.

The worst thing you can do is get them to your sale page, to your hard work and countless hours of scripting of a finely tuned piece of sales copy and then just lead them off to some link that will take them away, never to be sold by you again!

Finally, Check, Proof, Re-Check:
Your final step, which will be repeated many times will be to check the copy, read the copy, re-read and re-check the copy until it not only makes you want to buy, it compels you to buy! When you are convinced, show it to other people who's opinion you value who will give you honest, critical feed back to give you their opinion and view. Go back and re-check and re-edit the text again. Then post it and test it, see if it works! If it generates sales (which it should if you have been paying attention) then make better changes or new sales copy and test them against each other. Find out which does better and keep trying to beat that version. Testing and re-editing your sales copy will help you tune your copywriting skills an keep your ads fresh and improving constantly, which equals more money!