Here are some cool free copywriting resources that I’ve found (this list does not include some of the great copywriting blogs and such):

Marketing Bullets by Gary Bencivenga – This is probably my favorite resource for copywriting. Gary Bencivenga is the MAN (in my opinion).

Boost My Response – Audio interviews with Gary Halbert and John Carlton conducted by Michel Fortin.

Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins (this ought to be a “must read”)

Gary Halbert Letter – An awesome collection of Gary’s thoughts and teachings. Gary has been widely known as the “best” copywriter ever (alongside Gary Bencivenga). The “Boron Letters”, a series of letters that Gary wrote to his son, come highly recommended by many top copywriters.

My Life In Advertising by Claude Hopkins (click on the links to the left when you’re on this site to view the book / pdf)

Jay Abraham School of Copywriting – Here he discusses a cool way to leverage Amazon.com for copywriting

Hard to Find Ads – Swipe file collection of editorial ads (from 50 years ago… classic ads in there)

Hard To Find Seminars – Copywriting Resource – This site offers a nice collection of interviews (which includes mp3 and PDF transcripts) by top Copywriters, including: John Carlton, Ted Nichols, Gary Halbert, Joe Vitale, Dan Lok and more…

Agora Publishing Swipe File – This is a HUGE swipe file, about 1100 different sales letters.

John Carlton Swipe File – Here are several sales letters written by John Carlton – not all are written by him, but you can get some great ideas nontheless. Click on each “product” to read the sales letter.
The Golf Niche – including the now famous “One Legged Golfer” letter (you can see that one here).
The Guitar Niche
Self-Defense Products

100 Greatest Headlines by Jay Abraham

Matt Furey Swipe File – Matt Furey has made a fortune from re-publishing public domain works (and putting his twist on them). His sales letters have pulled in millions of dollars. Definitely worth reading each of his sales letters. Just click on the products to read them.

I have a ton more really sweet resources… but that’s all I have time to put up… for now. :mrgreen:

/Steven

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Secret Copywriting Resources

Related posts:

1. Copywriting is Not Just For Sales Letters Anymore…
2. Learn Copywriting From Jay Abraham (Jay Abraham’s School of Copywriting)
3. 12 Simple Steps To Effective Copy

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Learn Copywriting From Jay Abraham (Jay Abraham’s School of Copywriting)

Related posts:

1. Copywriting is Not Just For Sales Letters Anymore…

So, what does it really take to turn your prospects into paying customers?

The most important thing when writing sales copy in my opinion is to move your visitor down your marketing / sales funnel and have them perform the desired action, whether it’s to purchase a product, download your free report or fill out a lead capture form.

Each section of your sales page ought to transition seamlessly from one section to another. And, if you’ve done your job, you will keep the visitor engaged and make them WANT to complete the transaction (whip out their credit card to buy!).

So, here are 12 simple steps to more effective copy:

1. CREATE AN IRRESISTABLE HEADLINE.
Express the main benefit of your product or service in a concise sentence or two. You need to grab your readers by the eyeballs with your headline and pique their interest. Make them want to read your story.

2. USE SUB-HEADLINE To CREATE EXCITEMENT.
In no more than two or three short sentences, expand on the benefits of your product and generate excitement in your reader. If what you’re offering is limited, this is a great place to specify that.

3. MENTION THE BENEFITS OF YOUR PRODUCT.
Give the reader at least three solid reasons to buy your product. Your reasons should NOT be features of your product, but the ultimate benefits of it to your customer. For example, if you’re selling an ebook about curing acne, you might write:

“If you want to cure your acne so you can stop being embarrassed about your appearance, have more confidence and be more attractive to the opposite sex then this might be the most important letter you’ll ever read".

4. SUMMARIZE YOUR UNIQUE SELLING POSITION (USP).
Your USP is your specific benefit that separates your product from all of the other similar products out there. At this point in your sales letter it’s okay to just summarize your USP as you’ll be expanding on it later in your sales letter.

If there are other products out there that are similar to yours you’ll need to make it clear to your reader why your product is better than all the rest. If your product is not better than the competition then you either need to do something to add value to what you’re offering or you need to have a lower price than your competition.

5. ESTABLISH YOUR CREDIBILITY.
You need to prove to your reader that you are a credible source that they can believe and trust. Give a little background on yourself (or the creator of the product) and make them understand why you’re a trustworthy person and why what you’re offering is worth them paying their hard earned money for.

Testimonials from your past customers goes a long way towards building your credibility. If you don’t have any testimonials, you can give away your product to a few people with an agreement that they’ll write you a testimonial (assuming that they enjoy your product of course). Have them be specific in their testimonial and detail what they like most about your product rather than general statements like “Your product is really great,etc.”.

6. EXPLAIN FEATURES & BENEFITS OF YOUR PRODUCT.
Detail not only what your product does, but how it’ll improve your reader’s life or solve their problem. Use Bullets! The more details you provide, the better your copy will be.

It’s incredibly important for you to build the value of your offer for your reader. They need to understand that when they get your product – their problem will be solved. If they don’t get your product – their problem will continue.

7. SUMMARIZE YOUR OFFER AND DISCLOSE THE PRICE OF YOUR PRODUCT.
Make sure your reader understands exactly what they’ll be getting from you when they place their order. Then you can mention what you could charge for the product or your regular price. Finally, present them with a lower price that they can get by ordering today.

8. GIVE BONUSES.
Add bonuses to your product to add to even more value to your offer. You can either offer only a limited number of bonuses, or make them available for a limited time to create a sense of urgency and encourage immediate action.

9. GIVE THEM A STRONG GUARANTEE.
It’s highly recommended that you offer a complete money back guarantee. The elimination of risk will help your readers that are on the fence about your product or don’t know for sure if it’s for them. The number of sales you’ll gain by offering a strong guarantee will greatly outweigh the amount of returns you’ll see.

Eliminate all elements of risk by ending your sales copy with something like this:

"Order a copy of XYZ completely at my risk. Watch the videos, read the report; and if you are not satisfied for any reason or no reason at all… you will receive a full and fast refund. No questions asked. No hassles."

10. CALL TO ACTION.
Provide your reader with exact instructions as to how to place their order.

11. SIGN YOUR SALES LETTER.
Use your full name. If you’d like you can scan an actual copy of your signature and upload it to your website or use a handwriting font.

12. CLOSE WITH A "P.S."
Use your P.S. to emphasize the most important points of your sales copy. A lot of readers tend to scroll through your copy to read your bullets and the P.S. before going back and reading it completely so the P.S. is often one of the first things your reader will see.

There you have it – A winning sales letter in 12 steps! Another thing to keep in mind is that your sales letter should be visually appealing to the eyes. Make use of BOLD, ITALICS and SUBHEADS so that it looks good to the reader even if they’re just quickly scanning it.

[tags]copywriting, affiliate marketing, internet marketing, writing copy, sales letter[/tags]

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12 Simple Steps To Effective Copy

Related posts:

1. Copywriting is Not Just For Sales Letters Anymore…

I was re-listening to a recording of a John Reese seminar (that he gave some time back) a few days ago where he shared that writing copy is the ONE thing he does NOT outsource. He gave a few obvious reasons as to why, such as tracking conversions on sales pages and email broadcast messages etc.

I’ve never sold my own products (until a couple of months ago) so I never really thought about copywriting since I associated it with selling a product online…

You see, until relatively recently I used to outsource nearly ALL of my writing because:

1. I only needed generic Niche Articles for my Adsense sites (10 – 20 page niche sites)
2. Articles for syndication, i.e. for submission to Article Directories, were search engine fodder and didn’t need to be terribly high quality
3. Article writing is a $10 an hour type of work and I could spend my time on more profitable things
4. I felt self-conscious about my writing skills because English not my first language (it’s actually my 3rd)

As I’ve shared in a previous post regarding a case study for one of my Authority Sites, I have been studying Web 2.0 and the "how-tos" of building Authority Sites for the last several months. And it was when I initally got started that I listened to John’s recording.

This is when I had an epiphany of sorts… nothing ground breaking, but a paradigm shift nontheless.

Up until then, I had been trying to outsource all the content to my Niche Authority Sites, either through the use of ghostwriters or edited PLR articles. I was still thinking from an Adsense publisher’s perspective, i.e. throw up keyword optimized content that the search engines could find with no regard to the visitor experience.

But after listening to John’s recording it hit me… even though I had no "product" to promote per se I realized my website IS the product. In other words, I needed to brand my site as the leader in content for that specific niche, which meant I had to write compelling copy… and the only way I could really control this was by writing it myself!

So I set out to learn more about writing, specifically the art of writing compelling copy.

In any event, I finally understood that one of the most important things one ought to study (to achieve success in internet marketing) is the art of copywriting.

Not only for sales letters (a very myopic view on my part), but as conetnt for your authority / money sites. Content that will have your visitors coming back time and time again (or keep buying from you again and again).

So, how the heck do you get started in this educational process?

Thankfully I had invested in a course on copy writing a couple of years back, so I’ve started to study this in-depth. But if I had not had the course in my hands where would I have started?

Well, here are a few of my favorite FREE resources:

1. Gary Bencivenga’s Bencivenga Bullets. Mr. Bencivenga is one of the most respected copywriters and this is one of the BEST resources online for copywriting (in my book it’s tied with the next resource)
2. The late Gary Halbert’s The Gary Halbert Letter. A wonderful collection of Gary’s thoughts and teachings. Gary has been widely known as the "best" copywriter ever. The "Boron Letters", a series of letters that Gary wrote to his son, come highly recommended by many top copywriters.
3. Michel Fortin’s interviews of Gary Halbert and John Carlton (one of the best copywriters around), which can be found at BoostMyResponse.com.
4. Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins – A copywriting classic!

Study each of these and you are well on your way.

TIP: I highly recommend that you practice writing by copying successful sales letters or writing by famous copywriters, e.g. I was told to sit down and copy each on of the Gary Halbert letters in long-hand (using pen and paper). I’ve copied about 20 of them by hand now and still have ways to go… Allot about 15 – 30 minutes or more EVERY SINGLE DAY to copy these letters (or sales copy) by hand. It is a sure fire way to get good writing hard wired into your brain.

P.S. As soon as I made the switch to writing my own content I started seeing immediate results. People started to bookmark my pages and referring others to them (which was apparent by the type in traffic that was showing up in my stats).

[tags]copywriting, website copywriting, authority site, authority site building, copywriting tips, blog marketing, blogging[/tags]

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Copywriting is Not Just For Sales Letters Anymore…

Related posts:

1. Are You An Authority? A Case Study