Copyright 2006 Homer Farey

Ask Yourself Some Questions. How good is your sales letter? The old adage: "Sell the sizzle, not the steak" is as relevant now as it was in the old days of door knocking.

If I buy your product, how will I benefit? Will it help me to become rich? A better person? Happier? Better looking? Will it make me more attractive to the opposite sex?

Convince me of just one of these, or similar things and the price you charge will not matter.

Let's look at the sales letter. Has It gone stale? How good was it in the first instance? Were you happy with the initial response? If so, what went wrong? Would a makeover put it right? Perhaps it just needs a new headline.

If the click through rate is good, it would appear that the headline is doing it's job. Should the ratio of purchases to clicks-through be poor, I would suggest that the text of the letter is not up to scratch. Just changing a few words here and there can give a quite different impression to the reader.

Whatever you are selling, a very large percentage of the population will not be interested in it. You must aim at those who would get the most benefit from your particular product.

You would not think of advertising fishing rods in a fashion magazine.

It is amazing how many things are aimed at e-zines and other media that have little or no relevance to the product.

Whatever you do, don't give up. If you have faith in what you are selling, you will find the best methods of promoting it.

When writing an advert concentrate first on the headline. This is the most important part of the project. The headline must capture the reader's attention. Without a good headline, the best advert in the world will be overlooked and just a waste of space, time and money.

Look now at the text of your sales letter/advert. Are you talking to a real person? Are you explaining what you and your product can do for that person? Do you come across as an honest reliable person? Or is your letter full oh hype with no substance?

Your prospect is not really interested in you. He/She is only interested in what is in it for them. Few people surf the net looking for something to buy. As a general rule they are looking for information. That is the reason that your headline has to stand out from the crowd. It must make them stop and take another look. It must intrigue them enough to make them want to read more. The content of the ad must excite them enough to want to purchase something that they did not even know existed just five minutes ago.

Does your advert do that? Writing an advert is not a skill that the majority of people are born with. It is something that needs to be learned. During your lifetime you have learned numerous things that were difficult in the beginning but that you rarely even think about now. They have become part of your lives. Writing adverts and articles is just another thing that you need to learn how to do well.

Looking back at some of my first efforts at writing adverts, it is a wonder that I ever sold anything, but I did, not a lot but I sold enough to realise that with a little practice there was money to be made by anyone with the will to learn and to take proper advice from the experts on how to go about it. (One day I hope to be an expert there is still a lot for me to learn.) Its an on-going ever evolving process. Study as many adverts as you can. Try to figure out what it is that excites you and what just leaves you cold. Study the headlines. What made you read this one rather than that. Does the author of the advert strike you as honest and knowledgeable? What sort of guarantee is on offer? Be honest with yourself. Would you buy from this person?

Study, Study, study and keep on studying. You have just taken the first step on your way to becoming a very wealthy expert in your chosen field. Dont let it stop there.

Homer.