Make More Money From Your Ideas

"How do I create a catalogue of my books and e-books on my site? I've looked around at various book store Web sites like Dymocks and Amazon.com. Is that a good model to follow?"

No! Book shops are one of the worst examples to model. In fact, I would almost go as far as to say it's worth looking at what they do, and then do the exact opposite!

Now, before I get sued by Amazon.com, I'll emphasise that I am not criticising book shop Web sites. Not at all. They are exactly right for the book shops. But they are terrible for you.

The reason for this is the customer's mindset. People go into a book shop looking to BUY a book. They go to your Web site looking for INFORMATION about [whatever your expertise is]. They might find this in the form of an article, a seminar, a book, an e-book, etc.

So it's better to organise your Web site around TOPICS, not product types. For example, on my Web site GihanPerera.com, you will see that I have three main topic areas:

1. Creating Products
   
2. Internet Marketing
   
3. Your Web Site
   

Each of these clicks through to a page of resources about that topic. Some of the resources are free; the others come at a price. For the paid products, there's a "sales letter" for that particular product. So what I'm doing is mirroring the customer's mindset of looking for ANSWERS, not necessarily looking to buy a product.

That said, SOME people do visit my Web site and are curious about what products I've got. So I do have a Products link that lists all the products on one page, with a link to the individual sales letter pages.

I suggest you do something similar. First write a separate sales letter (or flyer) for each product. Then list all the products on the Products page, but grouped by topic (NOT product type - e.g. Printed Books, E-books, CD sets). Just provide a brief summary of the product on the Products page, and they can click through to the more detailed sales letter.

Finally, think about how you can take each of your main topic areas and give people a path through the Web site for that topic. This is in fact the most important thing, but it can take some time. That's why I suggested setting up the Products page first.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"I have two products, both for the same market. They are on a similar topic, but one is a book and the other is an audio CD. In your experience, should I sell both on the one site or have a different site for each but offer a special deal of the other format?"

The theory is that every sales letter should sell only ONE product. It's OK for the product to be a bundled product, but in that case, the bundle should be the only thing they can buy. Don't give them options.

Personally, I would bundle everything you've got into one package, and sell that package at a bargain-basement price (even if you're selling it at cost or even below cost).

Then focus on your advertising and your sales letter. That's where you will make or break the sale.

The bad news is that I think it will STILL be difficult to sell it - that's just the way it is with selling on the Net. So keep the price low and fine-tune your advertising and sales letter. After you've got them working OK, start raising the price.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"I still haven’t found the right Sales Letter approach. Can you lead me in the right direction? They all seem too long, too short, too fussy, too salesy - a little like Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs! I need to find one that’s just right!"

I think you mean Goldilocks, but yes - I get the point!

It depends on your target market - and more precisely, your RELATIONSHIP with your target market. A sales letter intended for complete strangers is totally different from a sales letter intended for your clients.

I discuss this in detail in my product Make More Sales. The #1 rule for sales letters is: Don't be boring! As long as your readers are interested in what you've got to offer, they will happily read long sales letters. On the other hand, if they are not interested, it doesn't matter how long - or short - it is.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"What is an effective call to action?"

This is quite a broad question. I recommend that every call to action has three key components:

1. Clear re-statements of the benefits of taking action.
2. A reason for them to take action NOW.
3. Clear action steps to take.

These are all important components to make more sales.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"I have found long sales letters to be very effective in some of my public course promotions. What do you think of the website essentially being a highly persuasive, long sales letter addressed directly to the conference organiser from me the speaker?"

Yes, yes, yes.

In fact, I highly recommend it, though I have trouble convincing many speakers of their value because they think it's too long, too boring and too tacky. But if you've already got experience in writing them, great - go for it!

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"Check this guy out: www.21stcenturysalestraining.com. It's everything your little heart could desire in a killer sales making website. He's gotta be making the bucks. I'd love to know. However he conflicts with design. He looks home made and crummy doesn't he, or doesn't that matter?"

No, it doesn't matter FOR HIM. He's building a single-page Web site with a single-minded purpose: To sell his product. That's it. He's not worried about branding, reputation as a speaker, pandering to
bureaus, etc. He doesn't even care about flogging other products (for all we know, he could have thousands). Instead, he's focussed on a carefully crafted, highly motivating direct mail sales letter.

You could do the same if you choose. It's not part of your Web site (though you put it on the same Web server as the rest of your site); it's a completely independent sales letter page. The key is in the words, not the design. In other words, you use a compelling headline, magnify the problem, offer the benefits of your solution, quantify the features, offer tons of bonuses, add a time-limited offer, provide a rock-solid money-back guarantee, etc.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"How do I create awesome 'subject headlines' that make people WANT to open my message & not send it straight to their Recycle Bin?"

The simple (but unpopular) answer is: Write consistently good information, so that when people see that the e-mail is from you, they will open it. They are more likely to take action based on you rather than your headline.

The reason I say this is unpopular is that many Internet marketers think there's some magic secret that they can use to compel people to take action. Not so. That might have been the case in the past, but Internet users are getting smarter now. Build a relationship with your readers, based on delivering consistently high value.

If you're still keen on writing great headlines, get Make More Sales, which includes an e-book with 350 of the world's best headlines.

Labels: copywriting, e-mail newsletter, providing value

"How do I design a web site that attracts the customer as soon as they see it and holds them there until they buy?"

This is quite a big question, and there are a number of parts to it. So I'll do my best to give you an overview of the answer, and then direct you to other places for more detail ...

First, you must make sure that you've got the right customer for your product. No matter how good your Web site is, if it's selling stuff that doesn't interest the person visiting it, you just won't get the sale.

Next, assuming you have identified the right customer, you have to get them to your site. And not just to the home page, but to the specific page that gives them exactly what they were looking for.

Then you have to convince them to buy. There are a lot of things to consider here, but one of the most important - and one of the most common mistakes - is to make sure you talk about BENEFITS to the customer, not just features of your products.

That's a simplified answer to your question, and I hope you look deeper at some of the links above.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"I attract a lot of visitors but not many of them buy from us. How can I encourage more of my visitors to purchase from me?"

Ask them why they aren't buying.

I know that that sounds annoyingly simplistic, but it really is the first step to increasing your sales!

Create a pop-up window that shows up when somebody visits a sales page on your site and leaves it without buying anything. Just ask them to tell you why they aren't buying.

It helps if you can give them an incentive to fill in this survey. For example, if you're offering an electronic product such as an e-book or a membership site, you might even consider giving it to them free in exchange for their feedback. I did that once with one of my e-books, and I was amazed by some of the responses. They were extremely useful in helping me to improve my sales letter.

If you're not selling an electronic product, it might be too expensive to give them a physical gift of the product (though if you value the feedback enough, it's an excellent way to get a strong response rate)! In this case, write an e-book or special report and give that away instead.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"I have a web site which is old looking and not efficient at all. I have been working on a long letter and it's almost done. What do you suggest my next step is; work with the long letter or redo the whole site?"

Do both! The only way to know for sure is to try them both. And it's easy to do if you have already written the long letter. Just put it up there for a week, then switch back to the old site for a week, and keep repeating this until you've got a good idea of which is working better.

In both cases, you can use Google AdWords to attract visitors to your site. Depending on the keywords you choose, you should get enough traffic to make an informed decision about which option works best.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"How much information/detail should I put on my Web site?"

This depends very much on your business and the purpose of your Web site.

The broad answer to your question is, "As much as it takes to convince them to take the next step". For example, if you're selling a product directly from the site, give them enough information about the product to satisfy them and encourage them to click the "Order Now" link.

Most Web site owners don't put enough information about their products and services. This makes it really hard for the reader to make an informed buying decision.

There's a debate about whether to use long copy or short copy. In fact, both can work, but they both rely on making sure they answer the reader's question. As a general rule, most Web site owners could benefit by writing longer copy. But ... That only works if the longer copy is interesting to the reader.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"How do I make a compelling marketing message, especially on a landing page?"

Steal it from somebody else!

Seriously, the best marketers and copywriters write their marketing messages by copying what they have done in the past, or copying bits and pieces from others. Of course, you have to do this in an ethical way, so that you're not copying somebody else's marketing material entirely (which probably won't work anyway)!

I write most of my marketing messages by dipping into a collection of successful sales letters from leading marketers. I recommend that you do the same.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter

"How much information/detail should I put on my Web site?"

The golden rule of writing Web pages is this: You can put as much detail as you like, as long as it's not boring.

Most Web site owners make the mistake of providing too little information, which makes it difficult for site visitors to make a decision (so they figure that it's too hard, and go somewhere else).

The solution is to provide as much information as you can, but always keeping the customer in mind, and always with a focus on the benefits of your products and services.

I write my sales letters by modelling them on other successful sales letters.

Labels: copywriting, sales letter