When it comes to marketing a product one of the most important things is to have a good sales letter. For having a good sales letter you need good copywriting skills or you can outsource someone to do on your half. However it is very good for every internet marketer or affiliate to have at least basic skills of copywriting.

Why I need copywriting skills?

You need some copywriting skills because of at least three reasons, you:

• can save lots of money by writing your own sales letter
• can use your skills to write sales letters or ads to make money
• know your product best

Just by having above reasons to learn copywriting is very beneficial. When it comes to saving money, you can use your money for example for promoting your website, your business or even investing on your business. When it comes to using your copywriting skills to write for other people sales letters or even ads you can make so much money. For example I recently found some guy who is skilled and is charging about $5000 – $7000 / sales letter.

When it comes to knowing your product, it is true that you know its best and no one can potentially write better sales letter than you. Of course you need to be skilled at this phase. Reason is because there are thousands of professional copywriters but potentially they might not be able to write as good sales letter as you if we imagine that you are in same skill level. Here I just wanted to show you the reality of copywriting.

Tips of copywriting

Here are some tips of copywriting that you should know.

1. Headline is most important element on sales letter. It has been said that 80% of your prospects don’t read further than your headline. So remember to write a headline that attracts and make prospect to read your next line and so on.
2. Concentrate 80% of your time on headline! It will pay in the end.
3. Make it easy for your prospect to understand what the product is all about. Don’t assume that they know very much about your product.
4. Make it easy to read. Use simple words and sentences. If you use so much complicated words and sentences your prospect doesn’t want to read your sales letter anymore.
5. When you get prospect to your site, you have 10-30 second to convince them.

How I can learn more copywriting?

Unfortunately copywriting is a skill that is not easy to grasp and be professional with. It requires lots of experience in many fields because you need to be able to write about different subjects. However the good news is that there are lots of materials and even courses where you can study copywriting. I highly recommend reading at least some books. Here are some books that I have listed and they are mine and other people favorites:

• “Scientific Advertising” by Claude Hopkins (Best)
• “Tested Advertising” by Caples (4th edition or earlier only)
• “How I Raised Myself from a Failure to Success in Selling” by Betger
• “How to Write a Good Advertisement” by Schwab

Speaking about the course, there’s one very good copywriting course. Good thing is that it makes you master of copywriting. Bad thing is that it cost, of course anyone wants to get it free. However this is very valuable course and it last 24 weeks. Monthly payment is $47 and it must be paid only six times. If you are interested in that course, please click here.

You can write a good copy but when coming to writing outstanding copy it needs much more than understanding basics of copywriting. Here we have listed very important tips to write outstanding copy. It has huge difference from good copy.

Tip #1 – Copywriting purpose is to get first sentence read and the purpose of the first sentence is to get the second sentence read and so on.

Tip #2 – Keep it simple!

Tip #3 – Outstanding copy is written in clear, concise, simple words that get your point across. It’s conversational.

Tip #4 – You can fracture the occasional rule of grammar if it helps to make your writing more digestible.

Tip #5 – Sentence fragments, one-sentence paragraphs, beginning with conjunctions and ending in prepositions are all fine, even desirable.

Tip #6 – Use bullets and number lists!

Tip #7 – There are following headline types:

• Direct Headline – go straight to the heart of matter, for instance “Pure Silk Blouses – 30 Precent Off”.
• Indirect Headline – It uses curiosity to raise a question in the reader’s mind, which the body copy answers. For example “Fresh Bait Works Best”.
• News Headline – is self-explanatory, as long as the news itself. “Introducing Flickr 2.0″ or “My Exclusive Interview With Steve Jobs”.
• How To Headline – is everywhere, online and off, for one reason only – it works like a charm.
• Question Headline – must do more than simply ask a question, it must be a question that the reader can empathize with or would like to see answered. “Do You Close the Bathroom Door Even When You’re the Only One Home?” or “Who Else Wants to Get Rich Online?”.
• Command Headline – boldly tells the prospect what he needs to do. “Put a Tiget in Your Tank”. Bly (famous copywriter) indicates that the first word should be a strong verb demanding action, such as “Subscribe to Copyblogger Today!”.
• Reason Why Headline – Your body text consists of a numbered list of product features or tips, which you then incorporate into the headline, “Two Hundred Reasons Why Open Source Software Beats Microsoft” or “8 Ways to Build Blog Traffic”.
• Testimonial Headline – is highly effective because it presents outside proof that you offer great value. This entails taking what someone else has said about you, your product or service, and using their actual words in your headline. ” ‘I Read Copyblogger First Thing Each Morning’ ” admits Angelina Jolie.

Tip #8 – 50/50 Headline Rule. Spend at least 50% of your time to write powerful headline and rest of time for rest of text.

Tip #9 – 80/20 Headline Rule. On average 8 of 10 will read headline and only 2 of 10 will read rest of text.

Tip #10 – Headlines, subheads and bullets should be:

• USEFUL to the reader
• Provide him with a sense of URGENCY
• Convey the idea that the main benefit is somehow UNIQUE
• Do all of the above in an ULTRA-SPECIFIC way

Bonus Tip! – According to superstar copywriter Clayton Makepeace you should ask following questions before start to write headline:

• Does your headline offer the reader a reward for reading?
• What specifics could you add to make your headline more intriguing and believable?
• Does your headline trigger a strong, actionable emotion the reader already has about the subject at hand?
• Does your headline present a proposition that will instantly get your prospect nodding his or her head?
• Could your headline benefit from the inclusion of a proposed transaction?
• Could you add an element of intrigue to drive the prospect into your opening copy?

Here you have them. Remember to ask those questions that copywriter Clayton Makepeace recommends.