Yamot Articles Directory

First things first; words sell not graphics or flashy websites. Pretty pictures and web design have never sold anyone anything; only words can do that. You must write to convince people to take action.

Most prospects will never pull out their wallets because they like your web design; they do so only when your words convince them to. Here are some tips and a template to create compelling sales letters that sell your book:

1. Create a compelling (must get information) headline

Researchers have proven negative headlines works best. For example, “Stop Making these Site Mistakes and Discover 10 Vital Things to Do Right Now” will get the attention of anyone struggling to make sales online using their website. It will make them want to read more.

The same goes for “Don’t Even Think About Skipping This Page!” People by nature are attracted to the negative. Why do you think the Jerry Springer’s show is so popular or even Desperate Housewives. People react to the negative in spite of themselves. It will create a curiosity pull.

2. Avoid all caps or bold caps in your headlines.

All caps reduces the readability of your copy. It makes it harder to understand. It interrupts the flow of your message and slows your reader down. Use bold to emphasize a point and underlined to especially emphasize. Headlines can have every other word starting with the first letter capped. The variety will be much more effective than all caps.

3. Write compelling copy.

Draw your reader in like a big fish on a hook. Entice them to want to know more and more. It takes practice but use the copy that sold you as a template. Use benefits including the interactive and the enticing format.

4. Connect your dots.

Create copy that flows smoothly from point to point. Again, it takes a little practice but you can achieve great flow by pinpointing your transitional points. Smooth them by using transitional paragraphs and new point headlines. If written correctly, long copy works best.

5. Create a sales template file.

Start a file with all the good sales letters you encounter along the way. You can learn a lot by studying other successful letters. Don’t plagiarize (copy word for word.) Use the good letters you collect as your templates.

6. Gather testimonials.

Strategically sprinkle them in your copy. They help build creditability and are important to achieve maximum sales. If you having problems getting some, consider offering your product free to 3-5 people to get some good written testimonials.

7. Make your copy error-free.

If you have misspelled words or incomplete sentences, you will lose sales. Design your copy to be specific. Vague copy will also hinder your sales. It will prompt a lot of questions. If you are getting sales without questions, you know you have done a good job with your sales copy.

8. Make your copy effective.

If you have written your sales letter in one sitting; it’s not as effective as it could be. Write it one day and then revise the next day. Read it out loud. To measure how effective it is, look at how people read it versus how many actually buy. Install a hit counter to measure your success.

9. Write short sentences and paragraphs.

Short sentences and paragraphs will help the readability of your copy. Especially, if your letter is long, you will have better success with keeping the attention of your prospect.

10. Focus on benefits and not features.

Always focus more on your benefits than the features. Explain your benefits. Benefits are what moves people to act. For example, “This air conditioner (your product/service) will save you time, effort, energy and money because of the built in features.”
It creates more value if you said, “Think of all the time, energy and money this air conditioner will provide you with it’s lifetime guarantee,” instead of “This air conditioner will last a lifetime.”

You don’t have to be a famous copywriter to write effective sales letters. In fact, you have everything it takes to write an order-pulling sales letter for your book. You have the passion, the knowledge of your product (book) and now the sales letter template. Follow the above 8 steps to get organized and then write your compelling letter to convince every prospect that your book is the one they want.

Earma Brown, 12 year author and business owner
helps small business owners and writers effectively write and market their books! Earma mentors others through her monthly ezines and columns. Send any email to 21days@book-marketing-help.com for free column “21 Days to Effective Marketing” or visit her at http://www.book-marketing-help.com

The real estate industry has moved into the internet arena, and cyber space has become a viable tool for shopping for one’s dream home. Many buyers are utilizing the web to research their potential purchases from the comforts of home. According to studies done by the National Association of Realtors, seventy seven per cent of homebuyers in 2005 researched their purchase via the internet. This increased traffic has opened the door for real estate lead generation, but is the internet a viable source for real estate leads?

As a real estate agent, solicitations from real estate lead generation companies seem to fill our email servers daily, but are they worth the cost and effort? If you follow a few rules, the answer is yes. Internet leads can be a very profitable source, when pursued with the same diligence one would pursue traditional sources.

Before generating traffic and capturing leads, ask yourself a few questions. First, can I follow-up with the leads provided in a timely fashion. If the answer is no, stop, go no further.

A second study done by the National Association of Realtors, the average response time by an agent for information requested was three days. That’s right, on average it took an agent three days to reply to a request for information the agent offered on their website. So, if you can not respond in a timely manner, do not pursue.

Do you have the organizational tools to follow-up? Follow-up is easy when an agent has ten leads, but what about one hundred leads. This is where a database program can be very beneficial. Don’t re-invent the wheel. There are many real estate contact databases out there. Find one that is right for you.

Are the leads exclusive? Many lead providers will sell the lead to more than one agent, claiming the agents must be quick in responding to solicit the leads business. The lead generator is doubling their profit, and the lead becomes annoyed very quickly by all the attention from several agents. Therefore, unless the lead is exclusive, do not pursue. If price is the motivating factor, reconsider your motivation as you will get a bum lead for a bum price.

Another great question before getting started, can you contact other agents within the lead generation program for references? Most real estate lead generation companies will provide a list of testimonials provided by agents within the system, follow-up with other agents on the site as well.

What kind of results do you expect? If you are looking a 20-30% close rate, internet leads probably aren’t for you. The industry average seems to be about 1% and some companies boast 2-3% with exceptional agents converting 5-10%. I think you will find the return on investment to be exceptional if you convert 5% of your leads.

Finally, what’s your time frame? If you need immediate results, keep looking. Internet buyers tend to research homes for 3.7 months before contacting an agent. The good news is that +80% of the time, internet buyers will do business with the first agent they contact.

Moral to the story: internet leads can be an excellent supplement to a healthy business, but patience, organizational skills and realistic expectations are a must.

Reg Gustin is owner operator of the website http://www.pro-online-agent.com and http://www.proonlineagent.com.

Go to Pro Online Agent to find out if internet real estate leads can enhance your business http://www.pro-online-agent.com.

You have your own products, be it physical products or digital products such as an ebook or software. You try your best not to tear your hair out every time you find out that you’ve not made a sale at all or you get only a number of measly sales in a matter of months.

However, have you considered these sales strategies that can help you in your Internet business?

1. Let Affiliates Do The Job

For a one time payment at Clickbank, you can list your product for affiliates to promote. You can decide how much you want your affiliates to earn commissions from selling your product. The great thing about Clickbank is that it is also a payment gateway. Meaning you do not have the hassle to settle your affiliates payment commissions because Clickbank does it for you.

Also with your affiliates doing the work, they redirect your customers to your site. Meaning to say not only will you increase sales, you will also get a surge in traffic ratings as well.

2. Organize a Competition

You can organize a competition for your affiliates at least once in two months. Create a set of rules and regulations for your affiliates to comply with in order to receive your grand prize. If any affiliates win the competition by giving you the number of sales you want from your product, you can offer them a reward of $500-$2000, a digital camera or any other incentive you feel is right to give your Top affiliate.

3. Organize a Workshop

You can organize a free workshop or meeting to teach people what they need to learn. For example, if you’re selling a product on learning how to blog, you can give people a free hands on workshop with the criteria that they purchase your product.

Or, if you want to make more profit, you can ask them to purchase your product and as a promotion, they can get a 60% discount on the ticket to attend the workshop. The second idea is much better in my opinion, because it gives value to the lessons you teach and it gives an unspoken agreement that you are much more experienced in this niche.

These three strategies need a lot of input and planning, but the output is worth it. These three simple strategies, if you implement them and work hard, can make your sales boost in ways you wouldn’t even imagine.

Jo Han Mok is the author of the #1 international business bestseller, The E-Code. Unlock the code for unlimited online profits for yourself by visiting his website today at: http://www.SuperFastProfit.com

Many businesses love to implement website conversion strategies to convert their visitors into buyers. This is the main purpose why we build businesses online. However, it takes a lot of patience and understanding to properly implement these strategies, because it takes time for the results to show.

You have to test these strategies and see if they work well for your site for a period of time. Let’s say you’d like to test it for a month. Calculate the visitors coming in for that month, divide it by the number of buyers and multiply the result by 100 to get the percentage. Once you have the answer, compare it to the month before you implemented this strategy. If the conversions has increased, it means that these strategies work well for your site.

Some of the website conversion strategies you can implement are:

1. Your Web Copy

The skill of persuasive copywriting is very much used in sales advertisements and product promotions. In your web copy, prove and show to your customers that you can meet their expectations, needs and standards. Eliminate all their doubts make them beg to buy your product. Assure them with promises, testimonials and guarantees to prove that your product is worth buying.

2. Visuals

Product image has been known to increase conversions as much as 300%! The reason why product image is so important is because it makes the consumer visualize having owned the product in their mind. They will then picture for themselves how this product will help them in reality.

If you’re selling a physical product, make it look professional by taking a picture of it with a white background. If you’re selling a digital product, create an e-cover for it.

3. Website Design

In case of website designs, the more neat and professional looking, the better. Professional websites have been known to play a part in in making the customer trust the website. It is extremely rare to see people wanting to buy a product from a site that looks like it has been designed by an 8 year old kid.

4. Reviews & Testimonials

Positive product reviews and testimonials can make your potential customers clear all of their doubts and really make them consider buying the product. Customers look for testimonials because it makes them feel “safe” knowing that other people have tried the product and have experienced no dissatisfaction from it.

To obtain testimonials, ask the customers who have bought the product to give a testimonial. You can provide them with a gift if they are able to provide you with one. In this way, to get that gift, they are able to provide you with a great testimonial.

5. Promote Your Newsletter

People do not normally buy a product at first glance. They need time to think about a purchase decision, but after a couple of days, they might still be able to remember your site, but they do not consider your product anymore.

Frustratingly, how do you tackle this problem?

What you should do is to promote your newsletter to get more subscribers. give them a follow up about your product and input testimonials into the newsletter as well. Remind them about how great the product is and the people that have benefited from it. create a link back to your site and encourage them to make the purchase decision.

These five website conversion strategies are easy to understand, but it takes quite a lot of work and patience to implement them. Although these strategies may take up a lot of your time, the end result is very much worth your hard work.

Jo Han Mok is the author of the #1 international business bestseller, The E-Code. Unlock the code for unlimited online profits for yourself by visiting his website today at: http://www.SuperFastProfit.com

Did you know that fortunes were made or lost on the strength of sales letters? It is not “Build a better mousetrap” that will make you rich. It is “Create a better sales letter” that will lead you to fame and fortune.

Secret one: Know your audience. This is often overlooked. You don’t use the same approach to sell teenagers that you would use for senior citizens. Analyze your audience and find out how your product will solve their problems.

Secret two: Headline. This is the most important part of your sales letter. You must draw your prospect in with your headline. If the headline does not interest them, they will not read your letter. Your product may be wonderful, but if the prospect isn’t interested in reading your letter, there will be no sale.

Secret three: Introduction. Introduce yourself briefly and tell the reader how you can solve their problems. Tell them how you have solved the problems for other people. Use stories to relate how you have helped people just like the reader.

Secret four: Testimonials. People are skeptical and need convincing. Include several testimonials from people who have tried your product and liked it. The magic number for testimonials is three. If you have more, use them.

Secret five: Benefits. Your audience does not care about you or your product. All they want to know is what will your product do for them. Do not describe your product here. Instead, tell all about the benefits and what the product can do for the reader. Tell them how their life will improve with your product.

Secret six: Guarantee. Offer an unconditional guarantee. Your reader does not trust you or your product. You must reassure them that they are not taking any risk by buying what you are selling. You must make them feel comfortable. You as the seller need to assume all the risks.

Secret seven: Close. Make it easy to buy and ask for the sale. Tell the reader how to order the product and how fast it will get to them. Include as many different kinds of payments as possible. If you streamline your payment process, it will make it easy for the customer to buy your product.

Secret eight: Test. If the headline is the most important secret, this is the second most important. You need to test every aspect of your sales letter. It can be very time consuming to do these tests, but it is very important that you do this. Only test one thing in your sales letter at a time. You can test different headlines first, then test your guarantee, then test your price, but you must only pick one thing to test at a time.

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of besuccessfulnews.com, a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business.