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Copywriting is a learned skill that, provided you have a reasonable level of intelligence and are prepared to work, almost anyone can learn. That said, almost anyone can learn to play the piano – but they won’t get to Carnegie Hall! It’s a discipline that’s totally different in many ways to, say, fiction writing. Good copywriters are in almost constant demand and, at times, demand outstrips supply. Why? Well, many people want to write – but the majority want to write novels, short stories, poetry and the like. Maybe they see copywriting as not creative enough but believe me, that’s just not true! Good copywriting demands high levels of creativity and an attention to detail that you may be surprised by.

Learing how to be a copywriter does demand time and effort, but that doesn’t mean you have to attend college – there are many how-to books and online courses available that cover the subject of freelance copywriting. So have a look online, go to the bookshop, visit you local library (now there’s a real goldmine of information!). Many people are wary of being a freelance writer and yes, relying on your own skill and confidence can be daunting if you’re not 100% sure of what you know and that you can do a good job. What gets a soldier through a battle? Training and discipline, that’s what. Without it, he’s just a guy in a whole lot of trouble. With it, he stands a fighting chance. Freelancing is the same: arm yourself with skill, and confidence will follow in its wake. The rest is up to you!

Although most copywriting is concerned with advertising products, that’s not always so. In any case, say you were given the contract to write the advertising copy for a new model of Mercedes-Benz, with all the massive investment that is commensurate with such a venture – wouldn’t you consider that a pretty huge feather in your cap? And yet you’re only selling a car, aren’t you? Don’t let anyone ever belittle your skills as a copywriter – you will have earned them, no matter what kind of copy you write.

Like most everything worthwhile, learning the skills of the copywriter take time (unless you’re very talented, of course!). For we ordinary mortals, starting out means learning the basics. Let’s face it, you wouldn’t expect to take a racing car round Indianapolis just after getting your licence, would you? I’m not going to dress it up – it takes grit, dedication and practice. It takes guts. There may well be times when your enthusiasm ebbs to almost nothing. Will you ever get your first commission? Have you really got what it takes? Then the day comes when you’re paid for your skills – believe me, that’s a great day. The hard work has paid off – you’re now a professional. You’re treated as an expert, company CEO’s defer to you in your field (now that really is a good feeling!) and, at the end of the project, you can look at promotional literature, professionally produced on heavy gloss art paper and say – ‘That’s my work!’ It’s hitting a home run in the final of the World Series – it’s holing that last long putt to be the Masters champion, it’s – well, let the moment come and you’ll see what I mean!

Steve Dempster is a writer of copy, articles and fiction. To get started on the copywriting road visit http://www.iwanttowrite.co.uk for more information and advice.

When you are trying to learn how to write an effective sales letter in any copywriting training course, you need to first recognize and understand the basics. The basics are crucial in order for the sales letter to flow nicely. I will briefly elaborate on them.

1. The Qualifier

A qualifier is a term to let the reader know to whom this sales letter is intended to. A pre-header if you will. If you did not apply a qualifier into the sales letter there could be a misinterpretation of information. For example, a man looking for ways on how to fish better would not want to read a sales letter on copywriting training.

For example: Attention: All fishing enthusiasts who have always dreamed of finding the perfect lure!

You may have seen this kind of qualifier before and this is what you call a qualifying statement. There is no doubt who this sales letter or web page is for.

2. The Headline

First, adding open and closed inverted commas or a quotation mark somehow appeals more to the eye when a headline is being read. It is almost like the eye-catching sensation when you read a fiction book, where you prefer to know what the character is going to say rather than what the narrator is trying to tell you.

“Think about the quotation mark is a sign of me trying to tell you something and you have no choice but to read it.”

When you’re inventing a headline, create one that packs a hell of a punch. Make the reader stop to read your headline and be in awe of it. The choices of words you use are VERY important. Choose the words that arouse interest in the prospect. In turn, the reader moves on to the next line and eventually the whole sales letter, to see what you’re up to, and that is, promoting the product.

3. The Opener or Lead-In

The opening of a sales letter is like the opening of a conversation with someone. You may start by telling a story to invoke curiosity to make them want to read on and know more. The story could be a fantasy or a problem someone had. Make sure it subtly leads to the product you’re promoting or you might as well write a fairy tale right then and there.

4. The Body Copy

A BIG mistake among first-time copywriters and advertisers is their ability to sell a product’s features but not its benefits. If you sell a product’s features, the prospect will be thinking, “So what if the software is most updated in its technology? I want to know what it can do for me.” Thus, subtly try to make your prospect understand what it is about this product and why they must have it in their life.

Basically you want to answer the burning questions that your prospect has which are.

Who are you? Why should I listen to you? Whats in it for ME?

5. Sub-Headlines

Sub-headlines are a teaser for what’s coming right up in the sales letter. It could be a quote or it could be much like a headline, but with a little less impact.

Adding a subhead can increase the readership in your sales letter and increase the likelihood of closing the sale. When a prospect is reading your copy, and gets to a section that is either boring to them or looks like it is too difficult to keep reading, a good subhead will grab them by the eyeballs and force them to keep reading.

So in essence a good subhead can be somewhat of a headline styled point that pulls your reader down into your copy.

6. Bullets

Bullets basically summarizes up the product’s benefits. It tells the prospect what they will get and how their lives would change if they purchase the product to arouse deeper curiosity. Also, with bullets, it is much easier to read and understand rather than having to read the benefits of the product in a paragraph.

The key point with a bullet is to peak curiosity.

7. Testimonials

People respond easily to that product when they see that it has benefited others. It is human nature on our part, because our conscious mind does not allow us to put our trust in a certain product unless there’s proof big enough for us to trust it.

The beauty of testimonials is that it plays on a powerful force in human consciousness that compels us to believe in or against a decision. That force is the power of social proof.

Further study into human influence and persuasion is required to understand that point further. A good book on this is ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion’ by Dr. Robert Cialdini.

8. Closing

This section of a sales letter is your last chance to prove to the prospect that the product is something worth having. You may state how different this product is, how rare it is on the market and how beneficial the product is to the prospect.

Another tactic to use in the close is the take-away or making the product or service scarce or limited availability. This tactic forces your prospect to think twice about leaving without ordering and a large percentage of them WILL end up buying.

Writing powerful copy is quite simple if only you understand your market and know what their needs, wants and wishes are. All too often people are quick to write a sales letter to close a sale yet never give concerted thought to WHO they are writing to and what they want and need. Research into your market is key but once you know who your market is and what they want, your sales will skyrocket as a result.

Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and one of the world’s most powerful copywriters. Discover his copywriting training secrets that have generated millions of dollars! Visit his website at http://www.internetmillionairecode.com

Writing is more than just a creative process. It’s a business that can create a substantial income for you. First, however, you may need to change your entire mindset.

The dream of almost any unpublished writer is one day getting published. To have their material read by the masses of people who love to read. Then, secondary to that is the desire to even get paid for their work.

Writing is one of those passions that seem to rise up from deep within and whether money is involved or not, the writer is compelled to write. Words become a living entity that breathes life into the reader who consumes them.

This is fine except that when a writer needs to make a living, the business and financial end tend to land on the back cover of the entire publishing process.

It is important for any writer to realize that once they have completed a writing project, it is then time to stop being a writer and begin being a businessperson.

Time spent creating your work is time that should be charged to your company. If you’re not sure what to charge as an hourly rate, ask yourself what it would cost you to hire someone to write it for you.

Publishing contracts and processes take on many faces and all are negotiable. Having your book tied up at a publisher who will take upwards of a year to evaluate your work, and possibly reject it, is like trying to buy a car while you wait for the salesman to decide if he wants your business or not. Besides, you wouldn’t give someone a year to try out your couch before they decided if they wanted to buy it or not, so why would you do it with your livelihood?

A partnership with a publisher is essentially a joint venture between two companies – yours and theirs. Your mandate as a business owner is not to just hope that they will like your writing and decide to publish. Your job is to decide if your product and their company is a good match and to allow them to do the same. Whether you actually got paid or not, if you have billed your research and writing time to your company, then you are coming to the table with a major financial investment in your hands. If you couple that together with your talent and your ability to view the world in a way that others want to explore it then you have a valuable commodity to do business with. Never feel inferior.

Are you very creative? Can see things that others might not? Do you think that you can list and expand on all the benefits of a soup bowl? If so, then copywriting may be a style of writing you wish to consider as a business venture.

Copywriters write compelling advertisement copy for companies.

Have you ever bought a meal at a quality restaurant based solely on the succulent description you read in their menu? Or did you buy a product somewhere because of what you read in a magazine ad? What about the letters you read in your mail advertising everything from credit cards to antique grandfather clocks? Those are all the works of a copywriter.

This is a very lucrative field and copywriters can make thousands of dollars, if not tens of thousands of dollars, writing about just one product. Why? Because a seller knows that a good copywriter will generate far more money in product sales than what the seller paid for the copywriting itself.

If you want to see who is looking for writers, then go to elance.com online, or buy “The Writers Market” in your bookstore.

By changing how you view your writing, you can be both creative and financially rewarded. Keep writing!

Ricardy Banks is a regular article contributor on many topics. Be sure to visit his other websites Internet Advertising Solutions http://www.bestsearchestate.info , Media downloading revolution http://www.burnlounge.com/bankonit and Debt Consolidation http://www.loan-shopping.info

Online press releases are one of the most inexpensive and highly effective marketing methods for a small business owner. Yet, many people think only “big businesses” use press releases. Wrong.

The Internet gives a small business’s website the same visibility as a large corporation’s website and online press releases work the same way. Once an online press release is distributed, it’s out there in cyberspace generating hits and driving traffic to your website for years to come. Just last week I received an e-mail from someone who read a press release I wrote two years ago!

Unlike an offline press release that is distributed directed to journalists at newspapers and other media outlets, the online press release is “evergreen,” it never goes away. A simple keyword search could turn up your press release years later. Compare this to the offline press release that may or not be used by the journalists and then is trashed, never to be seen again.

An online press release also has a worldwide distribution to thousands of media outlets. Popular newswire service PRWeb.com, e-mails “press releases to between 60,000 and 100,000 global contacts points including journalists, analysts, freelance writers, media outlets and newsrooms.”

Along with its large distribution and staying power, an online press release can be even more effective in driving traffic to a website if it is search engine optimized. Here are five tips on how to create a more powerful online press release:

1. Have a newsworthy angle. A press release is not a sales pitch. Provide the media with information that answers the questions of “who, what, where, why and when.” Make it interesting by telling a story that engages the reader

2. Choose the right keywords. What words would someone use to find your business when using Google? Experiment to see which words are most popular. When you type in a phrase in the Google search feature, it now lists the number of times that particular phrase has been searched in the last 30 days. This is a new free service being offered by Google; use it to your advantage.

3. Vary keyword placement. Don’t get so carried away with your keyword phrase that it shows up in every other sentence of the press release. Have a reasonable balance in your writing so that the keyword placement is invisible to the reader. Include the keyword phrase in the first sentence and then two or three more times throughout the press release

4. Use eye catching headlines. Make sure to include the keyword phrase in your headline and at the same time, make the headline interesting. Write the headline after you have completed your press release and it should easily come to you.

5. Use anchor text. Although it will cost you more to place a press release with anchor text, it is well worth the money. Anchor text is the hyperlinked words on a Web page that you click on to take you to another location within the website or to another website. Search engines love anchor text because it tells them what the page is about. It’s a great way to boost your ranking with the search engines, especially Google.

Consider using search engine optimized press releases to publicize your business and drive traffic to your website. It’s simple to get started and hugely rewarding. One of my clients had over 1,400 media outlets pick-up his press release within two weeks after I wrote it. A keyword search found the press release as top ranked on both Google and Yahoo. Needless to say, we are going to continue with monthly search engine optimized press releases.

Michelle Howe, MBA, is an expert in online copywriting and author of the popular book, Turn Browsers into Buyers. Visit her website at http://www.InternetWordMagic.com for the FREE report, “Five Steps to Article Success.”

Writing sales copy is a learnable skill. You aren’t writing the next great novel but a short novella that persuades your reader to your desired action. Sales letters are really salesmanship in print. Have you listened to a good salesman before? Not the typical used car type but the smooth salesman who has a quality conversation with you. You have walked out of the store with a new widget and you are convinced it is the smartest purchase you’ve made all year.

This type of salesmanship is learnable and easier since it’s in print. In print you have the opportunity to change your mistakes before publication. However, you don’t have the chance to modify your information based on the reader’s objections.

The first step is to outline and plan your information so that the points flow seamlessly through the letter. In order to do that you have to know where you are going. In a statement, define the objective of your letter, beyond ‘get the customer to buy.’ You want the statement to outline what your want your readers to think, feel and eventually do. Use that statement to guide your reader from the beginning to the final sentence where he will take a specific action.

The second point is to make your copy more conversational and engaging. Most people write copy in a straightforward factual manner producing dull and boring reading. Conversions revolve around emotions and feelings, which is beneficial to the sales page since people buy on emotion and justify by logic or features. People purchase benefits, not features. Features are facts and objects you can touch. Benefits are emotions you can feel and experience.

If your copy is conversational and engaging you’re probably touching the reader emotionally and have a greater chance of conversion. Is it difficult for you to write with passion and animation? You aren’t alone. Most people are much more compelling and passionate when they speak than when they write.

There is a shortcut to use to get the copy started. Remember, copy is nothing more than spoken language in written form. Use a tape recorder and sit down with a friend or business partner. Explain your product; tell them what you want them to know so they’ll purchase your item. Now go back to the computer and transcribe your speech. This transcription can be the basis for your first draft. It will be compelling, passionate, animated and exciting. Try not to tone it down too much!

An important criteria to conversion is how well the letter flows. If your reader gets stuck in the middle of the sale because your points don’t flow and the copy is choppy you’ll find the reader leaves quickly. This is where the objective definition also is essential. Within the objective statement should be 3-5 points, or benefits, you want to discuss.

When you come to the end of one benefit ask a question and leave a “cliffhanger” to encourage the reader to move further into the sales letter. You can use subheads between the points to place emphasis on parts of the benefits. However, you should never give a complete answer in the headline or the majority of the subheads. Although a reader should be able to read all subheads and get the general gist of what your topic is covering you shouldn’t give all the answers in the subheadings.

There is a line between giving too little and too much. Too little information in the subheads and copy and your reader is left feeling motivated without direction. Too much information and the reader wonders how much more could be in the information product? Is there really anymore or was it all left on the table? Give your reader enough information to understand that you are an expert in your field but not enough that the reader now knows just as much as you do.

Write your sales letter with intention and direction. Persuade your reader to take a specific action that you desire. You writing skills will improve and your sales conversions will increase.

Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and frequent featured speaker at Internet Marketing bootcamps and conferences. Visit his website for a simple step-by-step plan to profit online in 21 days or less!

http://www.SuperFastProfit.com