When you see dozens of copywriting formulas promising “the perfect sales page,” how do you know which ones to trust?

After all, each formula seems to have a successful direct sales superstar behind it, and each one looks like a solid plan. What do you do in the face of these wildly different sales letter styles?

The first step is to realize that copywriting is more than any one “formula” — it’s an exercise in communication and persuasion.

Just like a recipe, different formats will give you different results. The recipe you’re looking for will depend on your audience — and you’ll have to test yours to find out what they respond to best.

But whatever sales page recipe you choose to follow, the important thing is to understand the reasoning behind the “ingredients” that go into it. Let’s take a look at what every successful sales page should have — regardless of how your recipe gets stirred up.

1. Headlines that make promises and demand attention

Here at Copyblogger we’ve talked extensively about writing great headlines — and the importance that a solid lead-in has for getting your copy read.

If you don’t nail the headline (the single most important part of your sales letter), no one will stick around for the rest.

Your headline must pre-qualify the reader based on their needs and wants, as well as promise them an intriguing result if they’ll stick around and read what comes next.

Want to get good at making this happen? Practice. If you’re not cultivating a headline swipe file and honing your attention-grabbing skills with each blog post you write, then you need to get started now.

2. Opening paragraphs that promise and persuade

Presuming your headline piques your readers’ curiosity, you then need to lead readers to a psychological commitment to read every word of your copy.

You can do this by using those initial paragraphs to draw them in, establishing rapport, and expanding on the promise you made in the headline.

This is the place to get more specific about what your readers are about to learn. Most important of all, let them know how that knowledge will get them closer to their desired result.

There’s a reason opening paragraphs are often called “teasers” — they’re meant to show just enough to make the reader want to see more.

Continue to help your reader understand they’re in the right place (and that there’s juicy knowledge to be gained by scrolling down), and they’ll keep reading all the way to the very end.

3. Stories that reveal the reasons behind the offer

The old expression “Words tell, stories sell,” is still 100% true — people become more emotionally connected with copy that tells a story. You’ll do well to create a compelling (and true, of course!) backstory to why the offer you’re making came into existence, because that pulls the reader into your copy on a deeper level.

We all want to see how the story unfolds — and that’s precisely why so many effective sales pages include transformative stories about the product’s author (or the people the author has helped). The reader wants a result via your offer, and they’ll pay close attention to storylines that involve that result coming to pass.

If you’re not a natural storyteller, then revisit some sales pages you’ve seen in the past and read them again with an eye for story. You’ll be surprised how you see good writers work these seamlessly into their copy.

4. Details that foster rapport and credibility

Many sales letters include a “Who am I and why should you listen to me?” section meant to establish credibility (and more backstory) about the product author. You can definitely emulate this straight-to-the-point delivery, but there are other ways of achieving the same result with more subtlety.

Let’s go back to the story — this is the perfect place to weave in the writer’s background — the results received, the credentials that establish authority, and the reasons that make that person the perfect choice for satisfying the reader’s needs.

Readers buy from those they trust and like. Pepper your copy with details that make the product author an interesting and authoritative source, and the overall message becomes much more compelling.

5. Subheads that stop scrollers and make reading easy

Solid subheads serve two powerful purposes in a high-conversion sales letter.

First, they make it easy for the reader to know why they need to read the section of text below. Essentially, they are mini-headlines designed to set up a promise and entice the reader to keep going.

For each text block in your sales letter, ask yourself “Why should anyone read this?” and translate the answer into a compelling sub-head. Revisit blog posts you loved reading, and watch how the author kept you hooked with solid sub-headlines.

The second purpose of subheads is to convey such an attention-getting promise that the people who “scroll and scan” stop in their tracks and say “I’ve got to go back and read this.”

Don’t let a subhead into your sales letter without first asking if it’s “stop-worthy.”

6. Anxiety-reducing testimonials

Most people treat testimonials as an exercise in stroking the product author’s ego.

But readers don’t care about that. They care about their own problems (and specifically, getting them solved) and they care about the objections they have when they consider clicking that “Add to Cart” button.

They’re going to be thinking things like:

• “Will this work for my situation?”
• “Is this going to be too hard?”
• “Will I have time for this?
• “What if I need to return this?”
• “How can I trust this person?”

It’s your job to anticipate their objections and gather testimonials that show an antidote to the anxieties behind them. Take a look at your testimonials and ask if they’re doing their job. If not, you know what to do.

7. Proof that your product or service actually works

If “the proof of the pudding is in the eating,” then you need to have some full bellies to show to your soon-to-be-customers.

Walk them through specific examples of how the product or service worked for you (which incidentally, you can easily do by weaving these elements into your story).

If you have customers on hand with success stories, here’s where you work these in as well — taking special care to position the results in a way that reduces customer anxiety.

Look for ways that previous customers were able to get results despite the obstacles, setbacks, or circumstances that your new customers are likely to be worried about. Then use those examples to show how your new prospects can do it, too.

8. An offer they can’t refuse

Remember, you’re selling more than just a product or service — you’re selling solutions, outcomes, and experiences.

Break out every detail of what your product does for them (and weave that into your story as well), and get very specific as to how much each benefit is worth — financially and emotionally.

Paint a clear picture of everything they’re getting. Stack value upon value until your readers are filled with the sense that your offer is exactly what they need — and furthermore, that the price is a no-brainer bargain.

Shoot for the “10X factor.” If you can show the reader that your offer is truly worth ten times what you’re charging, the buying decision becomes much, much easier. And if you can show how the product pays for itself (essentially becoming “free”), so much the better.

9. A risk-free environment

People are terrified of being oversold, scammed, and taken advantage of on the internet — and so their shields are up when it comes to trusting what you say.

That’s why it’s such a good idea to offer a strong guarantee that takes all the burden of risk off of their shoulders.

It’s called “risk reversal,” and it’s easy to do. Simply offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee — if they don’t like what you’re giving them within 30 or 60 days, let them get their money back.

Never make refunds difficult — the goodwill you generate from being a no-hassle provider is worth any cost of returns.

Of course there are some exceptions — when a return is truly costly to you (for example, for a physical product), you may need to put some guidelines on returns so that you don’t get taken advantage of.

But if what you’re selling is digital, the downside just isn’t there. The small and temporary cost of refunds will be more than made up by the word-of-mouth referrals of happy customers.

10. A solid close that gets your “buy” button clicked

All good things must come to an end, and when your sales message does the same, you need a strong call to action.

Remind your customer what benefits they’ll get when they buy, and resurface the pain and inconveniences that will go away when they’ve fully used your product or service.

Once you’ve done that, ask them explicitly to buy. Not doing so will cost you conversions, and it’s an easy mistake to make because we can be hesitant to ask for things.

You don’t have to do the “hard sell” here — just invite them to “join you,” or “get access,” or “download” — just by clicking and making a purchase.

And that “P.S.” that’s such a sales letter cliché? Works like a charm.

When people get to the end of your letter, all their lingering objections get put on one end of the scale, and your price tag gets put on the other. Here’s your opportunity to tactfully let them know that they have the chance to get the benefits they want, and solve their problems at the same time.

Your call to action: Tell us what else you think is essential to a great sales letter

As I said at the beginning, there are dozens of copywriting formulas out there, and all of them serve their purpose and have solid avenues of conversion. This list isn’t meant to be exhaustive, it’s meant to give you the basic framework for persuasive copy.

Why don’t you join us in the comments below, where you can add your wisdom and get access to the ideas of others? Click in the comment box below and tell us what other essential “ingredients” you would add to this list. We’ll see you there.

About the Author: Dave Navarro is a product launch manager who can’t wait for you to join the 7,000+ people using his free workbooks in the Launch Coach Library (a crowd favorite in the Third Tribe forums).

P.S.

Don’t forget to bookmark this page after you leave your comment, so that every time you return to it in the future, you can learn even more about writing great sales letters.

Dean: Did you know you can use your blog to make money offline?

Blogger: Offline? What is this “offline” you speak of?

Dean: It’s the opposite of “online.”

Blogger: (confused silence)

Dean: You know. Offline. Not on the internet. The real world.

Blogger: (shaking phone) Not only does this stupid phone drop my calls, now it’s translating them into crazy moon language.

Okay, I jest. But to listen to some bloggers, you would think a blog’s only purpose is to make money online, by selling ebooks, membership sites, or advertising.

The truth is, blogs have grown into a more powerful tool than anyone ever imagined. They’re ideal for making money online, of course. But they can also be used to generate profits for nearly any kind of business, including those that provide real services in the offline world.

This often means generating sales leads for a service or consulting business. This is how I use my copywriting business blog, which accounts for most of the new clients who call me these days.

Okay, sounds great. People read your blog and then call to hire you, right?

Well, not quite.

Are you selling a product or a service?

First, it’s important to understand that selling a service is not like selling a product.

When you sell a product, the process is usually pretty straightforward. Basically, you introduce the product, spell out some benefits, make an offer, and people make a buying decision.

Selling a service can be a little more involved.

Prospects first inquire about the service, usually comparing you with other providers. If the service is expensive, like my copywriting and marketing consulting, people are even more careful about their decision.

I’ve had clients take years to finally made the decision to hire me. And it’s common for people to start a phone call by saying, “I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while now. Do you have a moment to talk about a copywriting project?”

This shouldn’t surprise you. The more expensive the service, the more important it is, and the more commitment it requires from the customer, the more careful that customer is going to be.

Think about it. If you need your bathroom painted, you might spend an afternoon looking for a decent painter. If you need to build an extension onto your house, you might spend weeks or even months finding the perfect contractor for the job.

So if you provide a service, such as freelance writing, graphic design, web consulting, wedding photography, event planning, translation, or whatever, you can use your blog to attract prospects and begin the process of selling them on your services.

Here’s how.

Create your sales funnel

Professional sales people often talk about filling their “sales funnel” or “sales pipeline.”

What they mean is that in order to make a sale sometime in the future, they want people to inquire today. They always want to have lots of people who are in various stages of readiness to buy.

To keep things simple, I like to think of the sales funnel as having just 4 simple steps.

1. Generate inquiries

This means getting people to contact you. Typically this is done by offering something of value in exchange for contact information.

For my business, I offer a free newsletter. If people go to my main website, I also offer a free white paper. In both cases, they have to give me some contact information before they get the freebie. I also provide a contact form and phone number for “hot” leads who are ready to talk business.

I get many inquiries every week. Most can’t afford my services. But a few are high quality and good candidates for future business.

2. Follow up

After you’ve delivered the freebie or provided whatever information you have promised, it’s time to schedule your follow-up, usually either by email or phone.

Because you are responding to someone’s inquiry, it’s not a cold call. You have a valid reason for making contact and have an opportunity to gauge how serious the person is. Are they just gathering information? Do they need your services immediately? Or are they somewhere in between?

The most serious are your sales leads. Everyone else is a prospect. You will want to spend more time on sales leads than prospects.

3. Nurture leads

This is the step most people are tempted to skip.

Like every other person selling a service, you want to make a sale right away. But while a few people will hire you immediately, most will not. Their interest needs to be nurtured until they’re ready to buy.

You should store all contact information in a database, which could be a simple customer relationship management system like Highrise or a desktop-based program such as ACT!.

Find ways to regularly communicate with your leads. Over time, they will become more familiar with you and more comfortable with the idea of hiring you. People always prefer the familiar over the unknown.

There are many ways to nurture leads. You can send news or information they might be interested in, make additional offers for low-cost or introductory services, connect with them socially, and even seek their advice from time to time.

4. Close sales

This step is self-explanatory. A potential customer needs your service. You provide a quote or estimate, answer questions, overcome objections, and eventually close the sale.

This is your end game, the goal of your efforts. And if you’ve set up a good lead generation system and kept your sales funnel consistently full, it will actually be the easiest step in the process.

Easy ways to generate inquiries from your blog

The hardest part about generating sales leads is getting people to contact you in the first place. If you’re just starting out and no one knows who you are, this may seem impossible.

As a blogger, you may know a variety of ways to promote your blog. Obviously, the more blog traffic you get, the easier it will be to generate leads. But you don’t need a ton of traffic to make it work.

According to Alexa, my business blog is ranked at around 100,000 or so. That’s not bad, but it’s nowhere near superstar blogs such as Copyblogger. However, I get enough of the right kind of people reading it to generate a steady stream of inquiries for my services.

So don’t worry about becoming a top-ranked blog. To successfully sell your services, you just need regular inquiries from the right kind of people. The more specialized you are, and the more targeted your blog posts, the more likely this will happen.

Of course, bringing people to your blog is one thing. Generating inquiries is another. Here are some simple things you can do to make those inquiries happen.

Contact Form — If you have a blog, you almost certainly have a contact form. However, the standard contact form is not enough. You should modify your form to match the service you sell. Take a look at the highly specialized form I use.

E-Newsletter — This is an easy way to stay in touch with many people and provide great value while you’re at it. Since I specialize in copywriting for direct mail and direct marketing, my newsletter features articles and information on the subject. I have several thousand subscribers and about half of my new clients say they became pre-sold on my abilities by subscribing.

Free White Paper — While a newsletter requires an ongoing commitment, a white paper is a one-time effort. Write it, post a contact/request form, and send a link to the PDF when requests come in. You could also automate the process with an auto responder, but I like to fulfill these requests personally so I can watch for hot leads from companies I want to work with. My white paper on improving direct mail response generates many requests every week.

Information Kit — If you’ve built a blog or site around your services, you should provide plenty of information online. However, you can offer pricing, forms, a client list, and other information in the form of a downloadable PDF. Remember, when someone requests information, it gives you the opportunity to capture contact information.

Webinars — These days it’s fairly simple to put together a webinar using services such as GoToWebinar. You can also create non-interactive presentations with software like PowerPoint or OpenOffice. The idea is to provide something of value that enables you to collect contact information.

Videos — Using software and hardware built into many computers, you can create simple, informative videos. They don’t have to be fancy. Just look into the camera and talk. Or edit together simple footage demonstrating your work or how you solved a problem. Video can also be a helpful tool to encourage people to sign up for your newsletter, webinar, or other information.

Pay Per Click — If you write and promote a good blog, you’re probably getting a fair amount of natural traffic. But pay-per-click ads can give you a boost for people looking for your particular services. Your results will vary depending on the level of competition and amount you’re willing to spend, but it’s worth a test.

Just remember: Your blog is a means to an end. If you use your blog to attract the right kind of traffic, and follow the advice above to generate sales leads, you should see a dramatic increase in your business.

About the Author: Dean Rieck is one of America’s most in-demand direct marketing copywriters who shares his writing and freelancing know-how at Pro Copy Tips.

Bloggers have been asking the question “Do long or short headlines work better?” for a long time.

But the answer to the riddle of how to create a headline that pulls in readers doesn’t necessarily lie in subtracting or adding one more word. There’s not a mysterious formula or arcane copywriter’s trick.

The answer is much simpler than that.

The best way to get a headline that works is by using the breath test.

Try saying this headline aloud:

How To Recognize Six Difficult Telltale Signs Of Disinterest And Lack Of Motivation In Your Student And Customer

Ran out of breath, didn’t you? And even if you didn’t quite run out of breath, you had a hard time getting through the whole thing.

You’ll also find that you struggle to recall the contents of that headline. Because if you can’t say it in one breath, you can’t hear it in one breath, either.

When your headline can’t be easily said aloud in a single breath, your message gets garbled.

Look at some of the most enduring headlines ever:

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Do You Make these Mistakes in English?

They Laughed when I Sat Down at the Piano. But when I Started
to Play …

That last one was a mouthful, wasn’t it?

No matter how you try, it’s hard to say: “They laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play … ” in one breath.

So what’s going on here? How come this headline works when it clearly fails the breath test?

It’s called punctuation.

If you have a long headline, all you have to do is punctuate to indicate that there’s a pause there. You’re ending one thought and beginning another.

How you punctuate it is totally up to you. You could use parentheses. Or an em dash. Or a comma.

The original headline used a period, making it two separate sentences. But that headline could also be punctuated like this:

They Laughed when I Sat Down at the Piano (But when I Started
to Play…)

They Laughed when I Sat Down at the Piano — But when I Started
to Play …

They Laughed when I Sat Down at the Piano, but when I Started
to Play …

Punctuation exists to give a mental pause between thoughts. When you have that pause built into your headline, a reader can read it as if it were two sentences. So even though it looks like one big sentence, it’s really two.

Next time you’ve written a great headline and you’re wondering if it’s too long, just do the breath test. If it fails, add some punctuation.

If it still fails, dump the headline and start again. You should never compromise when writing headlines.

If your reader can’t process your headline in a single breath, they can’t process it in their heads, either — which will render a perfectly good headline perfectly useless.

About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a great free article on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter. Be sure to check out his blog, too.

I’ve known Rae Hoffman, aka Sugarrae, for close to a decade. She’s a highly respected SEO and Super Affiliate, a successful consultant, and now the owner of both Outspoken Media and MFE Interactive.

But when I first met Rae she was a one-woman show, running a very successful affiliate-based business from home while raising her three children.

What follows is a very candid and detailed conversation between Rae and I about this evolution of her business, and what her lifestyle is like as a successful Super Affiliate…

Me: Rae, I’m curious what prompted you to make the switch from solo entrepreneur & home office, to consulting and starting two companies?
Was this something you aspired to do from the start?

Rae: It was a tough decision. I first went “corporate punk” with MFE Interactive. About four years or so ago I had an idea for a site that was a bit out of my technical ability to create. I decided to do the site as a cooperative venture with a good friend of mine and the site ended up having a lot of success.

The success of that site, the combination of my site development skills and online marketing skills merged with his technical abilities and business sense led us to decide we should probably make more sites together. So we started MFE. But I was still working solo from an office at home.

As we built more sites and had more success, it became apparent that the only thing “holding us back” was my ability to only work so many hours in a day. My partner suggested we get an office and start hiring.

And honestly? That terrified me.

I liked “answering to no one”, the initial startup fees were going to mean a pay cut for a bit and I’d never managed a company. But, my partner told me he wanted me to read the E-Myth and “think about it.” That book changed my business life.

After I read it, my partner (who owns multiple successful companies) looked at me and said, “Do you want to work 16 hours a day for the rest of your life or do you want to build a company that will eventually allow you to work when you want to and have more success in the long run?”

So I bit the bullet and decided to do it. And I’m glad I did. MFE just celebrated it’s third birthday of being a full fledge business with a staffed office earlier this month. We’ve got about five million page views a month across our network of sites and we continue building new affiliate brands.

I didn’t start Outspoken Media until a few years after MFE went “real world business.” I kind of fell into Outspoken, LOL. My partners in that company, Rhea Drysdale and Lisa Barone, decided they wanted to start and Internet marketing firm but neither had experience building a company from the ground up or the strength I did in SEO and link building (Rhea is an ORM goddess and Lisa is the branding, social media and community building queen).

They came to me hoping I would be what would be who could fill those proverbial holes. After my experience in running MFE, I approached starting Outspoken in a much different manner and with much more confidence. Outspoken was a business curve ball – I didn’t expect it, but once I saw it coming, I decided I was going to swing the hell out of the bat and aim for the stands.

With MFE I was thrown into the water. With Outspoken, I jumped in.

Me: I actually started opposite you. I had a successful web development company with offices and employees back in the 90’s. I shut it all down to work from home full time on my own.

I have to admit, I haven’t missed the office at all. I’m curious – what one thing do you enjoy most about running your companies?

Rae: LOL, I’m torn a lot of the time. I love the efficiency and how much I can get done for the companies having a fully staffed office. That said, I still prefer working from home personally. I recently wrote an article on managing employees virtually – but to be honest, most of my virtual management is done due to ME being virtual while the employees are in the office.

I love having physical offices for the companies, and feel they – and the in house staff in them – are needed heavily, but I still feel like I work best – personally – from home. But I also know I’m “needed” in the office, so while I spend a lot of time working from home during the summer when the kids are out of school, during the school year, I like to make it into the office at least three days a week.

Me: Surely there are things you loved about working solo, from home. Looking back at those days, is there anything at all that you miss?

Rae: I miss working “when I feel like it” most. Having a staffed affiliate marketing company means I have people that need things from me in order to get their own jobs done, so I do have people to “answer to” even though I’m “the boss”.

And with Outspoken, clients come with deadlines, which means I have to work at times that might be inconvenient for me. For instance, I had major cosmetic dental surgery last week (27 crowns) and I’ve been in a lot of pain. Back in the day, I simply wouldn’t have worked until I felt better. But, with MFE re-branding and re-launching a new site (Android Geeks) and Outspoken’s biggest problem being more demand for our work than we can fulfill at the moment (we’re hiring more employees AND opening a new office in Troy, NY simultaneously at the moment), that simply isn’t an option. I’ve built the companies so that I can be absent occasionally, but not “non-existent” if that makes sense.

However, the plus side of having to go into an office means I actually get dressed several days a week… something it’s easy to forget to do when you’re a “bathrober” LOL.

Me: You influenced and inspired me in many ways through our friendship, especially early on when I first took an interest in Affiliate Marketing. It was often in the way of random comments from various conversations that simply stuck with me. If you could pass on “something that sticks” to other aspiring affiliate marketers, what one thing would that be?

Rae: You have to work for it. It’s easy when you hear folks discussing “passive income” to think that means “no work.” But what a lot of people don’t realize is that myself, and many other successful affiliate marketers, put in years and years of sixteen hour days to get to the point of generating significant “passive income” that allow us to work flexible schedules and work our own hours.

Me: On the topic of Affiliate Marketing, you have a few great blog posts I’d love to share with my readers:

How to Survive the Affiliate Revolution

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda Had Success With Affiliate Marketing

Creating A Small Niche Affiliate Site

Are there any other posts or tutorials you’d recommend from your archives?

Rae: If someone is interested in affiliate marketing, I’d recommend reading everything in my affiliate marketing category (as well as Outspoken’s affiliate marketing category. I try not to write unless I actually have something to say. LOL.

Aside from that, I’m a big evangelist for the Thesis WordPress theme and wish it had existed when I first started with affiliate marketing. I’ve got several tutorials on how to utilize it for affiliate sites. I’m also a big believer in Raven Tools in regards to organizing link development efforts for affiliate sites.

That said, the Affiliate Evolution post you referenced above is probably the post I’m most proud of that I’ve written. Like the Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda post showed, if you follow it, you really can achieve success in affiliate marketing.

Me: In your post almost 3 years ago, about Surviving The Affiliate Evolution, you recommended that serious affiliate marketers incorporate their business and hire in-house staff. What are the main benefits to going this route, versus working from a home office and outsourcing to virtual assistants as necessary?

Rae: I think I get a lot more done in regards to building sites and building revenue. I also think full time employees are a bit more dedicated than freelancers. I think when you work solo, with occasional assistants and freelancers you are limited as far as scale. By opening an office, hiring employees and training them to do things “your way,” I think you open yourself up to a lot more freedom as far as your time once you have everything in place and working smoothly.

I also think competition is getting heavier, and in order to produce sites that will become “brands” you need to arm yourself with the resources to compete. And that means having more than “just me” in my arsenal.

Me: Thanks a million, Rae! One last question: Are you podcasting? And if not, do you plan to in the near future??

Rae: LOL. I don’t think I have the “voice” for podcasting. However, I am toying with the idea of doing more video work on my blog. I’ve always been a bit self conscious about being on video because I’ve never been happy with my smile. But within the next month, that should change and I think some video blogging may be just the way to celebrate it.

Me: Awesome – I look forward to your upcoming videos! I’m off to check out your Android Geeks site – I’ve gone almost completely mobile thanks to my Droid, and I’m always looking for new tips & apps.

-

I hope you enjoyed this interview/conversation with Rae. I know I did! Check out some of the links and tutorials shared throughout this post – there’s a goldmine of help if you dig into Rae’s archives…

Best,

p.s. Are you subscribed to ClickNewz? Make sure you get the email notification every Monday with the latest Internet Marketing tutorials & interviews by putting your first name & best email address in the form below:

Email is back.

Despite repeated proclamations of its extinction, rumors of the death of email marketing have been greatly exaggerated — especially since email and social media are a powerful combination. You might not reach the average college freshman, but for slightly older types (you know, the ones with the money), email is still the way to go in many lucrative mainstream niches.

You must first, of course, get your emails read. And it all starts with the subject line.

Email subject lines are a form of headline. They perform the same function as a headline by attracting attention and getting your email content a chance to be read.

So, headline fundamentals still apply. But the context is different, with the email space having its own funky little quirks that need to be accounted for.

Here’s the good news — email also implies a special relationship with the reader; a relationship that will get more of your messages read, even with subject lines that wouldn’t work in other headline contexts. Let’s take a look back at headline fundamentals, the specifics that apply to subject lines, and the “secret sauce” that makes email your top conversion channel.

1. The Fundamentals:

When you’re writing your next email subject line, run it through this checklist, based on the Four “U” Approach to headline writing:

• Useful: Is the promised message valuable to the reader?
• Ultra-specific: Does the reader know what’s being promised?
• Unique: Is the promised message compelling and remarkable?
• Urgent: Does the reader feel the need to read now?

When you’re trying to get someone to take valuable time and invest it in your message, a subject line that properly incorporates all four of these elements can’t miss. And yet, execution in the email context can be tricky, so let’s drill down into subject-line specifics for greater clarity.

2. The Specifics:

Beyond headline fundamentals, these are the things to specifically focus on with email subject lines:

• Identify yourself: Over time, the most compelling thing about an email message should be that it’s from you. Even before then, your recipient needs to know at a glance that you’re a trusted source. Either make it crystal clear by smart use of your “From” field, or start every subject line with the same identifier. For example, with our own Internet Marketing for Smart People newsletter, every subject line begins with [Smart People].
• Useful and specific first: Of the four “U” fundamentals, focus on useful and ultra-specific, even if you have to ignore unique and urgent. There are plenty of others who work at unique and urgent with every subject line — we call them spammers. Don’t cross the line into subject lines that are perceived as garbage. But do throw in a bit of a tease.
• Urgent when it’s useful: When every email from you is urgent, none is. Use urgency when it’s actually useful, such as when there’s a real deadline or compelling reason to act now. If you’re running your email marketing based on value and great offers, people don’t want to miss out and need to know how much time they have.
• Rely on spam checking software: We all know that certain words trigger spam filters, but there’s a lot of confusion out there about which words are the problem. Is it okay to use the word “free” in a subject line? Actually, yes. All reputable email services provide spam checking software as part of the service or as an add-on. Craft your messages with compelling language, let the software do its job, and adjust when you have to.
• Shorter is better: Subject line real estate is valuable, so the more compact your subject line, the better. Don’t forget useful and ultra-specific, but try to compress the fundamentals into the most powerful promise possible.

3. The Secret Sauce:

Getting someone to trust you with their email address is not easy. Twelve years ago when I started in email publishing, people would sign up for anything remotely interesting.

No longer.

But if you do gain that initial trust, and more importantly, confirm and grow it, you can write pretty lame subject lines and people will still read your emails. Just as with that ditzy friend from high school who nonetheless always has something interesting to say, trust and substance matter most.

Don’t get me wrong, writing great subject lines combined with the more intimate relationship email represents is much more effective. And you have to get your initial messages read to establish the relationship in the first place. Regardless, your open rates will improve based on the quality of your subject line.

But there’s something special in this jaded digital age about being invited into someone’s email inbox. You just have to over-deliver on the value to ensure you’re a treasured guest who gets invited back.

The inbox can be a stressful place. How do you make it brighter?

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and co-founder of the writer-friendly Scribe SEO software. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

P.S. Have you checked out Internet Marketing for Smart People, the Copyblogger email newsletter? It features a free 20-step course with solid email marketing tips, so click here and subscribe today.

Download the 90-minute Keyword Research Panel session (Audio)

I mentioned in my previous post that I taught 3 workshops and did a mastermind session at the Niche Affiliate Marketing workshop in Atlanta…

I forgot to mention being on
the Keyword Research Panel! Probably because it wasn’t actually on my schedule.

The 4 panelists were labeled “TBD” on the event schedule, meaning “to be determined”. You can see in the photo who was chosen: (left to right) Dan Morris, Suzanne Myers, Karon Thackston – and then me, Lynn Terry.

I was thrilled to be sitting by Karon on the panel, of course. I mentioned already how much I’ve learned from her about keyword strategy & SEO copywriting. Hers were some of the very first info products I bought & studied years ago.

(It’s a good thing Karon Thackston and Rosalind Gardner don’t require royalties on all the money earned from what they teach in their guides! haha)

The session was lead by David Perdew, the event coordinator, and lasted a full hour and a half. It was done live at the event with a full room, and none of us knew the questions in advance. A potential recipe for disaster, no doubt! LOL

It actually turned out to be an incredible session.

All 4 of us approach our market research and keyword strategy in different ways, and we each shared exactly how we did it and why. I learned some very interesting things from Karon, particularly about various keyword research tools, and picked up some awesome research tips from the entire panel.

Check out the video above, and then download the audio from the link below. It’s 17 bucks, which is only the price and NOT a reflection on the value you’ll get from this. Those in attendance spent hundreds (if not more than $1,000) for their front row seat, live at the event…

Download the 90-minute Keyword Research Panel session

Enjoy!

p.s. After you listen, I would love to hear ONE a-ha moment or great tip you picked up from the panel. What one tip, or one thing, stood out for you personally??

Want to attend NAMS-5 in January? Go to: www.nicheaffiliatemarketingsystems.com

Click Here for Your Free Pass to the Online Copywriting Summit

While I was at NAMS in Atlanta, I had a chance to sit down with Karon Thackston and Chris Cobb. You may recognize their names. They are Elite Members in my private brainstorming group, and I have interviewed Karon before. She is the one I learned Keywords & SEO Copywriting from years ago.

Chris & Karon have an upcoming event I think you’ll be interested in. Honestly, it’s a no brainer if you’re working online. It’s a telesummit (meaning it’s a virtual event you can attend from home) called Online Copywriting 101.

Expect to learn A LOT!

The online summit is completely free
if you attend live:

http://onlinecopywriting101.com/dap/a/?a=13

* Once you register for the free event, you’ll receive a referral link so that you can invite your friends & groups if you like.

Whether you’re interested in writing better content & copy, or recommending this to your readers or clients, be sure to check it out. The live event begins on September 1st. Go ahead and get signed up, and schedule it in.

Best,

p.s. You’ll hear my session with Karon & Chris on September 5th, which is one day before my daughter’s 14th birthday. She was only 5 months old when I quit my job to start my first business! If you register today (again, it’s free) you’ll get a reminder email so you don’t miss any of the live sessions. Enjoy!

If you want your headlines to stop readers in their tracks, pay attention to every word of your copy, and click that “Add to Cart” button without a second thought, you need to master the “headline reading psychology” of your soon-to-be customers.

Once you understand why magnetic headlines pull readers in, you’ll know how to do it for your own sales pages, every time. Follow along with me for the next ninety seconds and I’ll show you exactly how you can turn a casual browser of your sales page into an avid reader, curious to drink in your copy until ultimately hitting the “Buy” button.

First, get relevant: Tell your readers’ they’re in the right place

So many people create clever turns of phrase hoping to pull people into their sales copy and wonder why their catchy headlines just don’t work. The answer is simple: Readers are busy people, and they don’t have time to study your sales letter to see if it’s relevant to them. Instead, they rely on you to do that work for them.

But how do you do that? The answer to that is simple as well: You ensure your headline is clear, not clever, telling the reader exactly what your sales copy is poised to deliver.

Use specific keywords that show without a doubt that your page is relevant to people with a specific need or a specific problem – and don’t over-think it. If you’re a blogger, you probably already do this with your post titles, so apply that same thinking to your headlines.

For example, look at the title for this post – it’s about “how to write headlines.” (Ever wonder why you always hear such high praise for “How to” headlines? It’s because they’re extremely relevant by nature. Keep in mind, however, that a “how to” headline might not be the most powerful choice for your particular sales page.

When it’s time to write your headline, think of the primary, top-of-mind problem or result your readers are after and make that the foundation of your headline. Do this right, and your readers will automatically know that they’re in the right place – and save your cleverness for later.

Next, add the carrot: Attach a powerful result to your headline

After you establish relevance to your readers’ immediate needs, you need to help your readers connect to a mouth-watering result that comes from addressing that need. The often quoted “How to ____ so you can ____” is a great example of bridging relevance to result.

Never forget that your readers aren’t looking for products or services – they’re looking for beneficial outcomes, and the relevant keywords you write into your headline are often the means to that outcome. So ask yourself why your readers want to take that relevant action, and you’ll be guided to a promise or two that you can make in your headline.

I’ll use this post as an example again – you’re reading this far because you want to know how to write headlines, but what you’re really after is getting people to buy from your sales page. Look at your browser title bar and you’ll see I worked that into this post’s headline as well.

Finally, dress it up: Add emotionally stirring and action words to your headline

Once you’ve married relevance to outcome, it’s time to add a little flavor to your headline by hand-picking compelling words to make those two features “pop.”

In this post I modified “headlines” with the adjective “eye-catching” to add some life to the text. I’ve also used the powerful transitive verb “transform” to suggest actionable change, which intensifies the promise of desired results.

Pick words that make the relevant keywords or the desired results seem more powerful and attainable – or simply add a third component to the headline like a timeframe or a variation of “easy” or “simple” (if it applies).

I could go into additional examples here, but you’ll find all that you need in the Magnetic Headlines series. Take a few moments to read through the posts there with a more educated eye, looking for how each example uses relevance, results, and powerful modifiers to make you want to read each post to the very end.

Which, now that you think about it, you’ve just done with this post.

Sharpen your skills – how can you improve your own headlines?

If you want to get better at writing sales page headlines today, take another ninety seconds right now and use these three tips on a recent headline you’ve created. In the comments below, show us your original – and improved version – and get those headline writing muscles working!

About the Author: Dave Navarro is a product launch manager who can’t wait for you to join the 7,000+ people using his free workbooks in the Launch Coach Library (a crowd favorite in the Third Tribe forums).

I spent the weekend in Atlanta at the
Niche Affiliate Marketing Workshop
hosted by David Perdew. This is the 4th time I’ve attended and taught at “NAMS”, and I’ll be doing it again in January 2011.

I was unsure if I would be teaching again at NAMS-5, but I left yesterday knowing without a doubt that I would not miss the January event…

(If you’re at all interested in attending, you should click here and grab your ticket now – there’s an incredible special offer that is still live, until David catches it!)

If you’re a regular reader here then you know I struggled with major lifestyle changes this summer, which had a dramatic impact on my routine and my motivation. I say motivation, but I see it now more as my energy level. I just didn’t have the energy to put as much into my business, or anything really, for awhile.

Going to this live event totally re-energized me.

I wasn’t alone, either. This weekend was the dose of inspiration and motivation for a lot of us that attended. I saw lightbulbs going off, a-ha moments, relief, excitement, and even tears of gratitude across the crowd. There were about 200 of us together for the weekend, and it was an incredible experience.

The NAMS events are limited to ~200 every time, and the 5th workshop in January will be no exception. That’s because it is a hands-on workshop, where you can get a lot more personal instruction and personal attention than the typical conference or seminar.

I taught 3 workshop sessions at the event, and also lead a private (unrecorded) mastermind session alongside Nicole Dean with the Advanced group.

As you can see in the photo at the top left, the workshops are offered to smaller groups – broken down by both levels and topics. In that particular session with the Intermediate group there were only 30-40 people in the room.

This opens up the opportunity to do in-depth Q&A with the instructors, and also to brainstorm as a group. It’s a unique set-up for a live event, and an incredibly productive format.

I taught affiliate site models, the various opportunities for affiliate marketers, affiliate marketing basics, and how you can position yourself in the marketplace.

In my last session with the Beginner group, Bob “the teacher” Jenkins and I did detailed site reviews of niche affiliate sites together. This proved incredibly helpful for those who were still trying to get a handle on how things are put together, and what affiliate sites look like.

I actually sat in on a few sessions myself when I wasn’t teaching or helping. I took a class in one of the Beginners rooms (ha!), where Bob taught mind mapping.

I downloaded iThoughtsHD on my iPad right there in the session, and created my very first mind map. ever. I’ve never been into mind maps so much, but it’s actually pretty cool on a touch screen.

That wasn’t the only thing I learned at NAMS 4 either. I left there anxious to get home and get straight to work on my own affiliate sites, implementing some things I picked up. I’m glad to be back, and especially glad to be back at a place where I feel so inspired and motivated…

Join Us For The Next Niche Affiliate Marketing Workshop!

Best,

p.s. NAMS always sells out months in advance due to the limited number of tickets, so you’ll want to grab a ticket now if you want to join us in January!

Fresh out of college, I landed a job writing one-page sell sheets for a marketing company for $50 each. On an rare excellent day, I might do as many as two of these.

Soon after, I found a freelance gig that would pay me $300 per article I wrote for an inter-organizational newsletter. I got to interview people for that one. It was more work, but better money.

Eventually, I hooked up with a pretty big industry magazine and was being paid $1300 for 2000-word feature articles. That was the big money.

Magazine pay doesn’t go much higher until you get into the really big-name publications. I could often get two of those assignments at a time, but I needed to coordinate and interview around ten people for each article, so doing two in a month was a hell of a task.

Today, I’m doing much better in my writing career. Since I started blogging, I’ve written hundreds of posts, both for myself and for other blogs. I don’t have to interview people anymore, so it goes much faster and I can write much more. The combined total I’ve been paid for all of those posts (including what I’ve been paid for writing sales copy, promotional emails, and so on) is zero dollars. And really, it pays the bills better than my magazine writing ever did.

How to make “not getting paid” pay off

I just recorded a call with Copyblogger Associate Editor Jon Morrow entitled “How We Make $2000 per Guest Post,” and the funny thing about that call was that I’d had the idea to write the post you’re currently reading before Jon came up with the hook for the call. I guess great minds think alike.

See, newbie online entrepreneurs often want to “make money blogging,” and seasoned writers often come to the internet to expand their freelance businesses by doing online what they do offline: selling words for dollars. Both of those approaches assume a straight line between composing paragraphs and getting a check, but that straight line hasn’t reflected my experience in the blogosphere (and I’m in good company).

To put it succinctly, I don’t make money writing. I make money through a business, and that business does its marketing almost exclusively through writing.

Writing for me is a means to an end. It’s a way to gain exposure, gain popularity and authority, and build trust. Once you have enough exposure, trust, and authority with your audience, they’ll consider buying products and services from you if what you offer them is good. The cool part? It almost doesn’t matter which category or niche those products or services fall into.

It works like this:

Writing -> Readers -> Exposure, popularity, authority, and trust -> The ability to sell stuff.

Need a fancy term to make it legit? Call it content marketing.

Notice that I’ve used the very specific noun “stuff” to describe what you’re able to sell to a well-matched, receptive audience with enough of those preceding magic ingredients.

• Information products? Yep.
• Software and services of all kinds? Yep.
• Hats? Maybe.

Want to sell hats? Then write enough, in places where people who like hats congregate, to become a popular and trustworthy personality who happens to sell hats. Or makes hats. Or wears interesting hats. Or at least likes hats, and talks about hats a lot.

Your audience has to be willing to pay for hats, but if they are, they’re going to buy from someone. If your writing has put you in front of them, and made you popular and trustworthy, they’ll buy from you. It works for just about anything.

This is all about thinking outside of the nine dots. I came to the blogosphere as a humorist, but what I found was that people wouldn’t pay for humor. So what could I do with my funny writing? Why, sell consulting and website services, of course.

I remember asking my readers at the time, “Can I be the funny guy who writes about business, and also build websites somehow?”

Give what attracts, sell what people want to buy

And the answer was apparently that yes, I could write humorously about business — and tattoos, and unschooling, and The Matrix — and build a large readership who seemed to like and trust me. And at that point, I could offer websites. And consulting. And info products. And likely waffles. If those folks needed a site and/or were hungry, they’d work with me rather than finding their website guy or waffle house on Google.

When Jon and I did that call about making $2000 per guest post, what we meant was that guest posting is our primary (almost our exclusive) marketing strategy, and that on average, each post — each performance in front of a blog audience to build trust and exposure — resulted in around $2000 of income. That’s income that was created through writing, but wasn’t income we received for completing a writing assignment.

You want to be a writer? Well, don’t confine your thinking to the obvious example of putting words together for pay. There’s a whole world of ways out there to make money as a writer… and the interesting part is that most of them mean you’ll be writing for free.

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant is apparently a writer or something and is one of the two guys behind The Charlie and Johnny Jam Sessions. If you’d like personal help on getting paid to write for free, he’s got you covered.