This is a topic I have never really covered in detail before but I feel it needs to be said as it’s happening more often.
Also, I don’t consider myself an expert in this field so take what you want from this post, but I do know I have turned down many many JV requests because of this.
There is one critical factor that every successful product has in common. And it makes no difference if you are Mr. Guru or if this is the first product you have created, get this wrong and your product will fail.
Have you guessed what this critical factor is yet?
I’m talking about you sales copy (sales page)
Time and time again I receive JV requests where the product is excellent but the sales copy sucks so bad I could never promote it. Things like outrageous headlines such as “make a million dollars in an hour”, or sales copy like “look at my ten million dollar mansion”, and “check out the Ferrari I just bought, I will be driving it to my yacht next week before I sail to the Caribbean”.
It’s strange how in some cases the sellers of these type of products claim to be worth all this money but can’t afford to hire a proofreader to spell check their salespage and their eBook cover was created with some two dollar software. Plus how come the Ferrari is still in the showroom? And hey, wasn’t that mansion on Cribs last week??? I’m sure it belongs to Puff Daddy…
I’m sure you get the picture.
So you need to understand something here, you really could have the next million dollar product but if your sales page makes outrageous claims or is poor you may never make a hundred bucks. This is how important this is.
So first of all I would advise you never make outrageous income claims or stick silly pictures of fancy houses or yachts on your sales pages, just be yourself.
Seriously, a ‘make $50 a day’ product appeals more to me than ‘make a million by the end of the week’. This is because it’s more realistic, and I bet the $50 a day product would outsell the million dollar eBook a hundred to one and I’ll tell you why. Because I know a lot of people would like to learn how to make $50 a day and it sounds achievable. But they know they will never earn a million by the end of the week.
Listen, people are not dumb so don’t talk to them like they are. Make outrageous claims and you may as well shut down your sales page. And even if you do make a sale once your customer finds out your claims were rubbish you will simply have another refund request to deal with.
And another thing I want to cover is please get some professional graphics created if you are serious about this business. People really really do judge an eBook by it’s cover and the price you pay for a professional service will be covered ten fold once the sales start to come in. But I’m just getting started here, there is so much more to writing good sales copy and I have to keep stressing how important good sales copy is.
But what if I can’t write good copy John?
Well you have two options here:
Option one is to pay for good copy to be written for you. But getting copy written for you can be very expensive.
In fact I once paid $2000 for a sales page re-write. Yes, $2000 just to get a sales page re-written. I had already done the hard work but I had a moment of madness and paid the money, and I still had to get more graphics created myself. I have also paid upwards of $500 just for email copy to be written.
But even though I spent all this money in most instances my conversions actually never really increased. And do you want to know why?
Because nobody knows my products as well as I do. Sure, I could probably find a top copywriter and pay $30,000 and possibly double my conversions. But as I’m not 100% sure of the results the risks would be too high.
And in fact my best selling products are all from copy I wrote myself. Now like I said I don’t consider myself to be an expert copywriter but the fact I’m making sales means I must be doing something right. And sure, some people will tell me that I am leaving a fortune on the table but I’m not going to pay 30k to find out.
So this brings me onto your second option, learning to write copy. I actually feel this is one of the most crucial skills you can learn online, if you can learn to sell you can sell anything.
So how can you learn to write and produce good copy at a price that wont break the bank?
Well allow me to introduce Randy Smith.
Randy is a born salesman and has done some copywriting for some of the most respected online marketers. Some of his results have been truly amazing, and that’s from writing copy for other peoples products.
And because of this I have been pestering him for months telling him to write an eBook explaining how to create a successful sales page. I mean most of us simply can’t or wont pay thousands of dollars for our sales copy. Especially when we are just starting out.
So because of me pestering Randy he has finally written an eBook that will show you how to write successful sales copy. The eBook is called Salesletter ABC and it walks you through the process of creating a sales page in 10 easy to follow stages. In fact you even get a sales page template to work from. This is what makes this product so unique, step one, do this. Step two, do this. And at the end you have a salespage that you can be proud of.
Now I have had full access to Randy’s product and let me tell you if you can’t write a successful sales page after reading this eBook you will need to go down the hiring route. But let me assure you this wont happen as I know this eBook can teach anyone to write a successful sales page.
You must understand that if you are just starting out you need to get the fundamentals of writing sales copy right, and Salesletter ABC goes above and beyond that.
So you now have 3 choices.
1, Hire a professional copywriter for thousands of dollars.
2, Write your copy yourself without knowing the basic fundamentals and risk losing a ton of sales and potential JV partnerships.
3, Buy Randy’s eBook and learn how to write successful copy.
Let me tell you now option 3 will put the most money in your pocket. If this eBook can increase your conversions by even 0.1% it will pay for itself ten times over.
So check out SalesLetter ABC by visiting the link below.
Feel free to share your comments.
John
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Excellent post John. Everytime I see an ad, website, or a graphic with exotic cars, buckets of money, or a person with a wad of cash on their hands I laugh. Yes…it is really funny because you and I know it’s baloney. I will never click on your unsubscribe newsletter link!
Paul Guzman
Hi John,
you are bang on, as usual!
I recently picked up a “special offer” to get a sales letter written for me on a well known internet marketing forum, it took several weeks to arrive and when it did I took one look at it and knew it was a disaster!
I’ve now got a copy of Randy’s book and it’s so easy to follow I know that I’m going to be able to do a far better version than the “professional” copywriter I paid for, and it’s not going to take weeks either..
cheers,
Mattg
John:
The sales letter for salesletterabc doesn’t load properly when I clicked on your link. I checked it using someone else’s aff. link and it loaded without a hitch. Just to let you know.
Paulo.
Reply by John,
Hmm, it seems ok for me Paulo, anyone else having this problem? If so just go to http://www.salesletterabc.com
Perfect timing on this one. I wrote a report I want to go virally around ebay…but I have been stalling on the sales letter and I know I need that sales letter to get to my re-sellers.
I was looking for something basic to get me going on the sales letter process and I can refine my skills as I go. Just what the doctor ordered
Hi John,
I’ve been a subscriber to both Mentorship Monthly and Your Own Ebay Business now for a few months and the amount i’ve learned so far from you continues to amaze me. Thanks in particular for this last post as i’m gearing up to create my first product but the sales page was one of the things that scared me the most so will definitely be checking our Randy’s eBook. Keep up the fantastic work.
Kevin
This sounds like common sense. Perhaps I am stating it too simple, but if you believe in your service or product and write sales copy from your heart or experience, then you don’t need to hype anything or make false claims about it.
I believe people are smart enough to read between the lines and know a good piece of sales copy from another piece of junk. Shouldn’t sales copy be about explaining your product/service and experience with it and what it can do for your prospect, more than making outrageous claims that waste ten pages of paper and my time reading it?
Hi John,
You hit the nail on the head. I’ve written a few articles on internet marketin and internet businesses and one of the subjects is on the unmitigated hype and baloney in sales pages.
Most of them seem to be written by the same person, and follow a common thread. It’s also about 5000 words and who has time to read such tautology and padding.
I do wonder though if this booklet could be used as a guide to writing the content for a web page?
Internet marketing is beconing a complex piece of work and writing sales copy is one aspect of it.
Thanks for your thoughts. They always make much sense.
Wow, John…have you been reading my mind? I am so tired of all the crappy hype in most sales letters and usually click off at the first mention of $2 quadzillion in profits before lunch. I’ve always thought that you can make more money by “stacking $10 bills in a corner than $100 bills.”
I read Randy’s ebook, “Salesletter ABC” and you are right on. It is a great step-by-step guide to creating a critical part of anyone’s marketing plan.
Great blog…keep up the good work.
Pat
ghost-writer@charter.net
Hay John
Thanks for the recommend but have you ever tried recommending a product without a affiliate link?
Maybe then I would probably buy
Hi Burt
Yeah, I could do that but I would go out of business pretty fast.
But I actually already did give a non affiliate link in a reply yesterday, here it is again.
http://www.salesletterabc.com/
Whether you go through my link or not I only ever promote products I believe in that I know will help you.
And I do sometimes promote products and services without an affiliate link but it depends on the scenario.
EG. Read this newsletter.
http://www.newsletter.planetsms.co.uk/archives/archive/newsletter47/
I will take a quote from it.
“I use aweber to manage my mailing lists and highly recommend them. Their support is second to none and they can help you get started. Go to http://www.aweber.com to find out more. (That’s not even an affiliate link)”
Yes, I will promote products through affiliate links as I am in this business to make money but I always always always have my subscribers interests at heart. If I didn’t I wouldn’t last very long.
I hope this puts your mind at rest Burt. But if you need help writing salesletters please buy Salesletter ABC without my affiliate link as it will help you.
Regards,
John
Hi John, Great info yet again. I’m currently writing my first eBook and this will be a big help in making the sales happen. I WILL use your affiliate link for 2 reasons; 1st, It won’t cost me any extra cash and 2nd, I know you don’t promote rubbish.
Regards, Barry
Thanx for the mention John,
And thankyou to everyone who has bought.
I sincerely hope it does what it should, and you find putting together a converting salesletter becomes as simple as following the 10 steps outlined.
Do be sure to read the tips and explanations too..
____
Could I also take this opportunity to point out that if anyone in the UK buys… IT IS NOT ME who is charging the VAT !
I was really upset at being called a CON MAN by one buyer who rudely demanded a refund yesterday.
Personally I don’t see why when people have already paid UK taxes on the Ink and Paper they will be printing the ebook onto – should then have to pay additional taxes for the info…. but it’s added by the payment processor..not myself!
If you enter a UK postcode – it adds it!
I have heard that by entering any USA zipcode, some people avoid paying it – but naturally I could not condone doing this.
But to be abused over $4.71 ???????? When there is a full refund guarantee anyway – no questions asked !!!
A polite email explaining that the $4.71 was TOO MUCH to invest in someones marketing career would have sufficed.
(I can assure the person concerned that if EVER I received a JV request or even saw one of my contacts considering one with them…. Lets just say I would go out of my way to inform people that they were not decent humans!)
And my apologies for ranting ….
I guess I’d basically like to remind some people that any marketer is still a human being with a heart and feelings.
When we bend over backwards to honour a refund, sort download issues due to customers internet connections, etc. and try to ensure we are giving exceptional value for money – it’s nice to be dealt with in a polite or professional manner.
(which the vast majority do)
But that 1% can really get to a persons feelings.
Anyway – sorry for venting on your blog John
Warmest Regards as ever
Randy
no extra sig today 🙁
Great recommendation John, this is something I need desperately. I have real problems writing sales letters and I believe this will do the job.
I must comment on what Burt has said above, what does he think this business is all about????? If he writes an ebook or recommends a product – is he not going to put HIS affiliate links in?
I thoroughly agree with Barry, I would buy (if I need it) items that you recommend because you have been in the business a long while now and know the score.
John keep up the good work you’re an inspiration to thousands….
Kind regards
Elaine Baker
I’ve been on ebay for a while and I agree, its the sale page that does it, if you page sucks, so will the sales.
SO much so, I created an auction and within 4 hours I was on the Pusle, with over 240 watches…I screamed OMG!
http://www.now-earn.com
Hey John,
As always very useful information, don’t know where
you find it all!
Sally 🙂
Hi John
Salespage is the backbone of your internet business. I agree with what you say.
http://www.auctionsinaction.com
I’m going to give this one a look. I’ll get back to you.
John, you have posted great information as usual. I always get a chuckle out of some of the ludicrous claims on some sales pages. Your information on this subject is much appreciated, I have also enjoyed Randy’s book.