Writing Your Own Web Sales Copy – Copywriting 101

Being able to do your own copywriting seems to be the most difficult part of starting an Internet business for most people. The mystique of traditional copywriters being able to write hypnotic sales copy is enough to make the new entrepreneur give up. Do not feel this way. You are capable enough to learn how to write web sales copy to sell your products and services online.

The best way to get started is to read as many sales letters as possible. There is a site called Clickbank that has thousands of products for sale. Visit this site and read some of the sales letters there. Choose the ones that are selling products in your niche that are similar to what you would be selling. You may even want to print these out to study over time. You will soon see that most of the copywriting that is on the Internet follows a simple pattern that is easily duplicable.

There are about twenty parts to a well written sales letter. The most important part is the headline. In fact, it is thought that a good headline will account for more than half of the sales made as a result of your sales letter, regardless of your niche. The way to learn how to write powerful and compelling headlines is to practice writing as many of them as possible. There are some tried and true formulas for winning headlines. The ones I use the most are these:

“Give me 20 minutes and I’ll show you how to improve your golf swing.”

“Who else wants to improve their golf swing, even if you haven’t been playing golf in years?”

“They laughed when I picked up the golf club, but when I hit a hole in one they cheered!”

These are two examples of templates that can be used over and over by simply adding your specific information. The first one promises a benefit in a certain amount of time. The second one asks a question about a goal that your prospect should be able to see themselves as achieving. The third one puts an interesting spin on what you are selling.

Read as many headlines as possible and then start writing your own. You will find that it becomes much easier over time. Another way to increase your copywriting skill is to print out a well performing sales letter and copy it over by hand. When I first heard someone recommend this I though they were crazy, but when I actually gave it a try I was amazed at the result. You can become a skilled writer of web sales copy if you are willing to spend the time to learn.