Writing That Killer Sales Copy -To Win New Customers

Selling services or products over the Internet can be done in two ways. You can either sell through catalog style e-commerce marketing or through direct response marketing. Catalog style e-commerce marketing involves putting a range of services or products with their specifications, functions and uses before the eyes of prospective buyers. Pretty easy. The buyer makes his choices based on the information he sees.

In direct response Internet marketing, you must be able to move your reader to take action (often it is to buy your product) simply by communicating through the written word. You must be a master at writing eyeball-grabbing sales copy.

Here are three elements of great sales copy.

Firstly, your copy must have an attention-grabbing and captivating headline. It must stop the reader in his tracks so that he reads nothing else except your copy. Firstly, you write the main benefit of your product into your headline. Notice it's benefit, not feature that you must highlight. Suppose you are selling an automated blog post making software. Writing, "Introducing the World's Best Software that Makes Blog Posts to Your Blog Automatically" is writing about the feature.

Features of your product are important, but not in the headline. If you read the headline above, your most natural question would be 'How is this accomplished?' and you will likely read on. Once you get your reader thinking like that, then your headline has done its job. Now comes the body of your copy.

The body of your sales copy must be riveting and engaging. Every word must be written for the sole purpose of getting your reader to read the next sentence. Here's one simple technique to accomplish that.

Think about the old bucket system of dousing a fire. Each person in the line passes a bucket of water to the next person until it reaches the end of the line and the water is poured onto the fire. It must move the reader to read the next line and subsequently the next paragraph until he comes to the end.

To do that, your each sentence must lead on to something in the next sentence that your reader wants to know. And the last sentence of each paragraph must leave the reader with some missing piece of the puzzle such that he is compelled to read the next paragraph. Look at the last line of each paragraph of this article. They were designed to lead you to the next paragraph. (as in the first two paragraphs), you covertly challenge the reader to find out something he does not yet know. Another way is by stipulating a certain number of points beforehand (as in the fourth paragraph) then your paragraph does not cover all the points you said you would bring up. The reader then concludes there are more points in the following paragraph and reads on.

Another way to write like a 'bucket system' is by using the last line of a paragraph to 'introduce' what's in the next paragraph (as in the 5th and 6th paragraphs). Yet another way is to pose a question in the last sentence (as in paragraph 8).

Finally, great sales copy must have a clear call to action at the end. Your call to action must be convincing and compelling enough for your reader to take the action you want of him (usually it is to buy your product). Your call to action can be made more convincing by answering your reader's objection, favorably comparing the price of your product with another similar product or challenging him to make a change by buying your product instead of remaining the way he is.

ALL You Need Know About Traffic Exchanges

A traffic exchange is a membership website where the members can promote their own web pages by earning or buying "credits". Credits can be earned by viewing other members' web pages - otherwise known as "surfing for credits".

To surf for credits all you need to do is to log in to the traffic exchange and hit the "Start Surfing" button. You will then be shown a member's web page and a countdown timer. How long you will have to view the page varies from traffic exchange to traffic exchange and also depends on your membership status, but typically the timer takes 10 seconds to run down.

The more you surf, the more credits you will earn. And with some traffic exchanges you will also stand the chance of winning bonus credits and even cash prizes.

As your credits accumulate you can allocate them to your web pages, which will then be shown to other members of the traffic exchange.

Most traffic exchanges operate a "surf ratio" policy. Some traffic exchanges offer a 2:1 ratio, 3:1 or a 3:2 ratio, with a 1:1 ratio reserved for members who upgrade.

Another option for traffic exchange members is simply to buy credits. Traffic exchanges often hit you with "One Time Offers" where you can get a lot of credits at discounted rates if you buy straightaway.

As well as page viewing credits, traffic exchanges also offer "banner ad" and "text ad" impressions. Banners and text ads are shown above or below pages that you view when you surf for credits. You can get these impressions at a much cheaper rate than standard page-viewing credits.

So what are the benefits of upgrading?

2. Your "surf ratio" improves.

3. The countdown time decreases.

5. You earn more in credits or commission whenever you recruit a new member for the traffic exchange.

Yes, traffic exchanges are also online affiliate businesses and when you join one you are allocated an affiliate number. If you check your member's area you will see that there is a section devoted to promoting the traffic exchange.

Since you will be given free credits whenever you recruit someone to the traffic exchange, it makes sense to devote some space on your website or blog to promoting the traffic exchange.

You will also be encouraged to promote the traffic exchange on other traffic exchanges.

A lot of people join several traffic exchanges to gain extra exposure for their web pages, and also cross-promote their traffic exchanges in order to generate a lot of credits in the form of commission when people join traffic exchanges through their links.

2. Don't try to promote your main product with a long sales page. Keep your pages clean and simple with a basic message and either a sign up form for more info, or a "click here" button that will open up your main promotional page in a new browser window.

4. Make sure you do not run out of bandwidth - it is amazing how many times you see a "bandwidth limit expired" message instead of a member's page when surfing traffic exchanges.

5. Do NOT promote XYZ traffic exchange on XYZ traffic exchange!! This sounds unbelievable, but a number of clueless people try to get traffic exchange members to join the traffic exchange that they are surfing on and are therefore already members of! Duh!

Traffic exchanges offer website owners a cheap and cheerful method of promoting their website pages and can be very effective if you know how to work them.