If there is any skill that is indispensable to the web marketer it is copywriting. Regardless of how much traffic you can bring to your site, if the words on the page do not convince your prospects to buy your product, or sign up for your mailing list, it all means not anything.
So many webmasters overlook this critical element of a successful site. But, it is one that is easily corrected. A perfect course in copywriting is outside the scope of this article, but to top you in the right direction, I would suggest that you start with “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Caples, followed by “Web Copy That Sells” by Maria Veloso.
Once you are comfortable with the fundamentals of copywriting, it’s time to test your new skill. I have learned a simple, yet brutally accurate way to rate your progress.
Go to the ClickBank marketplace at marketplace.clickbank.net and choose a product you’d like to promote. Then, if you haven’t already done so, go ahead and sign up for a ClickBank Affiliate ID.
Next, make your landing page somewhere on your site, and write your sales letter. If you really want to get creative, write two versions of your sales letter and use your tracking software to conduct an A/B split-test between the two.
In order to test the effectiveness of your letter, you’ll need to send people frankly to ClickBank’s buy page. Although it isn’t advertised, ClickBank has provided a way for you to do this. Your buy page link will look like this:
ITEM.AFFILIATE_VENDOR.pay.clickbank.net
Where the item is the item number of the product that you are promoting. Find this number by clicking on the vendor’s buy link, landing on the ClickBank buy page and viewing the source code in your browser. You are looking for a line that says:
(input type=hidden name=item value=”item#”) where item# is a number.
So, to recap, you’ve got the Item number, your affiliate ID, and the vendor ID (if you don’t know the vendor id, go back the the source code above and look two lines up from the item number for the vendor ID). Now place them all together to make the buy link above.
There is a caveat here you must be aware of; this method does not embed your affiliate commission, so if the buy is not made right there, you will not get the credit.
Track the number of visitors to your sales page, and the number of sales that you get credit for. In this manner, you’ll be able to judge the effectiveness of your copywriting skills.
Make sales letters instantly with this incredible tool.
Ron Jones is the owner of www.internetprofit101.com
A free Internet Marketing resource that cuts through the hype and shows you how to succeed online.