If you use Google Adwords to promote your products or services online, then you’re in luck. Because today I’m giving you a special 9-page report all about how to write Google PPC ads that get clicked and generate sales (or leads, in case that’s what you want).

I’ve personally spent thousands of dollars of my own money — as well as thousands of dollars of client money — to test and track the results of PPC campaigns that I’ve been responsible for creating and managing.

Plus, I’m now playing an active role managing the writers who write ads for BoostCTR, a company that specializes in improving PPC ad copy for clients.

So the information you’ll find in this report is not based on theory, but rather on years of personal experience producing real-world results.

I hope you find it valuable as you seek to increase your click-thru rate and lower your cost per click.

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Your house needs painting. The south and west sides are especially faded, and the HOA has sent you a notice saying you have 60 days to get your house re-painted. Nobody has recommended a house painter to you, so you’re on the look-out.

One day you walk to your mailbox and find inside a letter advertising a house-painting service.

The story and the appeal seem decent enough. It’s a family run business. They take pride in their work. And if you call by a certain date you’ll save 15%. Plus, they use paint sprayers, which is faster and slightly more affordable. There’s a number to call.

Not a bad offer, but not especially compelling either. You think about calling, but you get interrupted and you forget to come back to it.

Then, a few days later, you find another letter in your mailbox once again advertising house-painting services. You eagerly read the letter because with each passing day you’re feeling more urgency to just hire somebody.

Unfortunately, you become even more confused. This is a family run business, too! They also say they take pride in their work. They use paint sprayers… and, wouldn’t you know it… they’re offering a 15% discount.

Same story, different day. The only significant differences you notice are that the letters are printed on different colored paper; there are different logos; and of course different phone numbers. You still don’t really know who to call. With the information you’ve got, you may as well flip a coin.

This imaginary scenario is unfortunately all too real for consumers all over the country. They’re ready to spend money — they just don’t know who to spend it with! And because so much advertising looks the same and sounds the same, consumers have a hard time deciding who to call.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way for you to instantly stand out, get noticed, and make the sale. It’s called differentiation.

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Selling memberships to a membership web site is not always easy.

Especially when the economy is not doing well.

The reason why is one of the first places people look to cut expenses is on their bank or credit card statement. If they see any recurring transactions, they’re likely to cancel them.

What’s more, they’re NOT likely to sign up for any new memberships!

But that doesn’t mean you can’t get new members by the dozens. With the right approach, you can.

Your Offer Matters More than Your Sales Letter

To get people to sign up for your membership site, I bet you probably have some kind of written sales letter to explain the benefits of membership and to get prospects to become members.

But here’s something extremely important to remember:

Your offer is more important than the words you use to persuade.

To illustrate this, let me give you an example.

If your membership site is all about crocheting, and you ask for $1,000 a month, chances are you’re not going to get any new members, ever.

That’s because $1,000 a month for membership is just a bad offer for a site that teaches you how to crochet.

Now, price is only one component of your offer. There are also bonus gifts to think about. If you offer multiple high-value bonus gifts upon sign up, you may have an easier time getting members.

With that in mind, let me tell you about…

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A man goes to a buy a new car. There are literally dozens of the same make and model he wants on the lot. There are even more at the dealership down the street.

And yet when it comes time to buy, he feels extreme urgency to buy the car he test-drove. Somehow, he feels that if he doesn’t buy, he will miss his chance.

Why does this happen?

After all, the man could walk right out of the dealership and drive to another one a few miles away and find the same make and model with the same color and options. According to the Consumer Reports Buying Guide 2009:

A salesperson might tell you that someone else is very interested in the same car and is coming by later — a common sales tactic. You should never feel that you have to make any deal immediately. There are always other cars out there.

Consumer Reports is 100% right: There are always other cars out there. So the issue is not true scarcity because the car our imaginary man wants is not scarce.

Yet he feels as if the car is scarce.

And he is practically compelled to sign the papers as soon as he can to avoid missing out.

Let me tell you why this strange phenomenon happens and how you can create a similar urgency for your own products…

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As you know, Copywriting Code is a membership site that teaches you how to write direct response copy.

Direct response copy is copy designed to get an immediate action, usually in the form of a sale. It is “salesmanship in print… salesmanship multiplied,” as John E. Kennedy said.

With that in mind, all the articles and videos you’ll find inside Copywriting Code have been created with an eye toward teaching you the art and science of direct response copywriting — the art and science of generating sales through the written word.

To get the most out of Copywriting Code, here’s what I recommend:

1. Use the autoresponder email series to help you consume all the content on this site.

Every time I write a new article, I add it to the autoresponder series. So you’ll be automatically directed to every post on this site at one point or another.

This way you’ll never feel like you have to “cram” and read everything at once. Most of the articles on this site are 1,000 to 2,000 words in length. Some are even longer.

Since these are in-depth articles, you’ll probably only want to read one or two at a time anyway.

2. Browse or search for articles that solve a problem you currently have.

The copywriting lessons on this site cover a wide range of experience, from beginner to advanced.

If you’re just getting started, then look for some of the introductory copywriting lessons. If you’re advanced, you may want to jump right into some of the split-test results I’ve reported here.

You can use the search box to search for specific keywords. Or you can browse by clicking on the Categories or Tags in the left-hand column.

3. Print articles you’d like to keep.

Many of the articles on this site are “print-worthy.” If you print them out, you may want to get a 3-ring binder to store them. That way you can easily review them anytime you want — even when your computer is turned off.

4. Periodically review “core” copywriting lessons.

It’s very easy to read something quickly, be inspired… and then forget all about what you just read. I think this happens because there’s just so much information out there these days.

To really get value from something, you should read it twice. One of my colleagues will actually read a book 10+ times to milk every drop of value he can from it.

And here’s the interesting part: When you read something a second, third, or fourth time, you’ll learn new things each time. So there’s a multiplying effect that comes from reading something more than once.

5. Set aside a certain day of the week or month for learning more about copywriting.

Maybe you decide to study copywriting on Saturday morning or Wednesday at lunch time or Tuesday evening.

Take that time you’ve set aside to come check in at CopywritingCode.com. Read an article you haven’t gotten to yet. Or read a new article that’s recently been published.

But whatever you do — make sure you continue to learn as much as you can about direct response copywriting. It is the most profitable skill I’ve ever learned; and I firmly believe it may also be the most profitable skill YOU ever learn.

6. Ask me a specific question about copywriting.

Last, but certainly not least, feel free to ask me any specific question you have about copywriting.

I will either direct you to an article where I’ve already answered the question… or I may even write a brand new article just to answer your question.

Want to submit your question? Just email me at ryan@copywritingcode.com.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. If you’re not yet a Copywriting Code member, please activate your membership here.

Good sales copy is a well-manicured lawn.

There are probably dozens of metaphors that I could have used to describe good sales copy, but this is the one that’s stuck with me.

While it may seem like a strange metaphor, it will make perfect sense in just a few minutes. And it will help you write better copy, too.

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Ever wondered exactly how to swipe a sales letter? If so, you’ll want to pay close attention. Because in just a moment I’m going to demonstrate HOW to swipe a sales letter.

But first, you should know: While I don’t generally swipe whole ads, you can actually write fairly strong copy by swiping.

When I say swiping, I don’t mean plagiarizing. Plagiarizing is stealing copy word-for-word; swiping is taking similar ideas, concepts, or copy structure from one ad and using them in another.

Some people take the idea of swiping too far. For instance, you would never want to take somebody’s copy and then just replace a few words here and there. This is basically plagiarizing.

Of course, it’s easy to create a list of “dos” and “don’ts” without ever fully communicating the right way to swipe a sales letter. With that in mind, I figured I’d actually show you three sales letters for three different products.

• The first one is the famous Wall Street Journal letter.
• The second one is a swipe of the Wall Street Journal letter.
• And the third one is my swipe of the Wall Street Journal letter.

Each of these letters uses the same structure and some of the same selling arguments to make their case. Take a look…

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Learning how to write bullets may be one of the most important copywriting skills you ever learn. This is because bullets often do all the “heavy lifting” in a sales letter. They’re the words that penetrate your buyer’s natural buying defenses. They’re the words that sell.

I’ve heard many direct marketing experts explain the importance of bullets this way: “You want to write as many hard-hitting bullets as you can because sometimes just one bullet will persuade somebody to buy.”

I know this is true… because I’ve experienced it myself. I remember reading a sales letter for a Nightingale-Conant product. The letter was probably 80% bullets. As I read through those bullets, one or two of them really hit me. The bullets addressed something I really wanted to learn.

Then, as I kept reading, I began to think, “How could I not buy this product??” This is the best possible response you could ever hope for: When your prospect can’t imagine life without your product. He has to have it.

With that in mind, here are my methods for bullet writing. What I share here is not necessarily “the right way.” It’s one way. It’s the way I do it. So here it goes…

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Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins is one of my favorite copywriting books of all time. I’ve read it straight through three times, and I’ve quoted it many times besides.

I’m not sure what it is about the book that appeals to me so much. Maybe it’s the simplicity of the lessons. Or maybe it’s the slightly old-fashioned language. Or maybe it’s just the timelessness of the principles Hopkins outlines. Whatever it is, I love this book!

Here’s what I did: I actually recorded the entire book, chapter by chapter, using the mic that plugs into my computer. I then uploaded each chapter to Audio Acrobat. You can download all 21 MP3 files… or you can stream them over your computer.

Since each of the 21 chapters is 10 minutes or less, you can literally listen to the whole book in 21 days by listening for less than 10 minutes a day.

I currently sell this audio book for $10, but it’s yours FREE as a member of Copywriting Code. Enjoy!

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When you ask a business owner who his product is for, it’s not uncommon for him to say, “Everybody!”

For the moment, we’ll forgive his enthusiasm. After all, consumer products with mass appeal do make a lot of money. And many products generally could benefit everybody, although they shouldn’t be marketed to everybody.

That’s why even products with mass appeal are positioned to attract a certain type of person. The marketing team knows who they’re advertising to. And they know (and communicate) the intangible ideas the product represents or delivers.

Let me give you a relatively easy example: patio homes.

Here in the U.S., a patio home is generally a single-level house with a small yard — and ALL the landscaping and snow removal is done for you. This service is built into the HOA fees, which means you’ll pay much larger monthly fees than you will in a standard neighborhood.

Now who is the ideal person for this type of product? Think about it for a minute before you keep reading.

Have you got your ideal person in mind? Have you thought about what motivates him or her? Good. Let’s move on.

The ideal type of person for a patio home is:

1. Somebody who no longer wants to do (or simply can’t do) outdoor work anymore.
2. Somebody who doesn’t want or need as much square footage in his or her home.
3. Somebody who has the money and motive to pay the more expensive HOA fees.

Now, based on this information, we can probably also assume that the person we’ve just described is between the ages of 55 and 65, and is either approaching retirement or already retired.

Furthermore, we may also assume that our newly retired prospect will soon be traveling the world with his or her spouse, and that one of their motivations for getting a patio home is to have the freedom to travel without worrying about taking care of their landscaping.

Now imagine: If you knew all this about your ideal prospects, don’t you think it would influence WHO you advertise to — and HOW you advertise to them?

Of course!

You see, the problem with “everybody” is it’s just too many people. There are 6 billion people in the world — 300 million in the United States alone. Trust me: You don’t have the budget, the time, or the manpower to market to “everybody.”

So let’s talk about how you discover your ideal prospect and position your product or service to appeal to him…

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