Whether you’re a copywriter or a direct marketer or a blogger, it’s critical that you develop the ability to get and keep people’s attention.

This is the focus of the following MP3 recording in which Mike Dolpies interviews me about advertising in general and how to get and keep attention in any market.

Mike is a guy who provides marketing advice to owners of martial arts studios. And we did this particular interview for his paying members.

And since you’re a paying member of Copywriting Code, I’m sharing the interview with you as well. The interview is just 38 minutes long, so it’s easy to listen to even if you’ve got a busy schedule.

In this interview you’ll learn:

• How to mind-read your market.

• Counter-intuitive copywriting tips.

• What you shouldn’t do in an email subject line.

• How to be so compelling your prospects can’t look away.

• And more…

You can use the audio player below to stream the audio over your computer. Or you can click the link to download the MP3 so you can play it on your iPod, Zen player, or whatever MP3 device you use. Enjoy!

I’ve set up somewhere between 50 and 100 different split-tests. I don’t know the exact figure because I’ve never tracked it. Plus, the tests I’ve conducted are divided between multiple Google accounts, therefore difficult to track.

Anyhow, during the last video, I shared some interesting split-test results with you.

Today, I want to show you how to set up your first split-test. It’s actually not that difficult. Once you get the hang of it, it should take you no more than about 5-10 minutes to set up a new test.

What’s interesting about this video is you get to see me set up a new test on my own web site, but you don’t get to see the outcome… yet. That’s because this is a brand new test. I don’t even know the outcome!

So as you watch, take a look at both versions of the page and decide which one you think will win, and why. I’ll create a new video in a few weeks to let you know the outcome of this test.

Alright, enough of my yapping. Watch the 21-minute video “Setting Up Your First Split-Test” below.

Have you ever heard of Kaizen? It’s the idea of constant gradual improvement. If you can get just a little bit better every day, it won’t be long before you’ve made huge, noticeable improvements.

One way you can apply the concept of Kaizen to your copywriting is to start split-testing. This is one of those things lots of people talk about, but few people actually do.

In case you don’t know, a basic A/B split-test is where you compare two different versions of a sales letter to see which one converts more prospects into customers.

Each version of the letter might be wildly different. Or, if you’re short on ideas, the two versions may actually be quite similar, with only minor differences.

I’m always amazed by the little changes that make a big difference. For instance, in the 7-minute video that follows, I share with you a two-word change that increased response by 28.2%. What two words am I talking about? Well, you’ll have to click the Play button to find out…

Ever notice how most of the guys and gals who achieve extraordinary success speak at seminars on a regular basis?

There’s just something about public speaking that sets a person apart from all the experts who prefer to hide behind their laptops.

In this post, I want to share with you the copy elements that should be included in a sales letter to fill a seminar, workshop, or live event. I’m also going to share a few insights I’ve picked up over the years.

Whether you end up using this information to help fill your own event — or another person’s event — is up to you. Either way, it will make filling an event easier.

I’ll list out all the copy elements in just a minute. But first…

What’s Different about Selling Seats at a Seminar?

The copy you write to fill seats at a live event will be similar to other types of copy, but there are a few unique elements you will want to include, and some that you may want to exclude.

For instance, most event letters don’t have many bullets, if any at all. This is because event organizers often don’t know exactly what a speaker is going to present. (Speakers are notorious for not providing the information you need to write stronger copy.)

Think about this. If you write a bullet that promises to deliver some nugget of information… and then the speaker fails to deliver… the event organizer is on the hook. Attendees may complain that they didn’t learn what was promised in the sales letter. You don’t want this to happen.

So instead of bullets, I suggest you write a list of “Reasons to Attend.” You can write as many reasons to attend as you want, but probably no less than three.

You may also want to include a section that answers the question, “Who is this seminar for?” This is an effective way to flag down your ideal attendee and get him or her to register.

What about Testimonials?

Here’s another potential challenge: If this is the first time this particular seminar is being held, you won’t have any testimonials. Why? Because the event has never been held before.

Of course, if this is the case, you can often use testimonials from other services, products, or events the organizer may have sold in the past. This is a technique I use often.

For instance, if my client has hosted a seminar before, I’ll say something like:

“Here’s what attendees said after the last seminar that happened last spring…”

Some events are held regularly. And events that are held on a regular schedule (annually, bi-annually, quarterly, etc.) should have plenty of testimonials. There might even be video testimonials for you to use. (Ever since the Flip video camera came out, video testimonials have become VERY easy to get.)

Copy Elements for a Seminar Sales Letter

Now, an event letter will have three unique copy elements:

1. Speaker Profiles (if applicable)
2. Hotel & Travel Information
3. Date(s) of the Event

Speaker profiles often include, name, photo, brief bio information, plus a few general bullets on what the speaker will be talking about. Each profile should have a compelling mini-headline to suck “scanners” into the copy.

The hotel and travel information should include the hotel name and address where the event is being held, plus details about ground transportation to and from the airport. It’s also customary to include the special “code word” registrants should use to get a special room rate. (If this information is not included in the letter, it can be included in the first follow-up email after a person registers.)

Include the dates of the event, and also the days. So you should say, “The event will be held on Friday through Sunday, January 22-24, 2010.” Personally, I like to repeat this information multiple times throughout the copy so there’s no mistake about when the event is happening.

Suggestion: Read a few event letters to get familiar with how they look. They are often more graphics-intensive. If you know HTML, you can certainly add graphic elements yourself. Otherwise, you may want to make suggestions to the client or the client’s web designer.

With that in mind, here’s a complete list of copy elements and the order in which they normally appear in a seminar sales letter:

• Prehead
• Video (optional)
  
• Headline
• Deck Copy (Subhead and/or a handful of bullets.)
• Lead Copy (Build excitement, introduce problem, etc.)
• Introduce Seminar Creator (Build credibility.)
• Introduce Seminar (Plus, the reason why you’re hosting it.)
  
• Explain Seminar in Detail (Date, days, location, etc.)
  
• Speaker Profiles (Mini-headline, photo, bio, bullets about presentation.)
• Who Should Come? (List ideal attendees — the people who should come.)
• Proof Elements, including…
• Picture of Hotel or Meeting Location (Include selling points; why is this a good place to meet?)
• Testimonials (Write “mini-headlines” for each one.)
• Value Build
• Price (Is there an “early bird” discount?)
  
• Cost Justification
• Guarantee or Risk Reversal
• Bonus Gifts or Incentives
  
• C.T.A. – Call to Action
  
• Order Link
• Signature
• Post Script / P.S. (up to three)

This list includes most (if not all) of the copy elements you’ll want to include in your seminar sales letter in the approximate order they should appear.

Obviously, the higher the cost of the seminar, the more copy you’ll need to persuade people to attend. But — never forget — the cost of the seminar is often only HALF of the total cost each attendee will incur.

That’s because each attendee has to pay for travel, hotel, and meals. If you’re event is $500 a seat, you might actually pay MORE than that just for an airline ticket and hotel room.

It is for this reason that even “free” events have a hard cost associated with them.

So keep that in mind when you’re filling a seminar. You have to be offering very unique and timely information, or an unusually exciting experience, or fabulous networking opportunities, or exclusivity, or intimate one-on-one training, or a combination of all of these.

Rarely do you fill a seminar on a single promise or benefit.

Make sure you cover all your bases: include EVERY reason you can think of for a person to attend.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Want to see some of the seminar sales letters I’ve written lately? Below I’ve included links to two sales letters I wrote in 2009. In both cases, I was under the gun and wrote the copy quickly. Still, the events turned out fairly well, all things considered.

The first one was for a “Customer Appreciation Seminar.” The second one was for “Secrets of Entrepreneurial Bootstrapping”; we were trying to get more small business owners to attend (instead of coaches), hence the focus on entrepreneurs. I used the first letter as a basis for the second one, so you’ll see some similarities.

Both sales letters are in PDF format for easy viewing and printing. (You will notice some blank spaces in the PDF documents — these are where I had included YouTube videos.)

• Customer Appreciation Seminar

• Entrepreneurial Bootstrapping Seminar

And just in case you want to read a masterful event letter, you should definitely take time to read Ken McCarthy’s pitch for The System Seminar, his annual event for Internet marketers. Here’s a PDF:

• The System Seminar Sales Letter

(Remember: Video players do not show up in the PDF.)

If you sell on the Internet, chances are that one of the most common types of sales letters you’ll write is one to sell an information product.

You might be selling an ebook, a special report, an e-course, a real book, a home study course, a group coaching program — the list of information products is a mile long.

So how do you go about tackling a sales letter to sell an information product? What copy elements should be included (or not included)?

After personally writing dozens of sales letters to sell information products, I finally decided to list out all the copy elements that go into this particular kind of sales letter.

I think you’ll find it particularly helpful to have this list printed out so you can reference it while you write. So without further ado…

Copy Elements to Sell an Information Product

To write a letter to sell an info product, you must consume the product first. Read the ebook, listen to the audio, or watch the video. This gives you a solid foundation from which you can then write the letter.

In general, I don’t believe you must write in any particular order. You can start with the headline or start with the P.S. It’s really up to you.

But… there’s a big exception when writing copy for info products.

Any time you write a letter to sell an info product, you should always write the bullets first. And you should write them as you consume the product.

If it’s an ebook, you’ll want to record the page number where the bullet appears. If it’s an audio or video product, you might want to record the minute and second mark.

Personally, if I have written or printed content to consume, I’ll grab a notebook and a pen and keep it handy while I read. Anytime I encounter something that can be “bulletized,” I’ll write out a bullet in my notebook.

After I’m done consuming the product, I’ll then type up all my bullets into a single document. I’ll save the bullets as an individual file, then copy and paste them into my sales letter file later.

Okay. So now you know: write the bullets first.

With that in mind, here are the copy elements for an info-product letter. They are listed in the order I believe they should appear in the letter, although this order is not set in stone and can be modified with experience.

• Prehead
• Headline
• Deck Copy (Subhead and/or a handful of bullets.)
• Lead Copy (Build excitement, introduce problem, etc.)
• Introduce Author or Product Creator (Build credibility.)
• Introduce Product / Solution
• Explain Product in Detail
• Bullets (You should have already written these, so just drop them in.)
• Proof Elements, including…
• Testimonials (Write “mini-headlines” for each one)
• Value Build
• Price
• Cost Justification
• Guarantee or Risk Reversal
• Bonus Gifts or Incentives
  
• C.T.A. – Call to Action
• Order Link
• Signature
• Post Script / P.S. (up to three)

I find that when I break a sales letter down into its individual elements and components, it makes it much easier to write. This list includes most (if not all) of the copy elements you’ll want to include in your sales letter in the approximate order they should appear.

More Details about the Writing Process I Follow

Probably the most ill-defined part of the sales letter comes between the lead copy and the point you introduce your author and/or product.

Sometimes I make the reader feel pain by talking about a problem. Or I might take a positive approach and build excitement. Sometimes I use curiosity to suck the reader in (“Did you know…?”).

Since every letter is so different, it’s quite difficult to define what you should write in this section of the letter. The product and market determine what direction you should take. So I leave it up to you and your sales intuition.

It is interesting to note that sales letters for info products are naturally long; it’s a byproduct of writing pages upon pages of bullets. It’s also probably no surprise then that sales letters for info products usually require the greatest time investment.

Improve Your Copywriting Skills by Doing This Exercise

Here’s an exercise that will improve your copywriting skills.

• First, go find an information product sales letter that you like. Could be in print or on the Internet. Doesn’t matter.

• Second, pull up this copy element check list on your computer screen, or print it out so you can reference it.

• Third (and finally), read through the sales letter and identify each of the copy elements as you find them.

A little tedious, yes. But well worth it. As you begin to “see” how a sales letter is constructed, it will become easier for you to write compelling sales letters of your own.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Gary Bencivenga is regarded as one of the best copywriters who has ever lived. When he retired, he put on a one-time event for just 100 people in New York City. He recorded that event and now offers the DVDs for sale. Here is the letter he uses to sell the DVDs:

• The Bencivenga 100 DVD Sales Letter

This letter is LONG, but absolutely worth studying. Bencivenga actually has you print out a form, complete it, and mail it with a $5,000 check or money order. Only after he cashes your check will he mail the DVDs. And yet people still buy. Now THAT is a strong sales letter.

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…

When you’re deciding how to position your product and who you want to reach, there are a few things to consider. Your target market must:

• Be reachable – You have to be able to reach them, and you have to be able to do it at a cost that still provides enough profit for you.

• Have money to spend – Ideally, they will have disposable income to spend on your product or service. Or — even better in some cases — they will already be spending money on the type of product or service you offer.

The problem most business owners have is that they start with the product or service first and then try to “back fit” it to the market.

“Hey, I have this great product! Now who can I sell it to??”

Obviously, this is a tough spot to be in. Because as you work backwards, you may discover that you don’t really have a tightly-defined reachable market with money after all!

Let’s look at another example, this time a service: carpet cleaning.

If you’re a carpet cleaner, you may think that your market is anybody with a house. But this would be far too broad. You’d waste a lot of money trying to bring in clients without refining who your ideal client is.

Now, I’m no carpet cleaner, but here’s how I might go about defining my ideal client:

• Homeowners who have disposable income, perhaps defined as people with homes valued at $450,000 or more.

• Homeowners who have pets and/or kids living at home — and are therefore more likely to have dirty carpets.

With just these two criteria, we’ve narrowed our market down significantly. We now have somebody specific in mind and will be able to write sales copy that speaks directly to our ideal homeowner and his specific carpet problems.

Furthermore, we could call up a list broker and rent a compiled list within a specific zip code area — and send direct mail to only our ideal clients!

By focusing our marketing efforts in this way, our advertising waste is minimal — and our profits go way up.

Heck, we could even do it the lazy way…

Just find a neighborhood within our home value criteria and deliver flyers to every home in that neighborhood. There would obviously be more waste this way (you wouldn’t know if somebody has pets or kids at home), but you could still aim your sales copy at people with pets and/or kids.

Now, would you have to go after residential clients as a carpet cleaner? No. In fact, carpet cleaning is one of those services that can be marketed well to different groups of people.

Who else might need carpets cleaned on a regular basis?

I’ll tell you: landlords.

Nearly every time a tenant vacates a property, the landlord is going to get the carpet cleaned before bringing in new tenants. So you could actually rent a list of landlords in your area — or place an ad in a publication for landlords — speaking directly to their problems and needs.

• You promise speed and promptness because you know that every day without a tenant is lost money.

• You provide a loyalty discount — or some kind of loyalty program (“buy 6 cleanings and get one free!”) — because you know even landlords with a modest number of properties will need multiple cleans a year.

• And so forth.

Obviously, how you approach a landlord is going to be WAY different than how you approach a residential homeowner. Are you beginning to get a better feel for how this works?

Let’s look at another example, this time from a project I recently completed. In my questionnaire I ask my client to tell me who their target market is. My client wrote the following:

Health conscious mid to upper socio demographic population; majority female 35-55. However – suitable for all people; sports people, families and the elderly. It is particularly beneficial to those with chronic disease and immune disorders, many of whom are taking supplements whilst suffering digestive problems and probably wasting their money.

Although this description is brief, it instantly lasers in on a specific segment of the health market. And it makes my job as a copywriter much easier. Now I know who I’m writing to!

Since multiple people within the company responded to my questionnaire, I got to see a few different perspectives on my client’s target market. Another person responded this way:

This is very subjective and unscientific, but from 10 years of this what comes out are five main groups:

1)    Time poor, cash rich professionals wanting to solve the daily problem of adequate nutrition

2)    Women buying for the family; concerned at inadequate/bad diet habits of the family members

3)    Elderly people understanding they don’t absorb as well as they used to

4)    Vegans, vegetarians wanting a purer source of nutrients and supplements

5)    Therapeutics – people who have been told to take it by health care professional or word of mouth and take it for therapeutic purposes

This description matched up well with the previous description — plus it refined the target market even more (vegans, vegetarians).

In this particular case, I developed a visual image of a busy middle-aged health-conscious woman with money to spend on her and her family’s health. I believe this makes up the largest segment of the target market and therefore decided to focus my copywriting efforts there.

Here’s the takeaway:

The more tightly you define (and refine) your target market, the better you’ll be able to sell to them. Your sales message will be more focused, you’ll make more sales, and your profits will inevitably rise.

And don’t forget that there are multiple ways to discover and define your market…

• Basic demographics
• Paid-up subscriptions
• What a person has recently purchased (sometimes called “hotline names”)

These are the three types of lists that are easy to rent should you decide to use direct mail.

If you’re only using demographics, that’s called a compiled list. If you’re targeting subscribers of a particular publication, that’s a special interest list. And if you’re renting a list based on a specific recent purchase, that’s called a “response file.”

Compiled lists will be the least responsive, while response files will be the most responsive. (Whenever possible, rent a response file for your direct mail instead of a large compiled list.)

So before you ever put pen to paper, ask yourself:

• Who is my target market?
• How old is he/she?
• How much does he/she earn?
• Where does he/she live?
• What publications does he/she read?
• What values does he/she have?
• What problems does he/she want solved?
• And, perhaps most important, how can I affordably reach my ideal prospect?

Answer these questions and you will be much better prepared to write sales copy that actually sells.

-Ryan M. Healy

Sometimes you can learn a lot from movies. They’re often packed with copywriting, advertising, and marketing secrets — if only you will take the time to look.

For instance, movies can teach you a lot about how to “pace” your ads to keep your readers hanging on until they read every last word. And movies can teach you a lot about timeless story formats that work over and over again.

But one recent movie in particular stands out to me for the lesson it contains. And that movie is James Cameron’s Avatar.

In Avatar, the main character Jake Sully is a crippled ex-Marine. And through some strange feat of biological engineering, he is able to somehow use his mind to remotely control a giant lab-grown body.

Sully’s full-time job then becomes to “infiltrate” a race of people called the Na’vi. He pretends to be a real Na’vi to gain their trust and learn information that can be used against them.

Of course, the entire time Sully’s real body is back at “home base” while he is mentally manning this “biological robot” (so to speak).

Anyway, when you think about it, this is often what’s required to write truly persuasive sales copy…

You quite literally have to enter your target market’s world.

Ultimately, what’s required is empathy — an ability to truly understand what your target market feels, thinks, needs, and wants.

You see, in Avatar, the more Sully “inhabited” his Na’vi body, and the more he got to know the Na’vi people, the more he found himself in alignment with their way of life.

No longer did he see it from a human perspective. No longer did he want to do whatever it took to pocket some quick cash.

Instead, he developed deep empathy for the Na’vi and wanted for them what they wanted for themselves.

Truly, this is the way of all great marketers and copywriters who succeed for the long term. They empathize with their target market and speak directly to their wants  and needs.

The reason they’re able to do this is because they’ve walked a mile in their target market’s shoes.

On one occasion my friend Ben Settle told me of the time he got his first client in the golf market. Since Ben doesn’t golf, the first thing he did was go to a driving range to hit a few buckets of balls.

After becoming a golfer (even though he wasn’t normally a golfer), Ben was able to really connect with that market and understand it on a much deeper level than if he had tried to write the copy while standing at arm’s length.

Buried here is another secret:

When you are already a member of your target market, it becomes much, much easier to write ads and sales letters that convert prospects into buyers.

Why?

Because you understand the market at a deep level — before you’ve done a lick of research! As a member of the market, you already know what makes the market tick.

This is why the creator of a product (or owner of a business) is often also the very best person to write the copy to sell the product.

Sometimes people think that HOW you write is what makes the difference between a successful ad and an unsuccessful ad. But actually it’s WHAT you say that makes the difference.

And if you are a member of your market — or if you’ve taken time to “become one” with your market and truly empathize with them — then you know WHAT to say better than anybody else!

So next time you sit down to write an ad or sales letter, remember the copywriting secrets of the movie Avatar — and do your best to truly empathize with your market.

-Ryan M. Healy

I’ve been working with one of my copywriting clients for more than 3 years now. And during that time, I’ve had the opportunity to test a number of elements on his sales page.

One time he got a new testimonial that I thought was really good.

Before I tell you about the testimonial, it will help to explain to you the market my client is in.

He sells trading software for $99 a month. The software issues trading signals in real time so you know exactly when to enter or exit a trade.

The challenge is that the trading market is filled with all kinds of “bots” and software that don’t work. So when my client got a testimonial from a guy who’d made $600,000 in a week, I thought we’d struck pay dirt…

The guy who’d sent in the testimonial was a hedge fund manager. His $600,000 gain was possible because he was managing millions of dollars of investments.

So I took that testimonial and put it at the top of the list of testimonials my client already had.

I thought if a prospect saw that somebody had made $600,000 in a week, then they would want to become a customer.

I also thought that if a prospect saw that a hedge fund manager was using my client’s software, they would think, “If it’s good enough for a hedge fund manager, it’s good enough for me!”

Unfortunately, I was not correct.

The new testimonial actually reduced response.

Of course, I could only look at the numbers and then draw conclusions.

So my conclusion is this: The $600,000 gain was simply too unbelievable for the average trader.

For a trader, making $2,000 or $5,000 in a week is good. Making $600,000 in a week is unheard of.

That was my first discovery.

My second discovery was that the placement of the testimonial had an impact on conversion.

When I placed the testimonial as the first one on the page, it hurt response. But when I then took the testimonial and put it at the bottom of the page — in the P.S. to be exact — it actually increased response.

Talk about crazy!

Again, faced with only the numbers, I have to make some assumptions and come up with why this worked the way it did.

So I concluded that by the time a person had reached the bottom of the letter, they had read enough to begin to believe that the software would actually do what my client claims it will do.

The trust level is higher.

Once we’ve reached a certain level of trust, the $600,000 testimonial all of sudden becomes believable. And it gets people to order.

Here’s the takeaway:

Don’t always assume that every testimonial you get will help you sell more product.

Sometimes testimonials will do just the opposite of what you expect.

Furthermore, if you are so inclined, I recommend you test the placement of testimonials. Because the placement of testimonials (and just about any copy element) can either help or hurt your conversion rate.

-Ryan M. Healy

Writing blog post titles is part art, part science. And it can take years to master.

I mean, why on earth does one blog post attract readers like flies to cow pies… while another one languishes like an awkward girl at a homecoming dance?

Sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for the massive “readership disparity” between one post and another.

Fortunately, success leaves clues. So over time we can reverse-engineer the reasons for the popularity of our most-read posts. And one of the biggest secrets I’ve ever discovered is…

Blog Post Titles Matter Big Time!

Blog post titles are to blog posts what headlines are to ads (and subject lines are to emails).

Translation: If you screw up your blog post title, you don’t have a prayer. You might be revealing the biggest discovery since Copernicus put forth the idea of a heliocentric universe — and hardly anybody will notice if you slap up a shoddy blog post title.

With this in mind, I went back and reviewed the most popular blog posts (based on views) on my other blog at RyanHealy.com. After reviewing them, I was able to deduce a few “rules” for writing blog post titles that demand attention.

Rule #1: Keep Your Blog Post Titles Short

After reviewing my Top 10 Most Popular Posts, I discovered an interesting trend. Nearly all of the post titles were short. Take a look at the list below…

Here’s what I noticed:

The longest post title in the list above is 7 words long. The shortest is 3 words. The average length is 5.2 words.

From this observation, I’ve concluded that length matters. And for highest readership, you should aim for a post title that is between 4 and 6 words long.

Here’s my theory: It’s hard to convey enough information in less than 3 words to really get attention. But once you go beyond about 7 words, you begin to dilute the core message you need to convey in your blog post title.

Of course, this isn’t always true (I’m actually violating this rule in this post), but it’s generally true. Which means that you can increase your chances of writing a popular post by writing a blog post title between 4-6 words.

Let’s analyze another blog just to be sure. Take a look at this screen shot from Michel Fortin’s blog at MichelFortin.com…

In this list of Michel’s Most Popular Posts, we can see that his shortest title is 5 words long; his longest title is 8 words; and his average title length is 6.6 words.

So Michel’s most popular post titles are a bit longer, but still very close in length, to mine. Taking this into consideration, we might massage our range upward to say that the most popular post titles are from 4-7 words in length.

But the point still remains: In general, short blog post titles will pull in more readers than long ones.

Rule #2: Questions and Numbers Attract More Readers

If you look at my list of most popular posts, you’ll see that more than half — 70% actually — are written in question form or include a number in the title.

And this isn’t because I try to use this technique often. Many of the posts I write use standard titles with no numbers and no punctuation.

For some reason, titles (or headlines) written in a question format do very well. I think it’s because questions demand answers. And when somebody reads a “question title” that speaks to something he’s concerned about, he’ll keep reading to find out the answer.

Looked at from another angle, questions naturally tap into people’s latent curiosity. This is why I find it profitable to rewrite titles as questions whenever possible.

Using numbers in headlines is also effective for the very same reason: specific numbers trigger curiosity. Let me give you an example.

If you read a title that says, “How to Build Desire,” you may assume that you already know the answer… and keep surfing the Internet.

But if you read a title that says, “5 Ways to Build Desire and Drive More Sales,” you will automatically question yourself. Do I know all 5 ways? Which ones do I already know… and which ones do I not know?

The reason specific numbers work is because they automatically lead to questions! (Do you see the connection?)

Rule #3: Know Thy Market (and the Conversation That’s Happening Between Its Ears)

One of the most popular posts on my blog is titled “Internet Marketing Retires!” At the time, Perry Belcher had just announced his retirement from Internet marketing, so I knew people in my market were already thinking about this.

Furthermore, I knew of a few other Internet marketers who had “retired” as well. So I decided to tie all these things together in a speculative piece that spoke to what many people were already thinking.

The effect was exactly as I had intended. Many people read the post, many commented, and many passed it around on Twitter (free traffic!).

As I look at my list of most popular posts, I can see that four of them capitalized on news, issues, and events I knew my market would be thinking about. For example:

Does Frequent Blogging Encourage Bad Writing? – At first glance, this may seem like an ordinary post. But it was in fact a response to James Brausch, who at the time had “invaded” Internet marketing and was posting one, two, and three times a day. This topic was hot on my market’s mind, and my post produced readers by the hundreds.

Is LifeLock Selling a Lie? – Their ads were all over the place, and many people were already questioning if the owner’s SSN was real. To this day, this post gets a lot of organic search engine traffic.

Internet Marketing Retires! – Written and published right after Perry Belcher announced his retirement from Internet Marketing, this post explored the dubious circumstances under which Belcher had vanished from the IM world.

Moonfruit Just Moonwalked All Over Michael Jackson – This post actually took advantage of not one but TWO big news items. The first big news item was that Michael Jackson had died. The second big news item was that Moonfruit had started trending on Twitter and surpassed Michael Jackson in popularity. (The clever title didn’t hurt either.)

As you can see, people are naturally interested in what they’re already thinking about. If you can tap into the dominant conversation that’s already happening in your market, you can demand attention just about anytime you want.

Lest You Forget…

Here are the “3 Unexpected Rules for Writing Blog Post Titles that Demand Attention”:

1. Keep Your Blog Post Titles Short
2. Questions and Numbers Attract More Readers
3. Know Thy Market (and the Conversation That’s Happening Between Its Ears)

Remember these three “rules” as you write your blog post titles for more readers, more comments, and more free traffic from the most popular social networks.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Click the blue link for more ideas on how you can get attention in hyper-distracted markets.

Swipe files are all the rage among copywriters and direct response marketers. The question is, how do you go about building one?

I mean, not every letter is a winner. So how do you separate the winners from the losers… and put together an enviable collection of tried, true, and proven direct mail letters?

That is the question, and I’m going to answer it here.

But first, I’m going to tell you right off the bat, never swipe a letter that’s been used in a product launch. My good friend Ben Settle first put this into words, and I’m in total agreement.

The reason you don’t want to do this is because the success of a launch depends on much more than the sales letter. For instance, many people are already sold on the product long before they ever get to the sales letter.

Perhaps they were sold by the free premiums they received during the pre-launch. Perhaps they were sold by the emails they got prior to launch day. Or perhaps they were sold by an affiliate’s endorsement.

Whatever the reason, you don’t know for sure if the sales letter was really doing the selling — or something else in the launch process.

And if this is not enough to persuade you, consider the words of Jeff Walker, the man who invented Product Launch Formula in the first place.

He says the goal of every launch is to make the sales letter irrelevant. He wants people mentally committed to buying long before they reach the sales letter.

The bottom line is this: Sales letters that are used during a launch are not necessarily good sales letters to study. And you should probably avoid swiping them altogether.

Which brings me to the main point of this post: how to build a swipe file of profitable direct mail letters…

Welcome to the World of Direct Mail

Direct mail is probably the harshest testing ground for sales letters that you could possibly imagine. The sale rests entirely on the sales copy. There are no postcards or emails sent out in advance to “warm up” the list.

The prospect will either:

• Throws the sales letter away unopened.
• Open the sales letter and throw it away.
• Open the sales letter, read it, and throw it away.
• Open the sales letter, read it, and buy.

(By the way, I use the word “reads” loosely. Some prospects may open the letter, glance at it, and throw it away. Others may actually read it and throw it away. On the flip side, some prospects may open the letter, glance at it… and buy! And still others may read it the whole thing and buy.)

Now, obviously, you’re going for reaction #4 — but the odds are against you that your prospect will choose one of reactions #1-3.

That’s why I believe direct mail is a much different beast than making sales on the Internet.

Furthermore, when a direct mail letter wins — when it pulls in more orders than any other letter that’s been tested during that time — it becomes what’s called a “control.” And it could be mailed for years.

A control letter could literally produce millions of dollars in profit for the company that mails it — and hundred of thousands of dollars in royalties for the copywriter who wrote it.

So now that I’ve convinced you how valuable control letters are, here’s how to get your hands on some incredibly profitable direct mail pieces…

Get on the Mailing Lists of Big Direct Mailers

Here’s a partial list of companies that send a lot of direct mail.

• Rodale Press
• Boardroom Reports
• Weiss Research
• Phillips Publishing
• KCI Communications
• Agora (Oxford Club, etc.)
• Nightingale-Conant
• American Writers & Artists Institute
• Guthy-Renker (more TV than mail)

The “big mailers” as I call them spend a lot of money on printing and mailing letters. That’s why the invest so much in their copywriters. They usually can’t afford to “try out” unproven copywriters.

So when you get a letter from a “big mailer,” you can be reasonably sure that it’s been written by an A-level copywriter.

Of course, even A-level copywriters write duds now and then… and they sometimes will write four or five “test panels” for their packages. That means the same piece may go out to four or five different list segements, but each piece will have a completely different cover.

So if they’re running test panels, you really have no way of knowing if you got the winning cover. For all you know, the piece you received was a winning sales piece — with a losing cover on the front of it!

It’s a Winner If It’s Mailed Twice

The key to recognizing winning letters is to look for the ones that are mailed more than once. If you get the same letter in your mailbox two or three times, you can be reasonably sure it’s a winning piece.

And you should file it in your swipe file.

There have been times I’ve gotten the same direct mail package four or five times within a few short months. Clearly, a company would not be so stupid to send out a direct mail package that wasn’t working more than once. That’s why you should really pay attention to pieces that you get four, five, six times or more. Those are BIG winners.

Another interesting thing I’ve observed is the same exact copy going out in two different formats. Here’s a real-life example…

I got a magazine-style direct mail piece from Rodale. It looked like a really well-done piece, so I held onto it. A little while later, I got the same piece again!

Now I knew this particular piece was a winner.

But what happened next was this: I got another piece — same copy, same pictures, everything was the same — except that this time it was in a smaller “bookalog” format.

I assume they tried this because the smaller size piece was cheaper to print and mail. Unfortunately, I don’t know if that piece worked as well because it was never mailed to me again.

So there is a lesson here as well. Sometimes the format of a letter can change the response significantly. So pay attention formats. And always place more importance on identical pieces you’ve received more than once.

How to Get on Mailing Lists

There are basically two different techniques, and only of them is really accessible to everybody.

The first way to get on mailing lists is to have your name “seeded.” For instance, I have a client who does some direct mail. He also rents his mailing list to other companies in his market.

Since my client seeded my name on the list, I now get direct mail from all the companies he rents his list to. And I never had to spend a penny!

Obviously, getting your name seeded on a list that is regularly rented out is not always possible. So there is a second method. It is actually even more effective, though it will cost you a little bit of money.

The trick is:

Buy Stuff from the Big Direct Mailers

You don’t have to buy much… but you do have to buy a little.

As soon as you buy something from a direct mailer, your name will be put on a “hot list.” They’ll probably immediately start sending you more direct mail on a more frequent basis.

What’s more, they may start renting your name out to other direct marketing companies. When this happens, you’ll be amazed at how quickly your mailbox starts filling up with offers. It’s like paper gold!

Here’s an example of what you might want to do:

Subscribe to Bottom Line Personal – Cost: $39/yr

Buy a book from Rodale – Cost: ~$30

Subscribe to Oxford Club – Cost: $79/yr

Buy a program from Nightingale-Conant – Cost: ~$79

Total Cost: ~$227

If you did just this, you’d have direct mail coming out your ears. And you could very quickly start building a collection of winning sales letters.

An Even Faster Way…

Don’t want to spend money on products these companies sell? Well, there is yet another way to start building a swipe file of winning letters.

That is, go straight to the source… and buy the letters themselves!

Is this even possible? you ask.

And the answer is, YES!

For instance, Carline Anglade-Cole is a natural health copywriter who’s written control letters for a number of big mailers. She shares some of the covers of those controls… for free! And if you’re interested in buying individual controls, you can buy them in PDF format right off her web site.

• Carline Anglade-Cole: View Covers from Here Controls for Free!
• Carline Anglade-Cole: Buy Invidual Control Packages Here

If you visit Carline’s site, you’ll see she’s selling individual control packages for anywhere from $39.95 to $59.95 a pop! Buy all 8 control packages she’s currently offering on her site and it will cost you $359.60.

These controls are absolutely worth it, especially if you’re trying to write for the natural health market. You know they’re controls. You know you can model them with confidence. And you don’t have to monitor your mailbox for weeks to get them!

Another A-list copywriter who occasionally sells past controls is… Doug D’Anna. Maybe you’ve heard of him, maybe not. Doesn’t matter because his copy has generated more than $125 million in sales during his career.

Unfortunately, Doug is so busy writing copy he barely has time to keep up with his web site; much less posting controls for his subscribers to buy. But fortunately for you, I’ve been a subscriber to his A-list for quite some time and have a link to share with you. It’s no longer public, and you won’t find this link on Doug’s site.

• Doug D’Anna: Browse His Swipe File

Doug currently has only two control packages listed for sale… and he sells them for $39.00 each. Not a bad deal if you’re looking to get your hands on some of the best copy money can buy.

And, of course, this partial list of “swipes for sale” would not be complete without Clayton Makepeace, allegedly the world’s highest paid copywriter. Clayton probably has more control packages for sale than any other A-list copywriter out there: you can get 15 of them in “Steal These Secrets”… and 13 more in “Steal These Secrets, Vol. 2.”

• Clayton Makepeace: Steal These Secrets
• Clayton Makepeace: Steal These Secrets, Vol. 2

The cost of each swipe file is $197 — a total of $394 if you want both volumes. Again, not cheap, but worth every penny if you’re going to study the control packages and apply what you learn to your own copy.

Don’t Want to Pay? How About Free?

One A-list copywriter has chosen to freely share some of his samples. His name? Richard Armstrong. While he doesn’t spend as much time in the limelight as some other copywriters do, he is still one of the most talented copywriters alive today.

And, fortunately for us, he’s put together a 118-page ebook about his 40 years of experience in direct mail. This ebook includes some of his best direct mail samples… for free.

The only thing it will “cost” you is your email address. Interested? Then hop on over to Free Sample Book to download Richard’s ebook.

And for even MORE free swipe files, check out this little collection pieced together by John Newtson. You’ll find free PDFs of letters written by Kent Komae, Dan Rosenthal, Arthur Johnson, Gary Bencivenga, and more.

UPDATE: Just recently I learned of an extremely valuable resource called Vintage Ad Browser. This site has indexed more than 100,000 vintage ads, and lets you browse them for free!

Of course, you won’t find recent letters that are being mailed right now, but you will find gigabytes of valuable samples to study. Here’s the link:

• Vintage Ad Browser

A Little Secret That Could Save You $Hundreds

Now that I’ve given you multiple effective ways for building a million-dollar swipe file, I want to share with you one extra little secret that could save you hundreds of dollars.

If you visit the links I’ve shared with you in this article, you’ll immediately notice that Carline, Doug, and Clayton all post the covers of their controls.

So… if you’ve already got your name on a few direct mail lists… and you’re getting direct mail on a regular basis… figuring out which letters are winners and which ones aren’t might be as simple as…

Matching the covers of the promos in your mailbox to the covers posted on these copywriters’ web sites!

Okay, I guess you don’t have to be a genius to figure that out, but it’s a valuable tip nonetheless.

And it’s key to remember that most A-list copywriters don’t publish recent controls; they publish old controls. So sometimes matching up the covers can only help you identify winning letters that you received months if not years ago.

You see, sometimes you’ll receive a control in the mail and never really know it because you only received the mailing once. This has happened to me before.

But over time, you begin to develop a “sixth sense” for spotting controls. So if a piece looks like a control, keep it.

This is how I’ve been able to determine for sure that some “single mailings” were indeed controls: I just matched up the piece with a cover that was posted by an A-list copywriter.

One Last Free Resource for You…

Lawrence Bernstein is probably the greatest living collector of direct mail advertisements. And he shares these ads liberally — for free — on his blog.

Most of the ads he shares are not the latest control packages mailed by the “big guys.” Rather, he shares ads that are anywhere from 20 years old to 100 years old.

The beauty of Bernstein’s “archive” is that while the words ads use may change, the principles of salesmanship never change. And so as you study these ads, you’ll find many principles that you can then model in your own ads and letters.

Furthermore, all markets go in cycles, from infancy to sophistication. Once they reach a super-sophisticated level, the market won’t revert to infancy, per se… but it may begin to respond better to the simple appeals that were used in the beginning.

So you may also find new appeals and approaches to use in your advertising — appeals that worked in the  past that may also work very well in the present. You can find Bernstein’s blog at the link below:

• Lawrence Bernstein: Info Marketing Blog

And if you really want to strike direct mail gold, then you’ll want to become a member of Bernstein’s Ultimate Online Swipe File. I’m a paying member myself, and I can tell you without hesitation that there is no better place on the entire Internet to get swipe files than this web site.

There are not hundreds, but thousands of swipe files available in all kinds of markets. Anytime you need an idea for a new promo you’re writing, just log-in to the member area and peruse the winning letters that are archived there. (You can even do searches for specific kinds of promotions.)

• Lawrence Bernstein’s Ultimate Online Swipe File

In Summary

Building a swipe file of proven direct response ads, letters, and packages is a worthwhile endeavor. As I’ve already mentioned, many control letters run for years, generating millions in profits.

You can build a swipe file one of four different ways:

1. Buy products from big direct response companies so you begin to receive direct mail in your mailbox. Then watch for those letters, magalogs, and packages that are mailed more than once; keep those.

2. Go straight to the source and buy proven control letters from the copywriters who wrote them. (More expensive, but much faster. And you’ll know exactly who wrote the copy!)

3. Use the free swipe file resources that are available online. For instance, Lawrence Bernstein’s Info-Marketing Blog or Vintage Ad Browser.

4. Get a paid subscription to Lawrence Bernstein’s Ultimate Online Swipe File where you can search for and download literally hundreds of successful direct mail letters and space ads. Some of these pieces date from as far back as 90+ years ago — and many are as fresh as yesterday’s mail.

Any of these methods will work. Choose the one that fits your personality best… and get started!

-Ryan M. Healy