Its Time To Start That "Swipe" File – Writing
Its Time To Start That "Swipe" File
David B. Silva
Just as great fiction is an art, so is great copywriting. Beneath the art, however, theres a foundation of basic knowledge and skills. The craft that goes into your writing.
Craft comes first. Art follows.
You learn the craft of writing by educating yourself, by the actual process of writing the doing, and by reading incessantly. Every successful writer will tell you that reading has been and still is the cornerstone of developing his craft.
Reading presents you with a written illustration of what works and what doesnt, of what you like as a writer and what you dont. It helps you understand the possibilities, and offers practical instruction of how the rules of your craft are used.
Most writers, when they start out, mimic their favorite authors. I have a friend who became incredibly adept at writing like Stephen King. For several years, everything I wrote had a Ray Bradbury flavor.
Eventually, we developed our own styles, which were richer for having first gone through this mimic stage.
The point is this: part of any effective learning process is to mimic what has been successful before you.
This is true of copywriting, too. And its the reason you need to start a "swipe" file if you want to become a successful copywriter.
What is a "swipe" file Its exactly what it sounds like ... a file of great copywriting examples that youve collected, studied, and can access whenever youre in need of a little inspiration. These are not examples meant to be plagiarized. You arent copying work here; youre adapting it to your own copywriting needs.
For example ... suppose youre writing a sales letter for an Internet site that sells an expensive mens wristwatch and youre in need of a great headline. You search through your "swipe" file and find a sales letter for The Oxford Club actually taken from my own "swipe" file with the headline: A Mans Right To Wealth. How To Master Every Situation And Prosper On A Grand Scale.
You toy around with it and come up with this: A Mans Right To Elegance. How To Impress In Every Situation With A Watch That Does Far More Than Keep Accurate Time.
See how a good "swipe" file can help
You can use it to adapt opening sentences. Or the layout of a sales letter. Or the guarantee you or your client offers. Even the pace or the emotional "tug" of a piece.
By using your "swipe" file, your creative juices are instantly flowing. Theres no blank page. You already have something to work with. And as any good writer will tell you, its easier to edit than it is to write.
So where do you get the material for your "swipe" file
The quickest and easiest source is the Internet. Start checking out website sales letters. Print them out. Good or bad even the bad ones can inspire your work. Study them. And keep them close by in a handy file.
The other great source is from mailing lists. If youre already on a few lists, then start filing those pitches away when they arrive instead of tossing them out. If youre not on a list, try purchasing a product or asking for a catalog. It wont be long before youre on a number of lists and your "swipe" file is growing exponentially.
Two good places to get started are: Publishers Clearing House, 101 Channel Drive, Port Washington, NY 11050; and Nightingale-Conant, 7300 N. Leigh Avenue, Chicago, IL 60648.
Try them both. Try any others that come to mind, as well. Just start building your "swipe" today!
About The Author
Copyright 2003. All rights reserved. David B. Silva is a professional writer, editor and publisher. For a FREE mini-course on the best way to make writing that novel faster and easier, Click Here ==> mailto:easyway@thesuccessfulwriter.comsubject=TRAArticle
dbsilva@thesuccessfulwriter.com
So You Want To Start A Business On The Web – Affiliate Programs
So You Want To Start A Business On The Web
Robert J Farey
So you want to start a business on the Internet
What kind of business
Where do you start
What do you intend to do
Have you a product that you would like to sell
Or have you a service to provide
What experience do you have
These are just the basic questions you must ask yourself before you even think about starting a business.
The vast majority of web businesses are started by people who have no business experience whatsoever. They are under the impression that all that you have to do is to set up a website, put a couple of adverts in a few ezines, then sit back and wait for the money to start pouring in.
Life is never that easy.
This brings us to the question, "How do you start a business using the Internet" which can be answered in a number of ways. All of them quite legitimate. Ask a dozen successful internet entrepreneurs how they got started and you will probably get a dozen different answers.
This does not mean that if they were starting from scratch right now that they would follow the same path. They will all have learned from the mistakes that they made on the way up.
I know that I have.
How would they do it now Remember that the Internet is constantly changing. What worked a couple of years ago is not necessarily the best way to go now.
How would I do it
To get the money coming in as quickly as possible, building a website would have to wait. The first thing is to have something to sell.
Ideally, something that can be delivered electronically. Something like an instruction book.
There are hundreds of sites that will sell you the rights to one or more of their existing stock of books. You can then sell it as often as you can and keep all of the profits.
How do you sell it
You need a system that allows your customers to download your book. You will also need a method of collecting the money.
You will then need a method of collecting the email addresses of your customers so that you can make them a further offer at a later date.
If you are new to the internet this willrequire a certain amount of expertise.
There is an alternative way of doing it. Sign up to an affiliate program, the owners of the program will do all that is necessary regarding the downloading and seeing that you get your just rewards. All you have to do is to sell it.
The best affiliate programs come with a lot of backup with hints and tips on how to promote and sell their product.
You must realise that if you dont make money, neither do they.
The downside is that you don
How To Start With Absolutely Nothing And Create Wealth online in 30 days or less. – Real Estate
How To Start With Absolutely Nothing And Create Wealth online in 30 days or less.
Shane Kukec
Without a doubt, if you asked me, Shane if there was only 1 marketing strategy that you could use on the Internet, what would it be Without hesitation I would say joint Ventures. Joint Ventures are easily the most lucrative Marketing Strategy ever invented and if you learn to do it right, will likely be the ONLY marketing strategy you will ever need to use.
A Good Internet Joint Venture is your shortcut to success. It can send you more qualified internet traffic rushing to your site in the shortest amount of time than anything Ive ever seen! And it can mean bringing your product to market without spending one single penny of your own money!
In its simplest form, Joint Ventures have to do with 2 businesses or more joining forces to leverage off of each others success, assets and/or expertise. There are hundreds of different variations but let me just give you one simple example:
One variation of a simple type of joint venture partnership used most frequently would be where one business provides a product for sale, the sales message and the product delivery while the other business provides the recommendation for that product to their own list of subscribers/prospects and receiving a commission based on the sales generated through that recommendation.
The benefits are great. You can build your subscriber list, leverage off of your partners infrastructure like using their existing servers, software etc where you don