In about 2007, I was heavily in debt and learning about lots of the different types of writing that I could do to make a living.
One of the most lucrative forms of copywriting, I discovered, is writing sales copy. And back then, long – really long – sales letters would make writers thousands of pounds.
A 3,000-word sales letter was how many products were sold online, and I saw them as my way of reaching the promised land, which was out of the red and into the black.
They’d follow a formulaic structure that typically would include:
- A headline
- An introduction of the seller
- An introduction of a common problem
- A section to introduce the product that promised to solve the problem
- Social proof – ie, you could trust the seller and the product because all these people have said all these wonderful things about it/them
- A guarantee
- Something about at least one bonus
- A bit about the price, often discounted for a limited period
- A ‘buy now’ button
- More testimonials
- Another look at the guarantee
- Another ‘buy now’ button
I bought a book – it cost hundreds – to learn the art of writing sales letters and earn my fortune. It suggested copying, by hand, at least one letter several times to get used to the structure and language.
Did I do it? No. Turned out I didn’t enjoy enjoy writing sales copy.
I ended up selling that book* (currently available for more than £1,000) and found other types of copywriting that I enjoyed more.
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*affiliate link
