How to write a sales letter that makes $$$

Do you want to make money online? Even while you are sleeping? Or playing tennis or cooking or enjoying a cruise vacation?

Then this post is for you.

I'm going to go all out and teach you everything I know about writing a sales letter.

The great copywriter Gary Halbert once wrote, "You are one sales letter away from being rich."

This is because, unlike selling in person, once you have a converting sales letter, you can REPLICATE it a thousand times or even a million times, and it will ALWAYS generate revenue for you.

Yup, even while you sleep!

However, let's be realistic, your sales letter has to be PERFECT.

Unlike a sales conversation where you can adapt in real-time to the prospect based on his reactions or questions, you CANNOT do that in writing. EVERY WORD MATTERS.

It's like computer programming: if there's one misplaced comma or if it's illogical in anyway, the program WILL NOT WORK.

But the good news is, with Internet, you can send out hundreds or even thousands of different sales letters and test them all to see WHICH one(s) work.

Your Internet provider (Bell in my case) will NOT charge you more money if you send out more emails or social media messages!

So you might as well send out AS MANY SALES MESSAGES AS POSSIBLE and have fun tracking which one(s) make money so you can refocus your efforts on THOSE sales messages to make them better.

However, you have to start with BASIC copywriting principles.

In the 1990s, I worked in marketing communications and corporate sales support for big companies like IBM, American Express, etc. so I know all their corporate sales tactics.

Heck, I was the copywriter who helped corporate sales reps to create and refine their sales presentations!

Six-figure contracts, baby.

But again, you must start with BABY STEPS.

So let's review the six basic questions you MUST answer in every sales letter. We will adopt the prospect's point of view and imagine that SHE is asking these questions:

1. Do I understand what this product/service is really about???
2. Do I really need it???
3. Can I believe the claims made by the sales rep or provider???
4. Can I believe I can achieve similar results? This is an important question when the performance of a product or service depends on the client, as in coaching or consulting or training. This question is less important if it's a product that performs on its own, like a smartphone.
5. Can I afford it???
6. Do I have to make a decision NOW???

Guys, let me tell you, most entrepreneurs and freelancers fail to answer most of the basic questions above.

You have to be like a journalist and answer, as simply as possible, the six questions above.

At this stage, don't try any Cialdini technique or any sales framework. Just answer the prospect's questions as straightforwardly as possible.

Even if you write up a copywriting brief for a copywriter on Fiverr, you must answer these six questions because it's gonna help the copywriter figure out the best tactic, based on your answers.

Of course, you can use www.copy.ai/?via=peter to generate ideas (get a paid account asap, I need my commission lol).

But you still have to make the output of CopyAI fit into one of these six questions.

You could also practice by recording yourself, on your smartphone, answering these six questions. One video per question.

And then listen to your six videos, take notes, and record your answers again. And again. And again.

You can also send your six answers to smart collaborators and ask them how they would rate EACH answer, from 1 to 10.

Of course, you can do the same favor for them.

The beauty of these six questions is that they are sequential, meaning that if you fail to properly answer question 1, it's game over.

You CANNOT proceed to answer question 2.

Similarly, if you fail to properly answer question 2, you CANNOT go to question 3, and so on.

As you gather feedback from friends and collaborators, you'll get a six-digit number like: 634653.

(Oh boy, I'm giving you special training worth hundreds of dollars here, I hope you're taking notes!).

The first digit (from 0 to 9) represents your score for the first question.

So if you're not explaining your product/service really well, the first digit would be 1. If you did it well and there is no confusion in the prospect's mind about what your product is and what it actually does, and your score would be8 or 9.

Ideally, if you've answered all six questions very, very well -- not according to your opinion but according to feedback from smart copywriters and marketers -- then you get a score like 888888 or even 999999.

You could have a score like 899871 and that's not good. It means you've answered five questions really well, BUT your answer to "Should I act NOW?" is not good so your prospect won't take action NOW.

She'll think about it, and then forget about you.

See how it works? Beautiful isn't it?

It's a computational approach to copywriting, it precedes whatever Claude Hopkins is teaching in his book Scientific Advertising.

Hopkins is brilliant and everybody should read his book, but he doesn't cover the SCIENCE of copywriting, the actual scientific principles that I discuss here.

*** If you want to make money online, you MUST answer these six questions because the prospect IS asking these questions in her mind, consciously or subconsciously.

Same questions when you're looking for a job. Unless you answer these questions for potential employers, they will NEVER hire you.

It's okay if you don't or can't answer well certain questions; at least, you know that you must FOCUS on developing good answers for those questions.

The great news is that you can get on the email list of digital marketers out there and get ALL their sales emails, and copy their techniques.

You'll see right away all their answers to these six questions.

And you can modify their answers so they apply specifically to YOUR product or service.

Copywriting is often defined as the art of selling using the written word.

That's such an impotent definition!

It's a very basic definition, sure, but the real, advanced, exciting definition of copywriting is: Witchcraft.

That is, it's the science and art of taking over somebody's mind in order to hypnotize them and convince them to do what is in their best interest.

You're "taking over their mind" with THEIR permission so it's totally ethical.

YOU are in charge of what and how they think now.

Listen, they don't have to read your sales letter. But the minute they start reading, they ARE giving you permission to use ethical means of persuasion to convince them to buy.

That's what they WANT!!!

They want YOU to expertly convince them so they feel CONFIDENT in buying from you!!!

If they were not interested in your product or service, they would NOT be reading you!

If you don't learn copywriting, the prospect will be DISAPPOINTED!

Prospect: "Dude, I gave you my precious attention and I was ready to buy your product, expecting you to answer my six questions! And you failed! Man, I wasted my time! Didn't you read Peter's post in Entrepreneur Academy about the six questions??? Peter is an award-winning writer, why didn't you study and practice what he taught???"

Okay, maybe not that last part, but I do hope you understand the tremendous value of what I'm teaching here.

Practice it and make tons of money online. Or not, and slave for the rest of your life working to enrich "the man" in the corner office.

Millions of people are waiting online to read your sales letter. They have their credit card number ready to be punched into your order form. They want to buy your product or service.

It is time to learn how to write effective sales copy and make as much money as you want.