Writing Sales Copy

More people than you be aware of shy away from writing their own ads and sales letters when it’s really not necessary. If you have even a basic grasp of writing skills, you can easily write your own stuff that really sells. You probably just need a couple pointers about format and language. When formatting an ad or a sales letter, put the most crucial benefits right up front. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and ask yourself what the customer will really go for. Focus on that point. Keep your sentences brief and down-to-earth. Sales copy needs to be creative and fresh or people lose curiosity. With straightforward sentences you can steer clear of confusion and get right to the point of the advertisement. Take it a step further in your classified ads and exchange complete sentences with captivating two and three-word phrases.

Break your copy into little sections.
Professional writers often keep their paragraphs to two or three sentences. This makes your copy much easier to follow. Use illustration tricks to capture attention. Use headings and sub-headings to highlight your most significant features, and use bulleted lists when describing product features. Include a P.S. in sales letters. Most people read the P.S. first. Use it to summarize your key offer, and then add an extra special bonus.

Include a time limit to get the best deal.
This persuades people to buy more quickly. And finally, once you’ve got your sales letter or ad set up in this clean and simple format; make sure you’re using clean and simple language to match, and not fancy language that knows the words except you. We all know what fancy words are , it is that overcomplicated, clichéd and unnecessarily formal language that can either totally confuse us or just put us to sleep. Either way it loses the customer, and loses you the sale. In an effort to seem smart or serious or professional, horrible business writers often end up using gobbledygook. I see sales
letters and emails all the time with business-speak phrases like “in our considered opinion” and “enclosed please find.” This makes the seller sound stuffy and unapproachable. Simplify these into everyday language. Write how you would speak: “we think” and “here is,” are much better choices.

Customers connect to conversational language.
If you follow these tips you should be able to come up with some pretty great copy. Keep plugging away at it, and you’ll find you get pretty good. Who knows? People might even start coming to you for writing advice.

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Copywriting Jobs

Your goal is to land a few nice, secure freelance copywriting jobs, but how do you get them? The most important factor in finding these jobs is that you pursue the job you are looking for with all of your ducks in a row, so to speak. Here are a few things you need to do in order to get the freelance copywriting jobs that you have been looking for.

Prepare yourself through your schooling. Most people in the copywriting industry have at least a two year degree. If you can afford to do this, do it. It will benefit you for a long time down the road. Often times, getting a four year degree is beneficial to getting into the bigger companies. Some schools offer internships which can be an outstanding way to get your foot in the door. Hopefully, they will hire you right after the internship and you’ll be set. If not, you will need to pursue other companies, but you will have this real world experience.

Place yourself in the right company environment. If you want to find jobs in copy writing, don’t settle for something in an unrelated field. Instead, look for a small start in the right career.

Work on your portfolio. By putting together a good quality portfolio and keeping it up to date, you will land a nice secure copywriting job through the experience you have. While no copy writing jobs are too small in the beginning, down the road they will pile up to help you land the best of the best.

The employment that you want is available. But, you must be prepared when you do get the right interview to wow them. Impressing them through your college education and degrees is a great way to start. Take on small contracts in order to build a quality portfolio to present. Polish your resume if you do not already have a solid one.

Freelance copywriting jobs are available. It is up to you to be prepared for them when they are ready for you.

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Growing As A Business Leader

From very humble beginnings, Brian Tracy has risen to a position of respect in the international world of business. Now living in Southern California, he has traveled the world, speaks several foreign languages and has business interests. He is an author, speaker and consultant, helping thousands of individuals on a daily basis through his books, tapes, speeches, email newsletters and coaching programs. Here are some of his thoughts about how you can become a better leader in your organization.

Optimists and Pessimists
There are three basic differences in the reactions of optimists and pessimists. The optimist sees a setback as temporary, while the pessimist sees it as permanent. The optimist sees an unfortunate event, such as an order that falls through or a sales call that fails, as a temporary event, something that is limited in time and that has no real impact on the future. The pessimist, on the other hand, sees negative events as permanent, as part of life and destiny. Make sure your associates are the optimists.

The Profession of Selling
Selling is hard. It always has and it always will be. Even for the best and most experienced salespeople, it is a continual effort. A person can make it easier by developing skills in the critical areas of prospecting, presenting and closing sales, but it is unlikely that someone can make selling an easy profession. However, once it is accepted that selling is a hard way to make a living, it somehow becomes a little easier. When someone stops expecting it to be something other than it is, much of the stress of selling goes out of it. As William James said, “The first step in dealing with any difficulty is to be willing to have it so.”

The Key Question
Continually ask, “What is the most valuable use of my time, right now?” And whatever it is, work on that. The ability to have self discipline to work on those few tasks that can make the greatest difference in life is the key quality that makes everything else possible.

Clarify The Desired Result
Start by asking “What are we trying to do?” Whenever becoming frustrated with slow progress for any reason, step back and ask this again and again, “What are we trying to do?”

Analyze Current Methods
Clarify the process of what is trying to be done by asking “How are we trying to do it?” If resistance is being experienced, perhaps the method is wrong. Be willing to objectively analyze the approach by asking, “How are we trying to do it?” Is this the right way? Could there be a better way? What if our method was completely wrong? How else could it be done?

The Narrow Margin
The game of life is very competitive. Sometimes, great success and great failure are separated by a very small distance. In watching the play-offs in basketball, baseball and football, the winner can be decided by a single point, and that single point can rest on a single action, or inaction, on the part of a single team member at a critical part of the game.

The Winning Edge
Life is very much like competitive sports. Very small things that are done, or not done, can either give the edge that leads to victory or takes away the edge at the critical moment. This principle is especially true with regard to accepting responsibility for individual actions, including everything that happens to you.

A Go-Giver; Not A Go-Getter
Someone has observed that no one ever built a statue to a person to acknowledge what he or she got out of life. Statues are built only to people to acknowledge what they gave. The most powerful, influential and successful people you will ever meet always look for ways to do nice things for others. When you meet someone under almost any circumstance, one of the best questions you can ask is this: “Is there anything that I can do for you?” Always look for ways to put in rather than to take out. The successful man or woman of today is a “go-giver” as well as a go-getter.

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Resume Writing Tips II

6. Focus on your job responsibilities
Starting with your present position or most recent job, mention the title of every job you have held, along with the name of the company, the city and state, and the years you have worked there. Under each position, make a list of your job responsibilities. Use descriptive verbs, such as created, increased, performed, initiated, developed, led, improved or reduced to begin each statement of your duties and accomplishments. Producing a document that is well presented, detailed and targeted will attract the attention of your hiring manager.

7. Add related qualifications and interests
Think about anything else that might qualify you for your job objective and place it at the bottom of your job resume. It may include licenses, certifications, awards and achievements, and sometimes even your hobbies and interests if they truly relate. If you seek a job in a music company, for example, stating on your job resume that you are a pianist will increase your chance to get that interview call.

8. Be honest with your job resume
If you did not actually do what you said you did, it would be called a lie. Numerous surveys show that job applicants lie most frequently about education and employment, particularly about job responsibilities and dates of employment. Hiding gaps in employment and jobs where they were forced to leave by the respective employers is also common. There are many risks involved in lying, but many job applicants do not seem to get the message about the risks of lying. Once you are caught with a lie, you will be fired then and there. So, DON”T lie – be honest with your job resume.

9. Always attach a covering letter
A cover letter is a letter of introduction that highlights your key achievements and job skills and entitles you for a job opening. It reflects your communication job skills and your personality. The main purpose of this document is to introduce yourself in such an interesting manner that the reader will not only continue reading your job resume but also be willing to call you for an interview.

If you want to create cover letters for any career situation, position, and job level, I recommend a unique job resume/ cover letter tool on the Internet today called Amazing Cover Letter Creator. I recommend this tool, because it solves the frustrating problem job seekers have when trying to write an effective job resume cover letter. You can use it over and over again for all your cover letter needs.

10. Proofread your job resume
After you have finalized your employment documents, check them repeatedly for errors in spelling, grammar, or punctuation. Spelling and grammatical errors can automatically disqualify a job resume from consideration. If you make mistakes on your employment documents, hiring managers might presume you will be equally careless on the job – no matter how important your qualifications and experiences are. Proofread your job resume and cover letter carefully.

Make your job resume positive and completely error-free. If you are seeking two or three different positions, prepare two or three separate job resumes, each tailored to the job you are targeting. Make your job resume exclusive and unique so that it stands out from the crowd. Good luck for your career!

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