After writing my last blog article about Ted Nicholas, I came across this video I thought I would share. Also, I was wrong about the $4.4 billion Ted generated for him and his clients. It’s actually $5.9 billion!

In this video, Ted shows you some great copywriting tips for beginners (and a nice refresher for more experienced copywriters as well). Read more…

John Ritz Copywriting beginners, copywriter, Copywriting, copywriting tips, salesletter, Ted Nicholas

A couple years back I got to spend some time with copywriting legend Ted Nicholas in a day-long copywriting workshop.

Ted gave a lot of insight into many of the ads he has written over the years, and it’s easy to see why his copy has generated more than $4.9 BILLION for himself and his clients, including Nightingale-Conant, Agora, Marriott Corporation, Dearborn Financial Publishing, and Fischer Publishing, to name a few. Read more…

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Video #4 is finally ready, and in this one I pick up some direct response ads from around my house and from my mail and critique them. I show you some winners and (in my view) some things that can be improved.

You might just look at some of your own salesletters in a whole new light! Read more…

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After an interesting trip to Philly for the jvAlert Live seminar this past weekend, I’m finally getting back into the swing of things. And I have quite a few tidbits to share with you. The big problem for me was: where to begin?

There are so many topics worth sharing, so I decided to start with a very timely lesson we discussed in the copywriting panel. Read more…

John Ritz Copywriting, Marketing conversions, Copywriting, copywriting-techniques, credit cards, direct response, internet copy, john carlton, jvalert, jvalert live, mike morgan, pitch, salesletter

In my last article, I offered some tips on adding more proof to your sales copy.

Because nothing’s worse than your prospects leaving your site immediately because your claims sound “too good to be true.” Even if they really are true.

Today I’m going to take it a step further and talk about a more advanced technique (but often missed by many copywriters). Read more…

John Ritz Copywriting copywriters, copywriting-techniques, credibility, critique, gary-halbert, hook, proof, sales-copy, sales-letter, salesletter, subconscious mind

I want to talk a bit about incorporating proof and believability in your sales copy, because it’s one of the most lacking things I see in many sales letters online today. There are so many opportunities to pile on the proof, there’s really no excuse to be slacking in that department.

The old “legend” goes that a famous attorney had his staff in a meeting, preparing for a major case. He asked them if there was anything they were missing… Read more…

John Ritz Copywriting believability, copywriters, copywriting-techniques, credibility, proof, sales-copy, sales-letter, salesletter

As a copywriter, I’ve learned firsthand about the effectiveness of grabbers. What is a grabber? It’s simply an item that you attach to the top of a sales letter that “grabs” your reader’s immediate attention. It may be a dollar bill or a bill of higher denomination. It could be an “admit one” ticket of some sort, a penny, a foreign coin, a photograph, or just about anything. The key is to make sure it ties in to your letter or offer. It usually replaces the headline (or sometimes supplements it), and it’s purpose is the same as the headline: to get your sales letter read. Read more…

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Not too long ago an associate of mine asked me to look at his website’s sales copy. He had been struggling with tweaking and testing, and his latest salesletter to beat his previous control only ended up bringing in an additional 0.02% response. With all the marketing he was doing, his site was barely profitable. He even hired a decent copywriter to craft his latest salesletter, the new control.

Well, I took a look at his site, and I gotta say the salesletter didn’t look bad at all to me. Great headline, great lead, decent offer with plenty of quality bonuses. Pushed the right hot buttons, used takeaway selling, good call to action. Overall a very good sales letter (to me, at least). So why was it doing so poorly? Read more…

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