Sales letters are a very effective way to get your message out. Whether you are sending out a direct letter or using email as your distribution strategy, to make your sales letter fabulous, you need to get your creative juices flowing and write something powerful that people will want to read. You must be compelling, conversational, and creative. Here are five tried and true methods for writing fabulous sales letters. Give them a try and watch your results soar.

The big question sets the stage for an answer. In your headline or in your opening paragraph, you should open up with a big and (sometimes) provocative question that gets the reader thinking and searching for those same answers. This will compel the reader to continue on in search of the answer. For example, “Have you ever wondered if there was something more to life? If I told you I had a program guaranteed to show you how to reach your goals, would you be interested?” Basic psychology tells us that when you ask a question, people will immediately try to find the answer. This creates an immediate connection with your reader and leads them to your answer – your product or service.

One of the best sales secrets out there is storytelling. When writing your sales letters, try to lead with a story that your reader can relate to. For example, when I started my business, I had no idea how to attract new clients. I was not a marketing person and wanted nothing to do with it, but I knew it was a critical element to my business. Then I purchased “Marketing 101″ and instantly, my fears disappeared. I gained instant peace of mind, attracted new clients and watched my profits soar. The goal is to write a story that the readers want to hear- one that relates to their situation and creates empathy.

People love certain words and free is one of them. Offer your readers something free right up front and they will feel compelled to continue reading out of obligation. Although your offer is free, it is understood that you are offering it in exchange for them reading your letter. For example, on my own website, “Would you like a free 5 part miniseries on entrepreneur-ism? Then just go to my link in the footer.”

Another good technique is to connect right away with a personal testimonial from somebody your reader knows. For example, your friend James recommended we contact you because he thought our product would be helpful to you to reach your goals. If you operate a referral program, this is extremely easy. Just be sure to capture the names and the connections and once the reader sees the name of someone they know, the letter makes a strong personal connection.

Fear is a powerful emotion and the advertising industry has been using this as a powerful marketing tool for years. By creating a sales message that produces a fear in your readers, they will be more compelled to continue reading in hopes of finding a solution to that fear. For example, “Did you know that home values have dropped by 72%? Where is your security?” If you are in the financial services business, this may be an effective way to create fear and motivate your reader to purchase your products.

The overall objective to a sales letter is to “hook” your reader to take action. You have less than 3 seconds to grab their attention and less than 30 seconds after that for them to decide whether they will read, skim or dispose of your letter. You must take every action possible in order to keep your readers interested and these 5 methods are excellent was to do so.

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Kellie D’Andrea is the creator of the BLAST 9O Day Coaching Program and teaches biz owners how to build the business of their dreams for a life of freedom, profits and fulfillment. Interesting in growing your business, sign up for her FREE mini course “The Empowered Entrepreneur” and learn how to take the journey to freedom, profits and fulfillment at http://www.kelliedandrea.com

Whether you are a newcomer, or an experienced marketer, you need to pay attention to building your list. There are plenty of ways to do it, so long as you start from having great content on yur site.

These are the top 5 tips that I have found work every time for me, and they will for you too.

This is a no-brainier, but sadly few people make the most of it. If you have a 100 page website, you should have 100 newsletter subscribe boxes on your website.

How? Well you can integrate a subscribe box just about anywhere on a website or add a pop up window (still very effective.) What about just before an article starts, in the middle of an article or even at the end of the article?

This works well if the free offer is something that will help or be useful to the visitor. The best way is to create one yourself and not offer something you have reprint rights to with 500 other people.

You want it to be unique, and to complement your newsletters topics so you could adapt something from PLR or offer back issues of your newsletter.

A great way to get lots of new subscribers for your e-zine without spending a penny on advertising is to create an e-book as a free product. Offer it to visitors to the site, or to other website owners in your niche with reprint rights to the product so they can sell your product while making 100% commission in the process.

I prefer the reprint right route because people are more likely to read and value a book they have paid for. It’s important that you protect your product by ensuring your e-book is in .pdf format so it can’t be changed and that your details appear all the way through it.

Find a group of publishers in your market, let them know you created a new e-book with a sales letter that they can use and plug straight into their website. Give them a mailing promotion to use and tell them they can have the book for free, and that they can either sell the book or give the book to their customers as a bonus.

Audio interviews are a great idea to get more subscribers in non internet marketing circles. Interviewing experts over the phone and recording it will get your newsletter splashed all over the Internet.

Do you know how to find experts in any field almost instantly? Go to the top article directories, such as submityourarticle.com, then look for your particular niche in the relevant category.

Contact the most popular writers and get in touch to say you want to interview them as your subscribers would be really interested in their information.

Most will do this without charging you a penny for a good plug for their product or website and, once you have these interviews, tell all the publishers you’ve been in contact with from tip 3 that you have this great set of MP3 interviews you want to offer them for free to their lists.

Then you setup a page on your website with the download link to these mp3’s and put a subscribe form near them for your newsletter. You will be surprised how many people will sign up after they listen to your interviews, but DO NOT make them sign up for your newsletter before they get do so – it only puts people off.

Sometimes people are hesitant to give any sort of information away over the Internet, especially their email address even if what you are offering is free. But if you allow people to read your back issues without having to sign up for your newsletter, this will show them what type of content you write and will make them want to join.

Make sure you tell them on the website that newsletter subscribers get each issue a month before it is published on the website for non subscribers and if the information is especially time sensitive they will definitely want to subscribe.

It doesn’t matter if you are running a membership or a sales site because I have successfully tried and tested all these tips. If you are serious about building your list then these tips are the ones to try first.

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Neil Stafford is Editor and Publisher of the Internet Marketing Review the UK’s longest running PRINTED Internet Marketing Newsletter. ‘Test drive’ the Newsletter for FREE – Visit this special web page for more information: http://www.internetmarketingreview.com/2months/