Best swipe file collection of headlines, bullet points, transitions, closing ?

[Flierboy]

Folks,

What's the best swipe file collection of headlines, bullet points, transitions, closing ?

I am just starting out in IM with my first product, and can't afford to pay $ X,000 for good copywriters.

So following the advice in the sticky threads, I purchased Maria Veloso's "Web Copy That Sells" and decided to write a sales letter on my own to earn enough money to hire a pro copywriter in time.

I am finding that copywriting is intense and hard Following the book directions, I am being forced to think of my market and product in ways I never thought.

So I figured it would be cool if instead of searching on the web eveytime for good examples, what if I had a great reference collection of headlines, bullet points, transitions etc.

I came across Lawrence Bernstein's "Made You Look: 527 Email Subject Lines That Dare You to Look Away" (infomarketingblog.com/made-you-look/). Although this main product is about email headlines, it does come with a 300 pg bonus "Breakthrough Copywriting Templates" which seems to perfectly meet my sales letter swipe file needs.

What do you guys think of Bernstein's product? Would you recommend another swipe collection to a rookie copywriter?

Thank you for any recommendations. Your help is most appreciated!

Best,

-Ritesh

[James Pateman]

Hi Ritesh, 527 is a lot of emails.

There are also some free lists too.

regards,
James Pateman

[dtendrich]

...I'm personally not a big fan of Lawrence's e-mails...

I'm on his list, because he has great content from time to time, but his e-mail headlines and content never really grab my attention. But I appreciate the free content he puts up, and the products he offers sound great, too.

There's a really killer collection on Clayton Makepeace's blog, but I can't remember which post. I'm sure if you google Clayton Makepeace swipe blog you'll find it.

Best,
David

[Jag82]

Hi Flierboy,

If you are looking for a huge collection of proven sales
copies that you can swipe, look no further than these
2 sources:

1. Agora Catalog
site:isecureonline.com/Reports/ - Google Search


2. Hard To Find Ads
http://hardtofindads.com


To organize my swipes, this is what I do.

Get out an excel sheet.

Create multiple worksheets.

And each worksheets will be for swipes
for each components of a copy (e.g. headlines, opening,
bullets, offer, guarantee, P.S etc)

You can copy and paste the relevant portion
to the relevant worksheets.

You can also use a tool like SnagIt to create an
image of the parts you need.

With these 2 resources, you will have enough
materials to create a mega swipe file.

I've one of my own. And I can't imagine
doing copy without it.

Hope this helps!

Jag

[Daniel Scott]

Raydal has a great product that has tons of examples of his autoresponders... and it's only $17 (see his sig).

One of the best products I've seen in ages.

Honestly, though... my advice is just to bookmark pages that interest you (or save junk mail). Look at enough of them thoroughly to see WHY they convert so well... and you will eventually get a feel for good writing.

It takes a lot of time though.

-Dan

[MikeHumphreys]

Originally Posted by Jag82

Hi Flierboy,

If you are looking for a huge collection of proven sales
copies that you can swipe, look no further than these
2 sources:

1. Agora Catalog
site:isecureonline.com/Reports/ - Google Search

Jag

Be careful with Agora's stuff because not everything they have online is a proven winner or written well. There's even a mega swipe file of Agora floating around which has a number of duds or badly written pieces in them.

Agora has a massive house list which responds well to their offers. Doesn't mean the sales letter used is one you'd want to study if you're trying to learn how to write great copy.

Joe Sugarman has some great swipe file material in his book Adweek Copywriting Handbook. Besides being a great book (for under $15!) on learning to write great copy, Joe breaks down both winning and losing direct mail pieces he used over the years.

Hope that helps,

Mike

[Shane Hale]

Awesome! Thanks for the post this was what I have been looking for besides opting in and collecting my own.

[transflash]

Thanks for these resources. I am just getting started in copywriting and wasn't even aware of swipe files yet. This is going to help me out a lot.

[dtendrich]

Originally Posted by Jag82

Hi Flierboy,

If you are looking for a huge collection of proven sales
copies that you can swipe, look no further than these
2 sources:

1. Agora Catalog
site:isecureonline.com/Reports/ - Google Search


2. Hard To Find Ads
http://hardtofindads.com

Wow, thanks, Jag! I've found some absolute gold mines on both of these sites, neither of which I'd ever heard of before. Preciate you sharing the wealth!

David

[Jared Alberghini]

The All-In-One thread Allen recently started has turned into quite the amazing resource...

All-In-One: The Copywriting Swipe File

Jared

[Matt Jutras]

My Instant Swipe File is exactly what you're looking for in your original post:


My Instant Swipe File! - Write Million-Dollar Sales Copy... Instantly!

· Headlines

· Offers

· Creating Scarcity

· Proof

· Pricing

· Closes

· Guarantees

· Value Building

· Bonuses

· Benefits

· Postscripts

· Openings

· Bullets

As well as Yanik Silver's Instant Tool Box (this is a bonus report with his Instant Sales Letter Product):

Instant Sales Letters: Create Business Letters Guaranteed to Sell...Without Writing

133 Magical Openings That Makes Readers Beg For More.
Never again be stuck on how to start a letter. Your opening is one of the most important parts of the letter, that’s where readers decide to keep reading or just toss your letter.

333 Greatest Selling Words and Phrases.
Certain words and phrases have been proven over and over again to produce results. Now, you’ll have a ready-reference of tested words and phrases for your next marketing piece.

226 "Bucket Brigade" Copy Transitions and Connectors.
This is my absolute favorite section in the entire manual. And you’ll get 226 ways to smoothly and seamlessly connect every paragraph. This section alone is worth your admission price.

55 Powerful Fill-In-The-Blank Bullet Templates That Sell!
Powerful bullets make sales letters sizzle! And you’ll get dozens of quick and easy ways to create selling bullets.

22 Powerful Ways to State Your Guarantee.
A well-worded guarantee can multiply your sales. It’s true. And instead of falling back on "satisfaction guaranteed", you can take advantage of these proven examples.

31 Closings That Make Prospects Whip Out Their Wallets.
Here’s the part where most letters totally wimp out -- it’s not enough to just write "call today" because people won’t. In this section you’re handed 31 of the most profitable examples of how to close your letter for maximum results.

32 Compelling P.S.s That Make Prospects Buy.
Your letter’s P.S. is critical. That’s your last chance to turn a prospect into a customer. And now you’ve got 32 tested samples to use for your next sales letter.

[colmodwyer]

Be careful with Agora's stuff because not everything they have online is a proven winner or written well. There's even a mega swipe file of Agora floating around which has a number of duds or badly written pieces in them.

Agora has a massive house list which responds well to their offers. Doesn't mean the sales letter used is one you'd want to study if you're trying to learn how to write great copy.

The Agora house list responds to good copy, and not so much to poor copy like any other list does.

If there's a winning Agora promo out there, I say study the crapola out of it!

Colm

[TheMagicShow]

Originally Posted by Matt Jutras

My Instant Swipe File is exactly what you're looking for in your original post:


My Instant Swipe File! - Write Million-Dollar Sales Copy... Instantly!



As well as Yanik Silver's Instant Tool Box (this is a bonus report with his Instant Sales Letter Product):

Instant Sales Letters: Create Business Letters Guaranteed to Sell...Without Writing

This is a great product, I was lucky to review this product when it first came out. Jeff literally gives you all the bags of tricks, used by the top copywriters. Invest $17 and you shall be amazed! No doubt about it!

[MikeHumphreys]

Originally Posted by colmodwyer

The Agora house list responds to good copy, and not so much to poor copy like any other list does.

If there's a winning Agora promo out there, I say study the crapola out of it!

Colm

Winning promo... sure, you'd best study every winning promo you can find from any copywriter.

My point was just because someone lumped together every salesletter of Agora's that they could find online doesn't mean that they were all winners. Unless Agora is running that sales letter as is, month after month.. or you get your hands on the metrics on how well it converted, you don't know if it was a winner or not.

An experienced copywriter *should* be able to spot the holes in the copy of the non-winners but even being highly-skilled at writing copy doesn't mean you will always be able to identify the winners from the duds on sight.

When an inexperienced or aspiring copywriter studies duds, they run the risk of picking up bad habits that will be hard to break or will limit their chances of success.

Bottom line, study winning sales letter regardless of whether they were offline or online marketing pieces... a week old or a hundred years old. It's one of the things I did to make my copy chops get stronger in a hurry.

Take care,

Mike

[Jag82]

Originally Posted by MikeHumphreys

Winning promo... sure, you'd best study every winning promo you can find from any copywriter.

My point was just because someone lumped together every salesletter of Agora's that they could find online doesn't mean that they were all winners. Unless Agora is running that sales letter as is, month after month.. or you get your hands on the metrics on how well it converted, you don't know if it was a winner or not.

An experienced copywriter *should* be able to spot the holes in the copy of the non-winners but even being highly-skilled at writing copy doesn't mean you will always be able to identify the winners from the duds on sight.

When an inexperienced or aspiring copywriter studies duds, they run the risk of picking up bad habits that will be hard to break or will limit their chances of success.

Opps that someone is me!

You are right. Not every sales copy in there is a winner.
That's for sure. I won't know for sure too, unless I have
access to their statistics.

I gave the Agora example, because they are renowned
as a leader in direct response information publishing.

So chances are - on the whole - their sales pages
are usually better than the average sales letter you read out there.

That said, you made a correct point.

Don't take every copy from that Agora catalog as a winner.

Jag

[John_S]

"Best" is a tricky word.

The top selling sales letter of 1908 might not appeal to today's consumer. Especially when a lot of people use these things like a template.

The universal human appeal, perhaps. A particular lesson drawn from study, certainly. A "swipe"? Not so much.

I'll argue for the "best" as something you hand select, piece by piece, understanding why it's in your swipe file.

I was one of the nut jobs who, when Gary Halbert said to rewrite copy by hand, filled up a spiral bound. So I would argue that there needs to be some least little effort applied before you can make "a" swipe file into "your" swipe file.

[Flierboy]

Matt and Magic Mel, Thank you for your recommendations. I bought Jeff Gardner's 'My Instant Swipe File'. Wow, exactly what I was looking for, and waaaaay more than $17 worth IMHO

David, Jag, Daniel, Mike, Jared, John, and everyone else,

Many thanks for taking the time to drop in with your advice here. It's really helpful and I appreciate it much.

You guys really helped overcome my writing block. My salesletter version 0 is about 80% complete, and I hope to have it ready for a review by Wednesday next week.

I look forward to your comments and help me make this a converting letter

Have a great weekend everyone,

-Ritesh