2 months and no sales letter...I'm not happy

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Hi there,

I subscribed to a copywriting WSO a long time ago and it was a very good deal and I purchased a number of sales letter copywriting offers - I spent a lot of money as well.

Eventually some sales pages were done - it's over 2 months since I placed this order and am still waiting for that sales letter as well as two others.

the explanation I've gotten is that he has a full paid service and that gets priority and he'll get to it etc...meanwhile in this same time period he keeps sending out offers to his list.

I've been told that most copywriters take six weeks to deliver their sales letter.

All i can say is while the end result - the pages - are good I'm not happy with the service (nor the fact that the sales letter comes just in a word document rather than a completed sales letter format.

Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Colleen

[zapseo]

Dang, I guess I need to run more copywriting WSOs, LOL. (I've run 4 WSOs in > 4 years on the WF, LOL.)

ANY business engagement runs on expectations.

Yah, it can be a bit of a problem if you don't know what questions to ask to determine expectations -- it can take a bit of ferreting out.

The 2 expectations that you mentioned, that would have been good to determine upfront are: turn around time and how the deliverable is delivered.

Which is to say...if you don't have an agreement on the time frame, then you don't have an agreement and your expectations, sadly, are just your expectations. Sorry -- that sounds a bit harsh, and I don't mean it to be. But it is reality. I know copywriters who basically take "reservations" for copy months in advance. It would have been more professional for the copywriter to give you some idea of when to expect the copy.

It must be particularly galling, though, to see offer after offer made to his list while still owing you work-product.

As for how the copy is delivered -- varies all over the board. Some people promise sales pages, others promise sales letters -- that is, copy (words) only. In an ad agency, a copywriter would only provide words with some input on formatting. I've delivered copy both ways.

Personally, I think you are advantaged to have a graphic designer deal with the layout. There are too many issues in how html & css is rendered in different browsers. I seriously question whether many of the copywriters out there actually check out the layout of their sales pages through something like browsershots.org.

At this point, I tend to take a negotiated stance on layout & graphics. It's not really cost-effective for me (or you) to be doing (trying to do?) layout and graphic design of your sales letter. So it's something that I work out with my clients. I've recently enlisted the services of a graphic designer to work with me (extra cost to the client, but a good deal.) but she primarily does graphics -- we haven't actually talked about layout (it's a relatively new arrangement.)

I know this isn't great news -- but I hope it helps.

Live JoyFully!

Judy Kettenhofen, Profit Strategist/Copywriter
NextDay Copy

[AndrewCavanagh]

It's not unusual to wait months for sales copy to be completed but that is one of the first questions you MUST ask a copywriter before you hire him/her...

1. How long will it take for you to complete this copy? When can I expect to see the first draft?

And of course you'll also want to know how the copy will be delivered.

Most online copywriters will want to give you your sales copy in a simple html sales page format for one reason...

So you don't screw up the formatting of the sales page and tank conversions!!

There are a whole pile of secrets in the way you format an online sales letter and most pros will want to create a page including drop caps, fonts, tables, captions.

They may want you to hire a graphic artist to do a few covers ($60-$200).


But all in all I think with sales copy you should expect to get what you pay for.

If you're paying a few hundred dollars for copy then it's quite likely you won't get as good a job as if you pay closer to the industry average for an online sales letter (US$2,500 to $3,500 according to a recent survey).

And if you don't work out in advance the time frames and delivery expectations for the copy then you're just asking for problems.

It is a shame you've learned this lesson the hard way.

Many copywriters will tell you upfront what to expect from their service.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh