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How do you draft your sales letter (ie. word, notepad or straight to HTML page)

by Big Al
15 replies
Just curious how people draft their copy and then decide on the layout etc.

Do you put it into word and format the fonts like you expect to have them on your webpage?

Do you go straight for the HTML?

Write the text into a notepad file (focus on the copy) and then format as you create the HTML page?

Do you create the different components of a letter in seperate documents and then play with what way to order and then play with the order (depending on the strongest message)?

Or use a wordpress page and work on the WYSIWYG editor?

Thanks

Al
#draft #html #letter #notepad #page #sales #straight #word
  • Profile picture of the author John_S
    I open something, then type.

    Everything else is an extra charge. Want a layout, product photos, etc ...that's billable. That's work. That's upsell.
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    • Profile picture of the author John_S
      Do you put it into word and format the fonts like you expect to have them on your webpage?
      What magical versions of Microsoft Word do you use? Try PDF.
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      • Profile picture of the author KEY
        I use a really cool set of tools ... paper (notebook) and some
        colored pens :p

        benefits:
        - instant 'on'
        - auto-save
        - limitless graphics, and fonts

        cons:
        - no spell checker
        - while immune to viruses? susceptible to dog drool and coffee spills
        - no import tools -> to web or blog

        KEY (eric)
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  • Profile picture of the author TheOcarlsen
    I draft in imaginary conversations.

    ... but yeah - notepad / text edit. Once you can make something feel impressive on black on white same font all the way down, then you are in a pretty good spot.
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  • Profile picture of the author wvcopywriter
    I just type everything up on openoffice.org , then after it is written then format it the way I want it. But I do use typepad for my emails services.
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    Don't have the time to write emails that will get opened, read and your reader to take action then leave me a message. I will get back to you within 48 hrs.

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    • Profile picture of the author virginiad
      If you use Word, you can't just copy/paste into an HTML document.

      I did that with a letter last year and it looked great in Firefox, but was full of junk in Internet Explorer. Among other things, each line was centered.

      I had to copy it into open office and then recopy to the webpage. That fixed it, but it was a hassle.

      Also a reminder to check all pages in different browsers.

      Virginia
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      Virginia Drew


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      • Profile picture of the author TheOcarlsen
        Good point.

        ADOBE BROWSER LABS easifies that process by hours.
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeHumphreys
        Originally Posted by virginiad View Post

        If you use Word, you can't just copy/paste into an HTML document.
        Actually you can. Just use the Paste Special command and choose text only. Then add your bold, italics, etc. formatting.

        If you are using Dreamweaver as your HTML editor, there's a command for removing Word formatting commands for your file with one click.

        I did that with a letter last year and it looked great in Firefox, but was full of junk in Internet Explorer. Among other things, each line was centered.

        I had to copy it into open office and then recopy to the webpage. That fixed it, but it was a hassle.
        You had a center command somewhere in your webpage... it was probably either surrounded in brackets like this: [ ] or in paragraph formatting commands. So you just needed to change those to LEFT which you could do with a Find/Replace search (under the Edit menu on many editors).

        Also a reminder to check all pages in different browsers.

        Virginia
        I agree 110%. I regularly check pages in both IE and Firefox.

        Hope that helps,

        Mike

        P.S. For the OP, I use whatever tool I need for the type of marketing piece right from the get-go. So it's either Dreamweaver, Word, or Publisher depending on what I'm writing.
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        • Profile picture of the author Stephen Dean
          I used to write in Dreamweaver but it stopped working for some reason. I decided to upgrade but I hesitated when I saw the price tag... I don't even like the software for writing copy and it's $400.

          I almost decided to start coding my copy from scratch in HTML. Instead I wrote software that takes pure text and turns it in to a formatted HTML sales page in one click.

          Been using it for years now, works great. One click and it's ready to send to clients.

          I rushed to put it on the market one night between projects. The copy here sucks and frankly I should re-record the training videos, but it's at copybreeze if you want to check it out.

          Free copy to the OP if he wants it.

          Cheers,
          Stephen Dean
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          • Profile picture of the author RickDuris
            My favorite way is to dictate major sections of the copy with the Client, allowing for mutual collaboration and contribution. Then we get the work transcribed and edited.

            The work goes a lot faster, and lots of cool ideas bubble up.

            But if I can't do that, I just start by dictating it by myself. And get it transcribed. After that, it's word play and optimization.

            - Rick Duris
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  • Profile picture of the author copycashvalve
    Notepad++ is an awesome text editor. It does pretty much anything you can throw at it and has a built in plugin that ties into your webhosting backend.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bruce Wedding
    Kompozer
    Its free and works well... But it is not perfect. I prefer to see how the copy will look in its native format. Writing a web sales letter in notepad makes me cringe.
    If i am writing an offline letter, I will use Word.
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  • Profile picture of the author Big Al
    Thanks everyone ... have been drafting straight into Kompozer myself or using Word (to get an idea what the formatting was like) but was also led to believe that copying it always added the junk formatting code.

    Downside is that I tend to give the layout more important that the words ... probably because I'm still getting to grips with 'things'.

    Learned a lot today!

    Interesting to see that pretty much everyone does 'it' differently which is a good way of saying ... do what works you're most comfortable with.
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    • Profile picture of the author virginiad
      Hi,

      using Word (to get an idea what the formatting was like) but was also led to believe that copying it always added the junk formatting code.
      Open office (free) works the same as Word but doesn't add the junky code.

      And, as Mike said, there is a button on HTML editors that says "copy from Word" which will remove the excess code.

      Hope this helps

      Virginia
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      Virginia Drew


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