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Which is First ? A sales letter or the E-Book ?

by pangolin123
16 replies
Hello Guys !!!

After being a clickbank affiliates for some times, I am thinking of becoming a clickbank vendor. But I am confused to whether to create a Sales Letter page first or Write an E-book first ?

Any help/suggestions pls ?
#ebook #letter #sales
  • Profile picture of the author Raja Kamil
    Hello there, from my experience, a 10-90 ration is always work with me.
    10% of your effort is on your product compare to 90% on marketing.
    And sales letter is under marketing part.

    What can I advice you is, complete your ebook first. Seek for review, testimonial etc.
    The marketing part will come when your product is done.

    Just my 2 cents;

    Regards;
    King Kamil
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  • Profile picture of the author lacraiger
    i would write the ebook first. to sell what you dont have is bad for business.
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  • Profile picture of the author kabong
    Do your product first and add more features then you can create a good sales letter because you know your product well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Amanda Craven
    The ebook and make sure it's completed before you even start crafting the sales letter - that way you can be sure you know what you are selling (vital!) and can therefore pick out the main selling points...

    Otherwise you run the risk of losing stuff in the ebook during the editing process which you have already been plugging in your letter or, perhaps worse, adding in excellent material which you then fail to mention as a selling point.
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  • Profile picture of the author zankee
    Test the market with direct linking first if a particular offer converts you have the basis of a niche to explore. Market, market, market then comes the products.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter
    Hate to disagree with everyone here, but the sales page should come first. Actually, the main selling idea should come first, then the sales page and then finally the product.

    What people see when they buy online is the sales materials, not the product. You need to create winning sales materials then create a product to fulfill the promise of the sales letter. The product simply confirms the sale, it doesn't make it.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Raybould
    I don't think there's a definitive answer
    for this.

    If it's your first time at the dance, you'll
    probably do better creating the product
    first, and sculpting the salesletter from
    there.

    But a lot of the older direct marketing
    legends worked by constructing an offer
    and a salesletter first, then reverse-
    engineering a product from that.

    A lot of IMers work in the same way, so
    there's probably some merit there.

    If this is a new venture for you though,
    keep it simple.

    Do whatever you can to get the first one
    out of the way, and move right onto the
    second one.

    You'll probably learn a ton from the first
    product that will help you make the next
    one much more profitable.

    -David Raybould
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  • Profile picture of the author pangolin123
    thanks for all the valuable feedback, guys.. It was very informative, especially to a beginner like me. I think i am going to go with the e-book first and later get someone to craft the sales letter from the e-book.
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  • Profile picture of the author GoFish
    When I am preparing to write an article or ebook, I write down the concept and the main points first. That way you have a type of first draft of both the ebook and the sales letter and it helps to remind you of the big picture.
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    • Profile picture of the author Hugh Thyer
      In the good old days of physical mail you could write the letter, THEN write the product if it sold enough.

      But now people need to be able to download the product straight away. So you need both together.

      However, you could use your sales letter to give people a FREE Report, and you can still test how many people respond to that. Of course you'll get a higher response to the free report, but if response to the free report is low then don't bother writing the product.

      OR do a shorter book and sell it for a lower price. That'll help you test with less time.

      OR OR OR do a JV with someone with a similar product so you can test both your sales copy and the demand for the product.
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  • Profile picture of the author maximus242
    Originally Posted by pangolin123 View Post

    Hello Guys !!!

    After being a clickbank affiliates for some times, I am thinking of becoming a clickbank vendor. But I am confused to whether to create a Sales Letter page first or Write an E-book first ?

    Any help/suggestions pls ?
    Sales letter first, come up with the most compelling selling argument you can, then fulfill all your promises by creating a product around those.

    Products are easy compared to do once you know all the things your supposed to put in them. Market research will be a big part of determining how you do things.

    Your product should be based on what the market desires. Most people get this backwards. They make a product then try to sell it, BAD!
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  • Profile picture of the author maximus242
    Yea it comes from Robert Collier. He would write his sales letter before even looking at the product, then take out all the things he couldn't say. Much more powerful this way.

    The chapter thing is you come up with a heading for each chapter, then list the major points you want to make in each one, then the book practically writes itself.
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  • Profile picture of the author cgallagher93
    Well if you were hiring a copywriter, he/she would more than likely always request a copy of the product beforehand so that they could gain a perspective of the product.

    However, if you know your product and your market well in the first place I believe it would be possible to write a decentish sales letter based upon that. Personally, I'd create your ebook first.

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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Ramsey
    Sorry guys, but I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with a few of the opinions here.

    In the majority of cases I *require* the product to be finished before I even begin research on the project. There ARE cases that I will work otherwise, but it's rare.

    I think that the "hook" can be thought of well after the product is created. A hook is always naturally built into a product, and it's my job as a copywriter to fish it out.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nicola Lane
    The first thing you need to do is market research:
    • Check similar clickbank products, what are they offering? can you offer more? can you fill in any gaps?
    • Check relevant forums, what are common questions?
    • Check the niche at amazon, are there any products? especially check the customer reviews - see what is good, see what is bad, see what is missing.

    Basically you are checking that there is a market for your product - and what you need to put into it to get it to sell.

    Your next step then depends on whether you are outsourcing the book writing, the sales letter, both or neither.

    Not Outsourcing at all

    1. Draft sales letter
    2. Write ebook
    3. Polish sales letter

    Outsourcing.

    1. Get e-book written - Give market research notes to e-book writer so that they know what needs to go into the book!
    2. Get sales letter written - give e-book to writer so they can create a compeling letter about the book that has been written.

    I hope that that helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jo_Shua
    Hiring out a Copywriter? Do the product first.

    Writing the copy yourself? Do the sales letter first.

    Why?

    If you are hiring a Copywriter, they need to tear your product apart, find that hook, and pull the benefits out of it.

    If you are doing the sales letter yourself, you can use the sales letter as an outline of what to put into your product.

    You will find that you can create products faster and more efficient this way... Why? Because you created an outline before you created the product (most people do not do this). And, if you were going to create an outline anyhow, then, this way you kill two birds at once -- outline and sales letter.


    JC
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