long sales pages (i.e., +25 pages in MSWord/12 pt font, etc)

Depends completely on the offer. I can't imagine that a 50,000 word sales letter would be effective except in rare cases.

For some offers shorter is better. One of my best converting sales letters is around 100 words, but I have one that converts 4-5% that is (when printed) about 33 pages.

If you do hire a copywriter, hire one who isn't stuck on trying to use a long-form sales letter for everything and who isn't afraid to test. Those are the keys.

Generally speaking, the more you tell the more you sell.

Every copywriter I know would tell you that long sales
letters would outsell a short sales letter any day.

You can get away with a short sales letter if your
product is cheap, well known and has little competition.
Also if you target market is presold you don't have to
say much to get the sale. But long sales letters
do justify their lengths in more sales.

-Ray Edwards

There's absolutely no use in writing a long sales page if it bores the crap out of the reader. But if it's a good yarn, they'll read to the end. Here, I'll show you -


"The phone rings.
"The Bistro," I answer, "How may I help you?"
"Hello. I'd like to order something to go," a woman says. She's speaking with one of those impossible to place European accents.
"What would you like to order Madam?"
"Is your online menu up to date?" the woman asks.
"It is Madam."
The lady rattles off an order totaling a $100. Unbelievable. A hundred bucks for takeout. Next thing you know we'll be installing a drive thru window and selling polenta fries.
"Very good Madam," I reply, "Your order will be ready in half an hour."
"There'll be no charge for my order," the woman says.
?
"Excuse me Madam?"
"Last year we were visiting from Florida and you screwed up our takeout order," the woman says.
"I'm sorry to hear that Madam."
"And your boss told us that when we came back we could order something on the house."
"Did he really?"
"Yes."
"Well madam I'll have to confirm this with the owner first."
"I assure you I am telling the truth," the woman says. Her diction is overly precise. Like she's trying to come off as someone she isn't. I've heard self educated guys out of prison talk like that.
"I don't doubt that Madam but I have to double check. What's your name?"
"Marie."
"May I have your last name?"
"We don't give out our last name." Ah, the royal "we."
"Ok....." I say. "Can I have your phone number then?"
"We don't give out our phone number."
I glance at the caller id. This woman's number's unlisted. But I suspected as much.
"Listen," I say, "I was born the day before yesterday."
"Excuse me?" the woman says.
"I won't put this order in until I confirm your story with the owner."
"Are you calling me a liar?"
"Well, your refusal to give me a phone number is very suspicious."
"My husband is coming to pick up the order right now. He'll be upset if it's not ready."
"Lady," I groan, "Gimme a break."
"Call the owner!" the woman yells, "I'll call you back in five minutes."
She hangs up.
I call Fluvio. The woman's story is complete bull****. She never calls back. But why would she? I wasn't an easy mark.
If you work in the restaurant industry long enough you'll run into these characters, con artists, grifters, lazy, shiftless, pathological morons who love to steal. Overly romanticized in literature and film, to me they're nothing more than common criminals, the bane of every waiter in the world.
Because if someone skips on the check guess who has to pay the bill? The waiter does. Oh, I know it's unfair - but that's the way it is. Every waiter has been burned at least once. You never know who it's gonna be. Sometimes it's a kid, a family of four, or a sweet old lady. Sometimes the grifter's a Yuppie in a three piece suit.
A few weeks ago a guy came in for a business dinner. Well dressed, elegant, flashing a fancy business card, he had four guests and paid by check. Normally we don't accept checks. But Fluvio copied the guy's license and got a credit card number.
Guess what? The guy's check bounced. The driver's license and credit cards were bogus and the business address on the check was non existent.
Well. Fluvio isn't stupid. But the con man was. Turns out one of the guests at the business dinner's sister was a regular customer. Fluvio tracked the jerk down and forced him to pay DOUBLE the bill or risk arrest. A little reverse extortion. It was beautiful.
Another time, when I worked at Amici's, a sweet old lady refused to pay her bill.
"Why won't you pay?" Sayeed, the manager, demanded.
"The food wasn't good." Old Lady said.
"But you ate the whole thing!"
"I'm leaving," the woman said primly, getting up to leave.
"Lady," Sayeed said "I'm gonna call the cops."
"You do that!" the lady yelled, "And we'll see who they believe!"
Grifter rule #1 - make a scene and hope the manager decides you're not worth the ruckus. But the lady underestimated Sayeed. He hated white people. He called the cops. And they believed him.
As the lady was being cuffed and thrown into the patrol car Sayeed cheerfully waved saying, "Have a nice day Madam!"
"That was fun," I said watching from the sidelines.
"You know," Sayeed said, 'These assholes all know each other. Once the word gets out that your restaurant's an easy mark - you're finished."

(Segue into your pitch here..then link to the Affiliate product (in this case a Clickbank product on famous restaurant recipes) or drop in the Buy Button)

its not an either or question...

Good copy should have both incorporated into it.

You just have to thimk about how people read sales copy

First they read the headline and the first paragraph, then they scroll to the bottom to see the price, where you should have your PS & PPS these highlight the most important features, and these elements are your short copy

Then they either buy, leave or they are interested enough to find out more

In the first case great

in the second, give them an exit pop

in the third case if they want to find out more, they will go back to the top and scan the letter picking out highligts and bold text, make sure the highlighted and bold text if copied and pasted into a document actually read like a short form letter.

The whole letter is for getting over any objections those left might have, having gone that far but still need convincing, which is where testimonials come in, they should be used not in one great lump, but used as a means to get over objections.

Example:

An objection might be that its complicated to install, so you use a testimonail from someone who says the software was great and was so easy to install.

Structured properly a good sales letter should cater to both short and long copy readers.


Excuse the pun

But in short... A sales letter can only be too boring not to long

The length of the sales letter, really depends on how much you need to convince your prospect to buy from you.

If you sell a high ticket item, then you will need to write a sales letter ( long sales letter) and pack it with tons of benefits, proof, some sort of guarantee and close the sale at the end.

Sales letters are used to motivate the buyer to pull out their credit cards and take action, how much motivating do you need to do?

Cheers,
Magic