So what goes into a good sales letter? Why do so many of them fail to bring in the kinds of traffic to your website that you hope they will? Writing an effective sales letter is something that anyone can do, just include these six things in your next sales letter and see what happens.

1. Create Hope Every day, all over the world people are searching for hope. They want a quick fix for their problems, and many of them turn to e-books and special online programs. The sad part is that most people will never put into action any of the things they learn from these e-books because it takes too much work. This assumes that they read the e-books at all, which about half of them won't. What eventually happens is that they end up searching for the same types of solutions for their same old problems again just a few months later. Everyone wants a quick-fix, and most people go looking for it online.

There are several ways that you can inspire hope, but just to give you an idea of some of the more obvious methods, think about all the regular advertising campaigns that are out there. How many times have you heard offering a diet product that will make you lose weight and become ultra-attractive to the opposite sex almost overnight? How many times have you seen a money guru promise to share with you all of his secrets for building wealth for just $19.95? These statements alone are generally not enough to get most people to buy a product, so you will need to add something more.

2. Create a Sense of Urgency People hate missing out on things, especially when they think they it will save them money. One of the best ways to encourage people to buy something is to put a deadline or some other type of consequence associated with the purchase of whatever you are selling.

I am sure that most people have seen websites that include a message such as "Order by midnight tonight and get a further 20% off." But what happens when midnight rolls around? You guessed it, the discount is still there. Most people will spot this kind of page automatically, but here are a couple of tricks that you can use to improve their response.

First, actually set a deadline. Hard code a deadline for a discount into your website and make sure that there is a "I'm so sorry you missed this deal" message that displays after the deadline passes. You can always go back and setup a new deadline later - just think "Back by popular demand."

Another fantastic method of creating urgency is to put some kind of limit on the number of discounts or special offers that are available. You can put an actual limit on the number of discounts offered and then slowly decrease the number until it reaches zero. Again, don't forget the "I'm sorry" message so that people know that you are doing this for real.

3. Appear as an Authority Appearances are everything. If you appear to people as an authority on the subject of whatever you are selling, they are going to be far more likely to buy what you have to sell. Would you want to buy a diet e-book from someone who lost 10 pounds in the last two years? I don't think so, but you would be far more likely to buy that same diet e-book from someone who list 200 pounds in the last 6 months.

If you want to get really involved with this, you can appear as an unbiased authority. Write your sales letter in such a way as to create the idea that you are just trying to help people and that you do not actually benefit from the sale of anything that you sell.

4. Appear Unbiased Write your sales letter as if you are an unbiased third party and you will notice a big jump in your sales. People hate salespeople. They know all their tricks, and they are very tired of having their money taken away from them. However, if you can appear as someone that is just trying to help people make the right decision about the products in a specific market, then you are far more likely to get people to open their wallets.

This is why I recommend that you actually go out and test the items that you are trying to sell. You will be able to write a much more effective sales letter if you actually know what each of the products you are marketing is all about.

5. Encourage Fear How do you encourage fear in someone? Why is that something that you would want to do, isn't it a negative emotion? Yes it is, but you can use it to your advantage when you are writing your sales letter. People are very afraid of wasting money and getting cheated, so you should use that when you are writing your letter.

Talk about how you went in search of all the ways to do something, or sampled the vast majority of the products available in a certain market. Then talk about how most of them are total crap and that you should never buy any of them, except for the few things that you discovered that worked. Now all you have to do is send them to the websites where they can buy the products that you are selling.

Again, I am only going to recommend that you send them to site that sell products that you have actually tried. We are not in the business of lying to people, we are in the business of helping as many people as possible.

6. Be Very Unusual How are you different from all the other salespeople out there? How are you going to stand out from the crowd? One of the best ways that I have found to stand out form the crowd is to actually tell people not to buy the products I am selling.

It sounds strange, I know, but it has some amazing results. Tell people to go out and buy all the other products from your competitors first, then come and buy your product when they are completely unsatisfied with the other guys stuff, just like you know they will be. This is often termed the "No Sale - Sale" and it is one of the most powerful things that you can put into your sales letter.

That is pretty much all there is to it. You don't have to be a good writer to create a good sales letter. All you need to know is how to sell to people. No one ever made more sales for being a good writer, they made more sales by being a good sales person. Try some of these tips out and you will see a difference in the amount of sales that you are making.

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