What do you do, regularly or occasionally, that you don’t want anybody to know about?

For me this used to be spending a minimum of 3-hours a day studying and learning.

How is it possible to spend that much time learning?

Easy! I’d spend an hour reading in the morning before anyone else was awake. Half an hour in the car on the way to work was spent listing to audio books or online courses. An hour at the gym after work was spent learning and half an hour on the way home. That’s 3 hours, every day.

Why was I embarrassed by this? Because I hadn’t fully embraced by inner geek! So I wasn’t comfortable telling people that I read 10 to 20 books a year and listened to another 20 and bought and completed at least 2 online courses.

If people asked, then I was more than happy to share a book recommendation or tell them what I was reading.

Few people ever asked so it wasn’t a problem.

Today, I’ve fully embraced my inner geek so I’m happy to ask stupid questions at family gatherings like: what’s the best book you’ve read recently? If you’re looking for a way to change the subject as fast as possible, then ask this question.

So why am I telling you this?

Because I’ve never met a single person that admits to reading long copy sales pages. What’s a long copy sales page? It’s one of those pages where your finger gets tired of scrolling down before you reach the end. If your fingers get tired of scrolling then surely no one reads all the way to the end, right?

Wrong!

You see, I’ve never met anyone who will admit to reading a long copy sale page but I’ve seen them make the cash register ring louder and longer than any other sales vehicle. Just like my inner geek, that wouldn’t admit to studying and learning for 3 hours a day. That was the path to change. So it is with long copy!

You might be nodding in agreement that no one reads long copy sales pages.

Your decision might be influenced by the fact that you think it’s hard to write 5,000 words about your product or service.

And if you say it like that, it does sound intimidating.

So why not tell yourself that no one reads long copy pages. That’s the fastest way to let yourself off the hook. Now, you don’t need to learn something new. Now, you can focus on what feels comfortable. Now, you can focus on what’s cool right now… webinars!

As you’ll discover, trying to write a 5,000 word sales letter is really hard. But telling an inspiring personal story about how you discovered your solution and what that has done for you is fun and easy. When you then do a word count… you might discover that you’ve written more than 5,000 words!

Webinar Conversion Rates

Please don’t think that I’m saying Webinars don’t work. Because that is not what I’m saying. They do make sales on their own and they do work in tandem with sales pages.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that all you need to do is one webinar and you’ll enjoy the riches-of-Avarice.

If you’re an experienced public speaker then you’ll convert at 10% on a webinar. If you’re really good then you’ll convert at 20%.

But…

What if it’s your first time? What does success look like?

You might be at 1% or 2%

Does that mean you should quit running webinars? No! Absolutely not! It just means that you need to practice more… and possibly work on the structure of your presentation and your offer.

That’s a big topic area and we’ll have to save that for another blog.

Sales Page Conversion Rates… And Why They Don’t Matter

A well written sales page will convert between 0.5% to 4%

4% is virtually unheard of and is only possible with warm traffic. So forget about that. Really, you’re looking at 0.5% to 2% conversion rate.

You might be thinking that the lower conversion rate is proof that webinars are a better sales vehicle.

And you’re right! And you’re wrong!

You see, I don’t care about conversion rates… and I don’t think you do either. What I care about is the number of lives that I can touch and the number of sales.

A sales page can speak to 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 people in a single day!

With a webinar conversion rates are critical because you spend 4 days to fill them. If you’re using GoToWebinar then you’ll only ever speak to 2,000 at one time because that’s the limit of the software.

Before you start looking for other platforms that will allow you to speak to more people at one time. Let me tell you that persuading 2,000 to give up their time is a HUGE achievement. In fact, it’s way beyond my skill set.

The maximum number of people that I’ve persuaded to give up their time in the evening is 1,300!

Yet, with a sales page getting that level of readership in a day is achieved much more easily.

No One Reads Every Word

Does anyone read every word of a long copy sales letter?

I don’t know. What I do know is that if you tell an interesting story that your target audience cares about then they will ready any amount of copy.

Seriously, I once wrote a sales letter that was 10,383 words long. I was terrified that no one would read that much copy. I tried, and failed for 3 days to cut the word count.

Finally, out of desperation I showed it to different people. I told them, please tell me where I can cut great passages from this because I’m trying to reduce the word count by half.

They might have been trying to protect my feelings, but they said to keep every word.

So, with great terror I used it. To my great surprise, it made the cash register ring.

If you tell interesting stories that are targeted to your communities passions and you have an irresistible offer then you owe it to yourself and to your community to explain to them what this will do for them and why this is an unbelievable bargain. If that takes 3,000 words or 5,000 words or 10,000 words then so be it. Don’t let the word count dictate what you should say. Focus on delighting your community and you’ll never go wrong.

Quadruple Your Income With Long Copy

What difference will long copy make to your income?

It will at least double it, if you are excellent at selling from webinars. If you’ve never sold on a webinar then a sales page will make a much bigger impact.

I’ve done launches where 90% of the sales have come from the sales page.

Does that mean that webinars are useless? No! Absolutely not!

I know (through analytics) that many people watch a webinar and still have unanswered questions, and it was the sales page that carried them across the decision making wasteland and on their way to the promised land.

So really the best sales vehicle is both of them!

It’s using them both in a structured way that is going to give you the greatest jump in income. How you do that, is the topic of another blog post.

I hope that this post has opened your eyes to the power of long copy sales pages and that you will use them in your next campaign.

If you found this useful then please leave a comment below. If this can help someone you know then please share it with them.

Carpe diem

Roland Eva

P.S. If you’d like the complete system to turn your expertise into cash then please click the link below to download your free copy of my new ebook: How to turn expertise into cash.