Not many people use an opening statement in their sales copy. The opening statement is a only a couple of sentences that are before your attention grabbing headline. The opening statement is used to set stage for your attention grabbing headline.

One of first opening statements I used in my sales copy was: Before you think about listening to another so-called expert, you need to read this first... It seemed like everyone was using this opening statement, so I used reverse psychology and came up with: The so-called experts are getting nervous.... This made my conservation rate triple, because people wanted to know why experts were getting nervous.

When you are establishing your credibility, every sales letter always talks about how successful they are and not how they got there. People are reactive towards realistic situations, in my sales copy I talked about how in debt I used to be and how I had no money to market with. This insured my visitor that I knew how they felt. I've been there and you can promote your web site without paying a cent for advertising, because I did it.

Other people would rather brag how much money they are making, people don't react well to braggers. Just because someone makes a lot of money, doesn't mean they know what your talking about, or doing for that matter. People love stories, it pulls them right in, especially if it's a story they can relate to.

Another area where reverse psychology works great, is in your guarantee. Having a strong guarantee is most important element of your sales copy, without it no one will buy from you, period. When you are presenting your guarantee, make it risk free and reverse risk.

Comfort your visitor by reversing risk, insure them that you have more to lose out of deal than they do. How? Well, you are product creator, your name and reputaion are on line. If you create a poor product, then it will reflect on your credibility.

4. Use short paragraphs, short sentences and simple words.

The professional copywriter always practices this simple principle: Short sentences and short paragraphs are easier to read than long ones. And easier to understand. Rudolf Flesch, in The Art of Plain Talk, says that best average sentence length is 14 to 16 words, 20 to 25 words is passable, but anything over 40 words is unreadable. So write in crisp, short, snappy sentences. A trick of trade -- using sentence fragments -- can help keep your average sentence length to a respectable number of words. And add drama and rhythm to your copy.

Paragraphs should also be kept short. Long, unbroken blocks of text intimidate readers. If it looks hard to read, they probably won't read it.

As for short words, John Caples, Hall of Fame copywriter said: "Even best-educated people don't resent simple words. But they are only words many people understand."

Plain writing in simple words simply communicates more effectively than writing with a lot of big words. Keep in mind that in Shakespeare's most memotrable sentence -- "To be or not to be?" -- longest word is only three letters.

5. Write simply and naturally

People like to read simple, easy-to-understand writing. And simplest, most easy-to-understand style is to write conversationally, way you talk when you're at your best -- when your ideas are flowing smoothly, when your syntax is fluent and your vocabulary accurate. A simple test to check on your conversational tone is to imagine yourself speaking to your reader instead of writing. Are you expressing yourself clearly, or are you mumbling? Are you using only those words, phrases and sentences that you might actually say to your reader if you were face to-face? Or do you sound stiff and impersonal? If you wouldn't say it, why write it?

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©2003 Burek Group

Walter Burek is an award-winning copywriter who learned his craft at some of the finest advertising agencies in the world and has been a writer and Creative Director on some of advertising’s most important accounts.

Currently, he offers freelance copywriting services through his company, walterburek.com.