Before I got started I decided to set up tracking software to see how his copy was converting… AND see where his traffic was coming from.

Remember, last month I wrote a post about how traffic sources affect conversions. The idea is that different traffic sources can affect conversion rates BIG TIME.

Some sources of traffic will convert MUCH BETTER than others, to the same sales copy. (A member of my Copy Mentorship recently discovered this as well. We discussed it in the latest Q&A session.)

Because of this, I’m more interested in knowing the conversion rates from individual traffic sources than just the overall conversion rate.

Now that the test has been running for more than a week, I can see that the biggest source of traffic is from traffic exchanges and other very low-targeted traffic sources.

If you just excluded these low quality traffic sources, the overall conversion rate would double. That says a lot.

So now when I rewrite the copy, I’ll be able to better judge the success of the letter by excluding the traffic sources that don’t really pick up any sales. In fact, I’ll probably ONLY compare conversion rates from traffic sources that made at least one sale.

To track conversion rate by traffic source, I use Muvar. (Although it now looks like Testivar might be the new name for the software.)

If you’re working to get your conversion rate up, I recommend using software like Muvar to help you discover your true conversion rate… AND to tell you something about your customers. But I’ll get to that in another post.

(Quick question, when was the last time you hand wrote someone a letter and sent it postal mail? I was probably 6.)

…but it does have it’s problems. Notably, spam filters. Ever have an important email get lost in your spam folder? I have. And for me, that usually means I lost a chance at some big bucks.

I’ve had awesome opportunities simply vanish in to my spam filter. And the only reason I know about those is that I found them while digging through the junk, albeit way too late.

Those opportunities include copywriting projects, managing big launches, attending seminars free as a guest… UGH!

But the one that really gets me is when my OWN APPLICATION FORM sends mail to the trash. I recently found a client application that looked like a great lead… in my spam folder… I emailed him back 5 days after he applied and got no reply. I missed my chance.

Of course, there are probably ways to ensure those applications make it to my inbox. But there have been other problems with my application form. It’s written in PHP and uses PHP mail to send the application to my inbox.

Well because I’m on a shared server and PHP mail can be used for spam, my host will randomly shut off the use of PHP mail without telling me. Meaning I’ll not only never receive applications from people who apply until PHP mail is turned back on, I won’t even know there’s a problem!

This has all led me to believe I’m going to need to turn my application form in to an RSS feed. This way whenever I get a new applicant it’ll show up in Google Reader right along side the blogs I read via RSS.

I hope to finish the switch by next week. If you’re a service provider, my bet is you’ll want to switch to this application process too. So when I’m finished, I’ll let you know.

Meet my copywriting students, Sarah and Rebecca. They happen to be 2 of my sisters.

I’ve been coaching Rebecca and Sarah via email for quite a while now. I send them copywriting advice, links, resources and more.

They even got all of my copywriting products created so far for free.

In the past, to get access to my coaching, you literally had to be one of my sisters. But for the next 10 people, you can get access to this coaching for $25/month.

Hmm… To me this shows the copywriter is a novice. It’s just impossible to do. Look what the famous copywriter, Bob Bly had to say about it…

“4-Do not promise your copy will generate a specific result. It is unethical and not true: no one can guarantee a particular response rate.” ~ Bob Bly

One BIG reason why talking conversion rates before you know about the project is the traffic source. This sole factor can have the BIGGEST impact on your conversions.

Because some sources of traffic convert MUCH better than other sources of traffic. Here’s a list of traffic sources, from the best converting to the least.

Product Announcement Lists

People who have opted-in to be TOLD when your product is ready… will be the most likely to buy by far. Here’s where you can hit REALLY high conversion rates. 30% might be average.

Your Customer List

People who have bought from you before… are VERY likely to buy from you again.

Your Subscriber List

It depends on the list, of course. If you haven’t built a responsive list, you may not get a good response.

But, in general. Emailing people who already subscribe to YOUR list and KNOW YOU is a great way to get 10%-20% response rates.

Other Business’ Lists

Having someone else promote your sales page to a list who knows THEM is almost as powerful as mailing your own list. They’re giving an endorsement to a crowd of people who trust them.

Signature Links From Articles/Forum Posts

A signature link from an article or forum post can be more valuable than other advertisements or links because the reader has gotten to know and trust you a bit by reading your content. Then when they hit your sales letter, you are positioned as an authority.

Paid Advertising: Text Ads, Banner Ads and So Forth

Then FINALLY we get to paid advertising. You can obviously still get great conversion rates from Google Adwords and other forms of paid advertising. But you’re probably not going to hit the 10%-50% conversion rates that you might from some of the traffic sources above.

This is good information to know when hiring a copywriter. If they promise a 2% conversion rate and hit 3%, you might think that’s great.

But if the traffic came from your customer list… the copy may not be nearly as great as you thought.

The other day I got to talk to Robert Plank on Skype about how I optimize my blog for profit. We talked for 30 minutes and had such a great conversation about blogging… that many times I forgot that Robert was recording the call!

We shared our favorite strategies, favorite plugins, our favorite marketers, and more. I came at it from a copywriter’s perspective, which is something you probably haven’t seen before. (So let me know what you think)

In the future, only people who join my email list will get access to this interview. And while I hope you have signed up to receive announcements, I am going to let you access the recording today with no restrictions.

Here it is: http://www.copywritingdean.com/robertplank

Hope you enjoy it, and don’t forget to check out Robert Plank’s blog. He set a goal to make $30,000.00 for the month of February and he’s almost there. I’m sure he’ll let you know if he makes it at the blog.

PS In the video I talk about using testing, multivariate testing and some plugins. A while back I made a video showing how to do all of these things. I’m going to do a 24 hour special for the video tomorrow; it’ll be for $15.

But as a thank you for reading this entry, you can get it now for $10 through the Paypal button below.

Can we reach a consensus on how we format fonts? It’d make it so much easier for everyone if we all used the same system.

I’m going to put forth my system for formatting fonts, because I think it is the easiest way to do it.

CSS styles. With CSS styles, you can define the font format in the “Head” section of the HTML document. Either by directly listing the styles in the head section, or linking to your CSS styles document.

(It’d take too long to explain CSS styles in this post, so check out this tutorial instead.)

And that’s way better than using the FONT tag for every single dang line in your copy. Or every time you want to have a new subhead. It’s a waste of time and makes for ugly code.

Here’s how I use CSS styles for copy and how I propose you do as well.

Style the P tag for the regular copy text.

Style the H1 tag for your headline.

The H2 tag for the subhead directly under the headline.

And the H3 tag for the main subheads in the body copy.

Use H4 and H5 for smaller subheads in the body copy.

Use the UL and LI tags for bullets (yes, you can use graphic bullets this way).

And finally style a BLOCKQUOTE or DIV for Johnson Boxes and testimonials.

Formatted this way, you’ll never have to change font styles in the middle of the copy. Your code will look AMAZINGLY clean. And editing your sales copy will be simple, either by code or WYSIWYG.

Furthermore, if you actively test your copy, you’ll find it a lot easier to splice up your HTML in to different sections.

For an example of this clean code using CSS styles, go to 7 Copy Sins, right click on the page and select “View source” (or it’s equivalent in your browser). Then check out the code, it’s very pretty.

Of course, part of that is because the copy was written inside of my WYSIWYG killer, which comes as a free bonus when you purchase 7 Copy Sins.

The 4 point plan was to exchange links with me, comment on my posts, link from a post of yours to mine and to follow me on Twitter.

Many of you did these things and I greatly appreciate it. I’m also glad to see you’re being proactive.

But I am disappointed with 2 things.

One, no one has exchanged links with me. I know, cry me a river. But I’m really trying to make this Wordpress Link Directory work. My next post will be on how to set it up on your blog just in case you’re unsure how to do it. And then hopefully you’ll exchange links.

Two, some of the comments that have appeared since I invited you to comment for SEO reasons have been, I guess predictably, skeptical. There were a couple that forced me to make a decision on whether or not they were spam or legitimate comments by a reader.

I want people to get some link love back to their sites, but I also want comments that constructively add to the conversation.

So here’s what we’re going to do.

I’ve changed the “DoFollow” plugin I’m using. It’s now Lucia’s Linky Love and it only changes your links from “nofollow” to “dofollow” after you’ve made 5 comments. This will protect the blog from drive by commenters.

At some point, I may raise the barrier to 10 comments before you receive link love from me. But for now it’s 5.

Now I don’t want you to leave a bunch of “junk” comments in order to hit the 5 comment barrier. So if you don’t have 5 comments yet, don’t worry! You can still get some link love from me by exchanging links in the link directory It’s here: http://www.copywritingdean.com/dir

And if you want to start boosting your comment count now, why not let me know what you think about this policy? Leave a comment

And if you haven’t signed up on Twitter, I recommend it. It’s a great way to make friends, keep in touch with your visitors/readers/customers, and drive traffic to your site. In some ways, it’s almost like a free list management system.

Some people have a hard time understanding why anyone would use Twitter. So I wrote a blog entry explaining why I use Twitter.

Other people aren’t sure HOW to use Twitter. So this article explains how, at least I, use Twitter and what you can expect to see when you follow me.

Here’s what you’ll get when following @StephenPDean.

1. You’re going to meet my friends. Assuming social media is a “big party”, I @reply to my friends on Twitter most every day. Hopefully you’ll get something from our conversations. And I hope you’ll check out my friends’ profiles and maybe follow them as well.

Because you know what? If you @reply to people everyday, others will check out YOUR profile and follow you. It’s part of being at a party. You mingle and look for the conversation that interests you, then join it!

2. You’re going to discover what type of music I like. LOL! Everyone is different and you should take advantage of your personality while building relationships. So for me and twitter, you’re going to hear what music I like.

I use blip.fm to find songs that I then listen to while working. Every time I find a new song and “blip” it, my Twitter account is updated to let you know. I listen to a wide range of music, but most of them are pretty easy going (or else I couldn’t work to them).

You’ll find out soon if we have similar tastes. Hopefully you’ll listen to a few songs with me. And if not, at least you got to know me more.

3. You’re going to get free copywriting advice. I’m a copywriter and constantly browsing for more tips, tricks and tactics for improving my craft. When I find something good, you’re going to see it in my Twitter feed.

4. You’re going to know when I make a new blog post or release a product. Not always, but most every time I publish a new blog post here, I send out a message on Twitter letting you know. I do the same when I release a product. Many of my Twitter followers automatically jump over and check out what’s new… and I hope you will too!

Again, you can follow me on Twitter here: @StephenPDean

And if you’d like to share how you use Twitter with your business, please leave a comment!

Justin Brooke just wrote a great blog post called “The Formula For Failure.” It shares several failure secrets. Check it out!

He just got a new golden retriever puppy. Talk about cute.

Growing up our golden retriever once had 13 puppies that we got to watch grow up. Watching them walk out of the dog house one by one, single file and line up in front of the fence was an AMAZING experience.

Speaking of amazing experiences, have you ever had to potty train a puppy? Oh boy, that’s what my brother is dealing with now.

The last time I was visiting he told me he searched Google for how to potty train a dog. And he was having trouble finding an answer.

He did find one page and this is how he described it…

“I was reading it and it kept talking about all this stuff I didn’t care about. Then they were trying to sell me a bunch of different products and all I wanted was some tips to potty train my dog.”

I knew right away that he had found a sales letter. And one that did NOT work.

I decided to trace his steps so I could learn from the process.

* He searched Google for “how to potty train my dog.”

* He clicked on a sponsored link that is ABOVE the search listings, without knowing it was an ad.

* He read or skimmed most of the copy… even though that meant clicking through 3 different pages… and even though he didn’t understand why they were telling him all this unnecessary information. (It lacked a clear logical argument that mattered to him.)

* He saw a ton of bonuses (which were unnecessary) and thought they were trying to sell several products, when all he wanted were some tips to potty train his dog.

* The order link was finally on the third page, but with no call to action.

* He didn’t buy.

I have no clue why the site owner made the prospect click through 3 pages. Sometimes I’ve seen this done strategically with good results, but this was done very poorly and hid the solution my brother was looking for.

Lesson #1: Keep your sales copy on one page unless you have a good reason.

Lesson #2: Make sure to craft a strong logical argument in the copy that FLOWS from the conversation going on inside the prospects head… and not a logical argument that flows from the copy formula you saw someone else use once for a product in a completely different niche.

Lesson #3: You don’t need to have 10,000 bonuses ever. And you don’t need to have a half-dozen bonuses when your prospect is trying to solve one specific problem. You’re just confusing the prospect.

Lesson #4: Your copy can’t just give a couple compelling arguments for why they should buy, then drop them off at an order link. Finish the job. Build up the value of the product. Explain why they’re getting a good deal IF they act now. Then tell them how to act (usually clicking an order button).