Once you have created an internet sales page that works, then you have a template you can use again and again, customizing the basic formula to any product in your line.

The key is to be sure to include all the elements of an effective sales page, and use a ‘formula’ that has been tested and is known to work.

Whether you are hiring a copy writer to compose your internet sales page, or you are writing the sales copy yourself, here are the basic necessities of an effective sales page.

Headline: This includes three elements.

First, the pre-headline to set-up the main headline and capture the attention of the category of prospects you want to attract.

Next, the main headline, in the largest font you will use anywhere on the page, tells the product’s biggest benefit (a benefit evokes a favorable emotional response).

Last, the post-head, which further clarifies the main headline.

The story: This is an emotional grabber that pulls the visitor into the copy so you can present your product and make your offer. It should be benefit driven, showing the reader how they could feel or their life could be better if they owned the product.

Credibility: On-line, this is especially important. Some ways to build your credibility include using specific and real numbers rather than approximations. Use results-based testimonials that include at least the full name of the testifier. Give your background and expertise, if it is related to the product. Explain product test results, if applicable, or quote favorable reviews.

Always give your contact information and address - it proves that you’re real. No one is going to show up on your doorstep, and if someone calls you, all the better; you learn from contact with your clients.

Benefits: In bullet form, itemize the benefits (not the features) of the product. Prioritize them, and give an overload. It often only takes one benefit to convince a prospect to buy, but each prospect will have their own hot button. Have plenty of possibilities. Bullets are easy to scan.

Features and/or specifications: This is where you specifically tell the visitor exactly what they are getting. Here is where you give details about the product.

Bonuses. Always include something extra, and make sure it has value - that it could be something people would order the product just to get the bonus. Tell the specific dollar value of the bonus item so you can use that information in the value build-up, or close.

Value build-up: Be explicit about the reasons the price of the product is a good value. Make comparisons to other similar products that are more expensive with less gained. Offer a guarantee if at all possible.

Close: Anticipate and counter objections. Create a sense of scarcity. That is to say, give a deadline, explain why they need to act now, and keep your deadline real. Help the visitor feel the pain of not ordering… exactly what won’t change or get better unless they have your product.

Ordering: Make this absurdly easy. Assume the visitor has never ordered on-line, and give clear step-by step instructions and several options of how to purchase. Offer a secure on-line credit card page, Pay Pal, call to order, or how to send a check, (it is rare that anyone ever actually does this).

And remember, ask for the order! Write, “Order Now.”

Post Script: This is a summary of your sales page, a one-paragraph sales page in effect. Include a reiteration of the highlights, and ask one last time for the order.

Once you’ve reviewed this list, look for good examples as you surf on-line. Of course, you would never copy someone else’s sales page, not even a line of it. Instead, look for examples that inspire you, and write come killer copy of your own!

Loren Beckart, business consultant and internet publisher,
is a contributing writer for Click Tracs, offering
valuable marketing resources to help increase traffic to
your business web site. Articles by Loren can also
be found at Yes Education and
You Go College.

Wisdom and knowledge come from the same family but are as different as apples and watermelons. What we call common wisdom is what made you expect me to say oranges instead of watermelons. Common wisdom flows off the tongue like water over the falls but doesn’t always require that the brain be fully engaged. Some people call this, the common wisdom of the day. This particular kind of wisdom is rarely examined for truth or any other useful quality. It is commonly accepted because it is so commonly heard. It is much like an unpaid commercial that we set into motion not knowing where it came from and with little regard to whether it is true or not. It is like an old pal who always steps in to keep a conversation going when we run low on original ideas. It is almost never questioned and in most conversation, it is only a matter of who is going to say it first. Some of these sayings so glibly passed around among us are innocuous, while others are outright misleading and sometimes dangerous. Here are five of them that should be challenged, examined, analyzed and if reason prevails, will finally be put out to pasture.

Crime Doesn’t Pay: Oh really. Who is sponsoring the myriad of television programs like, CSI, Law and Order, Cold Case Files, FBI, City Confidential, Cops and many others? Of course the criminals weren’t thinking of this when the committed their crimes and we are not thinking of it when we see their stories but someone thought it out very carefully. They knew this was a goldmine. They knew they could sell their products and goods on the backs of the victims of these crimes and through the medium of the public’s natural curiosity. Crime does pay; in fact it is an industry that pays in the millions. Perhaps it is time that we insist that some portion of the earnings from these sponsors was used against crime. Funds could be set aside for rehabilitation, prevention, law enforcement, education and prison ministries. Some states have enacted legislation that prevents the perpetrators of crimes to profit from their misdeeds through the publication of books and articles. Why not hold accountable others who are profiting from their misdeeds? Does this seem unlikely? It is not. If people can boycott a certain product or program why can’t they also begin a movement to engage the producers and sponsors to contribute to the cause of crime prevention or help for victims? Has anyone asked them? This is not an idea whose time has come but rather it is an idea that is long overdue.

Reverse Psychology: Please read every word in this paragraph. If this far fetched notion were founded at all you wouldn’t be on this sentence. What parent has not been heard voicing the reverse psychology notion? We have started to take seriously the idea that the only reason your teenager is doing something you don’t like is that you have told him or her not to do it. The Catholic Church has misled many people with the idea that we are all straddled with something called original sin. The bible quite clearly says that is not so. What it does say, is that man is born with a sin nature or a natural proclivity to sin. We sin, not because we are told not to sin, but because it is in our nature. If we’re going to take this lame saying seriously, then why aren’t we demanding that our kids be lazy, do everything wrong and take drugs? Then we could sit back and watch them do just the opposite? Why would God have wasted his time with Ten Commandments? Couldn’t He have done better with the ten sinful options? Maybe we should be grateful that God doesn’t have any notions.

How Much Are You Worth: Your mind may have already begun to drift toward your last bank statement or the assessed value of your home by now. If this were a magazine like Forbes or Fortune 500 you wouldn’t think twice about whether that is what the question was referring to. As a boy I remember a teacher telling us that the chemicals and other elements in our body were worth a little over a dollar. Inflation and other factors have since brought the figure up to a little over four dollars. Jesus said, a mans life is never measured by the things he possesses, Lk 12:15. A recent television show featured people who had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They had acquired everything they had ever hoped for and more. The one thing they had in common besides money was the feeling that they were totally unfulfilled. Many of them went searching for meaning by becoming volunteers, or joining charitable organizations, churches, prison ministries and other service oriented endeavors. Their net worth did not cut it for them in the most traditional sense of the word. People spend the last few years of their lives getting their business in order. That usually means they are arranging for the transfer of their personal wealth or property. Why is it that you needn’t tell dying men that their net worth is not worth a whole lot? What man wouldn’t give up a fortune to be able to cancel his last breath and go on living? Christ has told us that we are of inestimable value to both Him and His Father. We have an eternal value placed on us from above, and there is not enough money in this world to pay for even the least of us. How much are you worth?

Science And The Bible Don’t Agree: When most of the world was afraid to sail too far out on the ocean for fear of falling off the edge of the world, the Bible clearly indicated that the world was round. It was the church that condemned Galileo for saying the sun and the planets revolved around the earth, it was not the Bible. Science has made a poor showing of trying to explain the Bible. Fortunately, it has also made a poor showing for disproving the Bible as well. The Bible on the other hand doesn’t even enter the fray. It never argues with the findings of legitimate science. It has indicated that God intended for man to know and name just about everything on the earth, it is called taking dominion. God doesn’t foster stupidity and having blind faith is not God’s plan to keep us blissfully un-informed. The best answer that can be given to anyone about this absurd notion is contained in the following. Science is the book of how, the Bible is the book of why.

Maybe God Used Evolution To Create Man: To argue against the evidence would take more space than allowed here for the task. But don’t be fooled the Scopes Monkey Trial will go down in history as the only bout ever won by the evolutionists. All anyone has to do is put up the words “creation science” on any good internet search engine. The material fed back from that phrase alone would keep them busy for weeks. The evidence against the evolutionary model is mounting exponentially as opposed to the few finds the evolutionist are claiming. The power of the evolutionary model is no longer in its facts but now it is largely in its momentum. It is hard to stop a speeding train. There is much now to refute this secular pipe dream but it is not just the evidence that is failing the evolutionist it is their philosophy. Science which is otherwise known as empiricism has popped the bounds of its own definitions. By definition science is the procuring of data by and through repeatable, observable phenomena. When scientists make statements about something that happened millions of years past the have left the realm of empiricism. Since no one was there to see the phenomena in question much less to repeat it, such statements are now only speculative, conjectural and akin to simple guesswork. Such speculation is in the realm of “prior philosophic postulate”. In plain English that is the exact equivalent of faith.

The belief that God used evolution to make man, speaks of a faithless generation. It also speaks of a generation of Christians who haven’t noticed that they are worshipping a God who after all may only be a liar. And God’s Son bought into that lie so how can we expect a liar to provide the whole world with the kind of truth that universally saves men. In street terms we are speaking of gutless Christians but for the sake of diplomacy let’s say they aren’t too willing to take a firm stand. The apostle Paul wasn’t as gentle as I have been. He said we should let God be true and every man a liar, Romans 3:4. I think I’ll stand with Paul on this one.

Rev Bresciani is the leader of a non-denominational ministry in the New Orleans area. He has written many articles over the past thirty years in such periodicals as Guideposts and Catholic Digest. He is the author of two books available on Amazon.com, Alibris, Barnes and Noble and many other places. Rev Bresciani wrote, Hook Line and Sinker or What has Your Church Been Teaching You, published by PublishAmerica of Baltimore MD. He also wrote a book recently released by Xulon Press entitled An American Prophet and His Message, Questions and Answers on the Second Coming of Christ. Rev Bresciani has his own website at http://americanprophet.org

The Canadian Football League (CFL) is to the NFL as Miller beer is to Budweiser. It’s a lightweight that can’t compete.

That’s why the Cannabis league has decided to resort to tactics like luring players like Ricky “The Hemp” Williams and Onterrio “Whizzenator” Smith. Both players have been suspended by the NFL for violations against its drug policy.

By the way, the CFL does not test its players. That’s why Williams feels safe in the Cannabis league.

Ricky Williams was signed by the Toronto Argonauts. The team’s ownership said it was happy to have a role model like the “Hemp” on its squad.

Shame on the CFL for condoning such degenerate behavior. I’m sure parents are thrilled to have Ricky Williams as their child’s role model.

Onterrio Smith was signed by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers but was cut recently. The “Whizzenator” injured himself a few weeks back and was unable to recover. I guess he thought that his whizzenator could cure his injury.

By the way, the whizzenator was the device that Smith was caught with by Airport security. It is used to help a player mask his drug use.

Way to go Bombers. Was Smith going to be a great role model for kids? We shouldn’t be surprised by the CFL’s actions. Canadians seem to be apathetic to drug use, especially marijuana. Many people believe it should be legalized.

I’m not kidding. In recent elections in Manitoba, the marijuana party was on the ballot.

It all makes sense to me now. I’ve always questioned why the CFL awards a point for a missed field goal. It must be due to place kickers being high on weed. You see, they’re probably seeing three uprights and the league wants to ensure that they get at least one point for their efforts (I’m just kidding).

Kidding aside. The CFL has become a joke. It has to resort to signing degenerate drugged out football players that have become rejects of the NFL.

So the NFL is truly a league of rejects. The CFL tries to add exciting arena football type activities and rules but it’s really to mask the amateurish skills of its athletes.

Anthony B. is the founder and owner of ItsTheRightWay.com a news, political and sports commentary website. Anthony has over 7 years of experience as a business professional

Innovation is the key to growth. As in other fields, the screensaver designers are constantly working to make better and well packaged screensavers. The latest to hit the Internet are Love Screensavers with flowers as the main theme.

Flowers are the main theme - All these screensavers have lovely flowers as the main theme. That is why they are called Love Flower Screensavers. Flowers can evoke the feeling of love without any other addition. In these Flower Screensavers, love has been as added as a theme by introducing hearts and romantic text. That gives a unique effect to these screensavers.

Download flower screensavers and send them - screensavers are recommended for downloading. in this case I would recommend that you send as many as you can to your sweetheart as the message of love in place of ecards. Everybody sends ecards. Why not surprise your darling with love screensavers, which he/she will be delighted to watch.

Download care for love flower screensavers - take few elementary precautions while downloading these screensavers and sending them to your darling. The screensaver should be free of adware and spyware. Download the flower screensavers from a secure website that guarantees downloads free of adware and spyware.

Adware and spyware can slow down your computer. Many free flower screensavers come with lovely music. Chose the ones with music. Avoid downloads of very heavy files. The installation and removal should be very quick. Take these basic precautions.

The author C.D.Mohatta writes articles, advice and ideas at http://www.yourromanceguide.com/ on topics like love, dating, marriage, relationships, break-ups, etc. He also writes for screen-savers and desktop wallpapers at http://www.screene.com/ on topics like nature, spirituality, motivation, love-romance, holidays, animals, etc. The third site associated with the author is http://www.yourfungames.com/ - it has free flash games which anyone can play online.

The technology world is no stranger to format wars
Since the showdown between Betamax and VHS to the current struggle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, companies intent on owning technology standards are willing to spend big bucks persuading other companies to join their respective camps. Some companies do this for the royalties while others do it to increase the availability and distribution of their intellectual property.

A much quieter format war has been waged on the PC over the past ten years
The Universal Serial Bus standard, more popularly known as USB, was distributed with the Windows operating system in late 1996. The standard was jointly created by Compaq, IBM, DEC, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Northern Telecom and is now available on 90% of all computers manufactured today.

FireWire owned the high-speed market from the beginning
In 1995, the same year that the USB standard was being formalized, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) approved the IEEE-1394 standard, also known as FireWire or i.link, which had been developed by Apple. The fast speeds promised by FireWire (100 Mbps, 200 Mbps, 400 Mbps) was overkill for most peripherals not requiring a massive amount of bandwidth, such as mice and keyboards. Sony quickly embraced the technology (referring to it as i.link) and, along with a host of other manufacturers, integrated it into bandwidth-hungry peripherals such as digital cameras, digital camcorders, optical drives, scanners, web cams, etc.

USB and FireWire lived together happily in the beginning
In the early days these formats were not mutually-exclusive - there was very little overlap between the technologies and hence little competition. FireWire owned the high-bandwidth market while USB owned the low-bandwidth. At a max speed of 12 Mbps USB could not begin to compete with the 400 Mbps standard that evolved from FireWire for data transfer.

USB 2.0 is introduced
The end of the year 2001 marked a drastic change in the competitive landscape for these two standards: USB 2.0 was released. USB 2.0 offered the ease of use of (renamed) USB 1.1 and, at 480 Mbps, comparable speeds to FireWire. Note that while the theoretical limit of USB 2.0 is 80 Mbps faster than FireWire, empirically FireWire seems to be more efficient and thus has a higher effective transfer rate.

FireWire lost its competitive advantage
To simplify the process of purchasing peripherals and devices, manufacturers have identified no clear advantage of including FireWire ports on many new laptops and desktops and it is becoming increasingly more common to find new computers with only USB 2.0 ports. Even the digital video industry, which has long favored FireWire as the interface of choice, has begun to accept USB 2.0 as an alternative to FireWire because of the universal availability of USB ports.

Who will win the next battle?
So while there may be slight performance gains by using FireWire, many people are abandoning the technology in favor of the more popular USB standard. To compete for high-end, data intensive applications, FireWire 800, with a maximum speed of 800 Mbps, is helping FireWire maintain its position as the interface of choice for bandwidth-hungry devices - it will be interesting to see how the release of a faster USB technology will be received by the consumer market.

Preston Wily is the Director of Marketing for Sewell Direct, a retailer of USB adapters and accessories. Sewell is currently securing relationships with manufacturers of Wireless USB hubs and devices to prepare for the inevitable wireless revolution.