Most commercial webmasters enter the online sales process at a great disadvantage. The disadvantage is that they have never worked in sales, nor have they studied the fine art of copy writing.

Many webmasters spend a considerable amount of time second-guessing themselves about when and where to ask for the sale.

Amazingly, many websites you visit will make a great case for its products or services, and still fail to ask for the sale. This happens primarily because the person writing the copy fears coming across as just another used car salesman.

But, it should be noted that if a prospect takes the time to read your sales copy, then you as a copywriter will be doing a great disservice to your prospect by not giving the prospect an obvious and easy way to buy your products or services.

If you’re not going to ask for the sale in a clear and obvious manner, then you should save everyone the time and trouble of having to read your sales copy in the first place.

There is nothing worse than visiting a website, taking the time to read the copy, and not been able to find the link that will allow you to make a purchase.

I have heard a lot of discussion concerning when to ask for the sale. Many webmasters, including myself for my first five years online, get into the mindset that they have to describe their product or service offerings in full, before asking for the sale.

However, not every person who visits your website is unaware of your offer. In fact, a certain percentage of those people visiting your website decided to visit your website, because they are ready to buy NOW.

As a result, you should provide your visitors the opportunity to buy your products or services, as soon as they land on your website.

A buddy of mine, who writes sales copy for a living, suggested that any sales page should provide at least four “calls to action”, enabling prospects at all levels to make the purchase, when they are ready to make the purchase.

The four levels of prospects that you should take consideration for, include:

1. Repeat buyers, who know exactly what they are buying;

2. New buyers, who have been pre-qualified to purchase what you are selling;

3. New buyers, who need a general introduction to your products or services, before they are ready to buy; and

4. New buyers, who need to learn everything there is to learn about a particular product or service offer, before they make that decision to buy.

For repeat buyers, when they land on your website, the only thing they want to know is where to go to buy your product or service NOW.

New buyers, who have been pre-qualified to purchase what you are selling, are people who may have learned about your offering from somebody else or through a another website. These folks want to see a quick summary of your offer, so that they know they are in the right place. After they have seen your quick summary, they want your buy button.

New buyers, who need a general introduction to your products or services, before they are ready to buy are the kinds of people who do not like to read. They want to get a general overview and a few details from you, before they make their decision. Once they have made the decision to buy, they want quick access to the buy button.

The fourth set of buyers will read your long copy, word for word, and probably even read it two or three times. These people will probably even browse every page of your website to determine if you have more information to share with them about the product or service that you are selling. These folks will suck in every available piece of information that you are willing to give them, before they reach for the buy button.

The lesson to be learned from the four types of buyers is that you should present a “call to action” or a “buy button” at every opportunity, frequently and obviously.

If you include your purchase page on a page separate from your sales page, it should be noted that you should leave the sales copy off of your purchase page.

The reason is because most people who have clicked the button to go to your purchase page are already sold on your offer. If you attempt to resell somebody on your purchase page, you risk talking the person out of the sale.

If you have set up systems that will enable you to pre-qualify and pre-sell your product or service, then it is best to send those people directly to your purchase page, as opposed to sending them to your sales page. When you have pre-qualified and pre-sold your product or service, you do not want to talk your prospect out of completing the process.

Many professional online marketers will construct several sales pages to enable them to make their offers in a variety of different ways, usually writing each sales page to address a variety of prospects, with different needs.

The hardest part and easiest part of any website is driving targeted traffic to it.

Depending on your skill set and your budget, delivering a targeted audience to your website may be the most difficult thing you have ever done.

For others, getting traffic is the easy part. Those professional online marketers who have honed their skills and their sales message will eventually buy traffic from a number of online sources.

If your sales copy is good and sales conversions are reliable, buying traffic is as easy as falling off a log. There are literally thousands of traffic sources online from which you can buy traffic.

The trick to buying traffic is to make sure that you are able to make a profit on the traffic you buy. Those people who can consistently afford to buy traffic are those who track their results and learn how many people they need to put on their page to get a sale.

Once you begin to understand the effectiveness of your sales copy, then you can easily put traffic through your website. And more importantly, do so reliably at a profit.

— Marty Bradfield teaches the Basics of online marketing and Cutting Edge Techniques used by online marketers, to develop lead generation systems for new businesses. He recommends the 80-page report that outlines 35 Proven Traffic Generation Techniques used by professional marketers to build their online businesses