I didn't know about the large file resource. I needed that one. Great resources.

seo-browser.com
statcounter.com

Guess I'm "not allowed" to start a new thread since I'm new here but here's a "productivity tool" I need to know how to acquire and that is swipe files.

I do have about 30 or so DR fundraising packages I've acquired, and I've written a few myself. But now I want to migrate over to the for-profit direct response world. (Besides travel direct response that I did for American Express Travel but that is a completely different genre--lots of descriptive prose you wouldn't use in non-travel DR.)

Anyway, I have a new client--a real estate developer who builds very high-end homes, including mega mansions. Anybody know where I can get a hold of some winning DR response letters sent from high-end builders to the very wealthy and to realtors? I need them quickly!

Right now the only sources I have for sales letters study are Dan Kennedy's The Ultimate Sales Letter, Bencievenga's Bullets and Gary Halbert's newsletters (which I absolutely love, perhaps because his sense of humor exactly coincides with my won--minus the sh-- weasel).

One more thing. Somebody please tell Michael Fortin (since he doesn't allow private e-mails sent to him) that his "Click the button below to start watching..." on his Copy Doctor sales letter doesn't work--there is no button actually. This could conceivably cost him a sale.

Thanks for any and all help on the swipe file thing.

piper

Piper,

I checked. And it works. I tried different browsers, and different computers.

Hmmm.

Does anyone else have the same problem? This is the first I've heard of this...

(Thanks, Piper, for bringing it up.)

I took a quick look. I'd give it a go but I don't know where it is.

Works for me as well.
FYI - I'm using the latest Firefox.

Since I'm here, let me share something with you...

One of the things we talk about when creating sales pages is make sure that your text line is not so long that it causes eye strain on your viewers.

The same can be said about writing emails.

Some say no more than 70-80 characters per line and then there are some who use the word "pixels" when describing this. Those who use pixels say somewhere between 600-700 pixels.

When writing emails, you can easily just place something like this at the top of your page when going through the editing stage to make sure you don't go too wide on the page:



Simply type in 0123456789, then copy and paste it at the top of your email six times (in a single row). This will give you a length of 70 characters.

Some say they'd rather just let the email browser adjust the length of email lines, but I digress. My flat-screen monitor is 21" wide, so I appreciate it when someone takes the time to "fix" the email width for me.

Now, back to pixel length on sales pages...

Lets get on to the tools I want to share with you.

I found this website called the VMN Toolbox.

It's a software that has five different utilities included in it.

The reason I brought up pixel width is because one of these utilities is called "Virtual Ruler".

According to the VMN website, the Virtual Ruler quickly measures anything on your screen and instantly gives you the pixel size.

By the way, this is also a great tool for those copywriters who do critiques as well.

Other utilities in this software include Sticky Notes, Screen Capture, Color Picker, and Magnifier.

Here's the link: VMN Toolbox

I hope this comes in handy for some of you here... Enjoy!

One of the things I've found useful for new sales letter ideas is looking at very old direct mail sales letters. There are ideas so old they are new again. There are a few posted in the National Mail Order Association's web museum. nmoa.org and you can find some in very old books on the subject.

Here's a laundry list of free replacements for proprietary software (Open Source, not pirated).

The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy — and Their Open Source Alternatives | WHDb

It lists just about everything you'd need from a FrontPage to a Word replacement.

I'm still looking and downloading.

Feel like a kid in a candy shop.

Cheers,

That is a great list my friend, thank you for sharing.

Take care of you.

You may be interested in Darkroom. It is a simple text editor. What makes it unique? It opens in fullscreen, all you see is a green coloured text on a black background. There are no things which let your attention to go on a trip (to formatting tools or any other such allurement).