Newbies Hints & Tips : What are Swipe Files?

Quite often I get asked the question: What are Swipe Files?

Well, I'm sure in the past you have been inundated with what most people term as 'junk mail' either through your mailbox or through your e-mail inbox.

There was a time when I took great pleasure in throwing these letters away, and deleting them quickly, but not any more. These mailings are actually very valuable indeed - like gold dust in fact.

Now I know better, and when these so-called junk mail letters pop through my mailbox, I sit down and read them through. Yes, some are actually very good indeed, and some are so good - too good to ignore. So I find myself reading a letter right through, and now and then it seems to strike a chord.

Then I think to myself, hey this is exactly the sort of sentence, or paragraph, I need in the sales copy I'm writing - maybe I can use a phrase just like that. If you read through your mailings, you'll see some of them are really brilliant, and demonstrate an excellent way of putting together a good sales letter.

So now, instead of putting my junk mail straight into the recycling box or the gash bag, I read everything through and then carefully file them away for future use. My own piece of advice here would be to keep everything.

Have a box file for your sales letter examples. Put everything in there, the good, the bad, and the crazy - no matter what it is.

I call my box file 'Swipe Files' because I can swipe snippets of paragraphs that could be relevant to my sales letters. Sometimes I'll even print off a particularly interesting web page sales letter, and add that to my box. They when I need inspiration I'll have a quick look through my box.

All these swipe files are simply tools to get some ideas flowing. It's certainly not a good idea, and definitely not one I'd recommend, to just plagiarize the sales letters. Never re-use them just as they are. This I would wholeheartedly discourage. But it's quite ok to use the ideas, and turn them around to fit in with your own sales letter.

Don't be tempted to throw stuff away because it's 'out of date'. What goes around comes around - and some day you may be very glad you kept them.

So my one piece of advice is - keep everything. Collect all your swipe files and keep them safely in a box. Have another box for your own ideas - sometimes out of nowhere a flash of inspiration 'light bulb' will go off inside your head. Write your own ideas down too, and keep them safe!