I was once a subscriber of John Reese's Reese Report and he had some interesting things to say on copywriting:

• Focus on the benefit within the benefit.
• The prospect's life should improve even while consuming your marketing material (reminds me of Teaching sells)
• Tell them what your product has done for others like themselves
• Tell a story

I've been writing copy using mostly these things in mind and well, I've been doing pretty well.

The feeling that I am feeling 'salesy' even though I wasn't, came from being insecure about asking for the sale. I was internally criticizing myself - "look how shamelessly salesy he is" and stuff. I've since overcome that once I realized it.

I would like to think I am doing the person reading a huge favor by letting them have the product that I am selling.

I also write the copy first, even before I start working on the actual product. Trust me it totally works miracles. I get a better idea of what I am doing and get some direction. I know if the product I create is good enough for promises I made at the sales letter. And prevents me from becoming overly perfectionistic and get carried away.

I had to unlearn a few things too. I had bought into conflicting views from various people and decided let it screw up, I'll test and tweak it.

Thanks for the great tips Rajasekharan

You made the right choice to outsource the sales letter writing to Brian Clark.

The fact is that writing sales copy is very difficult. It also may take a lot of time to get right.

I'm learning as much as I can about copywriting, but I don't have any intention of ever writing it myself.

As marketers, we need to focus in on our core competencies, mine being:

1) Managing a team
2) Adwords
3) Niche Research

Taking time to write copy takes away from what I'm good at.

I think learning how to manage a team is so important to our overall success as internet marketers/ affiliate marketers.

One of the most rewarding experiences I learned about writing sales copy was to focus on the customer not the product. All too often our cheesy sales copy is due to the fact that we are PUSHING a product onto an unknowing visitor. An approach you might want to take up is focus on the customer from the start. Take a look at Woot. 99.9% of the copy they write has nothing to do with the product and if it does it is so far fetched that you truly can’t say it is promoting the product but engaging the customer. Ohh and don’t forget! Try not to limit your sales copy to who you think your customers are but rather having everyone be a customer. Perceptions can trap your judgment and I have lost many sales due to this limitation. We may not be aware of this but so many sales we transact are due to the receptiveness of the sales “person” or object. I use person loosely because often it is not a person but a store layout or a common understanding between buyer and seller. When writing copy online it is all about connections and understanding and in many cases it has nothing to do with the product but knowing the customer.

Ohh and don’t forget! Try not to limit your sales copy to who you think your customers are but rather having everyone be a customer

I strongly disagree. Talk to who you intend to and only to them or your message will get diluted and you'll sound like a politician.

I've had the same problem...currently reading: "Marketing Your Services: For People Who Hate to Sell" by Rick Crandall.

Excellent book, puts things in a light that's devoid of 'gimmicky cheese'. Basic premise being when you have a good product that actually helps people there's no need to feel guilty or go about things in a deceiving manner. We've just had to deal with so much of the negative 'pushing' type promotion it gives marketing a bad name. Mind you this particular book deals with a wider scope than just copywriting...but the way it frames the process is very helpful for that aspect of marketing(and it does touch on that specifically)