If you'd like to know a way that's all but guaranteed to increase the response of all your ads and sales letters, then this will be one of the most important articles you ever read.

Before I reveal the secret, let me just say, there is nothing "sexy" about it. In fact, you may even find it boring.

But if you learn this simple secret and, even more importantly, use it in your copy...you'll find it to be extremely powerful.

Anyway, here's the "secret": Scrap all passive sentences.

Overkill, you say? I don't think so. This is one of the few lessons you can learn in English 101 that will actually help make you money.

In case you were sick the day they taught this in school, here’s an example of a passive sentence:

“Johnny had his teeth kicked in by Billy.”

That's a passive, very weak way of getting the idea across. Instead, you want to make it more action oriented and tight, like this:

“Billy kicked in Johnny’s teeth.”

A small difference, you say? I don't thing so. Because remember, your copy has to be a quick and easy read. Reading your sales message should be like jumping on a slippery slide with no stops, bumps or stalls whatsoever during the entire reading process. In fact, people shouldn't even be aware they are reading something. It has to be readily absorbed by the mind without a bump or a bobble.

And passive sentences make ideas and thoughts "longer." They are harder to assimilate into the brain and they make reading much slower. And so, if you simply convert all of your passive sentences to action sentences, you'll go a long way towards making your ads more likely to be read and thus, responded to.

Ben Settle is an expert copywriter and direct marketer. If you liked this article then check out Ben's website at http://bensettle.com -- where you'll find over 500 pages of advertising ideas, strategies and tactics just like this one -- as well as rare swipe file ads and hot marketing information not easily found anywhere else.

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