Ten marketing rules of success.

1. Spend up to 80 percent of your time on the headline of a space ad or sales letter. (Your letter headline can often be used as the teaser copy for the envelope.) Reason? Fifty to 80 percent of the sales success of your advertising message is a direct result of your headline. That means your message loses up to 80 percent of its effectiveness without a strong headline.

Another important reason to invest this time is that the offer's positioning is determined by the headline theme. Most copywriters do not spend nearly enough time on headlines. I write as many as 250 headlines before I select the final one for a campaign.

2. Use Courier typeface in sales letters. Some call it old-fashioned, but my experience shows that Courier outpulls any other type style. The typewriter "me-to-you" look "feels" more personal and urgent.

3. Use highly salable products as free bonus gifts. Bonuses always increase sales with one exception. I once made a mistake of using a failed product as a bonus with disastrous results. Remember this: If you can't sell it, you can't give it away successfully!

4. Always use a headline at the top of your sales letter. Never use a company logo or your name and address at the top of a sales letter. It is a "me" message and depresses response. Use a logo at the end of a letter on the last page.

Exception: if you are writing to an audience who would be positively influenced by your name or credentials--e.g., a famous doctor writing to other doctors.

5. Never change a word of winning copy for anyone until you test it--especially "for copy acceptance reasons." I learned the hard way. A magazine's legal department asked me to change three words in a 1200-word, fullpage ad, which I did. The response dropped to one-tenth of the former level!

My recommendation: If it's working, don't change even a comma. If someone insists on changes, it's prudent just to pull the ad. Remember, because a winning ad often challenges conventional thinking, it seems to attract requests for change. But don't do it. Once you agree to do it with a given medium, you've lost control of the creative process. And your sales will usually plummet.

6. Do not use more than 17 words in a headline. Why? Based on my tests, I've never been able to make a headline work that is longer than this.

7. Use the two most under-used and powerful words more often in your copy. Free and you.

8. Do not use "I," the biggest turn-off word in copy, at all or very sparingly.

9. Use subheads which are strong enough to be headlines. They both help keep the prospect reading plus break up large blocks of copy which appear to require so much effort that reading is discouraged.

10. Never print body copy in any color other than black. Black is easiest to read. Colors should only be used for headlines or sub-headlines.

Ted Nicholas, www.tednicholas.com