A swipe file is basically a sales letter you found that you thought was great. To start using swipe files find several sales letters that you know were successful and that you think are well written. Then save them to your computer.
Have a look at each sales letter and notice the way it was written; the headlines, the bolded print, the bullet points, the P.S., the images, etc…
Now that you have your swipe files you can take bits and pieces of each letter (not copying it word for word) and you can use that style within your sales letter. You can even make the format look similar to your favorite letters. This way you don’t have to brainstorm everything, all you’re really doing is re-writing sales letters and of course customizing it to your product.
Instead of spending days writing great copy, you will only spend minutes or hours.
You don’t need to do all the hard work someone else has already done the hard part for you. You’ll find your sales letters are better and flow more fluidly if you model yours off of already successful sales letters.
A good resource to use when you’re copywriting is using a thesaurus. There are tons of online thesauruses that are free to use. If you see you’re using the same word too many time or even want ideas for what words to use these can be a very valuable resource in conjunction with your swipe files. Synonyms help keep your written copy less redundant.