Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. The bills have been calling and I’ve been doing some regular writing for customers. Since both my competition and in some cases my possible sources for content writing is PLR, I was thinking about it’s quality, or lack thereof, quite a bit.
My husband likes to make the comment “You Can’t Turn Chicken Shit into Chicken Salad” a lot and that is exactly what I felt I was trying to do. Gradually though I learned how to take PLR of almost any quality and indeed turn it into something decent. So I sat down and wrote a short report on my methods and am selling it along with a GIANT package of PLR for the very low price of $7. This comes with Master Resale Rights, so if you want to get into the PLR game, here’s your chance.
I’m hoping to get back to true Copywriting (though I did write the sales page of How to Take Chicken Shit (PLR) into Chicken Salad (Something People Want to Consume myself) soon.
Diana
My friend Anne Emerick of Aboon Books recently set up a generous affiliate program for her ebooks and children’s books. Then she discovered that her number one sales person was someone who was placing fraudulent orders using stolen credit cards. I’m sure their strategy was to collect affiliate commissions before anyone discovered the credit card charge was invalid.
When I heard, I thought, “Whew, why is there always one stinker in the crowd?” But then I realized how many hustlers and immoral folks are out there using their copywriting skills to sell at any cost? Is what some of these people do, really so different than the credit card thief?
Another friend said they were asked to look at a sales page and they were thinking what a great product until they found out a kid had put it together and many of the claims about his experience were entirely fictional.
Please, be honest in your sales letters. Don’t peddle something you don’t believe in or know nothing about. Don’t fabricate or grossly exaggerate sales information. Why? Two reasons.
- It’s the right thing to do.
- People can sense honesty. Honesty does sell.
P.S. Speaking of Aboon Books, Poster Girl is a story of great story to teach kids why leaves change color in the fall.
Our leaves are changing late this year. I guess because we’ve had a lot of warm weather, 70 degrees, even 80 in the last few weeks.
I got an early copy of Web 2.0 Wealth and think it’s a great product which can catapult anyone to earning money from blogging almost overnight. I began promoting it because there are some extra incentives for early sales and so I was on the news emails about it’s launch to anyone promoting it. The news basically was that sales were disappointing and I thought — Wow, this is a fantastic product, let’s look at why it isn’t selling. There are testimonial on the sales page. There are bonuses. There is a picture of the creator (who I might add does seem to be a very helpful, nice guy) AND the product brings REAL value — saving the buyer days of time learning how to blog, gain traffic and earn money from the blog.
So again, why isn’t it selling better? There are two theories.
1) The name — Web 2.0 Wealth –really it’s about making money by blogging — but you don’t get that from the name. I remember someone talking about how people have to understand a product. The example she used was she was staying at a hotel and asked about local places of interest to pass an evening. The desk clerk at the hotel was describing a place a few doors down and she wasn’t really understanding, was it a restaurant? a video arcade? a bowling alley with food? Finally another desk clerk said, “x, oh that place is awesome. It’s like a Chuckee Cheese for adults.” And the light bulb went on and the sale was made. Always make sure that people understand what you are selling and the easiest way to do that is with the name.
2) Seeing is believing. Even more than testimonials, videos are powerful sales tools. The leader in Web 2.0 Wealth sales go there simply by making sure that everyone went and saw this video
Who is King of the Headlines in your opinion. Joe Vitale? David Garfinkel, author of Advertising Headline Templates That Make You Rich? I’m sure there are a dozen or more candidates for King (or Queen) of the Headlines. But you’ll be surprised by my pick.
An online headline’s success is simply whether it makes you click on it to see the story. And the writer(s) that have the best success rate? The headline writers for AOL and/or Yahoo. Here are some recent headlines that I found myself clicking on, even though in theory the topic was of no interest to me.
Precious Violin Back in His Hands. Thief Struck as Man Dozed. See How ‘Weird’ Story Ends.
Ways to tell immediately if a guy is a winner, a sinner, or will make you buy dinner.
How did a Gap store manager in Kentucky become the Web’s hottest fashion guru?
Judge Blocks Name for Baby. Says It’s Unfair to the Child. Do You Agree With Ruling?
Obviously all these work on the concept of intrigue. Work like a charm. While I’ve purchased and refer to guidelines to create tantalizing headlines, I’m planning on studying the King of the Headlines until (hopefully) I can command similar clickthrough rates!
Diana
There are few lines that I dislike more than:
Please Decide Quickly… Just 10 Left!
It irritates me because I want to decide when I want to decide. Maybe I have something cooking on the stove or a loved one calling on the phone. Who are you to tell me to focus on YOU and what YOU have to sell?
Furthermore, it is usually a lie. I mean how many of us have gone to a web page and seen a line that looks like this:
only 46, 22 copies left
And weeks or months later we come across the same web page with the same numbers. How dumb do I look?
And yet, people tell me that this works? Really? Is it just me that hates this kind of crap?
The email I received about only 10 copies left, also informed me that,
“I may never offer this entire product line in one package again.” and “This truly is a unique opportunity to get so much”.
Frankly, the fact that the guy felt he should pressure me to buy now, was a substantial factor in my NOT wanting to buy. I almost get the message “Buy now, before you come to your senses.” or “Buy now, before you see the same offer at a lower price.”
But I’m told that adding a “sense of urgency” is a very effective selling technique. I’m sure marketing folks wouldn’t use this technique unless it worked, so it must just be me, or a minority of people that dislike it.
Opinions?