ComHacker.org

by Patricia Mayo

Maybe being lazy is a good idea, according to - you guessed it (well maybe you didn’t) - Seth Godin. He calls it “keeping copy out of the way of your message“… but I know better.

Photo by Paul Mata

This isn’t the first I’ve heard of the concept. A lot of great and well-renowned books on copywriting say pretty much the same thing. Some of my favorite quotes by famous authors say pretty much the same thing.

Get to the point. Quickly.

But, you see, I have a little problem with broad stroke “solutions.”

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Trisha, @mayobrains on Twitter

by Patricia Mayo

Of course you’re not. What, you - afraid to read a blog post? Pshaw. No way. Couldn’t happen.

Photo by Sophie

Yet if I had titled this “Ambiguity Aversion” and just left it at that, I bet you wouldn’t be reading this right now. That’s because of a hard-wired fact of humanity - we’re fully-trained trained skeptics of anything unfamiliar.

And I’m willing to bet that if I didn’t tell you I’m about to detail how to overcome ambiguity aversion to increase any metric, you probably wouldn’t read beyond this point. But since I just did - well, let’s move on, shall we?

by Patricia Mayo

I’m breaking all the rules in my product launch - but I’m willing to bet my results will be better, and longer lasting, than anyone who does it the “traditional way.”

Photo by Maira Kouvara

The “things” traditional online marketers say you need, like a list and a website, are spot on, but the way they say you should build it is way off.

If you know anything about building a list, you know that at the beginning of it all is the “squeeze page.” I don’t use a squeeze page the way most people do. I let you see more information. I let you navigate through my site.

I am doing everything I can to be as transparent and available as possible. And I’m not just using my transparent squeeze page to draw in subscribers, either.

by Patricia Mayo

Believe it or not, there are actually quite a few truly useful things sold by those 10 mile long sales letters (with the distinct exception of “make money online” information products). Not all products promoted in such ways are crap - and thinking that way is just the coward’s way out.

Original Photo by Steve Woods

However, in order to fully understand whether you’re being sold a rip-off or a real resource, you need to know the full-on ins and outs of sales letter marketing.

It will take some practice before you’re good at reading between the lines, and I’m sure some deceitful marketer is going to read this and revise their marketing - but I’m going to have a go at making this as bullet-proof as I can.

by Patricia Mayo

The numbers are down. Conversions just aren’t happening. You feel at your worst and it’s starting to affect everything you do. You want to give up, but is it really time to go back to the drawing board?

I hope not, because that is exactly where I stand right now. My problem - the ad copy is too effective!