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

A little while ago, I posted a little ditty on reading between the lines in Internet Marketing. One of the things I mentioned was to read the benefits and see if you could predict what they’re selling.

via Fail Blog

Well, I analyze a lot of lists from a lot of supposed top marketers to keep up to date. Today, one big name “guru” sent me a whopping sob story about getting slapped by Google and losing millions, and blah blah blah.

by Patricia Mayo

Here’s a news flash - the quicker information can spread on a medium, the faster that medium evolves. Online marketers who have been successful since the 90’s don’t know jack.

Ok, maybe that’s a little too broad stroke, but if they’re touting techniques that catapulted them to success way back in the 90’s - those techniques won’t work quite as wildly well today. Don’t drink their kool-aid.

Or at least, don’t drink their kool-aid plain.

by Patricia Mayo

I don’t know who got the bright idea to spread this nasty rumor - but everyone seems to think the only concepts worth pursuing are the ones with a lot of people searching. It’s the dumbest unwritten rule of all time.

Photo by Sanja Gjenero

How can you expect to represent authority and stand out if you’re not doing something original? You have to lead the pack - and I’m sorry to say, leading the pack is one heck of a lonely thing to do!

Besides, anyone with half a brain cell - even SEO pros themselves - know you can’t rely entirely on search engine marketing. And if you don’t know why yet, allow me to show you.

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

You’ve seen the headlines - “The new revolutionary way to…” - “Super insider secrets for…” - “The easiest way to…” - “…that THEY don’t want you to know!”

Photo by Moza

As a ghostwriter for many years of those awful five page sales letters and “make money online” information products, I’ve seen - and written - it all. You wouldn’t believe how the “make money online” business really works - and how little of it, actually does.

The reason why all those neat tricks you learned in “make money online” information products don’t work is two fold: the mindset behind it, and the mindset it produces.

More people go into debt chasing some “revolutionary new super secret easy way to make money online” - including, and especially, blogging for money. But you know as well as I do - most of these “insider tricks” are junk, and just an inside joke to trick you into buying.

Real internet marketers don’t sell “online money making secrets” - they give them away for free. Think about it. If they really are making the money they claim, why do they have to sell the information product that teaches you how to make money?

by Patricia Mayo

Photo by TW Collins

You can plant a field by starting with just one seed.

You can get a million subscribers if you publish just one podcast.

You can have server-crushing traffic if you write just one blog post.

You can become the biggest and the best company in the world with just one customer.

When other people can see what you imagine, you make the saying “seeing is believing” work to your benefit. Don’t hesitate to simply make a few things a little more concrete - because now you have something to show for all your great ideas.