Comments on: As If, Yeah Right

By: Vicky H

Vicky H — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:07:40 +0000

For me the most irritating is the sales with the bold red type of full sentences, italics or use of multiple crazy colors as text colors.

It’s like ding, ding, ding… Look how bad they want my attention, must be a scam! The other one is ALL CAPS shouting at me.

If someone has 2500 characters of remarkable content highlighted and screaming at me, then it must not be remarkable enough for it’s content that I would just want to read it. So reminds me of Infomercials.

Vicky H

By: Mikel

Mikel — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:26:43 +0000

Hey Chris,

That’s so true! People will most likely click on a simple headline than compared to those complicated, SEO blah,blahs.. I came here to your blog because of this simple headline.

Nice work!

By: Alina Popescu

Alina Popescu — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:15:29 +0000

Hi Chris, I completely agree no article should make promises the author can’t keep. I know this since college, but it sometimes seems even mainstream journalists (I refer to Romania mainly here) forget it. And if it’s understandable for tabloids, when you run into it in financial and business newspapers it starts to strike a nerve.

When it comes to bloggers, I guess we are so focused on getting people to read our posts after seeing the headline that we overlook how it relates to the article itself. Yours is a great advice, one each blogger should read before choosing a headline

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:59:51 +0000

I loathe hype.

I think the long sales letters are promoted because they work short term. These are the results that are quoted.

I hope, long term, that blogging and internet marketing, don’t come to be regarded as the used car salesman of the 21st century. But I doubt those who promote long sales letters think or care about this.

By: JR's Internet Marketing Strategies

JR's Internet Marketing Strategies — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:38:01 +0000

You are so right Chris, I often think about this when I write and double check everything, to make sure I got my facts straight!
Thanks,
JR

By: Graham Strong

Graham Strong — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:37:32 +0000

Hmm, “Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence” — do you have anything to back that up?

Seriously though, I’m all for the straightforward, facts-before-hype approach. Sometimes I have to catch myself when I start talking too much “marketing-speak”.

But how do explain long-letters? I’ve never understood quite how they work, though people like Michael Fortin seem to swear by them. If their stats are right, they are one of the most effective marketing approaches. Yet they are full of shock and hyperbole — and I’ve seen several that actually advertise you will make money as you sleep!

Why is this the exception?

~Graham

By: Ricardo Bueno

Ricardo Bueno — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:13:42 +0000

You’re right. When I visit other websites I’m already making mental notes and critiquing the content of the post and the site in general. What I fail to remember sometimes is that people are engaging in the same critique when reading my own site.

You give us all a timely reminder here. And for me, this is where using the “draft” feature and editing your work becomes important.