Yaro – I’d sooner believe that you’re on the good side of this than the bad side, but it’s still a dangerous game. You’re right to say that people who won’t put in more than a few hours of effort aren’t going to buy from you if you don’t at least mention someone who had quick results (even if it was mostly luck), but if you’re fully expecting them to buy the product and then give up the only person who gains from marketing the product that way is you.

Imagine you were selling general investment advice. You could write on and on about a few people who had their investment double in a year and go after the beginners who think that’s the most likely outcome – maybe a few of them will grow through experience and eventually become wise investors. That’s likely to turn off the people who have experience and more money to invest though, who know that if something has a consistent return much higher than 10% per year it’s not going to be available to anyone who can read a webpage. I can see how online business might be able to go a bit more towards the middle, but it still looks like two distinct choices…

That’s pretty much how I see “make money online” offers now. I want to learn more but I can’t bring myself to pay for anything because they all talk about results that are way too good to be realistic without assuming hyperinflation. I want something that’s only a small piece of the puzzle that takes countless hours – possibly spread out over years – to assemble. I have the technical skills to do anything I need and I’m already working on a couple of things that will take a while to pay off if they do at all. Unfortunately everyone is too busy going after the beginners who haven’t come down to reality yet to even give me a hint of whether or not their product will do that.

Not always – many of the push button solution people won’t even read the lessons yet remain subscribed.

All you really can do is offer the best product you can create and then test the copy until you find the language that works to bring the right customer to your product.

You can sell work if you are selling it as anti-not work. This only works though when the existing perception in the market is of a lot of people selling the no-work, quick-results lie, because then you stand out from the crowd and appear more credible.

It’s anti-hype, which works great when your target market is used to (and sick of) hype.

I say ignore those people, leave them to buy the hyped up products and concentrate on building products for people that are really going to use them. Those people will become your evangelists (like I am for you Yaro!) and will put your product into action, write testimonials for you, provide you with social proof and will probably go on to buy everything else you create.

If the product takes work then this should be stated clearly (I plan to offer a course which will be a guide to living with authenticity and would never pretend that this doesn’t take work).

Deborah Carraro

Rahul Nimawat

Good quality sells and you have to sell the magic button?

Which is it?

Good quality sells and becomes sustainable. The magic button sells too regardless of the quality of the product (to a certain degree – a hideous product will likely spur up so much negative word of mouth that it will stop selling, but a mediocre product can continue to sell with the magic button for a long time).

The idea is you must at least have the magic button. That’s what people want. If you have a quality product too, that’s even better. The incongruency is when you sell the magic button as a 3 day solution knowing full well that it takes a lot longer than that. In that case you can try the anti-hype method, which can work well in copy, or sell with a lot of magic and a good dose of reality too.

It’s really about experimenting with the understanding that people respond well to the quick and easy solution, not the work hard for a long time solution, which may in fact be reality.

It’s when they let you think they’re going to tell you something valuable and they don’t tell you anything unless you spend $2000 – that’s just plain annoying.

A lot of stuff gets read that just isn’t put into practise doesn’t it? And it must be annoying if you sell someone a good information product, then they complain it didn’t work when they haven’t even tried to make it work.

Maybe we all need to read less and do more.

As you point out Yaro, the vast majority of people who purchase information products never take action.

What people really want is someone else to do the work for them. Much of the sales copy I see online is focusing on selling solutions, but not actually providing them.

Businesses that can provide turn-key solutions at competitive prices, are the ones that experience the most success, and the most loyal customers.

Providing solutions is hard work, but in my case, it has been very rewarding over the years.

In short, if you’re gonna hook people in to buy, don’t screw them of their money by cheaping out on the product.

So true. I’ve just have a mojor breakthrough and realized this a few weeks ago.

Plus some of my clients sent me email asking for push buttong solution…

And now I’m working on giving them the buttons.

Bottome line: sell the solution, and then sell the button to make it work faster.

Good quality sells and you have to sell the magic button?

Which is it?

In my view all of us who care about quality should run a campaign to oust those who sell magic button nonsense. They are destroying the future of those of us who care about people and quality. Fortunately customer forums and discussion boards are already doing this.

The ‘sell the magic button’ advice seems to ignore these fora (forums). If people like the magic button how come these places exist?

It’s sort of like you have to sell the sizzle, and get readers hooked in with some sensational claims….then you have to bring them back down to reality and convince them that they can have the pot of gold if they are willing to put in some real work. The trick is to keep pumping up that pot of gold while you are bringing them around to the concept of real work.

Every step of the way, as you are showing them how much work it’s going to take, keep dangling the carrot in front of them.

I guess that is still a bait-and-switch, because you promised them a push-button solution. Oh well, it’s still some good food for thought…thanks for the ideas Yaro!

Good copy is not good enough. Testimonials on a page are not enough. We need to hear it from people we know and trust. You made $1400 off that ebook last week because people trust you. We trust that you would not recommend a product that is more pitch than value.

I once heard copywriter Yanik Silver say something like, “You’ve heard the phrase, ‘Give a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime.’ The fact of the matter is that people just want you to give them the fish right now!”