Just now, I get an email from a well-known Internet Marketer.  Skim it and decide his message is interesting enough for me to find out about more about his offer…

I get to the long copy sales page and start reading the headline, but in less than 10 seconds - the screen darkens and a box slides down from the top telling me to give him my first name and primary email address & he’ll send me an “oh so special” eBook absolutely free.

What’s going on?  He was talking to me about something completely different!

Does this IM master not realize that he just blasted me with a commercial inside a commercial?

He has just asked me to decide which pitch to allow.

Do I want to invest in continuing to read his sales copy knowing that it may or may not be worth my time, but I will definitely be asked to hand over cash in the end - or should I just give him my name and email addy and get my hands on this eBook.  Try a free sample of what he offers to see if what he hands out is even worth my time, let alone my $.

Not to mention the fact that he barely gave me enough time to get sucked in by the first headline and he switches channels on me - who cares if he does own both stations?

I was so bothered, I just closed out of everything and went back to reading emails.

For anyone who doesn’t have a clear understanding of what I mean, think about this…

Your sales page is the Internet’s equivalent of your face-to-face close.  It has to cover all the elements a good in-person close will cover (and then some).

Now imagine you’re pitching in person and, just after you open, a stranger drops down from the sky, puts their hand over your mouth and starts selling your prospects on something completely different.

That is exactly what happens when you try to sell one person on two different outcomes.  Sure, you’ll still have conversions, but certainly less that you would if you closed them without distractions and multiple goals.  And I’m not talking about upsells or add-ons.

So, to that Internet Marketer, I say, “Stop it! Stop trying to make a sale and build a list all at once.  If your sales page and product are great quality, you’ll capture people’s names when they buy.

Set-up a separate funnel for list building or that other product.  Just be grateful you have my attention to listen to one!

OK, and now we return to our regularly scheduled program!

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But the Universe, my clients, and my publisher have been very, very good to me.

I’ve had more work then I can handle.  I’m not bragging - I’m forever grateful and humbled for everything that is coming my way!

Not only have I been swamped, but I’ve been swamped with amazing clients.  The cream of the crop!  Quality people, quality offerings, quality missions.  I recently dubbed myself “Copywriter to the Sexy and Profitable Stars“.  They like it, I like it.  Who’s going to argue?! Ha!

But enough of that - you aren’t here to read about my life, you want to know what I can do for you.

And I respect that…

First off, repeat after me. “There is no recession in my World.”  Repeat it again and again and again.  Repeat it until you believe it!

Because if you don’t, you’re screwed.  Seriously - SCREWED! (And I’m not talking about the fun way either!)

So, now you’re saying to me, “But you don’t know my situation.  I’ve got <blah> <blah> <blah>…” Fill in the blahs with whatever “poor me”-type sob story you want.

If that is what you are saying, then quite frankly, YOU ARE RIGHT!  Pack it up and call it a day because you have just given your power over to someone or something else.  And reading this is a waste of time.

But, you can choose to believe that there really is no recession.  Think about it.  There is no less $ in the world.

As Stuart Wilde says money is energy.  It doesn’t leave the atmosphere. It merely flows somewhere else.  So, if money isn’t flowing to you, go to where the money is flowing.  Change your mindset, change your business model, change your business.

Here’s an interesting business model to study.  This woman has become wildly successful and I only heard about her today.

Here’s her website http://www.flylady.net/index.asp

Her name is Marla Cilley and she is known as the FLYLady.  FLY stands for Finally Loving Yourself.

Her store sells her books and cleaning equipment.  (Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?) <grin>

Here’s one of her videos:

Go Shine Your Sink

Now, I get it, but I’m not jumping out of my chair to buy something.

So why am I telling you to model her?

She has a little list.  Well, it isn’t a traditional aweber thing.  She built her list in Yahoo Groups.

Yahoo just recognized her because her little list just logged its 500,000 subscriber.

So, let’s see - no aweber, site ends in .net, sells books and cleaning equipment AND has been able to build a 500K name list of rabid fans .  Hmmm?

So, what are you waiting for?

Definitely no recession in her World.  And I hope there isn’t one in your World either.

xoxo

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Google “omerta,” and you’ll understand everything.

But let me tell you, he’s one smart copywriter, and when he does something like this, it makes everyone sit up and take notice.  To see more of what this is about, check out his site here.  And go ahead and ask him about his wild-a** November Challenge.

I’ll tell you this much: you won’t be disappointed.

-Kevin Dawson

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This person was afraid of offending their list and was afraid to try to “sell” to them.   So why bother to have a list?  Running a non-profit agency, are we?

So I’m going to be cool and show this client how to sell.  (Again, to a list that had never been sold to before.)  True to form, the first email that went out got one response that resented how a sales message was being pushed … and the recipient asked to be taken off the list.

My client recoiled in horror.

Well, what did they expect?  If you have a list you never sell to, then you’ve trained them that way.  Now all of a sudden you try to sell to them, you’re likely to get some of them p. o’d.

But what’s the point of having a list if not to sell to them?  And why would you want someone on your list if they are going to resent you for selling to them?  Or are you running a popularity contest, and want to be liked?

To me, one of the best ways  to be liked is to have people give me money.

Now get this … another client actually phoned her.  Sorry, I love the people on my list, but I don’t usually take calls from them.  Anyways, they asked if my client was angry at the affiliate that my client was promoting?   Instead of my client responding with a good-natured chuckle and explaining the letter, the client instead went ballistic.

Yes, my client was so shocked that they immediately stopped all copy from proceeding.   I was fired on the spot.

Good thing.  My client beat me to the punch.

Any marketer with any savvy knows that a list will respond to however you choose to train it.  Train it to ignore or delete your emails because they are boring, or offer no value, and that’s what your list will do.  Offer your people value, and they’ll open and read what you send them.

Entertain, inform, and offer them a good value.  That’s the million dollar formula that I’ve used with great success.

But having a list and NOT selling to it is about the most namby-pamby, wussy thing you can do … and it will severely limit your business growth.  See, you’ve trained them to suck in information free from you, and that’s the basis of your relationship.  Try and change that, and yes, it’ll rock the boat.

Like, try to change the basis of your relationship with your spouse and see what happens.

So, I wasted a lot of hours, trying to educate this client.  I also did not receive a cent from them. I wanted the copy to prove to them its value, since they were shocked at having to actually spend money.  I was going to show them how the copy will pay for itself by taking the risk upfront, not charging until it produced results.  Yep, I was the Boy Scout, out to do my good deed, and not take a cent until clearly earned.

True to form, no good deed goes unpunished.

In the end, they offered to pay me, maybe just to get rid of me.  I refused to accept any money from the client.  The failure was theirs for not having a clue as to what they were getting into, and getting freaked out over one or two negative responses.

If I accept pay from them, it’s almost like I’m complicit in their stupidity.  Hell, I’ve got enough of my own to deal with.

So what I WILL do is accept the responsibility for being just as big of an idiot in my own way … for trying to cure someone’s stupidity.

And no, I don’t mean ignorance.  I mean stupidity.

Someone who is ignorant to the ways of direct response, but asks for it anyway, then drops it like a hot potato at the first sign of someone not liking them, is far beyond ignorant.

But then I knew ahead of time that trying to write for a client and educate them at the same time is a losing proposition.  It’s like trying to teach a pig to sing: it wastes your time, and annoys the pig.

Sure hope I don’t make that mistake again.

-Kevin Dawson

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But you can’t cure stupid.

I have painfully discovered this for the third time in my career.  A prospective client asks me, “What’s the cost of writing some sales copy for my website?”

That immediately raised a flag.  It’s the classic amateur question from someone who’s probably never used a copywriter before.  I asked back, “What’s your experience with direct marketing?”

“None, really.  I just got your name from someone else.”

Since the potential client seemed very nice, and the source of the referral was a regular, I decided I take on the job, despite my misgivings.

The first sample I sent got a response, “Oh, I could never send something like that to my list.  It doesn’t reflect my personality.”

“Well, of course not.  You tell me you don’t understand direct response, so how could you possibly send out a direct response piece in ‘your personality?’ ”

“Oh, yes.  I see.  Well, I never wanted to do anything tacky like these emails that I see that just try to sell.”

Okay, another red flag.  So to show the client the value of a professionally written email, I asked, “What’s your present open stats and your click-through stats?”

“I don’t track them, because then the links would not look so pretty.”

That should have told me all I needed to know to fire them, right then and there.  But nooooooo, I had to be Mr. Nice Guy, (read: idiot)  and try and help.

Check back tomorrow to find out how no good deed goes unpunished.

Kevin Dawson

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