Can You Tell a Scam from the Sales Copy?
IttyBiz will be back and/or bad on Monday. In the meantime, we give you the finale to the highly controversial guest post series from Joe/Steve of I’ve Tried That. Haven’t read the first few? How to Make Money Online and Avoid Scams and How to Spot Online Scams beckon.
Are You a Puker and a Mewler?
We’ve used the word “shyster,” we’ve sucked up, and now, for act three: Shakespeare.
All the Internet’s a stage and all the surfers merely players. Everyone looking to make money using the Internet starts as an infant, mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms and emptying his purse of money as fast as he can. Our goal is to educate the mewling infant before he hurts himself. (I hereby nominate “mewling” as the greatest adjective ever. Shyster still has the noun spot, though. “Mewling shyster?” Overkill.)
The more educated you are when it comes to making money online, the less likely you are to get scammed. It’s that simple. I don’t know why some people new to this particular stage check their critical faculties at the door. We hope to get those of you to whom this applies to re-engage.
[*Note: Qualifiers shall appear in bold in the following paragraphs.]
I do know, however that many sites use legitimate Internet marketing techniques to draw attention to dishonest claims and to sell shitty products. Those sites often rank high in search engine results, drawing in the mewling infants unawares.
Not every site that uses these strategies is hyping a scam, but you all know that already. You might be using these tactics yourself. The difference is that you’re not lying to readers and you’re selling a quality product that lives up to all the urgency and emotional appeal you bring to bear. Like a woman in labor, the end result of your marketing is a beautiful thing (after an hour or so, in the baby’s case).
Some sites and some people, however, use the same strategies, and do it well, and go through all the grunting and screaming and hee-hoo, hee-hoo, hee-hoooooing, and deliver not a beautiful baby, but a 10-kilo turd for which you’ve plunked down your hard-earned cash.
How to Distinguish Scams from Legitimate Offers
So. Is that site you’re considering sending money to on the up and up? Or is it like a drunk roommate who fouls up the hot tub? You can learn to tell the difference before you hand over your money.
We’ll look at and compare the following two sales pages: Build a Niche Store (BANS) and International Data Entry at Home Institute (IDEHI). You can view the respective presell pages at www.buildanichestore.com and www.onlinedatainstitute.com/ Both sites use common marketing tactics, but it’s very clear which site is using the tactics ethically—because the product does what the page claims—and which one is horking up these tactics from a phlegm-filled, lying throat.
BANS Sales Page Features
- The viewing experience is smooth.
The page does not use any surf-hindering tactics. It is displayed as a common, static Web page. - You’re given specific program details.
From the first lines, you’ll know exactly what you’ll be doing in order to make money. You will use the BANS software to build your own niche store populated with items from eBay. You make money through affiliate commissions. There are no vague statements about the type of work you will be doing. - BANS makes no guarantee of earnings.
You can slave for weeks or even months over building your niche stores and still make absolutely no money. - There are no overtly gimmicky attempts to make you buy right now.
Come back later today, tomorrow, or six months from now. The program will still be available. - The price is set in stone.
The software has been the same price since it’s been released and there is no talk of increasing it. - There are no flashy testimonials or cheesy stock photos of wealth.
Any picture used is entirely relevant to the content around it.
In short, the BANS page equips you to make a rational decision, not an emotional one.
IDEHI Sales Page Features
- The viewing experience is terrible.
Where to begin? Upon arriving at the page, a video clip begins playing in the bottom right corner of the page. It is loud, obtrusive, and downright annoying. Navigating away from the page yields three tricky pop-up options and launches a fake chat scenario with an automated script to make you feel you’re talking to a real person. Do you feel like you’ve just been horked on? - The program details are entirely ambiguous.
I read over 4,500 words before any mention of the type of work that would be performed. Even then, I am still quite unsure as to what the hell I will be doing once I fork over nearly $200. Mewling, puking infants (and I mean that with the greatest possible affection) don’t realize they’ve just been horked on with a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. - The page makes claims of absurd amounts of earnings.
The following is an actual line from the presell page: “If you want to fill out 14 forms for an hour-and-a-half to two hours a day, you can make $100,800 a year, a six-figure salary!” Spare me. The “forms” are affiliate marketing ads, and they don’t tell you that you have to get tons of people to see your ad, that someone will have to click on one of your ads AND THEN make a purchase before you get paid. Half truth=lie. - The page is filled with pushy sales gimmicks.
Hell, the first line of the page is that there are only two spots remaining! Directly below that is a counter that is counting down from 2 hours and 56 minutes before a sale ends. Come back tomorrow and there will still be two slots remaining, and the clock will have started over. - There are threats of an imminent price increase.
They claim that they will raise the price from $197 to $550 at any minute. In addition to the $353 price increase, they will be taking on a $30 shipping and handling fee for the delivery of digital items. - There are way too many bullshit testimonials.
From what I gathered, this program has changed hundreds of lives and turned regular people, just like me, into instant millionaires. I too can own a mansion, Bentley, yacht, and private jet.
In contrast to the BANS page, this one tells you nothing you need to know to make a rational decision and instead pressures you into making an emotional decision right now.
Of course there are legitimate, ethical uses of these strategies, but I think you’ll agree that it’s pretty easy to tell the difference once it’s been framed for you.
We wish you all the success you deserve. But you only deserve it when you educate yourself at IttyBiz and elsewhere and learn how to be a responsible Internet citizen by creating great products and marketing them effectively and ethically. And that’s an unqualified truth.
Next Post: Sell More Stuff: Recipe For Madness
Don’t you just love the urgency?
I’ve always loved the ones that use a script that tells you the sell price is “only good till midnight ” and you can come back until hell freezes over and the sell price will still be “good until midnight .”
But, you better hurry on this one, the “live chat” script person estimates that the remaining 2 positions will be filled in only 4 minutes.
I knew what the hell the product was within 5 seconds on BANS. I still don’t know what the other product is.
I’m somewhat limited in my thinking, I assume everyone clicks off those long sales letter pages as quick as I do. But they’re still around, so guess I’m worng.
“[*Note: Qualifiers shall appear in bold in the following paragraphs.] ”
Smart. I guess we won’t be having THAT conversation again. : )
Hopefully this clears up some confusion we had with the last two posts. We are genuinely concerned with helping people not lose money.
Thanks for the final post but I’m more excited that we’ll be receiving updates again.
This still provides no “how to” guidance on scams, because the “how to” comes down to judgment… something I haven’t learned how to teach and the authors have no idea about in general.
Well, you can’t please everyone. Thanks for reading Clark. Impressive how you managed to fit both you and your big head into just one comment. I’d appreciate it if you refrained from flaunting your ego anymore and let us ‘lesser-beings’ continue our conversation.
Thanks.
Ok, I’m new here but I’ve been read several topics (and the almost endless responses). This is one of the few blogs I’ve bothered reading more than one article, and then subscribing to.
The “online institute” chick went on forever, like an old girlfriend who must remain nameless (or I’ll never hear the end of it) without saying anything useful, or meaningful. While the “build a niche” site had very BIG text it was more to the point and, yes, more honest.
Neither, however, was convincing. Without your commentary I would have spent less than 5 seconds on either site. The “niche” site was visually ‘unreliable’ while the “online institute” was clearly a 3 AM infomercial. Don’t be impressed that she stayed on same spot as you scrolled down the page looking for any honesty… it was a simple programmer’s parlor trick; I have a team that of programmers can do that for me.
The tabloid (um, cheap) look of the “niche” site, however, turned me off as much as the “online institute” chick (is she really a “chick”?). Professional design, or at least plagiarism (stealing?), is better than either site. Spent $30 for a more professional template and look more legitimate in minutes!
Naomi, you rock, even if you have Asian words and a semi-colon emblazoned on your back. I can think of worse things permanently written onto a body (not mine, too chicken to commit 8). I look forward to more. Thanks!
Friday night: “spend” not “spent”. Sorry about the typo.
Whee! It’s not a dose of Naomi but it’s a glimpse at a window in which Naomi is waving at you … good enough for me. I hereby declare that it’s time to do a little dance.
Also: I like when bold can signify *emphasis* but also be misconstsrued (or understood, whatever) as *sarcasm*. Maybe my sense of humor is especially juvenile today. Still thought it was funny.
Also: Those of us who know our way around the internets are so used to reading the signifiers that say: “sleaze! scam! run away!” that I think we don’t really tend to notice them all that much anymore.
These tips are a good start for people who really don’t know what’s up yet (it’s a legitimate service, someone has to help these people).
And the rest of us launch a full-on Talmudic-style nit-picking debate about the more subtle aspects of what’s “marketing tactics that don’t appeal to me” vs what’s potentially “unethical”.
Which might be interesting, if we can do it without lots of whispered expletives transmitted mainly through airquotes. Or not.
Sorry for the long comment. Naomi, kiss kiss kiss!
Thank god Spencer made a typo and humiliated himself for it. Now I don’t feel bad about misspelling the word ‘misconstrued’. Okay, actually I do.
Ok, so I reread the intro and now realize Joe/Steve should get credit for this post. Nice story guys. Must have been more tired on Friday than I thought.
“I’m somewhat limited in my thinking, I assume everyone clicks off those long sales letter pages as quick as I do. But they’re still around, so guess I’m worng.”
Allena, I think more PC-savvy and internet-experienced people like we all are more or less on here are usually turned off by such long sales letters, I totally agree with you.
The “problem” are people who are really, really desperate for money/information on a certain topic/etc and don’t know where to start. When these people land on such a page with a super-long sales letter and a “live-chat” they also might be turned off at first. But these kind of pages know which buttons to push on the first screen that the visitor sees. If you know how to do that, you have at least a visitor who scrolls over the whole page or maybe even read the whole pitch (and maybe finally clicks on one of the many “Buy”-buttons).
One thing I also want to notice is the video on the bottom right corner of the page. Although it is intrusive, it does add credibility to the page: The site is not just a virtual entity projected onto our screens, there are real people behind it, there is a face we can associate with the page. This also gives us some feeling of control, because in case it turns out to be a scam, we know who is behind it and who we can blame. This is a (false?) sub-conscious feeling of trust that is being built up which should not be underestimated when it comes to more gullible people.
Hope I didn’t bore anybody. ;)
My first comment on here. Long time reader and lurker, but now I decided that this blog is too great to not comment on it. Keep up the good work Naomi! You two also Joe and Steve, this series was very well written and informing.
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