First, the difference in quality between the blog and the buy-now page actually detracts from his authority. The buy-now page is marginally different from many seo experts. Why should there be a completely different feel between the stylish blog and the boorish buy-now page?

2. The commitment feature which is clever is the form which invites you to describe what more he can tell to get you to buy his book. It would have been super clever to put in a menu of faq questions, which would have then established his authority even more. Commitment is not gained by offering a “free subscription to the blog”. I think that this feature could be better utilized.

3. I doubt that there is any reciprocity here. People expect good quality information or they turn off the rss feed. You don’t get much for offering good quality free information.

4. Finally, there is no liking or similarity going on here, either. If there was an geoip selector which pitched relevant content at me when I visited the buy-now site, that might be different.

Finally, there are no compelling examples which shows that he can do what he claims, without giving away the game. (His own very high ranking for “seo book” notwithstanding.)

Long sales copy has the same story – it works, however I think in rare occasions a shorter sales letter may perform better, but because a long letter is the de facto standard the short letter isn’t tested. Of course that’s just not smart marketing to not test, but I do wonder how many online marketers bother to test short sales letters anymore?

Brian, do you usually test a short sales letter anymore or focus only on tweaking the variables in long sales letters?

Peter

I bought Aaron’s book a couple of weeks back, and have read it from front to back. One word…excellent! I have also bought products from guys like IMC (when Corey Rudl) was running it, and that was also good, and the sales letter is extremely effective. I can’t remember how many times i’ve come across some whizz bang e-book and have read the copy from tip to toe, and almost triggered my mouse to click through and buy, even though I knew it could be schlock! Sales copy is tried and tested, and works extremely well. Why? It draws the reader in, plays on their emotions, compels them to act, Aaron does this extremely well.

Hats off to Aaron, great ebook, with very good info!

1. I think the appearance of Aaron’s sales page could be toned down and made much more sophisticated looking, and it would help, thanks to the high quality of his blog. There is a disparity, and appearances do matter. A page that had the look and feel of the 37 Signals home page would be more appropriate for Aaron.

2. The sales letter is the absolute number 1 method to sell an information product such as this. When you pour your heart and soul into creating an extremely useful ebook, you’ll want to sell as many of them as you can, and it’s been established over and over — by testing, not opinion — that this is the way to do it.

The page does not have to look spammy, or contain cheesy text, to work. But don’t let the “consumer” opinions of some people interfere with the a “marketing” decision on how best to sell something… unless you don’t care about silly things like revenue and profits. :)

That said, Aaron has done a great job of integrating the book into his blog and integrating his “expert status” into the whole sales presentations.

I assume me and the two European dudes are not his target market. I’m the type of person who would rather “do it yourself” than learn from others.

I love seobook.com and read the blog daily. I have a huge amount of respect for Aaron but am amazed he is using this technique to sell a legitimate product. The layout of the page associates his product with the likes of blog spam and search engine submission software.

Aaron if you must use this sales letter please start IP targetting as you are losing UK customers by the dozen.

To me it’s a double-edged sword – I hate these types of letter (whether they come by snail mail, email, or in web page format) but I know they work. I would think very carefully before using them to sell a product, preferring instead to embed within the articles themselves (which I’m sure Aaron does, though I’ve not studied his blog)

This method works – human nature just seems to lap it up whether or not the end product is any good or not. I expect in this case, the end product is good, thoiugh I’ve not read it personally. However, there are many more products (a handful of which I’ve fallen for) that entice visitors using this method and get them to buy. The money-back guarantee is great, but I think many marketers bank on many people forgetting, even if they’re not satisfied. That’s not underhand, it’s just how it works.

One thing I’d be careful of is giving away so much free information that people don’t think it’s worth buying the product. I suppose that won’t happen on a wide niche, and often the sales method includes lines like ‘get all this info straight away by buying xyz’ – I think that’s why the instalment newsletter works as well. If a subscriber gets hooked on a newsletter that only comes out daily or weekly, but there’s an offer to buy the whole course immediately, often the ‘buy it now’ mentality will make the sale.

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough. Product selling (whether my own or affiliate) is something I don’t have much experience of, but would love to improve upon in an organic way as my sites grow. Thanks for the article.

If Aaron wants to build more hype, he jolly well could highlight his bonuses (#1, #2 and #4) into individual boxes and elaborate further benefits (emotional). Take #1 for example,

“With the constant change of alogrithm in SEs, it’s no wonder many newbies couldn’t keep up with the know-how, let alone talk about building profitable websites. For a mere one time $79 investment on your part, not only you will get truck load of traffic once you start implement my techniques but you will always get cutting edge SE knowledge and stay ahead of your competitors. No more worries of using techniques that are so dated even your grandmother would know how to implement them.”

Ok, I may have gone abit overboard here, but I wanted to point out is that if after reading the sales page which highlighted some benefits that hold my interest, I will buy it. And if it didn’t deliver what it promised, then ask for a refund. You will never know how good it is until you try it.

Here’s why.

People want as much information (and proof) as they can get when they make a purchase. And the “letter” format is the time-tested way to accomplish that with the largest percentage of people in a direct marketing environment. This is not my opinion… it’s been tested and proved and that’s why it continues to be done.

Frankly, Aaron’s letter is no where near as hypey as a lot of the garbage that gets peddled online.

But, you are not alone in your sentiments. There are other, very vocal people that feel the way you do, and they will likewise refuse to even read a sales letter. But the group you are in is a minority, and really, the only person who refuses to consider a great product simply based on the formatting of the marketing is that person, not the seller.

I do object to your use of the word “spam.” That is a loaded word that doesn’t apply to the formatting of a webpage, and yet you use it in this context because it has power. And that’s what good copywriting is all about. :)

Personally, when I write a sales letter, I tone down the appearence a bit, depending on the audience. But it’s ultimately still a sales letter, becasue it works.

Even these well-respected guys know how powerful the format is:

http://www.37signals.com/

This is a really good article. Thanks for posting this.