You know what I’m talking about?
Those long, run-on pages of text filled with giant headlines and full of all kinds of hyperbole and implied promises of overnight wealth and success. All you have to do is buy their secret formula.
I see a page like that, and my immediate reaction "sleazy snakeoil salesman."
People know in their guts when something is icky. You might not be able to put your finger on it exactly or quite articulate why it’s icky, but you just know it.
The latest creative argument from the peddlers (i.e., Internet marketers) selling this baloney is that anyone who objects makes the mistake of thinking they are the target market. So anyone who expresses their gut-level disdain is automatically "not our target market." Oh, how convenient.
So who exactly is the target market then? I know who it is. It’s any dumb sucker willing to believe the hype. Internet marketers prey on people’s own greed, laziness and cheapness.
Does the sales page work? Sure. It works on all the aforementioned greedy, lazy, cheap dumb suckers who desperately want to believe that there is some secret magic formula to creating massive numbers of customers and getting rich quick.
Do I ever want to make money that way? By preying on the ugliest traits of human psychology?
Absolutely not. I’m not in business to make money off dumb suckers.
Successful, effective marketing doesn’t require you to be misleading, dishonest or unprincipaled.
Excellent copywriting and design can communicate and accomplish all your marketing objectives without any of the sleazy manipulations the sales page peddlers tout.
Thanks for commenting. Yeah, the virtual assistant term is really completely idiotic to...
