The Secrets of The Shriekers

I am constantly bombarded with all sorts of advertisements, single-page sites, and sites offering very little real content but some wonderful new "product" or "service" for sale that purports to make its customers wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.

For the purposes of this article, let's refer to Amazing Formula (http://www.amazingformula.com) as an example of such a site. (Note: I have never purchased this product and can make no claim, verification or guarantee one way or the other as to its effectiveness. The sole purpose of my mentioning this site is as a study of the ad copy within.)

There isn't very much in terms of "content"; the marketing of the "bribes" is confined to a single page, with a hyperlink to "testimonials" which may or may not be legitimate. Yet, this site has been around in some form for nearly four years, according to The Internet Wayback Machine http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.amazingformula.com, with the same basic "content" and no significant updates. Why? Because it works.

What makes this website and others like it profitable, even without a significant content update in 4 years? The sales copy. The sales copy of this page uses simple, but effective techniques to trigger the user into buying the product, in this case a CD-ROM indicating how to sell anything to anyone at any time. Let's look at some of these techniques now.

That's right, I, Adam Senour, am going to give away millions of dollars' worth of secrets to you and I'm going to do it WITHOUT CHARGING YOU A SINGLE RED CENT!!! No e-books to download, No expensive CD-ROMs to purchase, No courses to subscribe to, NOTHING! You too will be a website copy writing genius, able to sell your goods and services at will!

Short paragraphs. Users traditionally don't wish to read long blocks of text. They like information concise, simple, and to the point.

"You" words/second-person perspective. This is arguably the most misunderstood and underrated aspect of copy writing. When reading sales copy, users are looking not for general information on the product. They want the answer to one simple question: "What's in it for me?" Using words such as "you", "your", and "yourself", while being generic in nature, go a long way toward establishing a website rapport with your customers.

Bold, Underline, Italics. Highlighting important phrases with bold, underline, and italics allows your customer to quickly scan and decipher the nature of your copy and the key elements of it. Bold, underline, and italics can be used in conjunction with colour to further distinguish vital elements of your marketing message.

However, it is strongly advised that you use bold, underline, and italics sparingly in order to ensure that only your most important points are receiving the full attention of your customers. Use bold, italics, and underline sparingly.

The colour coding of important words, and the selection of those colours. "Cool" colours such as Blues and greens are traditionally used to relax the user and put him/her in a positive mood conducive to sales; and "hot" colours such as reds, yellows and oranges are meant to incite the user into making a purchasing decision.

Headings and subheadings. Headings and subheadings should be used to break up long blocks of text into shorter and easier-to-read sections. In the case of the Amazing Formula website, graphic headings are used to break up the content; however, for search engine reasons, you may wish to consider text-based headings to split up your content into sections.

Bullet lists. These lists can be numbered, as this one is, or they can be unordered, as the Amazing Formula ones are. There doesn't seem to be much difference in either event, as long as the copy for each bullet remains concise and to the point as in point 2; although the unordered list bullets can be stylized with graphics, as the Amazing Formula website has done.

A call to action. What do you want your customer to do? Where would you like them to go next? Give your customer at least one clear and understandable path to follow to make the appropriate action.

In the case of the Amazing Formula site, there are not one, but 2 "Click to order via our secure server!" buttons as well as an order hyperlink in the menu on the top of the page. The garden path, albeit a very short one in this case, is clearly laid out for the customer to follow.

These are the seven secrets of The Shriekers. Implementing them on your website should lead to a significant increase in sales and profits.

About The Author

Adam Senour is the owner of ADAM Web Design, a leading web design and development company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Visit http://www.adamwebdesign.ca for more information on ADAM Web Design products and services.

---

Very Cheap Website Design Services

Are you looking for somebody to build you a website,... Read More

10 Tips for Killer Website Design

Does website design make a difference in how long people... Read More

Leave Those Links Blue!

Don't mess with those links! When you're designing your site,... Read More

8 Tips for Designing a Great Website

Square buttons, round buttons, flashy buttons ? will they match... Read More

The Brutal Truth

Not too long ago while looking for businesses that do... Read More

Hiring a Graphic Designer

You've come up with a great product. You've got the... Read More

How Do You Make A Website?

No, that's not the real question. The real question is... Read More

How To Get A Pay Raise From Your Web Site

How many of the visitors to your web site take... Read More

Web Designing Tips

Easy That's how you'd like life to be, right? Especially... Read More

Elements of Graphic Design for Your Website

We've all seen them. Poorly designed web sites that make... Read More

Design With Purpose

If your website is falling through the cracks, the chances... Read More

Build It And Build It Cheap!

There are several very good reasons why you should consider... Read More

Are You A Bill Clinton Webmaster?

One of the most frequent questions I get asked about... Read More

Congratulations! You?ve Gotten Visitors To Your Site! Now, Can They Find What Theyre Looking For?

As search engine marketers, we spend an enormous amount of... Read More

What Drives Repeat Visitors To Your Site?

There can be zillions of reasons why your visitors return... Read More

Are You Driving Away Potential Customers?

When a prospect lands on your website will he or... Read More

How to Build Your Own Website - More Steps

To build a website, there are four methods to choose... Read More

5 Website Design Tips to Make Your Site More Attractive

The question that I most frequently hear from people is... Read More

Can a Webpage Created Without HTML?

The HTML editor is usually a webpage design software that... Read More

7 Benefits of HTML Validation

You may not bother with html validation or writing simple... Read More

Owning Your Own Web Site Is A Must

Owning your own website is a must if you are... Read More

Content - the Key to Long Term Success

Every day internet marketers are inundated with the latest fad... Read More

Web Marketing: Design Mistakes That Drive Customers Away In Droves

They may look cutting edge, but if you want a... Read More

5 Powerful Ways To Get Zero Sales From Your Website

I want you to imagine a lemon. In your mind's... Read More

Wording Up Your Website

Back to basics. Forget funky design, good copywriting is the... Read More

One-Product Sales Sites: Avoid These Top Blunders

One product, one long web page: this kind of web... Read More

Web Usability: The Basics

What is web usability & why is it important?Web usability... Read More

3 Tips You Can Use Right Now to Improve Your Web Sites Usability

Studies done by Jakob Nielson the man touted as the,... Read More

Your Website Hurts My Eyes: 7 Reasons to Tone Down Your Advertising

So you're on the computer, as usual. Your eyes are... Read More

The Key to Getting More Magic Shows Booked Online

This article is the result of a conversation I had... Read More

Speed Up Or Lose Out! How To Improve Your Websites Download Speed

So your web site's online and you've got high rankings... Read More

Breathe New Life Into Your Half-dead Website By Using Words That Sell

This article may come as a surprise to you.Especially since... Read More

Flash - To Use Or Not To Use?

Out there in the WWW there are thousands sites using... Read More