A Copywriters Guide To Myths And Legends In The Internet Marketing Industry Part 3

In this final part of our guide to myths and legends in the internet marketing industry, you by now will have gathered (if you didn’t know already) that it’s full of sharks.

That is its USP. If you want to see the most outrageous claims along with blueprints and templates NOT used in any other industry (with the exception of MLM and certain areas of the finance sector), along with the use of every trick there is to get stuff to sell (regardless of whether it’s any good or not), the internet marketing industry is the place to start.

Want to become a “A #1 New York Times Best Selling Author?”, there’s a course for that, a mere snip at $1997. Want to launch a product (any old product, we don’t care what you want to launch), there’s a product for that too… at… ah yes, $1997.

Want to create a membership site that will earn you 6 or 7 figures in passive income with less than10 minutes work a day, and it will do it all (promise) on autopilot (apart from the ‘work’ bit obviously), yep, it’s available (but only for the next 24 hours) at just $1997 (or 6 payments of $397).

Or finally, you can become an entrepreneur along with 1 million others if you pay just $1997, but you need to do it fast or this offer will be long gone, never to return again ever (until it does, perhaps tomorrow or the day after).

You can find free templates to copy the copies of the copy that sells these courses all over the place (someone even posted a free template in the comments recently). Hell, let’s do one right now:

1) Massive claim or promise headline (if you’re stuck for just how massive, use your imagination).

2) Incontrovertible proof of the massive claim (don’t have proof? Make it up, come on, that’s what our imaginations are for – think and grow rich dammit – do it now, you’re running out of time).

3) Unlimited list of testimonials, each proving the massive claim is true, and what’s more, even my demented grandad and three year old daughter could do this in their sleep, trust me (don’t have any testimonials? Steal them from others, the IM industry is full of it).

4) Awesome content list (what do you mean you don’t have content? What do you think you’re doing right now writing this long form sales copy? duh!).

5) Time limited power bonus (what’s the one thing you can dream up that adds so much value to whatever it is you’re trying to sell in the first place, that will sell, probably better, if it was actually the only product on offer? – if that’s too complicated, just make up something that’s even better than what you’re selling and throw it in for free – but only if they click BUY in the next 30 seconds).

6) Loads more testimonials (copy some from the earlier batch if you’re too lazy to dream up some more, no one reads them anyway).

7) Add a video (optional), why not? In fact, add 2 or 3 and place them wherever it looks like the copy is about to get boring (people hate reading anyway).

8) Add more bonuses, the more the merrier they tell us. How many bonuses can you dream up? Add one for each feature of the main product (e.g., if it’s a formula for launching products, add a bonus about making products, another for making formulas, and another for launching – stuck on what to include in those bonuses? Not a problem – just split the content of your main product into portions and call them bonuses).

9) No template would be complete without a timer. Set it to track each visitor so it doesn’t look like it’s fake. Give them 15 minutes to make up their mind if the product is $27 or less, if it’s more, give them a few days. Whatever you do, make sure they fully understand what CART CLOSING and GONE FOREVER means.

10) Add an upsell. Hell, add 6 upsells (and throw in a downsell, a couple of cross sells, and a mis-sell if you want to be a pro). Don’t let them leave a single dime on the table. Make sure you get it all. THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT.

11) BONUS ITEM. Always add another bonus item.

So, if all that has everything to do with how to get rich quick, and we’ve decided we’d rather get rich quick another way by selling something real to a group of people who actually need it, from a company that has ethics at its heart and wasn’t thrown up overnight only to disappear tomorrow, how do we do it?

That’s where we’re going next week. Sound good? Let me know.

PS. I had so much fun writing this. When you’re in the right frame of mind, stuff just pours out like an overflowing dam. It’s unstoppable. But imagine not even having to be in the right frame of mind and it still pours out? In 6 weeks I’m going to set up a small group where I’ll be teaching exactly that. It won’t be a membership. It will be a live event, but ongoing every day until we’re through. Think of it as a kind of weird mentorship thing. More details soon.