Friday, June 27, 2008
What Transformation?
Clayton Makepeace had a contest. Following is TheWordless' submission.
What transformation?
Every time I think I’ve excelled at the first part of the rags-to-riches story, somebody tops me.
This little contest raises the bar yet again. But if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t resist the lure of the web. The trick would be to develop a website that somehow didn’t make a dime, when obviously all internet people were waking up rich through no fault of their own while dozing on the beach.
My first clue came from Gary Halbert. Through him, bang bang bang: Gary Bencivenga, John Carlton, Jay Abraham, and eventually Clayton Makepeace. They all insisted that you cannot sell without words. TheWordless.com was born.
Another sure way, all gurus insist, to stay broke while your health, relationships, and time itself slip away, is to surf around reading stuff, but take no action. This I have perfected.
And in the course of it I learned a lot of other ways to screw up: use appealing graphic design, make it easy to navigate, don’t send people away from the page, focus on a well-defined market, deliver great value, drive traffic. With impeccable intent, TheWordless successfully fails at all.
Unfortunately, I suspected I had inadvertantly learned how to write good copy, and felt compelled to prove otherwise. The first rule, if you must resort to words in a sales letter, is to make it accessible. So only through bad fortune and perseverance can you even find one on the site. If you stumble across it, though, I’m sure you’ll agree that it breaks every single copywriting rule with which Makepeace has made you familiar. (Hint: www.wordless.us/100.html)
And when it comes to the dictum that we make it easy to buy, the order page will nail all doubt. It hardly needs the reinforcement that the guarantee provides.
When it’s phoenix time, I’ll let you know. First I’ll need to feel satisfied that the poverty, loneliness, disease and mayhem provide sufficient backdrop. ¶ 6/27/2008 12:54:00 PM
What transformation?
Every time I think I’ve excelled at the first part of the rags-to-riches story, somebody tops me.
This little contest raises the bar yet again. But if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t resist the lure of the web. The trick would be to develop a website that somehow didn’t make a dime, when obviously all internet people were waking up rich through no fault of their own while dozing on the beach.
My first clue came from Gary Halbert. Through him, bang bang bang: Gary Bencivenga, John Carlton, Jay Abraham, and eventually Clayton Makepeace. They all insisted that you cannot sell without words. TheWordless.com was born.
Another sure way, all gurus insist, to stay broke while your health, relationships, and time itself slip away, is to surf around reading stuff, but take no action. This I have perfected.
And in the course of it I learned a lot of other ways to screw up: use appealing graphic design, make it easy to navigate, don’t send people away from the page, focus on a well-defined market, deliver great value, drive traffic. With impeccable intent, TheWordless successfully fails at all.
Unfortunately, I suspected I had inadvertantly learned how to write good copy, and felt compelled to prove otherwise. The first rule, if you must resort to words in a sales letter, is to make it accessible. So only through bad fortune and perseverance can you even find one on the site. If you stumble across it, though, I’m sure you’ll agree that it breaks every single copywriting rule with which Makepeace has made you familiar. (Hint: www.wordless.us/100.html)
And when it comes to the dictum that we make it easy to buy, the order page will nail all doubt. It hardly needs the reinforcement that the guarantee provides.
When it’s phoenix time, I’ll let you know. First I’ll need to feel satisfied that the poverty, loneliness, disease and mayhem provide sufficient backdrop. ¶ 6/27/2008 12:54:00 PM
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