Do long sales pages work?

[thomaskaye]

I can't help but wander. Do these huge landing (sales) pages actually work? I have noticed a dramatic increase of them. Are people actually convinced and buy from those guys?

I have written, as far as I'm concerned, a pretty descent book which in no way resembles the thousands of ebooks that are out there. I have built a pretty descent website to sell the electronic version and to promote the print version as well (yes, it has an ISBN and everything that would make it a normal book). I have the website running and so far I have made ZERO sales.

How can we find out if these pages are making money for their owners? I'm wandering...

 

[jazzguy]

Hi Thomas. I think these pages used to work at one time, which is why there are like a gazillion of them online. When I was just getting into this world of AM and IM I used to read everything on those sales pages...thankfully I was a little too aware that most of the "promises" and "testimonials " were probably misleading...so I never purchased anything...that little voice inside my head always won out, in my favor. Now whenever I see that type of page I exit it immediately. And I think this happens with a lot of people as well. Without seeing your site I couldn't tell you why you have no sales. First thing I would look at is where your traffic is coming from, then I would reexamine your sales pitch,the look of your site, product demand, and so forth. There could be a bunch of reasons why your book is not selling.

As for finding out if those sales pages are making money...well you would have to got to he source and I'm sure they would not be too chatty about how much they are making. Take care and all the best.

 

[thomaskaye]

Hi jazzguy and thanks for your comments. I believe you are so very right. I admit I am not an expert in IM. In fact, I tried it once, and failed. I used to promote someone else's product. I made a few sales in the beginning and then nothing. Of course I blamed the owner of the product and his sales page.

That's when it hit me. Why not make my own product? I had some writing experience especially in procedure and how-to manuals, so with some research, I came up with a book. My sales page is not actually a sales page. It's more like an online store, because I intend to write more in the near future. The page about the book is exactly that... A page about the book. It's mostly what you would find in the back cover of a normal book.

I don't know much about IM. I'm not even sure I want to learn. I prefer to write another book about something. So I decided to promote my book (and the books after that) with affiliate marketing. So I created an affiliate marketing program and announced it to almost every affiliate program directory. How many affiliates signed up? NOONE!

Right now I'm working on creating one of those sales pages that I hate so much and perform split testing. I will let it run a few days and then I'm going to post the results here, for whoever would be interested. However, I would like to point out this:

Yes, I want to make some money online but, without feeding more junk to the users. I prefer to achieve my goals with one or more descent products which would actually provide useful information and with a web presence that would make clear to every visitor that I respect them.

In the meantime all your opinions, input and feedback would be much appresiated.

 

[thomaskaye]

Right now I'm working on creating one of those sales pages that I hate so much and perform split testing. I will let it run a few days and then I'm going to post the results here, for whoever would be interested.

Split testing has begun! Right now the same Yahoo! SM ads are running. One points to the normal website and the other points to a long sales page.

I will let you know how it goes...

 

[Rob_TID]

The point of failure could be you ad copy, your keywords, your knowledge of ppc, your landing page design, your landing page copy, your conversion technique, your product or a lack of market for your product.

You need to eliminate these one by one or you will not get meaningful data.

 

[thomaskaye]

I'm working on it Rob. That's why I started this experiment. So everyone will have a solid ground to base his/her decisions.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Thomas,

I hate those long sales letters but some say they do convert. I can't fathom it and doubt they convert well for anything besides the IM niche and there only because people are used to seeing them. I agree with Lyle and Rob on pretty much everything they said too.

Thanks in advance for agreeing to share your split testing results with us.

 

[FDC]

Ya, I agree, while they could work, I always think they carry a negative connotation with them. All the get-rich-quick gurus use them.

 

[agentmulder412]

Very true. When I see one of the long sales pages, I immediately think that it's some sort of scam or make-money-fast site. When you look at legitimate businesses and read marketing textbooks, they all say to make the pitch short and sweet. The long letters tend to include lots of promises and throw a lot of spaghetti at the wall, hoping something will stick and you'll sign up for whatever it is that they are selling.

Of course, they're still in use so I guess SOMEBODY is finding them useful.

 

[Linda Buquet]

If you are going to use a long sales letter type landing page - BREAK OUT OF THE MOLD and follow the lead of some pro copywriters instead of making ones that follow all the crappy ebook sales pages.

Here are a couple good ones. Understated - yet effective!

Authority Blogger Book Landing Page

SEOmoz's Landing Page Competition Winner

 

[thomaskaye]

Linda, thank you so much for your input and especially the example landing pages. I must admit they are the classiest I have ever seen, even though they are two of the longest ones. I will certainly follow their example and change my long page. If you have more of these I would really appreciate it. Thank you!