Arun,

You say:
This forum seems to regularly get into this either/or, this way or that way kind of mindset. But I don't remember saying that the copy or navigation should be any different than the way you have them now. And I totally agree that the visitor must be led by the hand to the desired action.

My mission, if you will, is to blend both approaches. Good design AND good copy! That's why in my analogy, I presented the third store that does both - it looks good, and gives you all the info, guarantees etc.

The best example of this approach that I know of at the moment is:
http://shmyl.com/vfj.

Robert uses simple, clean design and long copy. However, I did not find the copy to be screaming in my face but more of a rational presentation of the benefits of buying his manual. It worked on me - I bought the manual, and I'm delighted with the value that I have received. The information is comprehensive, relevant and speaks to my problems as an independent professional.

A lot of ebooks/manuals out there are overpriced, badly laid out, badly written and do not contain any kind of action plan to help you achieve your stated goal. I keep being suckered in by them, and then feeling that I have not had my money's worth.

And yes, the cheesey sales pages do (did) work on me. But I will never buy again from people where I don't feel I've received a fair value exchange, and I am becoming increasingly wary of such sites, and the lack of professionalism of the people who run them.

Another good example is Corey Rudl's My Email Manager - a package for running ezines and autoresponders. The sales copy is typically long, but fairly convincing. However, I did find the long copy to be a problem when I was trying to make a features comparison with another product. In the end I decided to give the product a try, even though they don't let you test it first. It has some nice features, but let me down on the most basic things. It was really hard to add or edit individual users, they didn't reply to my requests for support (which unusually is only free for the first month), and the emails that I sent did not arrive for 2 days. Not only that, but it was more expensive than other autoresponders. By contrast, the site did have some nice design.

So again - the sales letter worked, but the product did not deliver on the basics and therefore didn't represent a fair exchange of value, and I ended up getting a refund.

So my conclusion is that these kinds of sites are generally run by people who are either very good copywriters, or hire good copywriters, but they do not deliver satisfaction. When you combine this with the cheesey presentation, it all adds up to a lasting negative feeling on my part, and certainly no upsells, or lasting relationship.

Anyway, as I said, if it works for you and you are building lasting relationships, and you've tested one look against another, then you don't need my experience/opinion.

However, I personally would be very nervous to use this approach in my market (other independent professionals and small businesses), and I wouldn't recommend it to any of my clients to use on their clients. That said, most of my clients could use beefing their copy up somewhat, and I do help them do that.

I really wish we could get away from this idea that good copy and good design are mutually exclusive. It might be that people buy IN SPITE of the design, or IN SPITE of the hypey copy! (Un-hyping copy does not necessarily mean short copy by the way).

Jane