Hey guys and gals...

Anyone know of some mega-successful, hard-hitting "advertorial-style" sales letters that are PROVEN WINNERS?

Does anyone write like this? Anyone "known" for using this style online? And make it work in a big way?

I'm specifically talking about something that looks more like a press release, special report, long article... than a sales letter with tons of boxes, testimonials, etc.

Has the success or failure of these types of pieces been established online?

Links, examples, swipes... all appreciated!

According to re-search you need to be careful:

Avoid advertorial style web copy

Don't go on and on, page after page, repeating the same thing using different words. Make your point and make it quickly. Don't insult your visitors' intelligence by implying that they'll believe you if you just say it often enough! If you use advertorial style web copy, you'll seem more interested in yourself than the business solution you're offering your client.

Avoid hard-sell web copy

Once again, don't insult your visitors' intelligence. Hard-sell web copy can give the impression that you're more interested in the sale than the business solution. Sure, create a sense of urgency with your web copy, but don't overdo it.

USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future
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Here is a thread on warrior about it:
http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/to...TOPIC_ID=70973

Peace

Peace

Our definitions of advertorial must be way different.

What's your definitions?

Peace

Peace

It doesn't involve repeating yourself over and over or insulting the intelligence of your readers.

To me advertorials are to educate your readers about an issue/problem. It is LESS about you and MORE about them.

Once they see value in your content they'll be more open to your offer. An offer that will seem like the logical choice to aleviate the emotional issues/problems you've educated them about.

That's what I've taken an advertorial to mean. Does that make sense?

I take advertorial to be an ad written to appear exactly like the publication it was written in. So it would look like a newspaper article or magazine article.

It would have the same font type, size, language as is used in the publication to trick the reader into thinking it was an article or editorial, not an ad.

Not sure how you'd work this online, because a web page is a page on its own, not usually linked that closely to a publication. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree...

Hugh

Think dense-copy full-page ads in the National Enquirer.

Maria Veloso is an expert at this.

Copywriting - Web Copywriting University - Internet Copywriting

Is "Advertorial" a Four-Letter Word? Explains the advertorial concept and has a link to a slow-loading example of an online advertorial for GE. (So you can just guess what the effectiveness is).

The article explains people are using online advertorials to prep and prequalify, then deliver those people into some kind of sales process.

I think the advertorial got replaced by a couple of things. One is articles people post to what I call "article dumps." These, by necesity, take on the layout and look of the hosting site. You have some basic information, then a signature area with a link back to your site. Second are white papers. Not the ones as usually done, but the ones copywriter Bob Bly suggests.

Still, it is hard to believe there are not more advertorials out there.

JP:

I thought these online letters were good examples of advertorial copy:

"19,456 Type-At-Home Members Collectively Earning Over $100,000 a Day!"

"Ex-PartyPoker Software Engineer Creates The First Online Poker Robot To Use Artifical Intelligence!"

I'm currently testing a straight sales letter versus a subtle sales letter disguised as an article, and the early results look promising.

Matt