The above quote was pulled out of a free report I received, titled, "Self Liquidating Offers," which is part of the promotional package for Ryan Deiss', "Wholesale Traffic System" course.

Here is the context in which the quote was used...

Essentially, this free report details information on how a mysterious "Mr. X" uses a combination of low cost searches via Adwords and low cost reports, which he markets for less than $20, in order to build a large customer list in a short period of time.

One of the steps in the process is the writing of sales copy for the various landing pages that he uses. This is the entire quote as it appears within the report:

• "I paid overseas copywriters PENNIES to write the salesletters for these products, or I just used the salesletters that came with the (PLR) [Private Label Resell Rights] ebooks."

This quote is attributed to "Mr. X" but I'm sure Ryan Deiss approved all the content that appears in this report, since the report is the front-end piece to selling his "Wholesale Traffic System" course.

So what are your feelings on this?

My feeling is there is always someone cheaper but if you show value to your customer and their needs they will pay more. There are guys on the warrior forum doing $97 sales letters. Good for them, I'm not interested in that.

I think you get what you pay for.

If you hire someone whose second language is English and you pay "pennies"
for a sales letter you are simply throwing money away.

I can see some logic in doing this to begin with AS A TEST in the system
Ryan is talking about.

He's driving traffic through pay per click to multiple niched sales letters selling
multiple niched reports.

But once you know you have good traffic and it will convert you should hire
a skilled copywriter to double or triple your conversion with excellent copy.

Think about it...



If a sales letter makes you just $60 in sales in one day that's $21,900 in sales
a year.

A good copywriter will get you 2-100 times the response of a poor copywriter
who charges "pennies" (that's without taking into account the other valuable
advice you get from a skilled copywriter).

But lets be conservative and say a good copywriter just doubles your conversion
over your cheap copywriter.

That's an extra $21,900 in sales a year.

And since in this case we're talking about digitally delivered reports the nett
profit just on those sales will be $20,000.

Then you get all those extra high quality leads (paying clients), the immediate
backend sales from upsells and long term back end sales.

According to a recent survey the average online copywriter is charging US$2,500
to $3,500 for a short online sales letter.

Wouldn't it be worth paying $2,500 to make an extra $20,000+ a year?

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

P.S. Just in case you're wondering what kind of conversion is possible with
low priced reports if you use exceptional online sales copy.

Ryan talks about selling reports for $5 to $10 and getting a 2.5% to 11% conversion.

I recently released two reports for $19.99:

Report one had a statistically significant conversion of 35%. (Okay I admit it. That's the highest response rate I've ever got for an online sales letter).

Report two had a statistically significant conversion of 15%.

So double the price and several times the response rate.

I've repeatedly had response rates in the past for reports in the $10-$20 range around the 20% mark.

Good copy pays.

Hey Mike

They're putting out some great pre-launch content, there's also a ton of controversy surrounding the launch.

http://warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=240896
http://warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=241547

Perry Belcher (Mr X) was arrested about a month ago and one of the reasons was making false claims in his salesletters... maybe that "I paid overseas guys" line is all part of his upcoming defense

But really, what is pennies and where is overseas?

Naturally we assume India and a few hundred dollars. But when they're playing with multi-millions maybe pennies to them is $5000 and overseas is UK/Australia.

Personally I can't see a guy like that outsourcing to India (or other non-native-English countries), not when you're friends with guys like Ryan Deiss and other top marketers. And not when you're playing with that much money.

Remember they are marketers and will present things is the best light possible.

Cheers
Kyle

My thoughts are this...people want their magic pill to be as simple and effortless as possible and these people know it. Show 'em cheap methods that can work. Just hope they don't care about how well they work.

Apathy?

Seriously, I couldn't care less. In fact, I care so little that the only reason I answered this thread was because my buddy Winicki started it.

If someone wants to pay "pennies for copy" that is their right. It makes them an idiot, but the world is full of idiots.

<queue the guy telling me that Mr. X makes more than me>
And I'll say, "so what, imagine how much he'd have made if he paid for real copy".

The real question is...how many pennies did the copy that's selling the system that talks about copy for pennies cost?

It's not so much about discounting the value of copy as it is showing those who bought the system that they can get results with cheap copy. Magic pill seekers only want to know that they CAN achieve results. They don't care about the level of results, because chances are they're never really going to do anything anyway.

Why does Mr X need to hire a four-to-five figure copywriter to write copy for a product he's selling for $17?

Bad copy can sell a cheap product

But bad copy can't sell an expensive product

Hmm...

The rational side of me wants to say, "to sell a whole lot more of them"... but that just seems too obvious.

Where did you hear that?

Bad copy can sell an expensive product if the offer is right.

And good copy can sell a lot more of the $17 products than bad copy.

Look at Andrew's maths above, then tell me "bad copy" for a $17 product is a smart idea.

Doesn't matter where we are - overseas, on the sea, on the beach, wherever...

Every product or service really does need brilliant or outstanding copy.

But only ever write for clients who have a decent service or product.

And at first the "stuff" might not look that great.

But providing it's legal, decent honest and truthful - we can turn it from "mundane" into something extra special.

Cos that's what we do.

Of course we might have to explain to the client just how important it is to turbo - charge and improve whatever it is they need to sell.


Steve