This analysis of how you behave is a HUGE key to coming up with copywriting breakthroughs.

By observing my own behavior when I look at websites I realized how vitally important the images and captions under images are in sales copy.

Using that idea I tweaked a caption on a client's sales page and his reponse nearly doubled (and this site had very significant traffic and sales).

Here's a free report that explains the experience process and the mindset...
Mind Mapping FREE Video And Report


There have been some interesting studies involving eye tracking that also give some useful (although hardly definitive) insights...
Copywriting: Poynter Eye Track And Copywriting
Copywriting: 4 Eyeball SUCKing Headline Secrets

Really being aware of the way you behave when you look at marketing material as a prospect is a fantastic exercise you can learn a lot from as a copywriter.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

Hey Dean,

I agree. Sometimes the obvious is what people think needs to be tweeked when sometimes a sale is just a sale. Trying to change human behavior into what they think they should do is usually a waste of time.

I'm probably conditioned to want to know how much something is going to cost me. Call me crazy but the synapses are already formed and they seem to function fine (evidenced by my $20K "wood shop" in my garage that started with a single $200 saw my wife bought me...curse you Home Depot catalog).

What I think escapes them is Web sites are just media. They're not magic. They aren't a visual grid aching to be a psychology experiment. The reasons people take action have been the same since we developed our current brain structure, probably before that.

I just try to stick to the basics like pathways through the copy which does not involve scrolling backwards to read a sidebar. Oh well, that's their choice. Maybe they know something most of the great copywriters don't. Good for them.

Then again maybe they're just bored. Quite possibly the biggest killer of wealth I can think of. Changing what's been working just for the sake of change. Big mistake.

Cheers.

Also note the "double readership path" which is based on people skimming the copy, and so sub-heads and things that stand out are read.

That's why its important your sub-heads are not used just to emphasise a point in your copy, they'll actually make somebody want to read more in that section when they read the sub-head. Essentially, the sub-head has to be able to stand-alone so the skimmers will be drawn into the copy.

I understand a lot of web pages now deliberately put the price somewhere other than the bottom to force people to find it. Otherwise people go straight to the price and leave the page.

I tend to read like the OP. I might read the first few graphs, and if I think this might be interesting, I skip down to the bottom to see if it's something I want to let myself get dragged into. If the price is tolerable, I skip back up to the top and read on.

Usually I get the point pretty fast--just what I need...yadda yadda...best deal ever...yadda yadda...act now or forever be unfulfilled...yadda yadda...--and skip to the next part that drags me in.

These things work, though. I've gotten a real estate investment course and the AWAI course almost against my will.

Speaking of which, as soon as I can start posting my own questions, I want to ask people how they ethically write for things best characterized as b.s...

Hey Chris,

I don't do it. It makes me physically ill. Evidenced by my refusal to critique ebooks about adwords or one by a marketer for other marketers to teach them how to market to other marketers. I just can't think about that stuff so I only do non-IM related products and services or at least something for regular folks.

Okay, I might as well get my noob questions out of the way--what's "IM." Information Marketing?

Internet Marketing/Marketer or Information Marketing/Marketer, I guess they're interchangable. I should spell it out next time, I barely remember what I was saying. Cheers

The short answer to that is... you don't. Aside from personal pride and ethical issues, if you think it's B.S., you'll have a hard time writing a convincing sales letter.

BTW, I tend to follow the same pattern as many people on here. I read the headline, try to get a gist of the what the product is... then scroll down to the bottom to find the price. And I get pretty annoyed when I can't find it right away.

If the price seems reasonable... and not inflated--but not ridiculously cheap, either... then I'll scroll back up to get more details on the product.

Joshua "Aaron" Stanley