Would you be compelled to signup for this offer?

I'm working to increase signup for an optin offer for a free report.

The optin-offer is in a pop-up window that drops down after 5 seconds when arriving at this site:

www.affirmations-doctor.com


I'm also interested in feedback regarding the report that I'm looking at publishing with zine publishing sites:

www.affirmations-doctor.com/free-report.html

Thanks in advance,

Glenn

Hi Glenn,

I didn't think the Title made it terribly clear what the benefits of reading the report would be. I wasn't sure what you meant by "a simple way to get what you need". It's not specific enough for me, and there are too many other people offering similar philosophies but with stronger hooks.

Also - you might like to add some credibility to your testimonials by saying who they're from and whether they got those results from reading the report, receiving the affirmations or something else.

Hope this helps,
Jane

Hi Jane,

Thanks for the very useful feedback. I jumped right out of the box, and looked at it from a 1000 foot level, and went in a completely different direction. Here is what I came up with:

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Did you know that your ultimate desires and dreams are only a single thought away from happening?

This new report shows the relationship between your positive and negative thoughts, and how they craft the life that you live. And how some people are easily getting far more out of life than they ever thought possible using some methods never seen before.

Simply fill in this form and in minutes you'll be reading this free report. Your email address is kept confidential.
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I feel like it is much more grounded and more believable without having to use any testimonials.

Glenn

When I looked at the site, I found it too negative. I like your new copy much better.

I do hate those drop downs, but I know that issue came up just about a week ago, and I guess these drop downs actually do get results, according to someone on this board whose drop down thing was criticized here.

As Jane said, there isn't anything to differentiate this affirmation site from other affirmation sites. Also, I wouldn't sign up because I don't have a feeling of trust. The site feels like a sales pitch. I'd be more inclined to order a free report by someone who wrote with a less salesy tone, especially for something like affirmations. I'd rather enjoy a site, get the feeling that the person who made it had fun creating it and sharing her love of affirmations, and I'd want to get to a list of affirmations or other fun info without having to give any information out. Once I felt friendly towards the site and the person behind it, I'd feel more comfortable giving out my email address. But I do think the changes you're planning to make will help with all that.

Janet

Hi Glenn,

I prefer that - it has more specificity.

I'm still not keen on:

because:

1) in my life experience, there aren't any new methods, only re-badged old methods from eastern philosophy, the victorians and early 20th century
2) I would rather you say "from methods we detail in this report"
3) "far more out of life" is quiet vague

What you need to know is whether people are seeking to gain pleasure or to mitigate pain. I'm fairly confident that most are seeking in order to mitigate pain, so it might be worth adding something enticing regarding how they can overcome their problems.

HTH,
Jane

Since I was the one griping, I thought I'd weigh in on this one too.

I don't remember whose site it was, or what they were selling. But I do remember that they had this long sales letter, and that the pop-up was a shortened version...or just the order window (This is what's in my head, and maybe I saw it wrong. I exited as soon as I saw the pop-up).

Anyway, I also sometimes gripe about long sales letters. This one was long, with a pop-up, so it was a big turn-off for me. And I still stand behind what I said. I believe that if the guy had shortened his letter and erased the pop-up, he would have even greater success. Or even let the pop-up come over on the side.

Michael (I think it was him) had mentioned somewhere that he was testing a short opt-in invitation against a long one, and that the shorter one was winning.

I also noticed that on the page in question, the 'sign-up here' form wasn't immediately noticeable. This could have explained his failure to get conversions without the pop-up.

Again, this is all from memory, and it's still just this rookie's opinion, but for now, I'm sticking to it.

And I know this isn't a conventional pop-up, but it's the same thing when it comes to how much people don't like it.

I'm sorry for the grammar and spelling in this post.

Hi Jane & Janet,

This feedback is the best I've ever had.

It brings me back to 6 months ago, when I first started affirmations-doctor.com, as part of my certification at webcopywritinguniversity.

When I completed the course affirmations-doctor.com had every possible mechansim and psychological trigger available all jammed into it just because I had to demonstrate their use in the course.

I've slowly deleted out more and more of these sales mechanisms, since they stunk of sales pitches.

I've contemplated flattening out the site completely and dropping a lot of the long copy that rings of sales. Especially since its only really a book that people are buying, and 16 pages of copy isn't necessary to sell a simple book. In fact it may become confusing for people why they read that far just for a $17.95 book.

I also appreciate your feedback about being to vague. It is a challenge I've run up against, since I've noticed the same "specific" terms used by many affirmations sites, and wanted to avoid using these trigger words that send people away. I'll just have to step back and find new ways to express it.

I am noticing that slowly but surely, I'm knocking out the fat and it is getting closer and closer to the reality of what Anne Marie does with affirmations. I figure once it perfectly mirrors the success she is having on the streets, then the truth will shine loud and clear, and people will signup in droves.

And I will have gone full circle to really understand how to write with a balance of reality mixed with mechanisms of sales.

Janet, I love your explanation of what you'd like to see at an affirmations site -- I'll keep that handy to remind myself as we go on.

Glenn

I never consciously thought of whether people would like the drop-down or not. But now that you mention it, the drop-down itself hasn't really been that effective.

The thing that has been extremely effective is the Free Affirmations off the main menu, and located in various places in the copy.

I used to have the Free Affirmations on the drop-down window, and I got tons of people signing up. But for an exercise in my course I had to offer a free report in an opt-in, so switched it to the current report. The report opt-in has done very poorly, yet the Free Affirmations opt-in continues to soar despite not being part of the drop-down. So that shows that the drop-down did nothing to improve Free Affirmations signup.

So I think I'll give it a try removing the drop-down completely, and offer the free report through menu & in the copy and see what that does to signup rates.

It seems drop-downs are becoming part of readers consciousness as being a neusance, so starting to loose their effectiveness.

Glenn