Hi --

Ever since sharing the stage with Michel last month for our copywriting seminar, I've been enthusiastically rewriting my copy to integrate much of what I've learned from him .... it was a thrilling experience, and one I'm honored to have had .. (thx!)..

Anyways, here's my latest "makeover" I did for one of my sites, using just a bit of what I learned... (still lots of room for improvement)...what do you think, folks?

Before:

http://www.WritingAdwords.com/indexSept05.htm

After:

http://www.WritingAdwords.com << This is my newest one

Study them carefully, you'll see quite a few changes, in both graphics
and sales copy.

Any tips/feedback? What else could it use to make it an even better-selling site?

Behind the Scenes... TACTICS USED:

- graphics headline.. I've been using these for many years; am testing the red times roman type ... have been seeing these in offline copy more and more frequently (golf/finance pubs) and a If/Then...

- purposefully ambiguous "hidden" word... seek prospect curiosity to clarify/resolve, it's what I'll call a "hidden Ziegernick" effect headline hook (I just invented that term - wee!)

- "Delayed namesqueeze" (my phrase/tactic), eg I want to get them firmly sold on/hooked on the sales pitch before asking for an opt-in... vs upfront "gimme your email for 5 quick lessons" type short form squeeze page

- End of letter pitch ... knowing that most will scroll to the bottom before reading the whole page, I put a "reason why" competitive copy story here, to amplify the urgency in the pitch .. speaking of which..

- Time limit on bonuses... stuck in Dec 15th, will see how that converts...

- No price on page ... they've gotta click a buy now button to see price (thx to Corey/IMC for tactic; testing it now..)

thx to Michel for being such an outstanding mentor, he's priceless..
I'm glad I took so many hundreds of hours to study every nuance of
what Michel does, that makes him world-class...it'll keep ensuring my
financial freedom for life... suggest everyone do the same... study him!

anyways, feedback from folks? what else should I add/change?

(the 'last thought, champ' hook I'm getting from James' Woods great performance in "The Specialist", as he somewhat cynically talks to other police in the opening scene)....

thx,

Ken
www.WritingAdwords.com

P.S. Oh and I'm using one of my personal favorite copy tactics too, I jacked up the price thx Dan K. for that tip... I frequently raise my prices, to "train" my customers not to delay ordering, and I never drop the price back w/fake discounts.. so the price increase is arbitrary, permanent .. and it's an effective marketing strategy, tested w/100s of Ks of sales on my other sites... "Raise the price - be confident!" my motto.

Work from a position of strength. "Sell like you don't need the money", a great attitude. Which is true for me, so that's cool. Selling is a fun hobby to me. And it's fun to pull different levers/test, to gauge market response.

My thinking is, "hey I want it to be so popular it gets on CNN", (which one of my sites actually was, back in '01! got 24 gigs of traffic in 1 week..)

Uh, it's not there??

sure it is, both of 'em ..

www.writingadwords.com is working fine....

ken

I can get the old one, but the new one (in the root) is coming up:

File Not Found
The requested URL was not found on this server.

This is in FireFox.

Ed

ooops, comes up now with a refresh

thanks ...

also good point re firefox, eg I need to learn how to correctly code the .css/stylesheets for non-graphics subheads ... as it usually appears with no formatting, in firefox...

ken

Just thought I'd point something out. Maybe it means something, maybe not.

You're advertising that you can show them how to make good adwords. Adword ads have a very limited space. Your headline is huge. My first question is one of credibility. How come you can't hook me in just a few words?

interesting thought... I'll try testing an alternate headline w/fewer words ...

thx,

ken