Why Do Hard Sell Pages Look Like This?

One thing that puzzles me is why the same model of marketing is so prevalent and yet so poor. Have you ever been given the hard-sell from a web-site trying oh so desperately to sell you some kind of dodgy crap? Why do they all look like this?

These sites are immediately recognisable. They are so synonymous with spam that they practically come in a tin and  a small key to open them. How can this kind of hard sell work? Let’s perform a taxonomy of a spam page to identify the common features.

• H1 headings in bright colour that shout out at you.
• A letter format – to make the page seem more sincere and personal as if I just telling you my money making secrets. Even sometime the inclusion of a signature in pen if they are really sincere.
• These pages lack credibility and information – instead they entice by concentrating on the rewards you will get if you buy the product.
• Forms side contact – to catch the waiverers.
• Testimonials – it must be true, some people have written to say so.
• Highlighting and bold text for emphasis of how simple it all is.
• Overblown claims: why pay an expensive heart surgeon $$$$$ to perform that cardio-vascular surgery when you can do it yourself or with a friend with my new book, ‘Cardiopulmonary Bypass Techniques with Kitchen Utensils.’ only $5.
• Promises of an easy way out. Earn thousands of pounds a day for doing nothing.
• Repetition

Can this stuff really work?

I am not sure, but we see a similar form of advertising on television with infomercials. Half-hour epics for congenital idiots. ‘Do you have trouble cutting vegetables with an ordinary knife? Knives are sharp and so difficult to hold. Has this ever happened to you? Cut to man stabbing himself in the eye. You need the insto-veg-cutter….