Step 4: Extreme Webcopy Makeover

Today I watched DVD 1 of the Extreme Webcopy Makeover series. These videos consist of 8 in-depth website reviews.

As a marketing consultant, I'm often hired to critique websites so this is a topic I know well. This particular site review was for a gentlemen selling an ebook on online dating. Dan Lok starts off with an overview where he comments on the business model and analyzes the site owner's game plan. I didn't agree with a lot of Lok's comments and I think he overlooked a few things.

However, when it came to critiquing and rewriting the sales copy, I thought he did an excellent job. And why not, Dan is an excellent copywriter. This is his forte'.

Based on what I've seen so far, this is the most valuable part of the package.

I'm going to listen to a few more of the interview CD's and check out more of the videos when I get back to Texas. Based on what I've seen and heard so far, I cannot recommend this package. Were it priced at, say $297, I'd easily recommend it and would be more willing to overlook some of it's flaws.

At $997, I don't think it's a wise investment and I doubt that the pieces of the package I haven't gotten to yet will change my opinion. I've been more forgiving in the past of expensive products from people like Dan Kennedy. Dan Kennedy has released products that cost five times the price of this one that look like they were thrown together in a copy room. The difference is that Kennedy is a genius and his products contain original information. Dan Lok's package, by his own admission, don't include any information you haven't heard before.

Step 3: "101 Ways to Make Your Website SELL Like Crazy!" Audios

This four part series was also taken from a live seminar. Like the previous audio, Dan occasionally inserts 'asides' for those listening at home. In part one, he stops to explain some critical conversion formulas like how to calculate visitor values, conversion rates and other data. I listened to this section twice and found the way Dan presented the numbers confusing even though I already know the formulas. Part of the problem was that Dan himself stumbled once or twice which added to the confusion. I'd originally thought he'd made mathmatical errors but when I checked his math was ok. A friend listening with me thought the same thing so it wasn't just me.

This is one of the places where the lack of any printed materials really stands out. Any time you're presenting math in a course, there needs to be some type of visual aid.

As with the other audios I've heard so far, the information is ok but isn't as strong as several copywriting courses on the market selling for far less than this one. There's a trend in Internet marketing that started with John Reese's Traffic Secrets course where marketers aim for the million-dollar payday with a $997 product. Besides John Reese, Mike Filsaime did this recently with his Butterfly Marketing product as did Jeff Walker with Product Launch Formula.

The problem is that sometimes more emphasis is placed on the "Wow" factor than providing enough useful info to the customer. Thus we get a box chock full of audios in DVD cases with colorful graphics. We get a course supplemented with audio interviews with other marketers plugging their own $997 products with too little substance included. Most of these interviews have useful info but include the same presentation the interviewees have given in dozens of teleseminars, many of which are free.

I've watched a few of these products develop behind the scenes. As you might guess, a ton of work is involved but a lot of that is lining up joint venture partners, arranging packaging and fulfillment, getting the sales letter done and so on. Putting a package and marketing campaign for one of these together is complicated, requires long hard hours and sticking to a tight schedule.

I think because these marketers concentrate on trying to sell a million copies on the first day or first week rather than long-term sales, quality control gets lost in the shuffle. Audio isn't engineered as well as it could be. Typos get left in. Bugs in software aren't found and fixed. Internet marketers aren't the only people that do this, Microsoft has been doing it for years.

But unlike Microsoft's products, Dan, as far as I know, isn't giving us free 'updates' and 'patches' to fix mistakes. I'll cover this a bit more in the next entry but I've listened to a few of the interview audios and the quality on some of them is really bad.

I find a LOT of Internet marketing products have poor audio quality. Maybe it's just me coming from a music biz background but I feel like a $997 audio product should have close if not better quality than a $15 music cd.

The interview CD's in this package are all teleseminar recordings. In 2 of the 4 I've listened to so far, the difference in volume between Dan's voice and the interviewee is drastic. You're forced to crank up the volume to hear the question and then scramble to reduce it when the answer comes before it blows your speakers.

What's surprising with the interview CD's in this package is that Dan Lok went to the trouble to add quality music intros and got professional voice talent to record the intros. It would have been so easy to go the extra mile here and have the volume issue fixed. I don't know if it wasn't done to save money on editing or just overlooked. But there's no excuse for releasing audio this way especially for a product that sells for nearly a thousand dollars.

Step 2: "11 Simple Steps to Creating Killer Web Copy!"

This single CD lesson runs 45 minutes and covers some basic steps for creating sales letters.

Step #1: Do your homework - Research before writing the sales letter.

Step #2: Make them an offer they can't refuse

Step #3: Make a list of product features & benefits

Step #4: Grab their attention

Step #5: Generate Interest

Step #6: Create Desire

Step #7: Add Conviction

Step #8: Sense of Urgency

Step #9: Risk Reversal

Step #10: Call to Action

Step #11: Use Power Words & Phrases to Make Your Copy More Persuasive

Dan explains how to accomplish each of these steps. Like the previous lesson, this is solid information but so far very basic. You might easily find a free article covering these same steps. We'll have to dig deeper to see if this program is worth $997. Next, we'll dig into the four part "101 Ways to Make Your Website SELL Like Crazy!" audios.

Step 1: "Your Website Sucks!!!!" Audios

Going through the two volume 'Your Website Sucks!!!' set, you'll hear Dan Lok tell you two things. One, you won't hear anything on these audios that you haven't heard before. Second, you'll notice he's got an accent which he tells us his friends tease him about. They said he sounds like Jackie Chan.

They're right on both counts. Yes, Dan Lok has an accent. Yes, you will notice it and may find it a bit distracting. I found that after a few minutes, it ceases to be a distraction. Dan is very passionate about his topic and he's a good speaker. I had no problems at all understanding him.

As for the comment about not hearing anything new, he's right. In this segment, at least, I didn't hear anything I already didn't know. That's not necessarily a bad thing. As Dan says himself, knowledge itself is nothing. It's applied knowledge that's powerful. So if you've heard all this before but haven't applied it, then maybe it's time you tuned in and got to work.

Also, I've spent a lot of time and money on copywriting seminars. So although I didn't hear anything new in this segment, you might. This is information you definitely should know.

As I mentioned in the intro, there are no printed materials included in this package. In one of the audios here that was recorded at a live seminar, he's obviously using a powerpoint presentation to illustrate a point. Since you obviously can't see the diagram, he edited in a dialog describing the illustration, which happened to be a product funnel.

Since I'm familiar with the concept, I could follow along but found his description confusing. Including a printed diagram would have made things much easier.

Finally, this program is primarily for people that have an existing product and website rather than a newbie starting out from scratch. It's not that a newbie won't benefit but you won't find anything here on traffic generation or product development.

First Impressions of Dan Lok's Instant Web Profits System

Dan Lok's "Instant Web Profits System"
Price: $997
http://111659.com//DanLok

First impressions: Big box, lots of CD boxes. This package has the big "Wow" factor. However, if you've purchased one of these $997 mega-products in the past, you'll quickly see that something is missing: printed materials. None are included in this package.

What you get:

1. 2 Audio CD Set: "Your Website Sucks!!!: How to Avoid the Deadly Mistakes That Can KILL Your Online Profits! - This, like all the two CD sets that follow, was taken from a live seminar Dan conducted in the past and includes additional comments for people listening to this package.
   
2. Audio CD: "11 Simple Steps to Creating Killer Web Copy!"
3. 4 Audio CD Set: "101 Ways to Make Your Website SELL Like Crazy!"
4. 6 Audio CD Set: "Wizard Talk" This is a series of telephone interviews with:
   

• Glenn Dietzel: "Leading Expert in eBook Authoring"
• Mark Goldman: "The King of Joint Venture Deals"
• Jack Humphrey: "Linking & Website Promotion Expert"
• Alexander Rucker: "Testing & Tracking Expert"
• Alexandria Brown: "The Ezine Queen"
• John Carlton: "The Marketing Rebel"

5. 8 CD-ROM Video Set: "Extreme Webcopy Makeover: Look Over Dan's Shoulder As He Rips Apart Wimpy Copy and Miraculously Transforms It Into An Absolutely Kick=Butt Sales Letter"

Before we dig in, I've got a few more comments on packaging. I'm very concerned about a web conversion product that includes no written material at all. The videos may solve some problems for those that are visually oriented but I'd expect to see some examples, charts, checklists, etc.

One of my pet peeves about marketing audios is that the people that produce them seem to think we're going to give their product our undivided attention for however long it takes to go through the program. As such, they give us 30, 60 and 90+ minute audios without editing their CD's into tracks. This wasn't a big deal when info products came on cassette but it is for CD's.

How many times have you listened to a marketing CD and stopped in the middle of the presentation? If you go from the car to your home audio system or computer, you have to start all over again. Major hassle and irritating because it's very little work to edit the CD's into tracks.

The good news here is that Dan did take the time to edit his audios into individual cuts. Well done.

Another pet peeve of mine is marketers putting multi-CD products into individual DVD cases. I'm all for the "Wow" factor but would be far happier having a single booklet or binder that's easy to carry around than 21 individual plastic boxes. If you pick up this package, I recommend picking up a cd booklet at a place like Best Buy that's easier to toss in the car and doesn't take up two feet of your bookshelf.

That's it for the overview. Next, we'll dig into the audios.

All the best,

Bill Hibbler
http://www.EcommerceConfidential.com
Internet Marketing Tips, Tricks & Product Reviews