I get a newsletter where the guy uses these “secrets” and “you have to read this” stuff and I must admit it drew me in at the start but after a while I lost respect for him - it’s hard to write content that’s so good that all your readers genuinely “must” read. In the end I felt kind of “manipulated” and I started to consider him a bit “cheap”.

Perhaps a lot depends on how long-term you want your relationship with the users to be.

For the people criticising this post, I think you have valid points but you have to tone down the criticism slightly unless you can clearly suggest good alternative ideas and headline writing models.

Let’s face it, not all of these things would be appropriate to every single business, but that doesn’t mean that any of these technniques are outdated or useless - for example, regardless of how skeptical a consumer may or may not be, “WARNING!!” will catch your attention no matter what.

I work for a hotel company so it would be kind of hard for me to utilize numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6. But the others, we can and do use all the time in our marketing campaigns. Creating a sense of urgency doesn’t necessarily mean “Click within the next 10 minutes or it’s gone forever!”, but mentioning a limited-time discount or offering free breakfasts for the first “x” number of on-line bookings for next year are fantastic attention-getters. The point is, all of these items work and have been proven successful over the years, even though they might not be appropriate for everyone in every situation. THANK YOU, Andrew - job well done.

The secret line… How many times have I seen this in cheap advertising campaigns, like for scams and weird impossible ways to make money?

A warning… Again I turn to what every internet-er HATES… Your computer is infected with a virus, click here to clean… or some other stupid warning you get in soooo many pop ups. Unusable

I’m not even going to discuss Q&A, unless you wana sell something people really need or want, like anti-acne cream, and you cite the opinion of an expert or a celebrity (proactiv is a good example)… FORGET IT and by the way, 800% then anyone except for a 70 year old man who has no knowledge of internet scams would close the site.

The whole story thing, I truly believe that alot of people (including myself) think the whole failure to success stroy is getting lame. Everyone started with being laughed at and thrown out on their butt, and now they’re great and succesful, it get’s old, especially in the new “ever-changing” public u see today.

I think the comparing can be good, I don’t think it’s great and you should always remember it or anything, but it works, or could work.

Irresistible, sure you want to be irresistible, but don’t act (even if it is so) like it’s a miracle product, people have become fairly cynical and we don’t believe in miracles anymore. Unless your selling cosmetic products, since we are obsessed with our looks and will do anything to be “beautiful”.

This is the last day I can get something? Well too damn bad, I ain’t buying anything out of haste, are we all used car salesmans? CLICK IN THE FOLLOWING TEN MINUTES TO GET A FREE PC… yeah right…

I have to say, unless ur selling a used car, cosmetic products, something on QBC, or the home shopping channel, I can’t really see these methods working. They could be great for products that have a sudden hyped period, in which alot of people buy and it’s not important to maintin sales for a long time. And I definitely think they don’t work for web sites at ALL. You have to build up trsut with the reader, and blasting me with miracles and things that sound to good to be true, won’t work.

No amount of quick tips can make a good advertising campaign, but I think these can do more bad than good.

As an up and coming consumer, these lines wouldn’t make me want a product, and they would make me close the web page in an INSTANT!

What I would say is something that makes ME want to keep reading.

A little easier on the gimmicks people, consumers are smart nowadays, alot smarter than 10 years ago. Or they like to FEEL smart, and these lines don’t make you feel smart at all. They make you feel as if you are being duped.