Dear Friend . . . I'm NOT Your Friend

I realize that many pages employ the "Dear Friend . . . . " narration. But every time I read a page employing this, I cringe. In fact, I HATE it. I'm guessing it converts because it plays into people's emotions, and people buy from people, right? For me, I just smell the BS right off the bat.

I'm currently writing a sales page for a new product, and I simply CANNOT bring myself to use the "Dear Friend," BS!

The first page I wrote had an exceptionally hypy, over-the-top opener (not in MMO). After that, however, I simply told the reader what my product will do for them, and how it will solve their problem (we're solving a problem after all, right?). By most people's standards, it's a very short sales page.

I wrote it without much care. I probably spent 3 hours on it. The flow is absolutely terrible as well. In short, a trained eye would be able to tell that a moron wrote it within the first few lines.

Despite this, it converts fairly well. My best affiliates are converting at 1:45 with article traffic, while the average is about 1:100.

This makes me want to use the same style for my new product since I've had a fair bit of success with it. However, I feel that I'm missing out on the "Dear Friend," style.

For those of you with substantial experience, have you used both styles, and which has been the better converter for you?

I'm going to write four different copies. Two will be with "Dear Friend,"- a short version and a longer version. And two will be without "Dear Friend"- Hypy opener and a straight-forward approach.

I'm going to split-test the hell out of them to see which converts best. What's your take on it?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!