Do these sales letters actually work?

Let's say you've got a toothache, and you're either unable or unwilling to go to the dentist right away, and you're online looking for a solution to take the pain away as quickly as possible... are you going to avoid any site that has what you're looking for because it has an "overt and direct sales pitch"? Instead you'll spend a few extra hours trying to find someone who hides their order button or makes it difficult for you to order, because they're not being so overt and direct in their sales pitch?

Have you been scammed by a site that fits your description before?

A lot of information products may be called scams because the purchaser loses site of what they are: information products. Information on it's own is nice, but can't often fulfill the promises of the sales page alone. This does not make anything a scam. Information combined with the customer's own action will lead to results, results which may or may not live up to the expectations put forth in the sales letter.

Oh, and to answer your question, yes, the strategy is very effective and plenty of people make day job slaying income by selling products this way. That said, I'm very interested in the future of the sales letter... how formatting will change to appear less "obvious," how video will be integrated, etc.

Not trying to be a smart ass, but I'd probably go to the doctor's if it was that bad. But I do agree with you, most people looking to buy right now would likely read on. I'm just asking, how well has this method worked for people personally? Is this a better way to do affiliate marketing than spending months and years building an authority site that may or may not succeed? I'm looking for direction here, not bashing tried and true methods. I have zero experience with IM.

Honestly? I don't feel comfortable buying stuff online unless it's from a retailer that I know and trust. But again, I'm not the average person Google-ing things.

I'm at the point where I'm ready to choose a market, buy a domain, and put something up to sell products. I just want to know if it's better to have a one-page hard sell like I see posted in this section of the forums, or to spend the time and effort becoming an authority on a topic when it could just as easily fail. I'd like to believe these pages work, and I'll bet they do, but from my point of view as an internet veteran, I can say they don't work on me.

I don't want to waste my time putting up content that doesn't work, and if this type of content makes the sale, I'm sold on using it.

It's interesting you say that - I have friends and family who say the same thing.

But pages like that do convert traffic into sales, which is why top marketers use them over and over again.

HOWEVER - keep this in mind: the page style and copy style will change depending on the market you're pitching to. For example, if I was pitching to top business executives, I'd use a different type of page/sales copy than I'd use for pitching something to the IM crowd.

So in short, yes these pages convert to IM traffic. But if you're not into IM, I suspect many sales pages targeted to that market would look a bit hypey

I ask myself the same questions about phishing emails and Nigerian
scams, but I guess they do work because I still see those emails
all the time.

I ask myself why people buy from Macy's what they could get from
WalMart for a better price--the same products. But people still
shop Macy's.

Those letters that should "SCAM" to you work for 1-15% of the
people who visit them and when they do a profit is returned.

So these letters do FAIL for the vast MAJORITY of the people who
visit them--but if you can live with 2-5% conversion they'll work
for you too.

-Ray Edwards

And to answer your question directly - Yes! They work!

It might not interest you or me or millions of others, but there will be a few in those millions who will be interested and will end up buying the product or using the service. It might not get all the customers, but it will be able to attract a few who will help the client make a profit.