Am I the only one annoyed by this type of video??

haha yeah true. Thats the reason I eventually closed the video. If I knew how long it went for and could skip it, woulda of saved the link and went back to finish the video later...

I admit it. It is one of my pet hate! Shall we all boycott such inconsiderate marketers?

Mark, I think that's a great idea, but it should be a thread here. Whoever likes can put up a summary of the video, with the link. That will let other people decide whether or not they want to watch the video. For example, how about this:

Mike Filsaime's "The Day His Ego Died" is an autoplay, pausable but no other controls Flash video at thedayhisegodied.com. It's claimed in the video that it only plays once, forcing an immediate decision. Using Firefox with cookies and scripts blocked, I was able to replay it without any trouble.

Format: The video is Mike's audio narration with slides that stay up, usually for a few minutes at a time.

Mike takes a long time to tell several personal anecdotes:
* After he quit his old sales manager job and couldn't get other work, he and his wife became financially destitute. The situation was scary, uncomfortable and humiliating. (No mention of any life lessons learned, other than that being totally broke really sucks, and his wife can be a sentimental sweetheart who stands by Mike in tough times.)
* After he learned how to succeed at Internet marketing, they now enjoy living on a farm out in the countryside where his wife likes championship horse riding. (No mention of how he turned things around for himself.)
* His goal now is to get out of the "product guru" business, and focus on the growing area of software-as-a-service for the next phase of his Internet marketing career.

The offer:
Two software products that Mike used to sell exclusively at his own sites are now available to resellers.
Mike has had ongoing success with "autopilot" sales of these products with no active promotion for some time.
Mike will change his sales pages to direct buyers to a Google search for Mike's licensed resellers.
Resellers get the products, sales page, thank you page, promotional graphics, and the right to be found in that Google search.
Mike sets minimum prices for selling these products.
The products are "Powerlink generator" and "Viral friend generator."
After building up a $5000 value, the offer is $497 for both products, or three installments of $197.
He says to expect perhaps 4 sales a week at $97.
30 day money back guarantee and the software can be kept for in-house use, but not sold any more, if a refund is requested.
The first few buyers also get the right to reseller the Butterfly Marketing book, but not the complete system.

I have no professional or personal association with Mike Filsaime. I admire his business acumen, appreciate his revealing some of his personal background, and wish he'd let viewers see the video's length and control playback. I think (and hope!) the "one chance to watch" thing is a gimmick that will pass.

I would love to be able to come to a WF thread and read this kind of mini-review of IM videos to decide if they're worth my time. I'd be happy to post a review like this a day if I could see that other people were also posting reviews, that way we could discover what's worth watching.

I would say that Mike is a smart guy and there are other smart marketers who have used these types of videos, so i would expect that they probably convert better and keep attention focused. we live in an ADD type of society now.

I have heard others say this is a great way to convert. I've never ran any tests myself to see, but I'm sure others have. After all, this is a business.

My personal opinion on these videos is this (for what it's worth):

If I was a salesperson and I was going to try and sell Kevin Riley a widget, it might take me 2.5 minutes to sell him. He might have interupted my presentation and just said, "I'll take it Eric, you're a damn cool guy!"

(I added the damn cool guy for emphasis)

BUT, if I had to sell Big Mike, it might take me 2 hours (cause he analyzes the $hit out of everything right?) he wants every detail imaginable. He asks tons of questions. And, even after 2 hours, he still has to think about it and invites me back again for yet another 2 friggen hours of my time.

With long form sales copy, you cover both types of people. If someone wants to buy fast, they scan to the bottom, click the buy now button and badda bing, they get it. Others have to read, read, read every damn line and ponder the purchase.

Just like tonight. My wife and me went to this organic food store. I wanted to leave after the first 2 minutes. i went straight to what I wanted, and bought it. She takes 20 minutes just picking out what type of toothpaste to buy. I just look for the color blue and am gone.

With these videos, you only cover ONE type of person... the one who wants all the answers, every detail. The quick buyers, the impulsive buyers either A) click away or B) do something else until the video ends (it's running in the background) or C) pull their hair out until it's over, then buy.

is most of this market place guys or gals? Are guys more impulsive buyers than gals?

I can go on and on with my theories and philosophies, and I can see how Kevin would not want to treat his customers that way if he himself does not like these videos and obviously tons of people complain about them... but you know what???

My theories and philosophies don't matter when it comes to CONVERSIONS. My theories are irrelevant. I remember when everyone said graphic headers dont convert as well as non-graphic headers. I tested it and said to myself, "whoever said that is full of it".

There's a lot of marketers who claim something converts great, but I dont always believe what everyone says either. Whoever invented these videos could say they tested it and even show proof they tested it, but until I myself tests it, it's just theory.

All in all, obviously I give weight to those who earn much-much more than I do. And, when I see a big marketer like Mike doing something, I pay close attention. There's a reason why.

Good topic of discussion, I myself have wondered about these videos without controls too. I wonder what the test results are. That would be very valuable because even in this market hates them, what about the biz opp market or other niche markets out there??

~Ron Burgundy

Robert, I was so glued to the screen I didn't even notice the repossessers were towing my mobile home away until the neighbors' extention cord snapped back and sent two of my pink flamingos sailing through the side window glass.

But I will look for it next time...

KJ