Why are graphic-text so common in WSOs now?

by N4PGW
12 replies
I have begun to notice more and more WSOs where the offer is actually one or more long pictures of both the text and the graphics.

Is there a logical reason for doing this?

I have seen the headline text published as a graphic many time, but now I am seeing entire WSOs being published as graphics and very few lines of real text. The other day I came across one that took 10 minutes to load! (I get 6-22 MBps Download speed on my broadband!) When I tried to highlight part of the text, it revealed that there was one really long, I mean 6+ pages of text/graphics in one picture. This picture was made up primarily of text. There were at least 3 pictures of similar length!

While that was an example of the extreme, I am still seeing quite a few, much shorter WSOs, where almost all the text is just a part of the graphic.

I can guess a few reasons: so someone can't steal the copyrighted work. So someone else can't tell their copyrighted work was stolen and used. So one can make changes to their WSO without raising red flags at WF. Or so they can change the terms of their WSO to their customers even after the sale.

I once bought a product with "unlimited PLR" rights, but by the time all the changes were made to the WSO after I bought the product, it barely had resell rights. I had made a copy of the WSO offer to keep with the product as justification for using the full rights I purchased. If I had only linked to the graphics text, then I would not have evidence of my rights today.

I am really concerned about the use of graphics where text is more efficient.

Should I be?
#common #graphics #graphictext #text #wsos
  • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
    I think there could be many reasons for using it.

    One, it's faster and easier to type out a sales letter in Word and then just take a screen capture shot rather than type it/format it all in the forums BBcode.

    Second, it can look cleaner/more professional if done right.

    And there is the potential reasons you listed.

    Granted, I have never done it, but those are some advantages I think.

    Rob
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    • Profile picture of the author website12
      Banned
      Originally Posted by ccmusicman View Post

      I think there could be many reasons for using it.

      One, it's faster and easier to type out a sales letter in Word and then just take a screen capture shot rather than type it/format it all in the forums BBcode.

      Second, it can look cleaner/more professional if done right.

      And there is the potential reasons you listed.

      Granted, I have never done it, but those are some advantages I think.

      Rob
      Yeah, i think it is to look more professinal and this makes it look like it is a better product and better conversion rate.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ben Gordon
      Originally Posted by ccmusicman View Post

      I think there could be many reasons for using it.

      One, it's faster and easier to type out a sales letter in Word and then just take a screen capture shot rather than type it/format it all in the forums BBcode.

      Second, it can look cleaner/more professional if done right.

      And there is the potential reasons you listed.

      Granted, I have never done it, but those are some advantages I think.

      Rob
      I agree with Rob. If you look carefully, forum text is a lot less smooth then graphics text, simply because it's pixelized more. It is much sleeker and professional if it is made via graphics.

      I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons why graphics text is better then forum text, but I think this is the main reason.

      However, I like forum text better then graphics text, but that's just my opinion.
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  • Profile picture of the author mnoonan
    I was noticing this too. While I think that some of the WSO's look pretty cool, I have to wonder if by doing that they give up some of the google juice they can get. The images aren't searchable, so if I was looking for "Awesome Cool New Thingy" and they were selling it- it wouldn't show. The links, of course, are golden- but IDK if I'm sold on using 95% graphics in a pitch.
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by N4PGW View Post

    Is there a logical reason for doing this?
    Multiple promotions.

    You do the sales page once, drop it on my server, then link that image in the WSO... and in the email promotion... and on your own domain. It looks exactly the same everywhere. If you want to change the sales page, just change the image on your server, and hey presto it changes everywhere.

    Can also make life really easy for affiliates. Just stick that image into an HTML email and tag it with an affiliate link. Why bother with banners and buttons and all that jazz? Just put the whole damn sales page in the email and link it with your affiliate ID. They click, they go to the same sales page and are already in the "buy now" mood, so they just click the buy button again.

    It's a terribly efficient way to put a sales message in fifty different places and then pay no attention whatsoever to where you put it. All you need to care about is that one image on that one server, and if you update that, everything else updates automatically without you having to go login at EVERY site where you promoted it and change the copy.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
      It's a lot simpler than that for at least some of us. Using images makes it super easy to post your WSO. No editing and spacing issues to overcome and it looks just the way you want.
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael Mayo
        Originally Posted by Tina Golden View Post

        It's a lot simpler than that for at least some of us. Using images makes it super easy to post your WSO. No editing and spacing issues to overcome and it looks just the way you want.
        Plus, It allows you to track the visitors to each page. If you change the copy and see better results then you are in control of your offer.

        It also allows the WSO Creator to gather stats on views vs sales.

        Hope that helps,
        Have a Great Day!
        Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author Shazia Mirza
    I am a proud owner of a WSO fully "graphicized" as I like to call it.

    And I will tell you exactly why my WSO is full graphics.

    1. I wasn't in the mood of BB Coding all the text. I can easily do some quick formats with a CTRL B here and a CTRL U there on Microsoft Word.

    2. Greater Potential: Special photoshop highlight effects + drop shadowing and other blending options. Although I didn't go in depth with photoshop, these little things can do a lot for conversions.

    3. Easier. This kinda ties in with 1, but it was so easy to get my copywrited sales letter straight in a doc file. All I had to do was take a few snagit snapshots, upload them and embed them - done.

    Hope that is a good explanation
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    • Profile picture of the author N4PGW
      Originally Posted by IMReview View Post

      I am a proud owner of a WSO fully "graphicized" as I like to call it.

      And I will tell you exactly why my WSO is full graphics.

      1. I wasn't in the mood of BB Coding all the text. I can easily do some quick formats with a CTRL B here and a CTRL U there on Microsoft Word.

      2. Greater Potential: Special photoshop highlight effects + drop shadowing and other blending options. Although I didn't go in depth with photoshop, these little things can do a lot for conversions.

      3. Easier. This kinda ties in with 1, but it was so easy to get my copywrited sales letter straight in a doc file. All I had to do was take a few snagit snapshots, upload them and embed them - done.

      Hope that is a good explanation
      I have not done a WSO, so I was unaware of the graphics problems. That really does make sense. Especially for those of you in MS Word... MS can really crap up documents for the web!

      In your case, your graphics are all short and small. Most seem to be under 1MB, but I did see one that was over 5MB.

      I also had not considered the tracking. I guess you can see how many hits were on a picture to see how many viewers to your WSO.

      I feel better now knowing the legitimate reasons behind the graphics. After that one experience with PLR, I get a little suspicious when someone is capable of hiding their changes.

      Thank you all, again
      Buck
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  • Profile picture of the author GarrieWilson
    Some people could be split testing the WSO copy. I havent seen a WSO selling a script to do it but it wouldnt be that hard.

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  • Profile picture of the author N4PGW
    I want to thank everyone. I think CDarklock may have a good point. Of course some warriors have gone overboard with the size. For example, I have seen several where the sales letter was considerably larger than the product. For the huge-3-image WSO, I left without buying. I gave up waiting on it.

    But, I can see the advantage to one that is reasonably sized fitting CDs tactics.

    They did seem to rapidly grow after WF announced they would be enforcing the changes rules for WSOs.
    \
    Thank you, everyone.

    Buck
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  • Profile picture of the author Shazia Mirza
    Oh yeah, forgot about the tracking. Snagit comes with built in tracking scripts

    Oh Yeah, Snagit For The Win!
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