It's Not About ME!!!!

I'll make this reply as objective as possible.

Either way, you lose.

There will be those who will tear you apart for using the word "I" in your
post and there will be those who will be bored stiff because you sound like
a sales page, and ultimately, lose them as well.

You won't please everybody. Ask Paul Myers and he'll tell you.

The bottom line is this. You have to decide what is best for you. If you
think there is a majority, one way or the other as far as a group that
prefers "you" to "I" or visa versa, forget it.

You're going to piss somebody off no matter what you do.

So be yourself and accept that some people will not approve of what
you do.

If you can do that, you'll survive this forum quite well.

If not, you might want to consider doing something else.

Exactly Steven!

Btw good analogy.


Hey DaveBo,

Lol I can see this happening.

Dr. Phil thread? Hahahaha ... And how would you know what his threads look like? Have yo been sneaking over to his forum?

J/K!

Seriously folks, how picky does everyone want to be here? The next thing you know is people will be picking and chosing who can post threads and comments based on how the write there posts.

It's bad enoug sometimes when people comment in your threads telling you you mispelled something, or didn't use a coma where you should have, etc ...

I don't really think this is what Bev is referring to though. I may be wrong here but I think she was referring to people coming into threads and where people ARE NOT asking for other people's experiences... Most new questions seem to be more like this:

"Hi, I'm new. I'm looking to get into starting my own home business but I
don't know where to begin. I was wondering if you guys could tell me how
I should get started."

So, now it would not be appropriate for someone to come in and type 500 words about how they market weight loss products because they are passionate about weight loss and they make $1 kazillion/year doing it because they are so great at building relationships with their emails lists... blah blah blah. All of the self serving crap leading up to the final point of telling them to start with a passion or start in a hungry market or whatever the main point is.

"You should take a look at blankety, blanks product."

"Here's a great marketing course for you to study."

"People are having great results with this."

From Bev's post, I did not infer a literal proscription against the use of the word 'I'. I took it to mean more about the message that's conveyed, the underlying intention (as much as we can know and understand someone else's 'intention', which isn't always easy).

Of course it's alright to use 'I' when we're excited about a new achievement or making our first sale or whatever. Many times, when I read those posts, I often hear a 'Thank you, Warriors!' in there, even when it's not stated.

And yes, when we're sharing a strategy that has worked for us, recounting what we've done with the word 'I' is absolutely fine. From these types of posts I understand the OP is offering something to help ME.

I took Bev's post to mean more about the message that's conveyed, not about the literal 'I'. When we voice our opinion, are we open to that of others as well? When someone shares his or her achievement, is it kind of braggy or is it just excitement? If a strategy is shared, is it self-aggrandizement or simply intended to be helpful?

Granted, sales pages require a benefit-rich, customer-centric focus. But even as far as forum posts is concerned, the use of the word 'I' doesn't itself mean that the underlying intention is not to benefit 'you' - although granted, the intention might be a whole lot clearer without a lot of 'I's.

If we read between the lines - or around the 'I's - what's the message that we take away from a particular post?

This is certainly a worthwhile dynamic to pay attention to, IMO. It gets me to think a little more critically (in a good way) about the whats, hows, and whys of my posts.


-Kat

... unless of course, we are talking about THEM.

Thats the point, you tell a story about yourself, that they can relate to.
And you link the solution to you're product. When you do this you can transfer the story and experience you're telling about yourself, to the reader/ prospect, unconsciously. Its VERY powerful. Many direct mail and magazine ads do this.

When you use the word "I" in a story, you might be talking about YOURSELF, but when someone reads the word "I", it may have a different meaning in there mind...

Where are these real live examples then?

If they're not asking for other experiences, what are you suggesting they are asking for? Some type of advice, is that right?

Looks like this person needs advice on how to start a home business.

I use and look at stories as a way to persuade and to sell. If you look at salesletters for direct mail and in magazines, people WILL be talking about themselves and what THEY DID. Exactly what you're mentioning above.

If you want to give someone advice (selling your advice) then you can persuade through story telling.

In fact, Real World Experiences are very compelling if done correctly. Yours or someone else RWE.