How long should a VSL be for a $9 product?

Michael,

Your VSL could be 5 minutes... it may need to be 20.

It all depends on what it takes to sell it.

There's no "right or wrong" length for a sales pitch.

Without knowing what it is, what it does, who your market is, how well they know YOU or the product, etc... there are so many variables.

I've seen 30 minute VSLs sell a $10 product... I've seen 30 second TV infomercials sell $100 products.

The answer to your question is... it should be as long as it takes to sell the thing.

It needs to be long enough to cover all the important points to sell it... and yet short enough to keep attention. You don't need a single extra word or phrase that doesn't lead to the sale.

So how's that for an ambiguous answer ;-)

This has been discussed on this forum DOZENS of times already:

https://www.google.com/search?btnG=1...opy&gws_rd=ssl

Some people assume the rules are different with VSLs, but they're not. Read these ^ posts, the answers are in there.

The rule is 1 minute per dollar. So a $9 item needs 9 minutes for
the VSL, $40 will need 40 minutes.

Of course this rule can be broken to make even more sales.

-Ray Edwards

It's a bit like sex.

3 mins, 9 mins, 27 mins etc.

Just make sure she is ohhh sooo satisfied.

As for I hour 23 minutes, two obvious problems, not many can do it and your good lady may be bored senseless (a visual clue would be - she starts painting her nails while you're "preforming").

It can work if you coughs position it right - "End Of America" is a provocative attention grabbing headline.

So maybe "Last Time We'll Have Sex For A While" may entice her into a marathon session.


Steve

Michael,

As you'll see in a minute... there really ARE no set "rules" when it comes to selling.

For example.... there have been times I've looked at a sales letter currently at the top of Clickbank
for a rough "model" to follow... in terms of just making sure certain things are covered.

I'll also use some of my sales letter templates I've acquired over the years as a rough model to follow.

And yet, there have been times where I've just sat down and wrote a sales letter right off the top of my head, in a market I know quite well... and it beats out the letters I wrote following the two models above.

My point?

Often times, you just don't know what's going to work best, so you gotta test.

Back in 2006 or around there... I went through a course put out by Eben Pagan.

He had his main copywriter go through one of their dating sales letters... line by line. And then
this copywriter actually handed us a template they use.

I had just written a dating sales letter that was doing "okay"... not great.

It was around 10 pages because that's what I "thought" it should be.

Well, I took Craig's template he gave out, sat down for a few days and just
wrote from the heart... following his template to a "t"

The result? Almost 20 pages of copy.

And it pulled in triple the conversions of my previous letter... even though I thought
20 pages was WAY too long.

But, I just tested it on POF anyways, without any over thinking.

So, the point is... often times you just don't know the length that will work, so
nowadays I'll do 2 versions... one that I feel is closest to the "sure thing"
following all the proven template blocks.

Another I'll just sit down, tell a story with as much emotion as I can,
without thinking of all the "prim and proper" rules.

And then, I'll just test the 2, not caring about anything else but numbers
and results.

THAT has been the only way I've been able to find out which length
works best... I just produce 2 versions of a letter and test them against
each other.

A lot of times... the length of them differ by quite a bit, but I just let
the market tell me what the best length is.

These days, I don't guess... I just test everything to see what works,
because every time I "think" something to be true, it's not and the market
tells me otherwise.

Why cripple yourself with a $9 front end offer? Do you think $9 will convert 5x as well as $47? And don't you think your competitors have back-ends too?

Build enough value so you can slap a $47 price tag on it. And then split test $9 vs. $47 and see what happens

But to answer your question directly: I'd still lean towards longer. 20+ minutes. I'd probably just pop out the order button earlier.

Even with a back-end, the front end offer is still the most vital part of the funnel. Don't skimp.

All things being equal... longer is almost always going to outpull shorter. Anyone who tells you different is speaking from a place of theory and personal preference - not data.

As long as nessecary to make the sale, but not longer