I strongly believe in them. They're more interactive and since different things appeal to different people, it lets them choose what's important to them. This means you can communicate to different people in different ways, depending on who they are. Its like letting them choose their own niche.

In a way they're like a magalog, where people can pick and choose the articles they want.

Thanks for your input, Hugh.

You are referring more to the style of where the
reader is presented with multiple options and they
get to choose? Such as (sticking with the Fat Loss 4
Idiots Example): "Click HERE if you need to lose belly fat...
OR Click HERE if you need to lose thigh fat" Correct?

I definitely like the thought of how interactive that idea
is as opposed to simply having "Next Page"

What do you think of the ones that just say "Next Page" and
simply chunk the copy instead of offering different routes though?
if

One of the pluses of this format of sales letter is that the
sales letter seems less intimidating to read at first and the
reader has to click all the way through the pages if he
wants to see the price--this makes it harder to 'cheat'.

On the other hand, you are making the reader do more
work and this could be a turn off. But others may argue
that the interactivity can help to engage the reader more
with your letter. This is worth a test.

I tried this once and didn't see any improvement in one
of my sales letters.

-Ray Edwards

Hey Matt

A big advantage of breaking up your sales letter (and then tracking them) is that you can see precisely where you're losing your visitors, and eliminate some reasons as to why they might not be buying.

For example: If you're losing most of them on Page 1 of 4 (and you don't have a price on Page 1), then you didn't really get their attention and interest enough... price isn't the problem ... motivation is.

One thing I should say about multi-page sales letters ... you need a strong hook to get them to click further. Imagine you're the director of the TV series 24... you don't want to lose viewers after Episode 1, so you have cliffhangers, plot threads and so on... you make sure they tune in next week.

You definitely need more of that when you're breaking up your sales page into smaller chunks.

Good points, Ray.

You didn't see an improvement? Did you see a decline
in conversions?

I could definitely seeing it go either way... the interactive
part of actually clicking, plus taking away the ability to jump
to the price, along with the less intimidating length are all
appealing... then making them work (click) might be annoying.

Paul - You brought up a few things I hadn't thought of... Thank you!
Especially with the cliffhanger point. I was going to just cut up my
copy and throw it onto some separate pages, but now I am going to
be a lot more logical about it and edit it to try to build a need for them
to click to the next page.

I have tested this many times and have seen both increases and decreases in conversions.

Bottom line: Test it.

We also found that using a text link WITH A TEASER about that they would discover on the next page was crucial to the successful multi-page letters.

Also, it seems to work better in most cases when the multi-page letter reads more like an advertorial. In weight loss one of the goals of your copy is to get your prospect--who has likely tried and failed to lose weight many times--to BELIEVE they can succeed this time. A multi-page letter with the stories of those who have succeeded helps build that belief and make the sale.

The cliff hangers are really important.

I remember one that I had tested down to having an incomplete thought at the end of the page. It went something like this:

They never went hungry or ate rabbit food. They each lost 75 pounds by...

The start of the paragraph on the next page ended up being optimized out of the mix, so I thought I was cheating the reader by not finishing that sentence.

With the page ending on with the above, I had a click through rate of over 90%. Since the next page was now starting on a different topic, I decided to finish the sentence. It now read something like this:

They never went hungry or ate rabbit food. They each lost 75 pounds by eating lots of yummy food.

Sounds OK; right?

The click through rate went down to about 15%. I totally lost them by completing that sentence.

I had to go back to the drawing board and figure out a way to complete that sentence on the next page in a way that kept them going on that page.

It's harder than the one page sales letter format, but the overall potential sale conversion rate on a mutli-page letter is often 2-3 times what you can get on a single page sales letter. It's worth doing the work to triple your sales.

Consider this... EVERY top seller on Clickbank is now multipage. Every single one of them!

This thread kinda reminds me of the debate between between long copy sales letters and short copy. And we all know that turned out. - Rick Duris

I've seen them work well and not so well. The difference is really in the copy, which is the same for any sales page. Some claim they are better for testing the page in segments, but I'm not convinced. Testing with multiple variables is usually better (different texts, images, colors, subheaders etc.)

One thing to remember is that some people skim sales page to see if it's even worth giving their time to read. So the multiple pages blocks people from easily finding out what they want to know which in my opinion makes it a sales filter.

Be interested in hearing how it works for you.....

It's already been said, but I agree:

Online sales letters are supposed to be single pages only, with action calls throughout the single page...

I do tons of stuff that personally I don't like much, and I think is stupid..but as long as it continues to produce results for me, the only thing that would be stupid is for me to change it.

If you don't have to hype your product use a multi-page sales copy see DLGuard.com. This is no knock on products with long copy site but you will find the products that sell them selves and fit a true need will go to multi-page sales copy.

I tend to think it's just far too complicated.
My thinking it the customer shouldn't have to exert any effort at all - shouldn't even have to think!
The harder it is to get to the 'buy' button, the more chance we have of losing them.

Just my thoughts, I'm of course open and willing to learn.
Cheers
Nathan