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What does less than 53 members mean?

by Dmitry
12 replies
This is in regards to the "How to Set Up A Membership Site In Under 6 Minutes - Using COMPLETELY FREE Software!" product being advertised here.
PROOF!

$17,000+ from a membership site on video marketing.
$16,000+ for another on wordpress.
My business partner and I once sold a membership site with less than 53 members for $32,000.
Don't worry, I'll show you how to do that as well.
I'm just curious what does having less than 53 members mean?

52?

51?

7?

Couldn't they just say 52 or 51 or whatever?

I'm not bashing the product or the people behind (there were no names) it as I haven't bought it, nor have I read the sales letter.

But just out of curiosity I opened it and that was the first thing that stroke me... less than 53 members, huh?!

I could go on and on into all the various speculations that were immediately triggered by this ingenious figure, but I'd really love to hear your ideas and I'd especially love to hear what the guy(s) behind it was(were) having in mind.
#members
  • Profile picture of the author Scott Ames
    52 is less than 53 I believe. I thought nothing of it. He prob. doesn't want to reveal the exact number.
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by Dmitry View Post

    I'm just curious what does having less than 53 members mean?
    Speculating here, but...

    Imagine that the forum software says there are "53 members."

    At least one of them is the admin member, not a real member.

    Some of the rest may not be "real" members - they signed up but never logged in, logged in but never posted, any number of things. They didn't generate revenue for the site. But it would be hard to figure out exactly how many of them don't qualify as real members.

    So "53 - (1 + x)" where (x >= 0) is necessarily less than 53, but how much less is uncertain.

    Alternately: several of those 52 non-admin members are paid forum posters and/or sock puppets, but they don't want members of that forum to know how many.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matt Bard
    Could be a form of sales copy that is intended to get your attention as you scan down the page.

    Your mind could quickly go over something like:

    "both" "2" "two" but would probably stop at "under 3".

    As we age and develop our minds we tend to use shortcuts or "mental macros" that can scan over familiar symbols such as letters and numbers.

    After plenty of experience reading we begin to develop more shortcuts for entire sentences or a familiar number combination like "52".

    You probably don't have a "shortcut" for "less than 53" and that would cause your brain to slow down and take notice. Hence the reason you started this thread.

    Or, I could be making all of this up on the fly in an attempt to baffle you with bullsh*t

    Matt
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    • Profile picture of the author Dmitry
      Originally Posted by Matthew Maiden View Post

      Could be a form of sales copy that is intended to get your attention as you scan down the page.

      Your mind could quickly go over something like:

      "both" "2" "two" but would probably stop at "under 3".

      As we age and develop our minds we tend to use shortcuts or "mental macros" that can scan over familiar symbols such as letters and numbers.

      After plenty of experience reading we begin to develop more shortcuts for entire sentences or a familiar number combination like "52".

      You probably don't have a "shortcut" for "less than 53" and that would cause your brain to slow down and take notice. Hence the reason you started this thread.

      Or, I could be making all of this up on the fly in an attempt to baffle you with bullsh*t

      Matt
      Yeah, I also thought that was some BS NLP tactic.

      As for the people above - no offense but that makes no sense at all.
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      • Profile picture of the author landing-page-dude
        haha, I like this thread.

        It's internet marketing...people ALWAYS embellish stuff. Like "Only 73 copies left.....of my digital download ebook."
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          [DELETED]
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          • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
            Hi Dmitry

            I think I understand where you're coming from with this.

            When you see a "more than" or "less than" figure, you'd expect it to be a round number, such as more than $500 or under $100. If it's an odd number (e.g. 53), why not just quote the exact figure, or say less than 60?

            [Of course, I'm ignoring the fact it really should be "fewer than" for the purpose of keeping this thread wombat-free ]

            I'm not saying it's the case with this particular WSO, but some marketers tend to seize on a piece of marketing "received wisdom", in this instance the advice that an exact figure carries more credibility, without quite "getting it".

            So we see copy that declares "I made more than $27,431.58 in the first month with my new system" which sounds er.. unconvincing.


            Frank

            EDIT: Oops..too late with the grammar check
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  • Profile picture of the author Coyotex
    Ha, I thought the same thing when I read that sales page! Less than 53? WTF? As much as I'm interested in seeing what he/she/they have to say, I'm skeptical as to why no name or company name. But then again, I don't think this forum would let just anyone advertise on here, would they?
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    • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
      Originally Posted by Coyotex View Post

      I'm skeptical as to why no name or company name.
      Um... what?

      "My name is Jason Fladlien..."

      That's a pretty well-known name.
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      "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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  • Profile picture of the author Keith Kogane
    I can think of one reason why it was a good idea. 10 posts worth of comments so far, all talking about his product, which is posted at the top of the page. Probably getting lots of people to read it. Worked on me... (and I bought the product, so).

    Of course, I doubt they deliberately used a weird number there thinking it would prompt discussion. Darklock's got a real good guess, the copywriter in me thinks it was just a bit of incongruency to capture attention (like it did the original poster).
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  • Profile picture of the author DougBarger
    You know how when you have demographics of the average
    person who buys the create your own membership site in less than 6 minutes using free tools product has 2.3 kids, it's a lot easier to just say less than 3 children than
    to have to put that disclaimer about how no children were harmed in the
    creation of the videos and other training that comes with the offer.

    My guess is it was to stress or emphasise that it didn't take thousands of members
    to sell the site for thousands of dollars.

    To me, that drives the point home pretty well and is a great selling point.

    I've got the product too and have recommended it also.

    Guess it could sound kind of funny though if it goes down the wrong pipe or something.
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  • Profile picture of the author JWB
    Simply means the site had less that 53 members
    paying a monthly subscription fee for the information
    available on the site.....
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    URGENT...Over 1000 new members are joining the Pre Launch every single day....Extremely Time Sensitive Information!
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