Yawwwn! It is NOT a 'Dirty Little Secret' and please don't use that phrase again!

Rank #1 on Google
Make Money with (insert program name here)
How I made (insert outlandish income claim here)

does it matter if they irritate you personally but continue to get a good response over all?

Should someone change their headline because a few are irritated, and their stats still show good open rates for that headline?

(note i said their stats still show good open rates if their stats drop off then they should think about a new headline)

I agree, it is overused (as are many other phrases), but I'm pretty sure it does get a good open rate or it wouldn't be used so much. I do wish copywriters would be more creative with their work and that emails would provide what their headlines promised, but that may be too much to ask in this day and age.

OMG I need to get this off my chest!

That irritates me.

Tyrus

Over hyped amrecian style copywriting annoys me sometimes. It may be because I am british but I usually respond better to a more relaxed tone rather than the "Laser Powered Super Mega Bonus Ubelieveable Rocket Super Ride Once In A Life Time Offer" style stuff.

I have a few niches where I take an american product and simply tone it down a little then advertise it to the UK and It works really well.

PS. Does anyone else think the "Who else wants to..." is the most over used headline at the moment? I see it everywhere! It must work, I'm not knocking it, but when something becomes over used it loses its impact imo

You guys are missing the point.

Listen to uncle Robert.

It doesn't make any difference what you or I do or don't like. What matters is response. And cliches WORK - they help give the reader a "familiar sign" they can latch onto and instantly understand.

To put it another way, it's less work to read stuff like that.

Copywriters write to get response.

Read that again. Print it out, stick it on your monitor, whatever.

We're not in the business of making people happy, or in being "creative", or in being "different" (unless it leads to more sales).

We want stuff to convert. And tactics like this, regardless of how many people bitch and whine about them, have not lost their effectiveness (based on my tests and experience anyway) and probably never will.

You have a choice.

Either whine and moan and try and be "different" and watch your profits suffer...

Or just accept that these tactics have been used by thousands of direct response copywriters who are better than you and I will ever be and that they work because they trigger basic human psychology.

-Dan

P.S. I realize they're not used correctly in some places by people who don't know how to swipe correctly... however most of the time I see them used they are used at least somewhat correctly.

Guerilla,

Hate to tell you, but you're wrong.

Cliches still work. And they work damn well.

Read any good copywriter's copy - it'll be full of cliches.

Cliches are a "mental foothold" - the reader sees it and can instantly identify with it.

-Dan

Just do what I did, unsubscribe from everything. I only have 5 people emailing me now, and 2 more are getting deleted right now

Some of you have touched on some of this already, but I wanted to give my overall thoughts.

There are subject lines that won't work on people - IF they have been overexposed to them. However, there is no real way for the sender to know which subject lines will irritate you personally.

At first, the only thing a sender can do is craft the best subject line possible and try to deliver on what it says. There's no way to predict with 100% certainty what any message will do once it is released into the wild.

That's why testing and tracking is so important. It's the only way to measure what's working. Also, don't rely on one test, or a small sample size to dictate future mailings.

With that said, even several tests and large sample sizes aren't perfect either. There is simply no such thing as a 100% open and click-through rate. All we can do is keep honing what we do.

So, the senders are NOT trying to irritate their readers. And there's no way for them to know evry single subject line that will irk every single reader.

On your end, you can choose to unsubscribe, delete the message, or open it up.

All the best,
Michael

Bad News!

Ever since Kern used "Bad News" every day a get another email claiming bad news that is sold by affiliate product xyz i find it funny and entertaining.

except for Kern I do not recall ever buying from anyone else who used it .

The first 100 times it was almost original the last 999 times, I deleted it without checking if maybe just maybe this on email had a little more of an original twist.

What I'm getting out of the thread is if it's not a "dirty little secret" don't say it is a dirty little secret.

If you have 1000 copies left, don't say you only have 7.

I have nothing against email marketing, as a matter of fact, I actually enjoy reading the offers that I get from the people that I'm subscribed to. However, every now and again, I will give my email address for something and some of the subject lines that follow are pretty stupid to put it mildly.

Considering all the wanna-be-marketers that are buying volumes of ebooks that give them lists of NLP words and phrases, that won't be the only catch phrase that you are going to get sick to death of. Funny thing about subconscious trigger words - when overused they become non-effective or just completely evolve a new connotation.

What you have suggested - that "dirty little secret" is becoming irritatingly over-used and is causing you automatic rejection of the material - will become widespread occurrence over time. If people are repeatedly disappointed with the information imparted after that promise, they will slip program to automatically click away from anything that uses the phrase - even when it is completely astounding info that is being given.


It's important to know what imagery and ideas are triggered by certain phraseology, but it's also very important that you build your own phraseology around the subconscious reaction to the emotional/denotative category the suspect word belongs to.....uh...long discussion pending...so.... to keep things short and understandable....
If you are using terms and phrases you found in a marketing ebook - you need to start becoming more original. If you can't do that while staying in the main ballpark of word or phrase, find someone who can to do your writing.