BRIBE Offered For Feedback on Ebay Auction Sales Letter

[Glenn]

Hi,

Happy New Year Everybody.

I got a Copywriting Puzzle. I could use some help with.

You can Help us help a friend.

And Get a FREE copy of our 20.00 Report, "100 Million Dollar Movies and How to Boost Your Copywriting Results with them." A Reward or Bribe for giving us Your Opinion.

A School teacher asked us to help her adapt and sell information from several books she wrote but has not sold yet - on Ebay.

Here's the PUZZLE:

We wrote the offer about an idea in one of Seraphina's books. How she and teachers she coaches use a trick she Thought up to Get ABSOLUTE QUIET in 5 to 10 seconds - from any size group. Any age. 5 people or 500+

We named her strategy the "NOISE THERMOMETER."

E-mailed the sales letter to her.

She posted it on Ebay as a 7 day auction. For some reason, hours passed and we couldn't find her auction. So Under my own SELLER ID - I put up a
"Buy it now" version of the exact same sales letter.

"Noise Thermometer Guide on How to Get People to SHUT UP"

But I made a Mistake.

Used A Totally Different and WRONG Picture at the top.

A Blonde Doll.

Here's the Puzzle and
Why We're Offering a
BRIBE for your OPINION. (Maybe you'll spot something we're too close to see)

Even though both auction offers are the SAME. The auction with the WRONG Photo. The Blonde Doll Color Photo. Has sold 3 books in a couple days.

The correct photo auction has not one single bid.

Opinions?
Ideas?
Suggestions?

Auction Version #1 - No mistakes:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Noise-Thermomete...3A1%7C294%3A50


Auction Version#2 - My GOOF - Photo doesn't match the Description:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Noise-Thermomete... yphotohosting

Thanks,
Glenn Osborn

Hi Glenn

Happy New Year!

Thanks for reminding me of the ebay auction world :-> I used to be very active on there for about 2-3 years. So I checked out the 2 ads and here are some thoughts as to why you made sales.

While Your Offer May be the same...The auction listing are VASTLY different thus you are NOT comparing apples to apples.

Here's why:

#1 User Id's are different

version #1 auction id "4suceessnow" is TOO new with 0 feedback vs
gomarket1 with 760 feedback AND an about me

My thoughts:

YOUR user id "gomarket1" would create more TRUST in a potential buyer. Why? because you have the following Trust elements:

1) Feedback, 2) "About me" page 3)You are selling similar products and 4) under "view sellers other items eg. "Forbidden NLP titles" 5) I'm sure
you have completed items with sales(but i did not check)


#2 Attention Grabbing Factor of the PICs is Different (in my opinion)

That DOLL looks like something out of the movie Poltergeist. In fact the DOLL
Looks POSSESSED or Hypnotized.

My thoughts: If you look at this from a searcher point of view:
# Buy ># Everything Else ># Weird Stuff ># Totally Bizarre >

I think the Doll would outpull that OTHER PICs as well as some of the other "Casino and make money type pics", because it looks WEIRD and is Different to the rest.The doll also fits the "Magic" theme in subhead.

Speaking of "Subheads"

#3 The Subheads are Different

version #1 Control People-TORTURED tested by a teacher

VS

version #2 Magic Visual-Auditory-FEELINGS Crowd Control in Seconds

My Thoughts: Does the Second one pull better?

#4 The "Buy-it-Now" button vs No button makes a BIG difference

Why?

* Psychologically speaking it SATISFIES my need for INSTANT GRATIFICATION. It is an IMPULSE BUY. Especially since you created Intense
CURIOUSITY through the copy. I'm sure you can explain this in NLP terms
*Unlike the other auction, people may NOT want to WAIT an entire week before they get the info
* The "Buy-It-Now" button establishes a price in the mind of $21.38 thus putting a VALUE on the material

How many units were made available under the buy it now option? Could be creating scarcity if the # available for sale was low ie. if 5 or less were available that could explain the influx of the first 3 sales (I didn't check the number of units available.

* Depending on how people SORT their auction listings, it may show up "higher"in the search results which means MORE visitors to your auction

**BIG TIP: I used to put up Multiple One Day Auctions 7 times or MORE a week vs doing ONLY One 7 days auction and hoping sales were made.

Why? At the time the default setting was "Sort by Ending time" My ad was ALWAYS at the top of the searches (some other reasons too but you get the point) **END of BIG TIP**

#5 Were the Auction START and END Dates the same? Same time?

Answer:

NOPE! One was started on a Sunday, the other Monday. This could play a factor because IF your ad is Both "NEW" and Placed in a "PEAK" time it will be SEEN MORE. ( see TIP above)

O.K There are some other differences, but those were some Major ones to consider.

Suggestions and Action Steps

1. Repost BOTH Ads at the same day and time under YOUR user id. ONLY change the picture
2. Monitor the # of visitors to each page using a counter (I used to use a good one that tracks the keywords people used to come to my auctions as well as # of visitors and more. I believe ebay has a similar counter tool which does this now.)
3. Try the "Big Tip" above in this "Weird" Market niche (monitor your profit of course)

Happy New Year

Duane Mr. "Auctions were my friend" Adolph

Originally Posted by Glenn

Hi,

Happy New Year Everybody.

I got a Copywriting Puzzle. I could use some help with.

You can Help us help a friend.

And Get a FREE copy of our 20.00 Report, "100 Million Dollar Movies and How to Boost Your Copywriting Results with them." A Reward or Bribe for giving us Your Opinion.

A School teacher asked us to help her adapt and sell information from several books she wrote but has not sold yet - on Ebay.

Here's the PUZZLE:

We wrote the offer about an idea in one of Seraphina's books. How she and teachers she coaches use a trick she Thought up to Get ABSOLUTE QUIET in 5 to 10 seconds - from any size group. Any age. 5 people or 500+

We named her strategy the "NOISE THERMOMETER."

E-mailed the sales letter to her.

She posted it on Ebay as a 7 day auction. For some reason, hours passed and we couldn't find her auction. So Under my own SELLER ID - I put up a
"Buy it now" version of the exact same sales letter.

"Noise Thermometer Guide on How to Get People to SHUT UP"

But I made a Mistake.

Used A Totally Different and WRONG Picture at the top.

A Blonde Doll.

Here's the Puzzle and
Why We're Offering a
BRIBE for your OPINION. (Maybe you'll spot something we're too close to see)

Even though both auction offers are the SAME. The auction with the WRONG Photo. The Blonde Doll Color Photo. Has sold 3 books in a couple days.

The correct photo auction has not one single bid.

Opinions?
Ideas?
Suggestions?

Auction Version #1 - No mistakes:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Noise-Thermomete...3A1%7C294%3A50


Auction Version#2 - My GOOF - Photo doesn't match the Description:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Noise-Thermomete... yphotohosting

Thanks,
Glenn Osborn

[Ankesh]

Interesting.

Thanks Glenn.

Can't be too sure. But maybe the reason could be that your ebay rating is high while the no-mistake ebay seller has no rating. In essence: its not the picture that made the difference. Its You.

Besides that, the only reason I can think of is - seeing a doll picture under the Bizarre category gets at least three times as many people to click and open an ebay product page. Nah...

(Crossed paths with Duane as I started writing the post before he had published his. In hindsight - I should have kept quite. Duane covers all the points - and in a much better way...)

[MMacGillivray]

Hi, Glenn - for me, the problem starts (and stops) with the formatting - I simply cannot read it. I'm working up something for you and will send you it by pm later tonight.

Margaret

[Glenn]

Dear Duane,

Thanks.

Did you get the "100 Million dollar movie list" I sent you for Your comments?

I created the Special Report after I discovered that #1 Copywriter Eugene Schwartz strongly suggested watching such movies - then using them in your sales letters.

Radically JUMPED response. (It worked for me.)

AND Thanks for all the ideas...

Since Ebay is the cheapest, fastest place to test sales copy I've ever found. I plan to test your excellent ideas.

LUV your Multiple listing one day strategy.

I'd forgotten the subheads were different. (Good point there too)

Thanks again,

Glenn

[Glenn]

Dear Ankesh,

Thanks.

Did you get the ""100 Million dollar Movie List Report" I sent you - OK?

I was walking Seraphina thru the Ebay sales format
pages.

Discovered she needed 5 feedbacks before they allow her to use "BUY-it-Now."

So this Test was sort of forced on us.

Makes things interesting, huh?

Glenn

[Glenn]

Dear Margaret,

Thanks for the idea.

I was using Garageband or one of those Ebay auction programs with multiple colors and styles and formats.

Hated it.

AND my auction sales sank when the format got too CUTE.

So I'll test what you suggest, sure.

Glenn

Glenn,

Just for your "For What It's Worth" file, I visited your website, then visited a dozen others.

Your site is the only one that bleeds off the right side of the screen so that I
have to scroll right in order to read everything.

You might want to cut down on the width. 650 is a good size to use.

Pete

Glenn,

Thanks for asking.

#1: The doll creeps me out. I would avoid your auction just because of that.

#2: The text formating is different. In yours the testimonials - and the questions to which she answered yes - are clearly segmented with double lines. In hers, there is no segmentation.

You have Bold items where she has none.

The beginning of yours - short brunette people - is different to hers - invisible book. Same with the Invented By Teacher vs Invisible way to shut people up.

#3: Her page layout is worse on the eye than yours - even though they are similar. Ebay is Easy Going on html. Just a small 600 wide table (centered on the page) into which your text is placed will help the reader. Nothing fancy. A html table is pretty easy even for a html-phobe - so no excuses here.

#4: Duane already touched on the About Me and Buy Now. But to add to the feedback... not only does she have No Feedback, her account is New.

#5: It's not unwanted xmas dinner brussle sprouts
http://cgi.ebay.com/A-PAIR-OF-UNWANT...1%7C240%3A1318

Michael Ross

Seasons Greetings Everyone:
The copy is very strange. Even unbelievable! That photo of the guy is weird. It could literally run the youngin's right out the classroom. Why would anyone need a Noise Thermometer? especially a Teacher??? Keep your eyes open and watch your wallet! I taught for over 15 years in an Urban Public school. First time seeing something like this. But... It really GRABS your ATTENTION!

Peace and Love for you in the New Year 2009.

DonSonic