The Rich Jerk - A Study in Anti-Marketing
I've always been fascinated by "anti-marketing", and how powerful its effect can be if done properly, so when I stumbled upon The Rich Jerk salesletter, I was immediately intrigued.
I'll admit, I'm one of those people who *never* reads a salesletter when I am considering buying something (I do read them when researching techniques, but that's another story), but from the moment I read The Rich Jerk's headline, I couldn't keep from reading the entire thing. Sure, in the back of my brain, I was telling myself that I was only reading it from a research perspective, and that I had no intention of actually purchasing the book. However, by the time I was halfway through the salesletter, I absolutely HAD to buy the ebook. Even if it was just the same rehashed old stuff, this guy deserved my money just for the education (and entertainment!) I got from his salesletter. My point here is that anti-marketing works very well if done right, and The Rich Jerk has done it extremely right
However, after reading the book, I'm pleasantly suprised! The Rich Jerk does indeed contain information that WILL assist you in making more money online?
His writing style is easy to follow, and perfectly understandable if you've been around the internet for a short time, but it is definately not for complete newbies (he does not, for example, take you step by step through registering a domain name or obtaining web hosting) - if you feel like you need any amount of hand-holding, this ebook is not for you.
In the first chaper, entitled "Creating an Affiliate Website that Sells Like Crazy", he covers building affiliate websites to earn commissions from the sales of other people's products. He starts by listing 13 affiliate sites and ranks them as "must join", "maybe join", and "join if [you are] bored". Once you've selected a product to sell, he goes through six specific writing strategies to use on your affiliate site to hook the reader and get them to click through on your affiliate link. He then gives you a complete sample "sales letter" (it's more like an article) with all of his strategies at work.
The third section in chaper one discusses offering rebates to your customers, but it's not just the same old "buy from me and I'll give you part of my affiliate fee back". Rich Jerk delves into specific ways to do refunds that will increase your bottom line as opposed to simply offering a rebate.
In the final section of chaper one, Rich Jerk writes about setting up pay-per-lead sites, where you get paid $10 or so for each person who provides you with his or her information (which you then pass on to a company which pays you for the lead.) I found this section to be a bit light on content, although there is enough there to get his point across. I think this is a technique that has not been explored in-depth by any of the mainstream internet marketing channels, and one that warrants further research.
Read the rest of our review of The Rich Jerk at The NetProfit Report