The point is, I went to Brad's site to see what he has to offer. Anyone who saw the site will agree: looking at it couldn't be "just a glance".
I'm not a big fan of reading long copies, but the writing of SEO Elite's founder was so amazing that I couldn't help reading it throughout.
Believe me, I was thrilled. What I learnt about SEO Elite was exciting, promising and pushing to action. I nearly believed Brad Callen's story that an SEO tool can bring me 15,000 visitors daily and that I'd be collecting fat paychecks soon. Believe me, I was about to buy .
Did you see this?
My Clickbank Account # 1 — $655,414.50 from this account!
Brad shows his attractive bills and tells you that software will get you 15,000 visitors a day!!! This magic tool seemed like a cure to any website owner, and I was ready to buy. But then all of a sudden my SEO's instinct told me to stop.
Yes, it suddenly struck me that I'm not like most of the people coming to seoelite.com. Or rather I'm not EXACTLY the same. Sure like you or anyone else interested in SEO tools, I do have a website and want to make money from it ASAP. But I'm not an SEO newbie. That's why a bell rang in my head.
I nearly forgot that I'm an SEO myself and I've been through a lot of deal here. But then that's what I thought: I know some very nice SEO secrets, and I'm someone who used software for SEO and knows how it should work. And finally, I surely can sift out truth from false.
Believe me, today I'm mad at myself, because Brad Callen was smart enough to nearly fool me.
Now I re-read the copy and noticed exactly the things that rang the bell. Want me to share some?
Brad Callen's proof of SEO Elite's work is outstanding. He shows testimonials and offers you videos where people are telling you about their immense online success. It seems stupid not to buy SEO Elite after that.
But here's the first rule of thumb these days, if you're going to give someone your money: make sure you don't put it down the drain. Check all that you can check. $167 for an SEO tool would be a pretty good sum to simply waste.
So I just look at the first testimonial (whose video took 9 minutes to load on my 2Mbps internet connection and still didn't work for longer than 8 seconds — hey Brad if your paychecks look the way you say, can't you afford faster hosting?)
I'm talking about the testimonial entitled "I have first page Google rankings for keywords with over 2 BILLION competitors!" If you go to SEOElite.com you'll easily see it. It says that homebusinessresearch.com is on page 1 for "home business" — the keyphrase with over 2 billion competitors.
Well that's easy to check. I just go to Google and type in "home business".
That's pure truth: homebusinessresearch.com is on Page 1 in Google. It's number 8, to be more precise. But... is the competition of 360,000,000 more than 2 billion??? Of course it's not.
That's when I started to have a feeling that someone's having me on.
All these videos, you know... A neighbor guy once showed me a video clip on his cell phone, where it looks like he caught a water-nymph with his fishing rod. Should I trust that as well?
Who do you think I am? Buying a thing that promises to earn me millions, and paying my own $167 bucks to someone whose testimonials are lying?
Sorry Brad, I'm not that kind of a guy.
Check just a couple of SEO tools comparisons I came across on the web — they will give you a clue to that at least don't pull your leg.
Most business publications tell us about people we can never identify with, even though we love to read about them. They have seemingly unlimited resources, celebrity contacts, and brilliant well-connected friends.
Fun to read but with very little direct relevance to us, except for the moral, legal, and ethical dilemmas and lessons each article contains.
Research demonstrated conclusively that online readers of web site content were looking for stories about regular people, putting Main Street faces online where their story could be told.
People want to read about successful business owners everyone can identify with, along side practical, insightful articles written by business professionals from a range of industries.
They were looking for evergreen content, because thought-provoking, idea-generating articles that were first published in 1999 are just as popular today as recent blog posts.
To date we have written and published almost 100 profiles of successful business owners. Each business owner who participated was nominated as a thought leader, someone whose story deserved telling, by his or her trade association.
Individuals were interviewed at length over the phone around a set of questions crafted to bring out how the company was formed, when and by whom and some of the challenges they overcame along the way.
And each success profile described their plans for them future - especially how they believed the Internet would help them grow their business in the future.
You see it occurred to us that there were lots of stories from Main Street that people would want to read about. So we made a few calls to our association executive contacts in a dozen industries and the rest was easy - time consuming, but easy.
As it turns out, our assumption was accurate.
The success stories along with a handful of how-to articles featuring the tactics of successful business owners account for a scant 1% of the content on our web sites and yet they receive over 32% of the web site's traffic. One profile, published in 2002, accounts for 10% of all web site impressions. People still access it several hundred times a week.
Experience dictates that no matter where someone is in the development of their business, there are people who are behind them on their own path toward success. People want to read about experiences they can leverage and tactics they can make their own.
Fortune 500 companies have in-house writers, contract authors, along with advertising and PR professional people who spend their days telling the world how great the company is.
Mainstream everyday companies do not have that luxury, until now.
Web 2.0 in the form of user created content from blog posts and comments provide business owners an opportunity to start a blog of their own that offers insights into their company.
Business owners with specific expertise can comment on other people's blogs, like those being set up by their industry's trade association or professional society, and adding to the discussion that's already taking place among like minded individuals.
And because blogs require virtually no resources and little if any money, every business owner can tell their story and follow the progress of other businesses they admire.
It is quite possible that a single posting on a relevant blog post will be the opening round in a never-ending dialogue between business owners. Business owners seeking advice can quickly and simply add a comment or a question to the original post and those with relevant advice to share can add their insights as well.
Instead of just being an historical account of the business like our original profiles are, blog posts and their follow up comments may take on a life of their own extending well into the future.
Let your light shine. Tell your story online. The people who'll find it will be those who are looking for the insights you have acquired the hard way.
Both Jon Sparks & Wayne Messick are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Jon Sparks has sinced written about articles on various topics from SEO Search Engine Optimization, Site Promotion and Internet Marketing. Jon Sparks is one of the SEO and copywriting experts at Link-Assistant.Com (a larger producer of ) since 2005. Holding degrees in Philosophy and in Marketi. Jon Sparks's top article generates over 1900 views. to your Favourites.