NOTE from Rand: This post was contributed by the winner of our landing page competition, Paul Robb. Here's Paul's winning page, which drew both surprise and controversy. Paul offered to write two posts on the results of his page and his strategy for persuasive copywriting - this is the first of those posts. Enjoy!

We're now one full week on from the results of the SEOmoz "Landing Page Contest," and I've printed out all of your comments... sat down... read through them twice... I've highlighted, I've underlined, and I've thought very carefully. The result? I've decided I'm going to write a couple of posts for "YOUmoz" (this is the first).

Before I get started, I want to take a moment to quickly “tip my hat” to all of you readers here at SEOmoz... for two reasons.  First because... as my high-school French teacher used to say... "Flattery will get you everywhere, Paul".   And second because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the way you’ve welcomed me with open arms and hearty congratulations - despite my somewhat “alien” appearance. I can feel the love!  Well, sort of. So… Landing Page Competition… what was THAT all about?

“I have to say - the winner totally shocked me. Those long form sales letters are not my style, but it's hard to argue with results.” - Rand Fishkin, Sphinn.com (Mon 17th Sept)

Yes, Rand, my all seeing eye can spy you… even all the way over there at Sphinn. There is no escape. Now, what are we to do about this “shock,” this “trauma,” this “feeling in the pit of your stomach,” which I know many readers share?

Well, the way I see things, there are only two possible reactions.The first is what I will call the “SEOmoz Response.”  The SEOmoz Response is characterised by a desire to learn something of value, which perhaps can be applied to future endeavours to the benefit and increased profitability of everyone involved. The second is what I will call the “Ostrich Response.” The Ostrich Response is characterised by the desire to bury one’s head in the sand and reject anything that does not conform to one’s own personal belief systems and view about the way the world “should” be. If you are an Ostrich, or anything that resembles one, then this post is definitely not for you.  I’m sorry I’ve wasted 30 seconds of your time making you read this far. I really am. But, it’s over now. You can shuffle off and normal service will be resumed in your feed reader shortly. Move along people... Please? Thank you.

Now… those of you still reading… did you know that an ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain? Well, I kid yee not. It's a true story - look it up - just not until you are done with SEOmoz for the day! Onwards. Having tipped my hat to all of you "mozzers," it's only right I do the same to my "mentors." So here goes: I worship at the church of Gary Halbert (R.I.P), Claude Hopkins (R.I.P), Robert Collier (R.I.P), John Carlton, Gary Bencivenga, Tony Robbins, Joel Bauer, Brian Tracy, Richard Bandler, John Caples, and many other master persuaders. These men have taught me a great deal about life (albeit, I’ve never studied under any of them face-to-face). I owe them a debt of gratitude, and I’ll upload a list of all the titles in my library to a page on my website - www.crediblecopy.org - so you can check them out (if you want to). Most of what I know about persuasion, selling, and influence I owe to the names you've just read.  I freely give them FULL credit for my knowledge, because...as a baby...I was not born with an ability to persuade people in print (quite the opposite, in fact).  We all learn from our predecessors though, don't we, so this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

And I’m not trying to pass myself of as a “guru” here; in truth, I feel a little “uncomfortable” putting myself out there in front of the sharks of the world - and the sharks are out there, keeping their eyes on SEOmoz (you’d be surprised by some of the names in my inbox). What is this post all about then? I want to share with you a little of what I’ve learned during a “You need to get out more, Paul” amount of my life studying the works of these masters, because I personally feel like I have really learned a lot from you guys (and girls) here at SEOmoz, and now I feel like I can give you a little something of value back  in return in this post. But, you're right...who am I kidding...it's not all "give give give" here. I get to "showcase" myself a little bit, too. Also, on a final personal note, I feel it’s now time for me to get and stay out of my own comfort zone.

I’m sure there will be those who shout me down and heckle and make wild unfounded accusations. One person thinks I’m an MLM scam artist running a “get rich quick” scheme, for example. Bizarre - very bizarre. But, in my experience (and I do have a little), it really scares people when they encounter a young person who possesses enormous substance. It makes them “uncomfortable.” Some people just don’t seem to know how to react, sadly, which, think about it, leads me to a point I don’t have time to cover here: the most interesting study of life, in my opinion, is the way things actually ARE, not they way things “should be.”

Anyway, enough of this "jibber-jabber."  When you start to talk about “persuasion” or “selling” or “influence,” a whole horde of people instantly get all excited and scream MANIPULATION. Are they right to do so? Well, here is how I personally make the distinction:

• Persuasion is the process of influencing people to take an action of mutual benefit, or an action of benefit to them.
• Manipulation is the process of influencing people to take an action for your gain and their loss, or just generally to their own detriment.

Just like a long, sharp kitchen knife can be used for purposes good or evil, so too can the tools of persuasion. It all depends on the desired intent of the person in control of the “weapon.” At least, that is my current, somewhat shoddy analogy. You know what?  Sometimes good enough is good enough, so it’ll just have to do us. OK, I’m going to kick this whole thing off in a way that will probably surprise you. With the headline The Reason Why SEOmoz Doesn’t Need My Landing Page - that’s right. I said does NOT.

One of the most profitable (and ethical) business models on the Internet today can be summed up by the following sweeping over-generalization.

1. Build a community
2. Give community enormous amounts of valuable free content without so much as a hint of a sales pitch
3. Continue to grow community.
4. Leverage community and its built-up reciprocation, commitment, and consistency...and so on...to occasionally introduce and sell a premium product.

Result? You meet with little buyer resistance, PROVIDED YOU “SELL” IT RIGHT. I’m sure you already knew that, didn’t you? Good.

The magic of Carlos’s landing page (which took 2nd place) is that it “knows” the blog and other free content is doing most of the “heavy lifting.”  There are a heck of a lot of people who already “know” what SEOmoz and the Premium Membership package is all about, because they read the blog regularly (17,500 feed subscribers, anyone?). And Carlos’s landing page expertly finishes the job off and helps bring in the money for SEOmoz. This is what I believe to be at the very core of SEOmoz’s business model (however massively I may have generalized things), and should always remain so. Not simply because you SEOmozzers believe it is the right thing for Rand to do, but also because I believe it has the potential to be the most PROFITABLE thing to do.

Hmm.  Are you starting to see now? Maybe I’m not such a sleazy scam artist after all. Whoda thunk it, huh? A “white hat” long-copy writer? Surely you jest! Now, let’s see if we can get to the really juicy part…the part you have all been waiting for in this post: The Reason Why SEOmoz DOES Need My Landing Page.

When I sat down to think about writing my landing page, first, I twiddled my mustache, then I stroked my fluffy, white cat and said “Hmn” a lot, then I raised the pinkie on my right-hand slowly towards the corner of my mouth…and I said before cackling out loud for what must have been a full minute…I WANT TO CONVERT “RAW” TRAFFIC INTO CUSTOMERS. I ask you SEOmozzers, does it GET any more evil than that?

Converting "rawish" traffic into customers takes a LOT of copy, and it is a completely different audience from the one Carlos targeted. Interestingly, the same forums calling me a scam artist seem to have an intense dislike for Carlos’s page. I’m not going to lie to you: I take a lot of comfort from this fact. What do these people want? Well, they seem to think page 8 looks very pretty. So if that’s your goal – to look pretty - then fair enough, I guess. Wait a minute. Is that an Ostrich I see before me? I’ll move on. Wrestle with pigs and, whatever happens, you are going to get dirty. (I think it was John Carlton who I just stole that line from, but for our purposes let's simply replace the word "pig" with "ostrich."  Yes, I think that'll do nicely). Whatever.

I know Hamlet won’t mind me mentioning page 8. I’ve spoken to him a little by email and he is a SAVVY guy – definitely not an Ostrich. He was good humoured about the stats of his page, and I would back him to make the adjustment and come up with a very effective landing page the next time he is called upon to do so. Now, did anyone notice how I "swung for the fence" in my copy by selling people on the idea of parting with the FULL $399, and not $49 a month? When you bring in the “big boys,” Rand… you might want to do a short test based around "said fact."

On the face of it, I don’t understand why you would offer a “sign up for a month” option. You seem to be cheating yourself out of a lot of money, but you are the man behind the curtain with access to all of the data here. Not me.  And, I don't have time to go into the reasons why in detail here, so let me just say this: My view is that what you are offering is either of long-term value, or it isn’t. If it is, then people need to get on the bus! Respect.

Let’s get back to the contest. I suspected nobody else would take the approach of going after “cold” traffic (especially for a small looking $1,000 prize), but I knew I would be on fertile ground - call it gut instinct.  And I knew if I succeeded…boy, if I succeeded…then I would really have “run one up the flagpole,” as it were.  Listen: there are a LOT of people floating around the online world that you will get only ONE chance to sell to. They are interested in buying something TODAY, and if they don’t buy from you they are going to go away and buy from someone else who is a lot like you, or maybe even come tomorrow their attention will have turned 180 to a whole other industry or niche. Whatever the truth may be in this case, when dealing with these people DELAY IS THE DEATH OF THE SALE. They're going to buy from someone, so it may as well be from you. And it’s a huge audience. Huge audience.

Side note: contrary to the conventional wisdom that may be helping you sleep more easily in your bed at night, this audience is not comprised of stupid idiots who get "tricked" into buying from any old sucker who can write a "pitch."  I hope to touch on this in my next post, but I can't promise I'll have space. Listen: if you believe, as an organisation, you are offering people real honest-to-goodness value in your products and services, then you have a duty to your prospects to powerfully make the arguments that will make them WANT what you are offering, RIGHT NOW, today. There is no tomorrow.  You have to make them believe you, to take away all the risk, romance them on the key benefits to…

Damn it. I’m already on page 7 of A4 in Microsoft Word here. And I don’t want to go getting all “long copy” on you. God forbid. Nobody would read THAT after all now, would they? Of course not! Wait a minute...  Is that an Ostri… ... ...Never mind.

Okay, mozzers, thanks for your time. I hope to see (and get involved in) some HIGH QUALITY discussion in the comments section. I know a lot of people were hoping for me to get “down and dirty” on the copy side of things in this post… but this is CRITICAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION.  Meat and potatoes has to come before dessert.

All the best,
Paul Robb
www.crediblecopy.org