Rishi, it’s true that sometimes this writing works. And we agree that legit people use the style of long-ass sales letters (though SEOmoz’s headline wasn’t so hypey, if I remember correctly). But it’s got so little value-added that it’s noxious and annoying to the rest of us.

Bottom line: If it’s not traffic that converts into a sale (and I don’t mean page views, even if you’re a publisher; because the PVs are lower quality from a more newbish audience) you should not be writing this garbage.

I agree that we should freely discuss what we perceive to be misleading headlines or content as published by other bloggers. The best thing I think we can do is exactly what you’ve done: call out these tactics, point out what is wrong with the sort of sensational ideas and “get rich quick” methods that are being published. In short, we should publically ridicule these techniques.

Skellie knows that headline is going to grab a lot of people – mainly people who haven’t yet a lot of experience with blogging. The inexperienced and uninformed are out there looking for quick and easy ways to gain lots of traffic/subscribers. Skellie is filling that demand. Now, will the content following that baity headline truly deliver? That’s another story. But to newcomers to the blogosphere it might seem that way, and that is who Skellie is aiming for with a headline like that.

It doesn’t lend much to credibility, but this kind of content simply works to attract plenty of eager readers. As long as that traffic can be monetized we’re going to see this kind of headline.

-Mike

Hey Mike,

Glad you enjoyed the post. You make a good point, and we agree on part of the solution. I think we’d do better if the industry as a whole shamed these types of things, and in particular from the legitimate people. We can’t stop scammers from trying to rip people off – those folks will continue to try their luck despite whatever the community does – but we can peer pressure people like Skellie not to use these crappy headlines.

ps @Rishil: Gab read and appreciates your comment, he’s just having technical difficulties right now and can’t comment back at the moment.

Rishil’s right in that these strategies do work, as much as I don’t care for them myself. When I see one of those long-winded, “How I made fifty bagillion dollars in a week” pages, always complete with the picture of the guy in front of his new mansion, I gag just as much as you do. The sad thing is that there is a good percentage of people out there who’ll see something like this and be turned on immediately.

I think the only thing we can do as honest SEOs is educate our clients and anyone else who’ll listen about the realities of online promotion and money-making through a tool like a blog. It’s hard work, and only those with the skill and the true belief in the information they’re providing, beyond its utility as a monetizing agent, are going to see true success. It’s a hard-fought uphill battle.

Great post.

-Mike

The fact is that some of these strategies DO work, as much as I hate to admit it. You can sell to some people some of the time, some people all of the time, but you cant sell to all people all of the time.

It’s the first two that make these tactics worth while. And the funny thing is that sometimes the strategies (including the sensationalism) are ignored in the mainstream.

Take for example the SEOmoz landing page contest – the winner was surprisingly formatted in the long winded style, typical of the “ I made $$$$$ in x days” type of tactics… (http://www.seomoz.org/landing_pages/9.html)