Web Master Insider Training Blog

If You Can’t Spell, You Can’t Sell!

Posted on April 12th, 2009 by Techie Teri

What’s wrong with this ad?

[Note: this was a widely distributed newsletter's "Weekly Free Ad Winner", so a LOT of people saw this!]

==Ad==

XENICAL The New WONDER Sliming Drug!
Xenical is the new secret slimming-drug which works wonders
on anyone overweight. Stop dieting and liposuctions,
instead take this easy pill and lose weight.
[LINK EDITED].com/impotence/xenical/[LINK EDITED]

==End Ad==

Ok, Ok, stop laughing! This could happen to you!

Do you use your spell checker and proof read all of your ads religiously? If you don’t you should. A mistake like this could kill a several hundred dollar ad instantly.

I see these kind of mistakes all of the time when I am reading newsletters and as soon as I see a typo, I skip the ad. (In case you didn’t catch the mistake it is in the title- the word “slimer” should be “slimmer”) If they can’t spell, they sure can’t sell. Let me say that again:

“If you can’t spell- you can’t sell”

There is no excuse for an ad like this to go out. Editors are very busy people (ask one) and they don’t have time to baby-sit you. It must be perfect when they get it. Your ad is usually copy-and-pasted as one of the very last things an editor does before a newsletter goes out to the readers. Sometimes at 3AM!

If you have paid hundreds of dollars- heck even $20- you should at least give yourself a fighting chance. Type out all of the ads you are going to run on a page. Let them sit for awhile and go back and re-read them.

Check they way they sound- is it clear?
Did you make a call to action?
Check you spelling, your title, everything.

You could even do this ahead of time, and come back the next day with a fresh eye.

Also, as I was copying this ad- the auto correct in Word kicked in and I had to go back and make it a misspelling again. Use your auto correct in your word processor and your spell check together to keep yourself from “Sliming” anyone in the future!

Now- let’s see how good you really are…

What is the second problem with this ad? Did you read the link? I don’t know about you, but if I have to go to the impotence section of the web site to lose weight I am not sure I want to take this drug! Do I have to choose between having sex and being fat? Ugh! ! [Note: I am NOT making a judgment call on either impotence OR obesity- just the ad!]

Affiliate link masking and re-directing web pages is too large of a topic to address in this article so for now -

Think about what you are doing when you do it and you will have a much larger click through response rate and sales to ads run ratio!