Honesty in a salescopy. Do those words even go together? If you look at a lot of the sales letters floating around the Internet, you really have to wonder…especially in the “make money online” niche. Well, I’m not one to avoid a controversial topic, so this article is going to be about honesty in salescopy. If you’re a copywriter, you may or may not agree with everything in this article. For that matter, you may not even want to read it depending on where YOU draw the line. Either way, I think it’s a fascinating discussion and one that you don’t want to miss.

“I made $30,000 in 72 hours and I’m going to show you how YOU can do it too.” Look familiar? I’m sure you’ve seen similar headlines on sales letters to this one. It’s a fairly standard one for the make money online niche. Some guy has made all this money and now he’s going to show you JUST how YOU can do it too. What he fails to mention is that it took him three years of long, hard work to get to the point where he was able to make that $30,000 in 72 hours. And the truth is, for some of these big name gurus, $30,000 in 72 hours is nothing. Some have made million dollar profits in a day. But it came from years of hard work.

This is what we don’t get to see in salescopy. This is the part that they so conveniently leave out. It’s a lie by omission. You can sugarcoat it any way you like and say that technically it’s not a lie if he really DID make that amount of money in that short span of time. Well, if you want to bury your head in the sand and look at it that way, that’s fine. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this doesn’t work. It works very well. And as you so directly pointed out, it’s technically not a lie. Just doesn’t tell the whole story.

And therein lies the problem that I have as a copywriter myself. This is the reason why in all my sales letters that make claims like these, I always state that this WILL take work. I don’t make it sound like a walk in the park. Now if I’m writing for a client, I can’t do this. I have to do what’s in HIS best interests. Still, I won’t lie. Any facts presented have to be truthful. Leaving out the “This is hard work” part is just good business sense and what everybody in every field does. Just look around. Does anybody tell you that the new power saw you just purchased is going to take some dexterity on your part?

The question is, where do we draw the line? I’m not here to be your conscience, but it’s something I want you to sit down and think about. Because ultimately, if the “lies” get to be too bold, prospects will begin to become so skeptical to the point of disbelief that sales will ultimately suffer.

If that hasn’t happened already.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to write copy just like the pros? Visit my site at http://www.bcipe.com/ and discover killer copywriting tips that have allowed me to write my own copy for years and earn myself a 6 figure a year income selling my own products.