Scam Ad Absurdum
By pillusch
@pillusch (1147)
Mexico
September 5, 2010 1:11pm CST
I’ve just done some surfing, and I came across another one of those ads. It said, literally: “Get 250,000,000 visitors to your site. .”
And I thought I’ve seen it all…….
The thing with these ads and sites is that technically they are not lying. In this case, and I’m inventing now, since I didn’t even click on the ad, it probably involves a one-time payment of only $ 10.00, and off you go.
What they don’t tell you is that those 250,000,000 hits to your site would materialize over the next 45 years or so.
The bad thing about this stuff is that there are a lot of legitimate advertising programs out there that do deliver what they promise, and they do it in a reasonable period of time. But they get a bad rap, too, since the scam sites far outnumber the legitimate ones.
2 responses
@bloggeroo (2167)
• Philippines
7 Sep 10
This is what copywriting is all about. Frankly from a copywriting point of view, "Get 250,000,000 visitors to your site" is good copy. It is somewhat loud in terms of sending its message, but it is very effective at stopping a casual visitor and gaining his momentary attention.
Unfortunately for the copywriter, it will turn off a lot of knowledgeable people. But I think this is not a problem for the copywriter who wrote this copy because his target audience may just be those who are clueless to all this web traffic stuff. He may just want the chance to present a sales pitch to those who have no preconceived idea about getting traffic.
Anyway, exaggeration is a valid copywriting technique. Used wisely, it can deliver results.
