Quote Originally Posted by Rob Toth
Not so much...

The article talks about it a little differently.

Suppose however I posted a page right now with my XYZ offer and had a text (or graphic) Order link.

You click through.

The click takes you to "sorry, we are currently out of stock" or "sorry, not yet available" or "sorry, creating a new batch" (or whatever). But for your pateience here's a digital freebie and by the way, register for our early notification list.

You haven't spent any money with me AND I didn't force you to become a lead under a false pretense. FCC has nothing to do with this.

If you decide to optin for when the product launches... that's your choice. And certainly I didn't charge you anything.

Point is, that setup, you could run with all sorts of products and test the conversion (from visit to order button click, obviously, since you can't actually measure "purchases"). That won't be 100% accurate as some do abandon the cart, but it's definitely close enough to indicate whether the product is worth launching.

Now, consider this...

What if you also toss in an exit pop ... as they are about to exit, you have a little survey/poll asking what else they'd like to see in your XYZ offer or what they would change (ie: now you've got your market not only telling you whether they'd be willing to buy but what they'd change). And put THAT on your so-called order page.

Of course, you should also put one on the actual sales page .

I use: http://www.27am.com/oh

I used to have my own exit window software in Buy Now Wizard, I've sold that business ... but that script works great. Or find another (or create your own). Or use SurveyMonkey though I still recommend do it in an exit window.

Regardless, THAT process works great... you essentially find out if the person would be willing to buy just from a make-shift, draft salesletter (and if they'd be willing to buy as a cold-lead, with no pre-sell, from a basic salesletter.. than obviously your conversions will be a LOT higher from a top notch salesletter, well monetized sales funnel, with presell teasers in the mix) ... if they aren't clicking the order button, they can help tell you why they aren't buying (which tells you how to edit/modify the product) and if they DID click the order button and were "ready to order", you can generate an early notification leads list AND find out what else they'd like to see with the product.

All this for a few hundred dollars of PPC and some basic buzz promotions ... vs $10k+ on a salesletter, $500+ on graphics, countless hours on R&D, etc, etc.

Hey Man, another great post, but I gotta take issue with you on a couple of things- they are highlighted in your quote above...

See, under the parameters you describe, you DID gain my personal info under false pretenses:

1) The product doesn't even exist, so saying it's "Out of stock", or "Unavailable" is disingenuous at best, if not outright fraudulent.

I work with a lot of offline brick and mortar businesses gearing up their ecommerce platforms, and one of the things my attorneys have warned ME about is to be Very Clear if an item is available or not- that's why we will usually post that right on the product page before the prospect ever gets to the cart. And that's for a physical product which DOES exist somewhere...just not in my stock. In the case of a digital product, it becomes even more important to clarify the issue, I think.

2) If you make an "Offer", which is what you are doing by posting a "Product" for sale in a public venue, then there has to be an intent to actually produce it, or it can be seen as false advertising under the statutes- here's the relevant quote from your article link:

"If a company doesn't make it clear in its advertising that it might not produce a product unless it receives sufficient market demand, "it could be considered false advertising under federal and state statutes," Kronenberger says. And if a company runs an ad campaign without any intent whatsoever to produce a product, that could be seen as fraud, he cautions."

Now one can say "Oh yeah, I am gonna produce the product if there's enough demand" and all, but personally I'd be VERY careful how I worded a "pseudo-offer" test like this.

Maybe something like "Super-Powerful SexoWidget - Now In Pre-Development!" Blah Blah Blah Feature Benefit, Blah Feature Benefit, Blah Blah... Sign Up Today To Discover MORE and be notified the Instant It's Available!

That covers your intent to gauge interest, while keeping you uncommitted to actually producing the thingamabob if it's a bust.

Just to clarify, Rob: You da man! I'm not trying to be contentious or Dis you - I always enjoy reading your highly informative and well thought out info. I'm just debating in the hope that some n00b reading this doesn't run off and get themself in major doodoo by not thinking it through first!

Peace!

Gman