Nigerian prince scams updated for LinkedIn

Today's Nigerian prince appears as the one who will teach you the secret to increasing your income.

I understand the need to pitch to try to make sales, and I get that people want to entice customers with concrete numbers. But I'm starting to think that like the classic Nigerian prince scams, they are deliberately aiming for low intelligence people who just swallow the promises of easy riches and hand over their money without question. 

That's because I'm struck by how very unsophisticated they seem to assume their audience is. I got two pitches like that today -- one in my Linked Inbox after a person requested to connect to me and one in my actual email that the person obtained from my having attended one of his presentations.

Flattery only works on people whose egos exceed their intelligence

Don't send an invitation to connect with someone and give them a false compliment leading right into your sales pitch. You're following a playbook and showing that you're trying to manipulate your mark, especially when it is very obvious that you're being so general because you are not, in fact, familiar with the person's work and are just pulling off their current place of work as reference.  

For example, I just responded to an inmail with "What do you think I do at NYC Data Science Academy?" in response to the pitch that said this: 

Hello Ariella, thank you for accepting my invitation.

I love what you are doing at Nyc Data Science Academy

I recently helped Deekron, a client of mine,
make an extra $25k a month without spending anything on ads

And I am sharing the exact process on my upcoming linkeidn [sic] event

If this interests you, here is the registration link:

I'm not sharing her link. I seriously doubt she loves what I'm doing because she can't really see what I'm doing at the school. My name doesn't go on the work I edit. In other words, I'm most invisible there.

Anyone who is so obvious about throwing out flattery because she's too lazy to even try to make herself sound credible is not the type of person I want to work with. It makes me doubt her claims altogether.

Seeing is not believing

The email I opened was from Russ who charges $1500 a course that he hopes will attract up to 60 attendees at a time. He sent along this visualization with completely made-up numbers (notice no footnote for sources of info) to try to convince you that you can easily go from earning $25 an hour to $100 an hour and then to $250 and, ultimately, $500 an hour so long as you can sell yourself as a strategist.

Everyone who is a mechanic can also be a quarterback

That assertion is ridiculous isn't it? Yet that's what's implied by the labels Russ decided to use for his visualization that lies on very level, including deliberate vagueness and poor choice of words to represent the different roles. 

Why call the one who implements the plan a mechanic? Mechanics are not mindless drones who just follow orders. They're highly skilled workers, and they tend to comman salaries way above $25 an hour. 

And then why the shift from a job to a sport roles by choosing the term quarterback? It doesn't fit and again underestimates what real quarterbacks earn. 

In point of fact, even the lowest tier indicated here for  freelance marketers/content producers, there are the ones who earn $25 an hour and the ones who earn $100 an hour for the creation, whether that is writing the blogs and social media posts or posting them. There's no fixed demarcation in terms of earning potential, as people will often have to do both the creation/plan and implementation. 

Now let's move to the top two tiers and the false demarcation between the consultant and strategist. Again, Russ is being very sloppy with terms, which really make me think that he is not just dishonest but not very good at what he claims brings him so much wealth. 

False demarcations

What he calls a strategist could also be called a consultant. A consultant simply means someone who works in a consulting capacity, which can be for anything. Even what he calls a mechanic or a quarterback  could be hired as a consultant. In fact, I do work at all these levels described here under the title of a consultant, and I don't typically get $500 an hour or even $250 an hour. 

I'm not saying no one gets that. I'm sure some people do. 

However, those rates are usually only offered for very brief stints, just to set up the plan that will be executed by others who are charging less. That's why most consultants will not limit themselves to just the upper tier of work and secure maybe 10 hours per client. 

Instead, they would work on the range and accept some in-between range that may be around $200 an hour. Some senior writers end up earning that much, too, when they charge by the piece and work fairly quickly. 

Bottom line: the visualization paints a very false picture about the actual earnings and demarcations associated with different aspects of work in marketing. Anyone who really falls for the implied promise that your earnings will skyrocket to $500 an hour with full time hours as a result of taking a course is so easily duped that he or she would make a very lousy strategist, indeed. 

Remember, as I pointed in The secret to getting rich is selling other on the secret, if these people were really raking in as much as they claimed from their freelancing/consulting, they wouldn't have pivoted to the courses. They obviously make far more by taking in (pun intended) the freelancers seeking to improve their earnings than by hitting up the business managers with their claims of writing/marketing prowess. 

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Why you always need the original source

Always, always go to the source cited to judge how relevant it is. That's my rule of thumb -- not just for my journalistic work but even for my content marketing. And it never ceases to amaze me how many people don't bother with that even while positioning themselves as authorities on the subject.

I knew I'd regret it, but I gave into temptation and clicked on an article with the title "How to Write Headlines That Grab Attention and Convert"

It gave the usual advice that most seasoned writers already know, including writing the title only after you've finished writing the article, being specific but not giving everything away, etc.

But it also sought to add insight taken) from "Data Driven Strategies for Writing Effective Titles & Headlines," the 28 page report put out by HubSpot and Outbrain.

Instead of putting in the title and link properly as you should do for anything you cite, it introduced the information this way:

Lessons from a 3-Million Headline Study

HubSpot and Outbrain analyzed more than 3 million paid link headlines from Outbrain’s network of 100,000+ publisher sites to find out what kinds of headlines can increase CTR, reader engagement and conversions, and this is what they found:

It then proceeded to share stats and insights from that study for the next 16 paragraphs. (I'm not exaggerating; I counted them). Despite drawing heavily on the study, the article never puts in a link to it.

In fact, it never even shares the title, which made it a bit more difficult to find. But I am nothing if not persistent when it comes to research and tracking things down.

I located the original source, which says that it was based on headlines in the time period of 2013-2014. That's right, the data is form nearly 10 years ago. In the world of online content, I wouldn't bank on anything more than two years old to still be current.

So why did the writer of an article published in August 2023 not include the link? It's possible that he deliberately intended to obscure that bit of historical context by not linking directly to the source. What's more likely, though, is that he came across another secondary source that cited those figures and takeaways and so didn't even know when the original study came out.

Unfortunately, that is often the case for writers who just go with the first Google result, which is more-often-than-not not the original source. You have to dig more to get the source in context.

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Churchill's guide to writing

Public domain photo of Winston Churchill in 1936

Necessity is not just the mother of invention but of improvement when brevity in writing is demanded by a state of war. 

In Chapter 28 of The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shares Churchill's instructions to improve writing at the War Cabinet in a minute, entitled "BREVITY."

It began with the reason it was particularly necessary for their writing:  

To do our work, we all have to read a mass of papers. Nearly all of them are far too long. This wastes time, while energy has to be spent in looking for the essential points. 

Anticipating the style of writing that we have come to expect in short form content online, Churchill offered four specific directions for removing anything extraneous:

1. Using "a series of short, crisp paragraphs" 

2. Removing the statistical analysis or more involved discussion from the main part of the report and offering it in an appendix.

3. Using of "headlines only, which can be expanded orally if needed."

4. Eliminating all "woolly phrases" that add needless words like: "It is also of importance to bear in mind the following considerations..." 

Churchill acknowledge that while the style "may at first seem rough as compared with the flat surface of officalese jargon." However, the higher priority then was "saving time," and, he added that, in fact, such focus offers additional benefits: "the discipline of setting out the real points concisely will prove an aid to clear thinking."

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Thoughts on WW II Posters

Make Your Content as Accessible as Possible

Visit WriteWayPro.weebly.com  Like and follow on Facebook and on LinkedIn

7 Habits of Highly Effective Content Marketers

1. Offer value
What you present has to always center around your customer concerns rather than your own latest offering or uniqueness, so no shameless self-promotion and no clickbait. 

2. Offer relevance 

While you can and should jump on seasonal and news trends, the core of your content should always be relevant to your target audience beyond the current news. That will help your SEO.

3. Compose concise titles
Write headlines that are on target, to the point, and short enough to be read on a phone (no more than 65 characters).

4. Offer curb appeal

 Even if you’re using words as your primary medium rather than video or photos, remember to pay attention to visual appeal with an attractive layout and images that  not only catch the eye but fit the story you tell.

One caveat on this: be sure that your graphics load quickly. If they take several seconds to load, people will just leave the page without waiting for them to populate, and your SEO will suffer, too.

5. Engage with your audience  

Use your social media channels as another avenue of content marketing, not just to link to your blogs and videos but to engage directly with your audience there with discussions and shares that are not just broadcasts of what your brand is doing.

6. Use analytics

Check your stats every month or so to see what’s performing well and what isn’t to inform and optimize future content

7. Be reliably consistent

Plan to put out content continuously and consistently to build your authority  and keep your audience coming back rather than treating your video or blog as a one-and-done.

Quality, consistency, relevance, and engagement go a long way in connecting  with people. Over time that translates into improved brand recognition and goodwill that also increases customer loyalty.  

Do you think this level of content is beyond your budget? Think again. Poor quality content not only fails to deliver the ROI you get from high quality content; it can actually harm your brand by demoting the the site ranking you've invested so much in building up.

What you really can't afford is poor quality content. Hire a seasoned pro to craft the right message for your organization and your demographics. Learn more here and book a free consultation call.

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CRO is Like Basketball

Make your content as accessible as possible

 

The certificates above show that I have just completed the HubSpot Academy courses on content marketing and SEO. I did pick up a few tips, but the best part of it was the feeling of gratification that my understanding of best practices from years of experience was spot on. Unfortunately, the businesses I sometimes worked for often deviated from such best practices.

Unlock those gates!

For example, I'm generally not in favor of gating good content. You want it to be read, so why create barriers to getting it read? I fully understand that you want to force people to give you their contact information to follow up with potential leads. However, as the course points out, you can encourage some kind of opt-in even without blocking the content.

Semrush, the online visibility platform, agrees that introducing a layer of friction -- even if it is as simple as entering an email address -- will turn away readers. That is not something you want to do in the awareness stage when you wish to attract as many eyeballs as possible.

"You usually wouldn’t start a relationship with gated content. You have to woo your readers first, showing that your content is worth their time and — later on — their personal information." - Semrush

HubSpot's course suggestion was to have the content accessible with an option for the reader to download it as a PDF. People will voluntarily download content they like to have available to read at leisure, particularly longer form content. My guess is that seeing things first the first time on a smartphone likely contributes to that practice even more.

Keep it simple!

I also felt particularly gratified about another explicit guideline it gives that I've clashed with some clients over in the past. That is to use clear, direct language rather than jargon or what you believe is a very impressive vocabulary filled with the types of words students used to memorize for the SATs. It's a mistake to believe that you sound smarter by using big words, as the really confident person will explain even more complex topics as clearly as possible (think "explain it to me like I'm five").

I still remember what my composition instructor said about Winston Churchill, who was a highly capable speaker and writer. As the British Prime Minister during WWII, he didn't say, "The received communication from France is extremely unfavorable." Instead, he said, "The news from Paris is very bad."

The contrast to Churchill's direct and honest approach appears in Emperor Hiroshito's observation after the devastation of two atomic bombs, "The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage."

Consider which statement you would consider more trustworthy as a source, and remember that when crafting your own content.

screenshot from https://app.hubspot.com/academy/21390613/tracks/15/377/2059

I took the liberty of grabbing a screenshot from the HubSpot video as proof of what I tried very tactfully to convey to a few of my recent clients. Unfortunately, they refused to get the point. In one case, they insisted they have to avoid using "layman" terms. In the other, they insisted that really smart people speak that way.

P.S. Semrush also corroborated that point in a tweet that went up just today. Here's the final step in its short thread on how to format your content for search engines & target featured snippets:

✍️ Finally, tighten up your page’s copy. Try to use short, direct sentences with language that isn’t too complicated. Good luck 👋

— Semrush (@semrush) February 9, 2022

Related:

Where HubSpot Messed Up

Think Marathon Rather Than Sprint When Planning Content Marketing

What Edison Can Teach Us About SEO

Churchill's Guide to Writing

7 Ways to Grab Customer Attention in Subject Lines 

CRO is Like Basketball 

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