Rules Psychology: How to Make it Pay (43)
Howdy guvnors. I've just released Volume X, a brand new addition to my Premium Post series that covers adult dating.
In keeping with past volumes, I'm going to give away a free post on here for STM'ers. This one is all about rules psychology, and how to make it pay in any niche. Enjoy.
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If you've researched your adult landing pages, you’ll be familiar with a certain type of copy that goes like this:
Rules psychology isn’t only one of the greatest selling tools at the affiliate’s disposal. It’s one of the greatest selling tools period.
Learning to use (and abuse) rules psychology will make you a lot of money in affiliate marketing. It’s a skill that is transferrable to just about any niche, and indeed any industry.
I want to take a look at why this type of copy is so effective, the elements of persuasion that it uses, and how you can recycle it over and over again.
Let’s start by dissecting the example above. Look at those first 3 rules:
Something that immediately stands out to me is the authoritarian tone of writing. There’s absolutely no ambiguity about who is calling the shots here.
The reader is being told in no uncertain terms that he is dispensable. And yet the reality of the relationship between merchant and reader couldn’t be any more different.
The first rule states that you might find a neighbour or friend on their dating site, but that you shouldn’t publicize it. Well, obviously, nobody is going to be that stupid.
The real play here is for a ‘secret society’ vibe. Curiosity catches the cat.
What about being told that it’s your responsibility to protect yourself from STDs? Or that you should always wear a condom?
This rule primes the reader to believe that sex is a distinct possibility. In an adult world littered with creampies, gangbangs and porn fantasies, the mention of STDs and condoms is a slap back down to earth.
It is a trade-off with a concession – a classic sales technique.
“Yes, you are going to get a lot of sex when you join this site. And yes the women are going to be gagging for it. But I can’t let you pass until you promise that you’ll wear a condom.”
Well, of course he’s going to oblige. He’s already got his pants down at the thought. But you’ve made him jump through a hoop.
By qualifying a user with rules and requirements, you build a sense of exclusivity. He ignores the important part (...that he’s probably not going to get laid tonight.)
Do you remember those scratchcards that would land on your doormat seemingly every weekend in the 90s? Just scratch off 3 matching symbols and you’ve won! Give us a call (on a line charging £1.50/minute) and claim your prize. Well sure enough, you’d win every time. I can’t remember a single time where I didn’t find 3 matching symbols.
An hour and one bloody long phone call later, you’re scratching your head and wondering why you just splurged £35 on a holiday voucher worth bugger all.
This is rules psychology at its finest.
You’re told how to win, and you don’t stop to think about how special winning actually is, especially in the context of the offer.
People are easily distracted and easily incentivized by a few steps of lazy thinking.
What about the 3rd rule on our page?
This is ironic because many affiliates use images of porn stars and prostitutes to draw clicks to their landing pages. What you’re seeing is just classic reverse psychology. We know that these men aren’t looking for prostitutes or porn stars. Their grounding in reality (and self-esteem) requires that the women be ‘normal’ for them to feel as if they have a chance.
The unsuspecting reader is primed to think that jackasses treating the women like crap have invaded Site X. He knows he can behave himself for long enough if it means getting a shag. He starts to feel more qualified for the offer, even though the landing page is worded in such a way that he thinks it’s trying to disqualify him.
And here we reach an important concept that defines every successful rules based landing page.
Give the user the impression that you’re trying to disqualify him or push him away, when in actuality you are qualifying him and luring him in.
I can’t think of a better example of this strategy being executed than the recruitment methods used by MLM companies, and those shilling ‘business opportunities’.
Go and search through Clickbank for Work From Home opportunities. You will find dozens and dozens of attempts to dissuade interested customers. You’ll find copy like:
- “To make a full-time living with our program, you must be prepared to spend at least an hour a day working.”
- “An initial investment of at least $99.95 will be required before you can start earning steady, passive income.”
- “Most people are impatient and give up. Only apply if you are serious about making money online.”
- “This is not a passive business. You get out what you are willing to put in. But if you follow our exact steps, you will be successful!”
Well-written rules will create an illusion of ‘exclusive opportunity’ that is shared by 98% of the eyeballs that read them. That’s the key to their success.
Let’s take a look at the second part of this Rules LP:
Here you can see some of my all-time favourite selling techniques in their gory detail.
No sooner is the reader told that he might not be able to actually access the service (and that he’s behind many others in the queue), he’s confronted with a small window of opportunity.
7 minutes to act now and register or forever hold his peace. Well, 7 minutes or a long wait until December.
The “please check back in December” line is inspired by a famous infomercial that blew sales through the roof by changing one simple line; from “operators are waiting to take your call” to “if operators are busy, please try again”
Of course, the operators were never too busy to take that call. And so the cash registers kept ca-chinging.
The whole purpose of your Rules LP is to build tension and expectation, and then hit the reader square in the chops with a scarcity wrapped invitation.
By this point, he should be putty in your hands.
Suitable For Any Niche
One of the great things about rules psychology is that it works in any niche.
In fact, you’ve probably already seen it a 1000 times.
Even the crudest flogs of yesteryear could be passed off as extensions of the rules ploy. Why did readers flock to those fake blogs? Was it to hear John Doe rattle off his story about the latest muscle-building craze? Was it to share in his joy that he dropped 6 stone?
No, they flocked to learn a) whether a product is effective and b) how it was used in such a way that it became effective.
You could argue that the most persuasive element of the flog is not “a magic weight loss product has fallen out of the sky and it could be mine”.
It’s the story of how consumers, just like them, have used that product in their daily lives to make a desirable change.
Sure enough, the rules are right there on every flog. They are most commonly disguised as a Step 1 and a Step 2.
Step 1: Take one pill of Product X after breakfast.
Step 2: Take one pill of Product Y after dinner.
Repeat for at least a month. Hurry while stocks last!
A deadly effective chain of events has been set in motion.
- The story of somebody else’s weight loss success builds tension, suspense and desire.
- The rule qualifier, “Can I motivate myself to take one pill after breakfast and one after dinner?” elicits an obvious response.
- The scarcity of an offer that might not be here in 7 minutes provides the final push towards the conversion.
This leaves us with a simple formula:
Large Reward, Easy Steps, High Conversions!
If you combine a large reward with a series of easy but deadly serious steps, you will blast readers over the conversion line. They just can’t help themselves.
No matter what niche, no matter what offer.
Rules psychology is a tactic that sells.
Learn to use it effectively and your landing pages will gain a serious oomph factor.
Your wallet will thank you too.
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The full Premium Posts Volume X is available now. Full details available here. STM members get 20% off for being awesome with coupon STM20.
nice one, just ordered.
Awesome, just picked up a copy. Thanks Finch!
what happened to volumes 8 & 9? last volume i purchased was 7, and that is the latest one for sale on your site besides this new one.
are they missing or does it just jump from volume 7 to 10?
Originally Posted by gts6
Nice! I just snagged a copy, and am digging in. I enjoyed reading Finch's survival guide from amazon. Always brings a funny & super informative read.
This might explain the slow post action tonight.
Originally Posted by andyvon
Cool just about to buy it enjoyed reading all past books
Moving at end of the month so internet be down for a bit need so collecting so reading material
Originally Posted by Finch
Thanks man, I've just bought your vol. X. The info socts every penny for sure!
Cheers guys. Hope you enjoyed pillaging Wilma.
Such a good post and a lot of this can be applied to other campaigns!
awesome stuff! just grabbed a copy...
Indeed, this ebook explains a lot of aspects and can be applied to other verticals and traffic sources besides xxx.
Loved the book Finch, got a few chapters to go but especially happy about the Juicyads part!
That was a really great read. Thanks. 
Just real quick want to say that I bought Finch's book and loved it. This thing was packed with amazing information. The rules lander stuff is just the beginning. He has really opened up my mind to the tremendous volume of possible angles and landing page designs possible in this marketplace and shown me how creativity within this rules lander makes for an amazing amount of money if done properly.
Right now I'm making back more than the money I paid Finch for this guide every day with just one of the campaigns I set up...ZERO OPTIMIZATION!
Thanks Finch. Do let us know if you get any other bonus volumes added to your collection :-)
Originally Posted by cataclysm1987
I do indeed have a few more guides on adult lined up.
There'll be some posted on STM in the next couple of weeks.
couldn't imagine the rules i wrote on my landing page would become so widespread, wish i could have licensed it or something.
Great post Finch as always.
I often find there's 2 kinds of people that are successful in this business.
1. Very techie puzzle solvers that are good to figuring out bugs in systems and bidding algorithms
2. Copy writers. Copy writing is really the key to success in this business if you're not a brilliant tech/puzzle solver.
Amazing stuff I'm going to grab a copy of the book and make sure the A4D AM staff reads through it. Then we'll do a session training using the material.
I really appreciate it and keep up the good work Finch
Love it. Like everyone wants to belong to a "club" or believe in the illuminati. Lol
It's amazing how wide the Rules net has been thrown. Every adult LP I see uses it... The person who initially came up with it is a genius, but I wonder how much benefit he truly had being first. This would have been scraped and slapped onto every competing campaign within a week of it achieving traction.
Originally Posted by redrummr
Not sure if he banked of it though.
In adult you don't get credited for creativity.
The guys with bigger budgets and deals will just copy and kick you out.
It's defintiely a better being creative in types of traffic that are harder to spy on. Then when you come up with an idea you can actually run with it for longer than 7 days.
Even if people steal your idea, the adult pie is big enough to carry on making money from it.
The concepts that have been working for the last 24 months still work, which says a lot. Admittedly the margins aren't as great, but that's not a problem if you're getting paid weekly with a half decent wad of cash in the bank.
No matter what angle or landing page formula you use, long term success boils down to establishing a key relationship that others can't replicate with ease. That could be a higher quality of leads (higher payouts), direct access to the merchant (higher payouts), or basic economies of scale (more leads = bigger fish = higher payouts).
It doesn't matter if people copy your shit if you do one of these three things well.
For those who can't match the volume or direct access of larger advertisers, your best bet is to develop a higher quality of leads.
The affiliates who ignore all three areas are the first to exit the market, and they are the guys who suffer most when their innovation is trampled on.
Finch, this is exactly what I needed for my "unlock" dating LP.
I am thinking of splitting the rules in 3-4 "I agree / Confirm" steps, instead of just one single button, do you have any experience with that?
Not something I've tested personally.
I've seen a number of cases where conversions have been improved by getting a user to answer Yes continuously, so it could be a winner.
I've been looking at a different approach of blending the Rules LP with Chat style creatives. ie. The user gets to the final "Agree" screen and he's confronted with X matching members who want to chat now.
Hey Finch, when trying new ideas for landers (beyond the easy changes of text/images/color scheme) do you try to design them yourself or explain your idea to a designer and outsource it? And if you do hire a designer and the lander doesn't perform well under initial tests do you scrap it or continue to pay a designer to make tweaks?
Thanks, you are adult king XXXXX
Great post, thanks.
crazy smart post. thank you
We don't do "adult" marketing, but this is really an outstanding post with deep psychological insights that can be applied in MANY other areas.
Indeed, pretty much anything Finch writes is worth reading, regardless of the vertical you are operating in.
Super interesting
Originally Posted by jessevstheworld
I personally believe that spending a good weekend reading through everything Finch has ever written is probably one of the best investments in time any person in this industry can make with their time.
This book, volume X, did he do updated version?
I love the stuff finch writes, and his ethic of not trying to convince you he's some big shot who will guarantee to change your life, nor trying to fleece you of several hundreds or thousands of dollars.
He just tells it how it is, from one experienced affiliate to others.
Originally Posted by dynamicsoul
Originally Posted by cikatomo
Awesome post!
Thanks Finch! But unfortunately images are unavailable. Is it possible to update links or upload them again?
Originally Posted by arbitran
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