Create Fiendish Angles with the 7 Deadly Sins (29)
Hey guys. This is a free bonus post from my latest round of Premium Posts, "Confessions from Your Competition". If you like it, check out the volume!
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Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, gluttony. There’s a sinner in us all.
With good marketing, we can bring that sinner to the surface in those that we hope to seduce with our sleazy CPA offers.
It may sound like a sordid journey, and it usually is. But understanding the 7 Deadly Sins equips us with all the tools we need to psychologically shatter our targets and seal even the most reluctant of conversions.
I hope that if the previous Volumes of Premium Posts have taught you anything, it’s that creating effective angles is paramount to your success.
By plugging in your creative excellence, you can skip past the majority of affiliates who will continue to struggle for scratchy profits with the same tired takes on their offers.
Banner blindness, brand blindness and general “Sick of being sold the same bullshit” blindness has made it absolutely crucial that you come up with innovative hooks to promote your offers.
The problem, of course, is that creativity is not a switch that can be turned on and off. Many affiliates struggle to come up with seductive new angles for campaigns. They get drawn in to the same shit as the rest of the crowd. Where do you find the bursts of creativity to concoct fiendish angles that set your campaigns apart?
Well, that’s what this post is about.
Nearly all of my campaigns start with a blank whiteboard and seven brainstorming headings.
Yep, you guessed it.
Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, gluttony.
The 7 Deadly Sins, besides accounting for one of my favourite movies of all time, are great signposts for the seven roads you can take in searching for campaign angles.
They represent human fallacies that are inexplicably tied with consumerism - and every last pipedream that any affiliate marketer ever set out to sell.
By looking at the 7 Deadly Sins individually, we can guide our imagination in to new shady corners (some might say depths).
We can uncover hidden campaign angles.
When I brainstorm a new campaign, I check out my list of sins and create an angle for each sinner. That’s exactly what I did on FinchSells.com a few months ago when I posted this dating example.
Here’s what I came up with:

Sloth Sinner
Many singles have legitimate reasons for not meeting enough members of the opposite sex. Socially accepted reason #1 is “Oh, I never get time to socialise outside work.” For these users, frank and to the point is the way. A sloth responds to instant results.
Greed Sinner
Dating sites give keyboard charmers the opportunity to test- drive seduction techniques on large samples of women. No keyboard charmer can resist the chance to message as many women as his Sent box can handle, even when he’s found one he likes.
Online dating to a man, is what Pick ‘n’ Mix was to Finch as a child.
Envy Sinner
Envy is a natural by-product of dating sites where the women are severely outnumbered by guys actively messaging them. A lot of men are competing with each other, and as we all know, men don’t compete with each other particularly well.
Pride Sinner
Pride is the most dangerous sin of all, and it goes hand in hand with bitterness – one of my favourite cards to play when advertising a dating site. If a man’s pride is at stake, persuasion is simply a case of channelling the raw inevitable. It’s perfect for recent divorcees. The keyword being ‘recent’.
Wrath Sinner
Dating sites can be infuriating for Alpha Males who aren’t used to dealing with women who have the time and space to say “No!” to their relentless advances.
Gluttony Sinner
Possibly overkill. I couldn’t think of any other angle for gluttony.
I missed out lust for obvious reasons. The examples above are from Plentyoffish.
Plentyoffish users do not need to be sold an illicit sexual appetite. If anything, the guys should be offered sedatives. There are a lot of boners going uncherished on POF as we speak. Take some pity for Christ’s sake.

You may also have guessed that I have yet to split test the gluttony ad in to my rotation. Try as I might, I just can’t seem to get the beach whale angle approved.
Something about too much skin, perhaps?
In all seriousness, yes, some of these ads are laughable. A couple of them in particular are more likely to offend and have me banished from the platform than result in a long term profit.
That doesn’t matter.
What you should always be doing in brainstorming mode is opening your ideas up to ridicule and probing at every available market. The 7 Sins are perfect for this purpose. They encourage both the sublime and the ridiculous from your imagination. Where those extremes collide, profitability is waiting for you.
Let’s take a look at another example.
I’ll brainstorm some headline / CTA combinations for an anti- ageing skincare product. See if you can guess which sinner I’m targeting.


So, we have our 7 skincare ads, each based off a deadly sin. Most of them are pretty obvious, right?
Example 1 - “Reverse 20 Years of Skincare Damage Forever”
Our first example is greed. The ad is appealing to ‘regain youthful skin and keep it forever’. It’s designed for the woman who is greedy for her youth. She doesn’t want to let it go. She wants to look young forever.
Greed isn’t the most obvious sin for a skincare ad, but it can be very effective for niches like business opportunities and adult dating. Alongside lust, greed is the best sin for your sleazy dating sites like Local Slags and Just Hookup. A lot of the guys on these sites aren’t happy with their sex lives. They want more, more, more. Ads that exploit this streak of greed are usually very effective.
Example 2 - “Radiant Firm Skin in Your Sleep”
Here we have the resident sloth. Consumerism has turned a once active society in to a nation of lazy, self-indulgent, ‘magic- button’ chasers.
Everybody wants to look beautiful and feel beautiful, but not many people are willing to put in the time and effort to achieve it by what we might consider natural means.
Ads that cut in to this lazy psyche, promising fantastic results with the minimal injection of energy are right up the sloth’s alley. They are ads that are once again prevalent in any kind of bizopp niche, along with weight loss, skincare... and many others.
It’s easy to write ads for the sloth. Just make sure they’re not so complicated that he can’t be arsed to read them.
Example 3 – “Housewife, 52, Reveals Miracle Skin Secret”
This ad is pushing the envy button. It taps in to the marketing technique used by practically every glossy celeb mag on the planet.
The headline is designed to exploit our aspirations with the jealousy of somebody else conquering a problem with much greater ease than we have managed ourselves. It’s no surprise
that the envy sin is extremely popular in flogs and fake news articles.
Example 4 – “Luscious Skin He Can’t Stop Kissing”
One of the weaker ads of the bunch, in my opinion, but still effective in certain market conditions – you’re looking at the lust sin in action.
Through my experience, women tend to buy skincare products to boost their own esteem – not to impress guys. This type of headline is more effective when you know you are advertising to naïve and slightly insecure demographics – particularly the younger female groups.
If you were a really cynical bastard, you could pop the ads over forums where young women go to seek advice and reassurance about their bodies.
Lust is another sin that works fiendishly well on bizopps. Wealth is often a substitute desire for fixing loneliness and discontent. If you sell the dream of beautiful women throwing themselves at the freshly minted millionaire, it works much better than money on its own.
Example 5 – “Indulge in Gorgeous Wrinkle-Free Skin”
Obviously, we’re talking about gluttony here. When I think of gluttony, I think of LA housewife overindulgence. I think of the women who’ll spend their days in tanning salons and with beauty therapists, desperately clawing at the remnants of their youth.
It’s not always the most effective sin, but it works like a charm on the affluent crowd.
We sometimes assume that words like “cheap” and “free” are eye catchers across all demographics. But when you’re advertising to the affluent classes, such words can actually be a turn-off. These people don’t want to meddle with the proletarians of society. They want their luxury, and they’re happy to pay.
Notice how I’ve used two luxury verbs – indulge and treat. If your target market is rich, your ads need to respond with wording that oozes class and fine living.
(Continued...)
Example 6 – “Your Skin is Ageing Because of YOU”
Pride is an interesting sin to work with. It can be supremely powerful in dating ads where part of what we’re looking for is social acceptance, a pull far greater than any actual date.
With this ad, we’re using a technique where the problem is relayed as self-inflicted. It can go down in one of two ways: as a much needed slap in the face and an excellent sales invigorator, or like the Titanic (in half the time).
Much will depend on your target market. Culture makes a huge difference with ads related to pride. Users in some countries will dismiss this ad without a second look. And yet if you mention the user’s pride in Asian countries, they will respond fiercely and positively to any suggestion that they are letting themselves down.
I assume that this is a combination of pride being such a cornerstone of Eastern life, and ads tending to be less aggressive in the region.
You have to be careful when you’re scrutinizing a faceless audience, and you should never submit these kinds of ads to Facebook (they will ban your shit pronto, Sherlock).
Exploit pride carefully in the right foreign markets and you will make a lot of money.
Example 7 – “Declare War on Wrinkles”
Finally, we have a classic example of wrath. Just look at the language. Declare War on Wrinkles! Beat Ageing Skin!
The language and the use of red text are designed to tap in to the wrath mindset. These users are angry, bitter, and ready to take major action in their quest to put things right.
It goes without saying that wrath ads work best on the Alpha- charged male demographic, especially younger types. They are good for muscle building banners, or ‘get back at your ex’ type dating ads.
I’ve also seen them work surprisingly well on offers related to criminal background checks. Interesting gimmick. I’m sure you can have fun with it. Wrath ads tend to use language that is the exact opposite of gluttony ads. The language is cold and harsh, like the mindset of the users you will be targeting.
Making Sins a Part of Your Brainstorming
As you can see from our examples above, the introduction of the 7 Deadly Sins is a great way to rapidly assault an offer from multiple clashing perspectives.
Whenever I’m brainstorming angles for a campaign, I will use the sins as my baseline. If nothing else, they ensure that I end up with a couple of angles that haven’t been beaten to death by my competition.
It’s usually these fresh angles that will jump to the front of my queue of creatives to test.
Do they always work?
This is affiliate marketing. Nothing always works.
But I would say that it’s better to be spectacularly wrong on a monumental scale than wrong by the virtue of copying somebody else’s ideas and living off scraps.
Creativity is one of the best traits you can have in this industry. Make sure you’re using yours.
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Post originally taken from Premium Posts Volume 6, “Confessions From Your Competition”
Wow, this is seriously mind blowing! Finch you have shared us some really serious stuff!
Thanks!
Can't wait to read this!
Thank you Finch, you're the man
Like a sir!
Damn you! Lol - cant resist to buy and read!
Originally Posted by Finch
Good stuff man. You really do know how to market, you made me buy volume 6, damn you 
All hail Finch. Once again a Finch post more enlightening than my entire time spent at college. Thanks man.
Originally Posted by dario
A gold plated sculpture of my balls would do.
Cheers guys. Enjoy the volume, there won't be another one for a good few months!
Originally Posted by Finch
Just hook me up if you come around Milan, but you bring the gold ahahah
^^^ and his balls, presumably..? 
Originally Posted by dario
Just hook me up if you come around Milan, but you bring the gold ahahah
Originally Posted by Finch
but yes, she's both great at making sculptures and at handling balls of all kind.. aahahah
THanks bro!
Great post Finch. It got me thinking about coming up with different angles. Before I only could come up with the same generic crap everyone else uses. This guideline makes coming up with angles more fun. I'm coming up with some ridiculous stuff, but it makes things more fun. Never know what might work.
this is the kind of post that makes the subscription worthwhile. don't miss what just happened. I'll be testing this theory on my current campaigns that are a bit stale. I'm real curious to see how they do.
Man, just reading the title turned on a lightbulb in my head.
This is awesome!
Guess I know what I'm going to be reading tonight...
Hey, don't forget about the Life Force 8 stuff too. Between these two posts, there's ammo for tons of angles in just about any vertical.
Yep. Life force 8 is great.
Also - consider the Swiss Army Knife method from Perry Marshall I summarised in this post: http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...ll=1#post28781
That's quite the title tagline used for this post, lol. I was wondering how you were going to use "fiendish"
Thanks Finch! Lots of work put into that OP, and how elegantly worded haha
Always awesome to read these posts. Skincare has been a tough nut to crack for me and I'm still working on it. Any useful advice anyone can offer would be amazing! PM me!
Bumping this gem 
, forgot about it
Outrageously good post Finch. I started reading Finchsells about a year ago, and just signed up to STM this week. I didnt know you (along with the famous Mr Green) were both on here. Im clearly in the right place. Thanks again.
This is GOLD! Insanely good materials here!
Thanks Finch!
Thanks for the sharing. Insightful! Great really.
wow, great post! Thanks Finch.
Great post, Finch. Your Complete Guide is pure gold, too. Highly recommend to my fellow newbies.
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