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Talk Back! Copyriting Maven Critiques Cost How Much In Donation?

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I’ve got something a little different this week to submit for discussion.

Here’s the skinny: At Copyblogger, you will see a post from Roberta Rosenberg, the “Copywriting Maven” at MGP Direct, Inc.  It’s the first in a series - the details of which you can find here at her “Landing Page Makeover Page” - where she takes submitted sites and gives a 10 point critique. First up - SEOMoz’s premium membership landing page.

I actually think she’s spot-on with her comments (although I am the only person in the known universe, apparently, who likes reverse type, but that’s just me). It’s a really helpful post for anyone to read if you’re creating or revising a landing page. What I want to talk about instead is the “catch”- which is wonderfully creative, and I feel like Scrooge even bringing it up, but something about it tweaked me. By that I don’t mean “pissed me off” or “got my dander up” at all. I mean - it poked at me. It caught my attention and then some. Bottom line: I don’t know how I feel about it! And I’d like y’all’s input.

Here’s the deal with the makeover: you have two steps to take to get in the door. One - sign up, and thereby agree to share the critique with the world via Copyblogger. Fair enough. Two - this is the part that tweaked - you must donate to Heifer International an amount equal to whatever it is your landing page is trying to sell. Selling $299 premium memberships, like SEOMoz? Donate $299. “Selling” chapter 13 services, as I sort of do here? What - I’d have to donate $2500? (That’s my total starting fee.)

While I think Heifer is a great cause - and I donate regularly - it’s that “amount equal to what you’re selling” thing that’s getting me. On one level, you could argue that, at a minimum, that’s what the critique is worth to the page owner. OK, I get that. But on another level, how is the same service worth such a drastically different price to various owners? How can it be $300 for Rand and $2500 for me? We don’t normally price services like that (with exceptions, of course) - based on the benefit to the person receiving. Value, instead, is generally consistently measured across recipient demographics. I don’t charge a person who’s REALLY in debt more money to file bankruptcy.

Now, this isn’t really a charge, I get that. It’s a donation - and to a very worthy cause. So, ergo - my dilemma. I don’t know how to feel about this. So, I’m asking you guys - how do you feel about the way this is set up?

(As a sidebar, Roberta notes that gifts to Heifer are tax-deductible, and says your donation in this program “may” be tax-deductible too. The operative word is “may.” I have some lawyerly questions as to whether the IRS would deem this, rather, payment for services rendered to Roberta - and generally, you can direct payment for services rendered to be made to a third party. I don’t know for sure - I am definitively NOT a tax lawyer, have no wish to be, and don’t even play one on TV or in the blogosphere.)

Talk back!

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3 Responses to “Talk Back! Copyriting Maven Critiques Cost How Much In Donation?”

  1. Roberta Rosenberg Says:

    Hi, thanks for the touch back! As far as the donation format, I really struggled with what would be fair as far as the donation is concerned. A small entrepreneur selling a $19.95 ebook vs a company selling a $300 subscription - should the value of the critique be the same?

    Yes, if I were actually receiving payment for services rendered. But since I preferred to set-up the payment as a donation to a favorite cause, I liked the sliding scale approach. At least for now.

    It’s a new “program” and will certainly evolve over time. I do appreciate the thoughtful input. Thank you!

  2. Sheryl Sisk Says:

    Thanks for popping over and commenting, Roberta! I’m glad you did.

    I do get where you’re coming from, and hence the dilemma (I mean, if I totally disagreed with you, I’d just say so and there’d be no value in continuing the conversation.)
    So I’m glad we get this chance to hear your thinking on it. And maybe there’s a difference between SEO services and lawyering, for example. I guess you could argue that it’s more difficult to get people to spend $2500 than to spend $300, hence, a different price for services designed to accomplish that.

    Then again … well, we could go on … but it’s more a philosophical disagreement than anything else, I think - and as I said, I’m not entirely sure I do disagree. Just piqued my “talk-back” interest, let’s say.

    Thanks for stopping by!

  3. Brian Clark Says:

    Sheryl, as you may know, I’m a former attorney and now an entrepreneur who knows a little about copywriting.

    As an attorney, you’re familiar with the concept of value billing, right? Where an attorney charges not by the hour, but by how much the advice is actually worth to the client?

    OK, let’s take that concept and apply it to copywriting. The goal of revised and improved copy is to sell more than the old copy. So, it you’re selling a $300 subscription, and you sell 2 more a month than you would have before, you’ve recouped the fee in half a month and everything going forward is pure profit, right?

    Now, substitute your $2,500 for Rand’s $300. Same analysis, higher price point.

    Makes sense, right?


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