How Giving Away an E-book Called Murder Your Job Nearly Killed My Website?

Giving away an e-book by Fabian Tan, called "Murder Your Job" proved deadly for my list-building efforts. For the three or four weeks that I tested this title, only one person joined my list. Apparently, many of my site visitors were offended by the title, as if news headlines are not bloody enough. Obviously they were not fans of "Murder She Wrote."

Internet marketers warn you to test everything. If you are trying to build a list or get people to sign up for your newsletter, your incentive had better be something people want badly enough to give up their personal information, says Dr. Flint McGlaughlin at Marketing Experiments.

When I picked this title as an incentive, I thought it might appeal to the men my website hoped to reach -- you know the ones who run a plumbing, contracting or handyman business from a van or a pickup truck. Instead I got a lesson in the folly of trying to be all things to all people.

The pickup truck guys still have not found my website. And the nice women I referred to my site were probably totally turned off by the reference to murder and the blood-red cover.

The irony is that the e-book makes no reference inside to murder and mayhem. Tan describes his report as "your step-by-step personal blueprint to generating an honest Internet income for the long-term." I was taken with his approach. He said his goal was to end the confusion internet "newbies" face with "the unrelenting maze of courses, e-books and other assorted sources available as soon as you log in!"

Who is right? Who is wrong? And who is in it just to make a quick buck from the inexperienced? Tan asks, as he explains the thesis for his 45-page report. But instead of clearing the air for my site visitors, the title and cover added to the confusion.

Murder Your Job is one of a series of e-book titles that alluded to murder mysteries or spy themes to grab attention. Others have included Google Assassin and Day Job Killer. Apparently, titles like these have run their course -- new e-books are avoiding the allusions to crime, perhaps because the marketers' reputations have been slaughtered in the process.

The lesson is that testing is important. It is not always easy to know how your audience will respond, but you can learn from your mistakes.