I'm writing an eBook about integrating Stripe with Rails | Hacker News Reader

I'm writing an eBook about integrating Stripe with Rails

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11 pointszrail6 comments

Great stuff. Just one thing though - your copy reads 'me, me, me' - people don't care about you, it's better to phrase it in such way that it addresses _their_ problems, and talks about them.

See http://www.kingofcopy.com/copywriting-tips-re-you-vs-me/

Thanks! I'll work on the copy some more tomorrow.

Copy updated. What do you think?

It still reads "... I've written four web applications from scratch using Ruby on Rails. ... I learned new things ..."

It is understandable that you want to convey some sense of authority, i.e. you being the domain expert. I could be wrong but that will not sell it as much as highlighting the PAINS people face (provided they do).

I'd much rather sell them on pains - something that resonates deeply with them - like "Did you ever try to implement Stripe integration and lost sales as a result of some bug?"

If you do your market research diligently, you won't have to 'invent' those pains/scenarios - people will tell you. As Ogilvy said initial customer research is a must for good copywriting.

It is easy to focus on what YOU know, what YOU experienced, how it helped YOU. But to take it a step further you need to talk to other people.

That's what I mean: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/05/18/quick-course-on-e...

Also, refer to Joanna @ Copy Hackers - she's got some great books on the subject.

Hope it helps.

This is extremely helpful, thanks. I actually bought Copy Hackers last year but haven't actually picked it up and read it yet, much to my detriment.

I rewrote the whole first paragraph and added some bullet points. I promise I'll stop bugging you now :)

I think it's much better now, although id't test that with your audience and ask them what they think this page is about, i.e. in their own words.

Don't confuse that with a market test - i.e. even if people say they would buy the book - it's easy to trick yourself into thinking like that.

Selling infoproducts is a big topic, there are so many important things to it, such as building a subscribers base, all te inbound marketing in form of blogging/guest blogging, timing your launch, discounts to loyal subscribers etc.

I'd recommend studying successful use cases such as Nathan Barry, Jim Gay, Brennan Dunn, 30x500 course alumni in general - they seem to have nailed it.

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