Are you annoying your customers with "One Time Offers?"

I just spent a large amount of time reading a pitch page for what sounds like a great ebook product from an Internet marketer that I actually trusted; and I decided to buy their ebook. I went through the purchase process, gave them my credit card number and eagerly waited for download instructions.

To my dismay up pops another lengthy pitch page. I begin to read it because I am looking for download instructions. Of course this page turns out to be another huge investment in reading time and I am encouraged to read the entire page and warned that I will never see this page again and I may never find this offer at this low price with these bonus products again.

Meanwhile I am thinking, “Where is the product I just bought and why is this annoying page in my face?” This is known as the (new and annoying) “One Time Offer.”

I did read most of the page. After all, I was told that I would never see that page again. Really? I wondered. The one time offer sounded good of course. They wanted more of my money; (of course) but I wasn’t quite ready to spend more money at this time. What I wanted right now, this minute, was the ebook product I had just paid for. They had gotten me all worked up about how great it was and I was anxious to see it. (Instant download they had said.) Still, this was a one time offer. If I passed it up, I thought, I may never have the opportunity to get this again. I wondered (some more) about the reasoning for that.

I was undecided and annoyed that I did not yet have the original product I had just paid for, and now I was expected to read another ten mile long pitch page and make another decision to spend more money. I was thinking that I would have liked to at least looked at the book I had just bought and evaluated it before I bought another one from this same person, bonuses or not. Besides, I was exhausted from reading two endless pitch pages.

I decided not to purchase the one time offer stuff. I can’t even remember what it was. Oh well, as they said, I’ll never see it again, so I guess I can live without it.

Later, I thought about what they had put me through and I did not like it. I have always had a standing personal policy not to succumb to high pressure “buy-it-now-or-else” sales tactics in my daily (non-Internet) life, so how did I get sucked into almost falling for that on the Internet? Truth be told, I don’t actually know how new this “one time offer” marketing idea is to the Internet, but it was the first time I had seen one but what I do know is that this is very annoying. I will do whatever I can to put a stop to it. Will it make money? Probably, but personally I would never do that to my paying customers.

These are tactics that utilize the fear-based decision making mentality that I have always tried to recognize and avoid in my own life. Fear based decision making is so rampant and common in most people’s lives that sometimes they don’t even realize they are engaging in it. Apparently that includes me when I am face to face with an expensive well written ten mile long “one time offer” pitch page.

Never again.

Therefore I would like to say to all you master Internet marketers out there who would brag about how much money you spent hiring someone to write the content of your “one time offer” page, I’m not interested in it, especially after I purchased your product. I would have liked you a lot better if it had been a “Thank you for your order!” page. If I like your products I will come back to you for more, but not if I feel like you are going to continue to use these kinds of annoying high pressure cheesy fear based tactics.