Back in 1997 I was sitting in the back bedroom of a 12 x 50 trailer house in Fort Smith, Arkansas, trying to figure out how to write an ad that would actually get noticed.
The problem wasn’t my product. The problem was the NOISE…
Even back then, before social media, before YouTube, before any of the chaos we deal with today, the Internet was already drowning in hype.
Every ad screamed the same things:
- AMAZING opportunity!
- INCREDIBLE income!
- LIFE-CHANGING results!
The words had been used so many times they’d lost all meaning. Nobody believed them anymore. Nobody even READ them anymore.
So I played “Mr Reverso”…
In the direct-response marketing world, that’s called a “pattern-interrupt.” (And it’s pure gold.)
The concept is simple. When everything around you looks and sounds the same, your brain goes on autopilot. You stop seeing it. But the moment something breaks the pattern… your brain snaps back to attention. You can’t help it. It’s hardwired.
That’s what “DUMB” does. It breaks the pattern…
Instead of telling people that my product was amazing, I called it DUMB. Instead of promising get-rich-quick, I talked about collecting $20 bills. The headline was: “This DUMB Little Ad Spits Out $20 Bills.” And it stopped prospects cold.
Where every headline is trying to impress you, the one that DOESN’T… or that pokes fun at itself… stands out like a sore thumb. Prospects read it because it jangles. And they believe it because it doesn’t sound needy or desperate.
That headline started a run that didn’t drop below 50K a month for the next 5 years…
And according to more than a few people who were around back then, it became the most adapted and copied headline on the Internet. Marketers all over the world were swiping the “DUMB Little…” formula and plugging in their own products.
Fast forward to today…
The noise is a thousand times worse. Every guru, every course, every shiny new program is competing for the SAME eyeballs using the SAME old tired adjectives:
- Amazing!
- Incredible!
- Life-changing!
- Push-button.
- Passive income.
- Financial freedom.
Nobody believes them. If fact, nobody even READS them.
“DUMB Little Cash Machine”…
- Not “Amazing Wealth Generator.”
- Not “The Ultimate Online Income System.”
- Not anything that sounds like it was written by someone who’s trying too hard.
Simple. Honest. Self-deprecating. And in a sea of hype it stands out like a sore thumb.
PS – Here are a few food-for-thought examples of the concept:
- While everyone else is shouting “Amazing Opportunity!”… we say “Dumb Little Cash Machine.”
- While everyone else is promising “Unlimited Passive Income!”… we say “It won’t make you rich. But it might make your car payment.”
- While everyone else is showing their Lamborghini… we’re talking about $100 bills hitting your Square account while you’re watching TV.
- While everyone else wants you to “partner with them on their journey”… we just want to sell you something useful for a hundred bucks.
- While everyone else has a “BREAKTHROUGH wealth-generating algorithm”… we have a dumb little webpage.
- While everyone else is hosting a FREE webinar (that’s really a 2-hour sales pitch)… we just told you exactly what this costs up front.
- While everyone else wants you to “unlock your financial potential”… we just want to put $100 in your pocket.
- While everyone else is selling you a course on how to make money… we’re actually MAKING money.
- While everyone else has a 47-step system (with upsells, downsells and order bumps)… we have three steps.
- While everyone else needs you to upgrade to the “Pro Version” to get the good stuff… this IS the good stuff.
- While everyone else is building an empire… we’re running a dumb little cash machine. And sleeping just fine.
- While everyone else is asking you to trust the process… we’re asking you to trust the math. One sale. $100. YOUR account!