Nasty Reader Corrects My Grammar — and There’s a Business Lesson Here, Too

I admit it: I’m a bit of a grammar snob myself.

To my mind, the decline of the use of “whom” is a horrific atrocity.

And I do know a bit about writing: my first major book was published by Columbia University Press, and their standards for formal writing are rather high.

Now to the email I received yesterday, in response to my story about the Nigerian guy who genuinely thought he’d earned $60,000 from me.

I began that story: “A couple years ago….”

NOT ALLOWED!

I was supposed to say, “A couple OF years ago….”

Here’s my correspondent’s commentary on those four words:

“Interesting why writers believe they must dumb themselves down to reach an audience. Is this how you reach ‘conversion’? One would think the paying customers you wish to reach would know the ‘of’ is glaringly missing. Or is your content so simplistic that a lesser educated audience is your goal.”

Now that’s just plain nasty.

Let’s see what we can learn from Miss Sunshine here.

(1) Drop people like this from your list like a hot potato. Normal people don’t write nasty notes about nothing to complete strangers. You’re going to be dealing with this person’s problems forever. You don’t need them. Someone who’s nasty to you was never going to buy anything, and since you are not a registered charity, that should be a decisive factor.

(2) Conversion IS what matters.

One of the best-known advertising slogans in history was “Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should.” Now strictly speaking, that should be “Winston tastes good, AS a cigarette should.” And no doubt our friend was outraged at that, too.

But it sold boatloads of cigarettes for Winston.

You are in the business of making sales. Use formal writing to your heart’s content on your own time. When you’re selling, speak the way that makes the sale.

Try to imagine just how fast our friend would have been fired by Winston for her pedantic corrections.

Good email marketing involves storytelling. Storytelling, in turn, involves speaking colloquially and in a natural, conversational style. It’s quite all right to say “a couple years ago.” Trust me.

And when people like our friend send you a nasty note, you can reply from the deck of a cruise ship while enjoying a fine wine and the cash your email marketing brought in.

Now if you weren’t interested in selling something online (whether a product of your own, an affiliate product, or a service) someday, you wouldn’t be on this site. And I’m telling you: you need to know how to convert visitors into sales.

You need to know when — as in the case of our friend — to ignore the know-it-alls.

I am positively luxuriating in the process of ignoring her.

I know more about formal writing than she does, yet she’s correcting me. As her correction shows, I also know more about selling.

Today’s the last day to grab Conversion Secrets, a free course on making visitors into customers.

Clunky landing page, but highly worthwhile content:

https://www.happyearner.com/conversion

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