Yesterday I sent out an e-mail to my mailing list basically pledging that I would never send them junk. I promised that if they received a suggestions from me via e-mail it would be because I had thoroughly reviewed the product and that I think it is something that people would really gain something out of. I’ve seen a lot of junk out there and even I have been guilty of mailing about products that I may not have really reviewed before I mailed. I’m turning over a new leaf…
Recommended read: 7 Crucial Tips In Guest Blogging Most Bloggers Don’t Pay Attention To
I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about what I feel is wrong in internet marketing. My opinions here may not be shared with a lot of other internet marketers but I’m going to talk about them anyway. Maybe other people hoping to get in to this internet marketing game will read this and decide to avoid some of these things…
Mailing without actually knowing what the product is about.
This is something that really frustrates me and I know it has to frustrate a lot of other people. People do adswaps in which two people both mail out to their lists for the other person. Adswaps can be great and I think it is probably one of the best ways to grow your list when you are first getting started. I would never tell people not to do them and I even still do them from time to time. My issue comes with the fact that most people don’t even look at the product of the person that they are swapping with.
People go in to forums or chat rooms, find people to swap with, and then agree to swap based on list size. I would say that a vast majority of the people who swap don’t thoroughly look in to the product of the person that they are swapping with. This kind of behavior only ruins your relationship with your list. People end up taking the swipe copy that’s given to them, pasting it in to their autoresponder and blindly mailing out to their list.
There is a lot of junk out there. If you blindly arrange swaps, you’re going to end up sending your list a lot of crap and that’s going to reflect badly on you.
On the rare occasion that I arrange an adswap, I thoroughly investigate my swap partners product. I opt-in to their list myself to see what the page looks like after they opt-in. I look at the product that they are offering to make sure that it’s not rehashed junk. If your site looks spammy, refers my subscribers to an affiliate link, or makes it insanely difficult to find the freebie, don’t bother lining up a swap with me. I will deny you.
Recommended read: Everything You Should Know About Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines
This same type of behavior is often seen with affiliate promotions and product launches. List owners need to make a couple extra bucks so they will line up a product promotion without ever checking out the product for themselves. For all they know, they can be sending their subscribers to a total scam or some rehashed PLR product. This will result in lost credibility and probably a lot of refunds.
If you are new to affiliate marketing, buy the product and check it out before promoting it. Once you are a little more established, you can start requiring that you receive a review copy of the product before promoting it to your list.
My only exception to this rule is for new product launches from people that I really trust. The Frank Kerns and Mike Koenigs of the world have proven themselves to put out quality products. These types of promotions, however, are the exception and not the rule.
Sweet Ferrari
This has almost become comical to me. You get people posting pictures of themselves in front of “their ferrari” or sweet new ride. The internet lifestyle has been good to them and now they need to show the world how good their life is by standing in front of their new car.
Does this even work anymore?
I don’t mind the people that go out and buy the awesome car because it was their dream and now they can finally do it but do they really have to pose in front of it on their sales pages? I see someone posing in front of a Ferrari on a sales page and I think “What an asshole”. Half the time, I know for a fact, it’s not even their car!
When you start studying copywriting and the psychology of selling, you learn that you want your customer to relate to you. You want your customer to see that you are just like them. How does posing in front of your rented Ferrari make me relate to you? I know that you’re selling the lifestyle but, in my opinion, the time freedom is a much better selling point than the car that’s most commonly bought by middle aged, recently divorced, men who have some sort of anatomical deficiency.
The car is an ego thing and nothing more. It’s someone saying “look at me, I’m better than everyone else”.
One day I may have a flashy car too so I can’t talk too much crap about them. However, you’ll never see me posing in front of it at night with my shades on for the sake of selling a product.
Selling “how to make money online” products without ever having made money online.
People think that the easiest way to make money online is to create a product about how to make money online. Do people really think that others can’t see through this? I can spot a product from someone who has no idea what they are talking about from a mile away by now. There is so many things wrong with this career path.
First of all, if you do this you are a scammer and a con-artist. This is like someone who has never made a single investment in their life selling investment advice to others. You will quickly be found out about and exposed as a liar and a scammer.
Second of all, these people are completely wrong about how easy the “make money online” niche is. In fact, it’s the most over-saturated niche on the internet. Everyone is out there teaching their systems and customers have thousands of options of what the best formula for them is.
If you’ve made a good income online and you have a system that honestly works then, by all means, teach it… And charge a lot for it. Otherwise, start out in a niche that you may know something about.
I created income-generating blogs for three years before I ever decided to create my first product. When I did create my first product it was about how to setup blogs. After a year of documenting everything I had done to make money online I finally released my product about how I did it.
With that being said, I don’t even know if I would make another product about how I make money. It’s a tough niche and a lot of people just don’t take action. You end up with a lot of people claiming your methods don’t work when, in reality, they never took the action to make it work.
It’s a tough niche to be in and there are a lot of people who have absolutely no business being in it.
I guess that’s enough of a rant for today. I’m sure there’s many more things that I can come up with that really frustrate me about what’s going on in the industry. Please give me your feedback in the comments below. I really appreciate all of the comments.