We can't seem to get enough

From the outset I want to say I am probably going to offend some people in this article. I am simply fed up with the lying and pretending that goes on with marketers online.

And I’m not just referring to the little guys either.

Sure there are plenty of them, but it’s some of the big guys that are the biggest promoters of the bull.

See, before I joined the online scene I had been reading material by people like Jay Abraham, Stephen Covey (self-help), Bryce Courtenay, Michael Hewitt-Gleeson, Allan Pease and Michael E Gerber. Oh and an awesome crew based in Brisbane called The Results Corporation.

My association to the word “marketing” was based on things like testing, research, honest appraisal of the current marketplace, asking questions, utilizing untapped resources, and creative ways of finding people that want what you have to offer.

So now shift to the online arena and everyone seems to think they’re into marketing!

Anyone can and does setup shop as an “expert”. This hasn’t just watered down the (in my mind) established traditional marketing concepts but rather redefined marketing to mean something along the lines of “sell as many products to as many people as possible for as long as you can, with as little effort as possible”.

The internet has created a mad rush of half competent “entrepreneurs” with dollar signs in their eyes and only one aim: To get more followers and/or subscribers that they fleece for cash . The money is in the list, etc etc. So get the list happening asap and start selling them stuff right now regardless of the quality.

As a result I see a few major mistakes being committed over and over again:

1. Outright lying – If every sales page out there is for real then there are thousands of millionaires sharing their “secrets” just because they want to give something back. If they work so damn well, why are they selling a program to me that shows me how to do it?
2. Selling to everyone – The most extreme practice of this is spamming, but at least spam is obvious. The bulk of pretend marketers fit into this category and typically don’t care who you are but only if you have seen their sales page. Which leads me to…
3. Long drawn out sales pages – You know the ones. Three miles of sales copy, loads of really over-ripe testimonials and lots of guarantees with motivating phrases like, “This price will only last today” and “You will not see this offer ever again” blah blah. Sure a lot of these sales pages do work. But does the product work?
4. Over promise, under deliver – Building something up to be “the turnkey solution to all your money worries” should set off alarm bells for any sane person. More like Turkey!
5. More is better – Giving someone a lot of information is less and less being seen as a great thing. But wait… If you buy now I’ll throw in these three other free products you will have to sift through to find the gems. Thanks but no thanks.
6. No follow up – the second you buy a product you get absolutely zero follow-up that makes sure you get full value. Wouldn’t it be a novel idea to use an auto-responder to follow up and spread the program out into digestible pieces instead of to try to sell you the next thing.

Think About it!

As I see it there are six different categories of marketers online:

1. The real deal – These people are the right stuff. These are the astronauts of Marketing that blaze the trail and continually try to teach us that there is no “secret” but rather principles that can be learned. They give out unbelievable value for free and even better value in their products. Some examples? Seth Godin, Anthony Robbins, Frank Kern.
2. Humble learners – Honest people like you (hopefully!) and me that are in the process of understanding and applying the real principles of marketing and selling. They apply themselves in a sequential manner and are constantly open to new information. Hopefully imparted by the first group.
3. The big deceivers – These are the early adopters that managed to get in early enough to build a big enough list that they really can make enough money to make some of the promises they make, but their products are sub-standard and as a result they have to keep bringing them out and pushing them on to you and me. Either that or they are people that stumbled on a quick way to make cash that only lasts on the short-term.
4. The positive self-helper – These people essentially repackage the works of the new-age or self-help crowd (some of which do the same!) in conjunction with some product or service. They rely on the fact that most people are pretty uneducated and think that being positive alone or using “The Secret” is going to suddenly make you buy their stuff. Yes, it’s better to be positive but in most cases these people sell the illusion of transformation instead of a consistent learning process.
5. Lowly pretenders – These people setup shop and will do anything to appear to be successful in order to sell you something. These people may appear to be pros, but reality they are probably having trouble paying for their electricity, or they will be paying off that Porsche for another 10 years.
6. The rank amateur – These people don’t even attempt to hide their lack of understanding and instead of admitting their ignorance they go on as if we can’t tell. Need I say more?

People in the last four on this list are probably well meaning, but at every step you should exercise critical awareness and use it as a chance to observe what works and what does not work in the real world.

Every human has four endowments- self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change.

Stephen Covey

1. Get real with yourself and engage some self-awareness.
2. Admit when you don’t know something – Admission of ignorance is the first step in your education.
3. Tell the truth
4. Share what you do know in a real, caring way
5. Draw on your untapped or unrecognized skills and resources. Write them down and start developing them.
6. Associate with greatness and quality. Have a strong standard for what that means.
7. Don’t settle for less
8. It’s easier to sell something with integrity if you really believe in it. Remove anything that does not make you feel proud.
9. Tell your story honestly.
10. Survey your followers and or subscribers and ask them what their concerns and fears are. Be interested in them and their world.
11. Develop multiple pillars of success. Smart business people know that you need many different ways to attract business and customers.
12. Articulate or at least develop a USP or Unique Sales Proposition. Read more about this here.
13. Develop a mission statement that drives you emotionally to tap into your best. Read more about developing a mission statement.

I’m sure there are more but the underlying shift here is from quick-fix to a principle centered awareness. As long as you have a desire to rush the process and fast-track or control success, the more ineffective you become and the less you are able to respond to the signals and realities of your chosen marketplace. e.g.

• The Rupert Murdochs and Bill Gates of the world that think the internet can be monopolized.
• Journalism that under-utilizes social media
• Musicians that refuse to give any music away online.

So take the time to think clearly and discover the needs and desires of your audience/customers, then engage with them. They will thank you for it!

You are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, power, influence and success. The problem is, you just don’t see them.

Jay Abraham

Even more interesting to me is if you could share some real world experiences that add to the conversation.

To the rise of True Marketing!

Have a look at this email I received recently and tell me if you don’t start feeling special. Click on the image at right to make it larger for a moment.

Don’t worry none of the links go anywhere, they’re screen shots.

It’s tempting isn’t it? You’re itching to click on those links. Well here’s THE crucial bit of advice in this post.

Let the mouse hover over the link. DO NOT CLICK!

If you allow your pointer to simply hover for a few moments, over any link in an email, it will show you the URL or web address that it points to. If that address says something like – http://youidiot.come-on-you-fool/23/455.67.54/ – there is a pit trap just around the corner for you and your favorite browser. The second you click that link you have put yourself at risk for phishing, and spam and SpyWare and all that exciting stuff.

Here’s what the link in this email showed when my mouse hovered over it baring its teeth :

The Lesson : Sometimes spam screams at you as it arrives, and sometimes it poses as a long lost friend.

Here is another scam email that came in a while ago. It didn’t take me long to discover is true intentions, but I was so impressed at the quality and attention to detail that I kept it to show to you.

And again the hovering mouse told me what this email wanted.

You can go ahead and click on it to make it larger. Don’t be afraid.

Be skeptical especially if the email you are receiving it on is one that you never give out to anyone. Its called unsolicited email.

Heres a very important tip:

Use one email only for friends and family, and another for registering on weblogs, posting to forums and general web surfing. Then at least you only have to be cautious with one email address.

Until we chat again, stay warm and fuzzy inside and remember, out there somewhere is a Hallmark E-Card with your email address on it.

Safe Surfing!

UPDATE: I’ve been getting a lot of these ebay fraud emails and thought I would give you a look at what they look like. Again the same principle applies. Let your mouse hover over the links and if you see a string as shown in the screenshot, with no reference to ebay whatsoever then simply delete it!

Hide your PC or Mac from this parasitic spamming strategy and switch to Ninja mode.

On both Macs and PCs it is disabled by default. Here’s how you can turn this protection mechanism on:

Apple Mac OS X

On Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger:

1. Go to System Preferences > Sharing
2. Click the Firewall button
3. Click Advanced
4. Check Enable Stealth Mode

On Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard:

1. Go to System Preferences > Security
2. Click the Firewall button
3. Click Advanced
4. Check Enable Stealth Mode
5. For additional protection you can also turn on the firewall (I recommend the: Set access for specific services and applications option.)

Windows PCs

On Windows XP:

1. Go to Control Panel > Windows Firewall
2. Click the Advanced tab
3. Next to ICMP click Settings
4. Uncheck the first option “Allow incoming echo request”

On Windows Vista:

You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

To find ICMP and logging settings, open Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.

1. Click to open Administrative Tools.* If you are prompted for an
   administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide
   confirmation.
2. Double-click Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.

To change logging settings:

1. Under Public Profile, click Windows Firewall Properties.
2. Click the tab for the profile that you want to change.
3. Under Logging, click Customize.
4. In the dialog box that appears, change the settings you want to
   change, and then click OK.

You can specify ICMP settings by creating inbound or outbound rules using
the ICMPv4 or ICMPv6 protocol.

This will set both systems to drop any incoming ping request and effectively hide your computer from this type of spamming strategy.