Internet Marketing – Shady business?
Thursday, April 15th, 2010Let me start off by telling you that I am not going to try and sell you anything in this post. Not only am I not trying to sell you anything, I am going to try to teach you to keep your plastic in your wallet, and your wallet in your pocket. The IM business is in a terrible state, and making an honest buck online has never been harder (I’ll clarify, making the buck isn’t harder, it’s easier than ever, but making the honest buck is harder). It seems that everyone and their dogs are trying to turn their prospective customers upside down, shaking for their last nickels, without the customer ever having time to reflect on what it is they’re being sold.
I’ve kept my nose out of IM for a while now, turning a blind eye to the promotions that hit my email inbox. I’ve been working in other fields, freelancing, dropshipping and even some offline work. I needed the time off. I couldn’t see another mention of the words “marketing”, “affiliate” and “paypal”. The word “continuity” combined with “micro”, “forced” and “hidden” made my eyes bleed and my brain vomit. Emails with subject lines such as “Your OWN Software products”, “Your 5 figure/month business”, “Your OWN membership site in minutes”, “All profit, NO work” made me want to kill someone. Seeing this crap fill up my inbox made me realise this business made me sick, not rich. I wanted to chop off the fingers that typed these messages and feed it to the people behind it. It feels like I’ve already seen it all. A new email about a new product, yet I recognize it and instantly know what it’s about. I already have it, even if the exact wording isn’t the same and they’ve added a chapter about facebook and changed the authors name.
People I have looked up to, people I have admired, people I have considered nice guys despite their Guru Status, have been exposed as lying assholes and douchebags. Some promote fraudulent products created by convicted internet scam artists, and others promote convicted sexual predators. It has turned out that some people count their loans as income in their sales letters, and some even consider their debts as income when they write a sales letter. Others refuse to honor their refund-guarantees when they cancel events, and some even try to squeeze more money out of the disgruntled customers only wanting their refunds. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it turns out that a prominent self help guru (promoted by some IM gurus – the gurus all love eachother) has been running what could easily be considered as death camps.
You are only as good as those you surround yourself with. Do you really want to give your money to these con artists and their convicted friends? Do you want your money to finance death camps?
The IM business could easily be the best business in the world, open for everyone who’s prepared to work. I hope somehow, one of these days, it will revert to that. The shady elements just need to kill eachother off. Let’s hope it happens soon.
I am going to live up to promises made in the past, and I am going to deliver the goods. I just can’t give an exact time frame. During 2010 definitely. In the mean time, what can I do for you? What tools are you missing to become the star you want to be?
Tell me and we’ll have a look at it 
