Bjorn Says

Solid IM business, is it possible?

I was checking my email and found a mail from Mike Young, well known and respected Internet Lawyer amongst other things. While most mails that arrive are thrown in the spam-jar, a mail from Mike is generally something I want to read. Sure, there’s the occasional promotion-mail (a rare occurance) but mostly they tend to be interesting comments on business, and spot-on reflections about IM. Mikes mail is also posted on his blog, right here: Mike Young – 7 Internet Biz Trends for 2011 you should know about. I suggest you read it. It might open your eyes, and I’m going to add some thoughts of my own in regards to some of the things Mike mentions.

I found an old, retired harddrive the other day. It’s not broken or anything, it’s just old. I retired the drive in 2006, and I’ve scribbled “IM stuff” on it. There’s 120gb or something worth of IM material (books, courses, software, scripts, you name it) purchased and collected between 2000 and 2006 on it. If I were to connect it and go through the stuff on it, how much would you be willing to bet that a lot of the things I bought back then that was considered good practice in IM, would be frowned upon today and in some cases might even be considered illegal in some countries?

Would you bet against me if I said that some of the stuff from back then is being re-used (if somewhat reworded) in products released over the last 1-2 years?

Forcing people to sign up for a mailing list before allowing them to download a product they’ve just purchased and paid in full, stuffing their browsers with 3rd part cookies on the sales page, putting up popups that are virtually unclosable if a signup form is not filled in, hidden continuity, forced continuity, content scrapers and spinners, hiding adsense behind menus to get the click, ads that are placed on top of content … We all know that all of the things I mentioned are not just shady, they’re down right unethical. Yet it is what was being taught as solid IM tactics. And in some cases, still is.

How long do you think a brick and mortar company would stay open if they employed these tactics in the offline world? How long do you think some reputable online companies such as Amazon, eBay, Buy.com would stay in business if they employed these same tactics?

But in the IM business, since everybody’s a marketer selling to other marketers, these were and in some cases still are, acceptable methods of doing business.

Now, back to Mikes post … Mike lists among others, the following points as the important internet business trends for 2011 (I’m only listing the bullets I wish to add my own thoughts to):

1. The live seminar trend has seen its peak, and they are becoming increasingly unprofitable. 2011 will see this trend die.

Thankfully. I’m not saying seminars are bullshit, seminars can be kick-ass too, but I don’t see how they are relevant in the IM business. I’ve been to seminars on various different subjects that have interested me, on everything from advertising, new technology and programming, to “talking to cats”, “the spirit world” and horticulture. Some have been free (when it’s free, you know you’re going to be pitched) and some I’ve had to pay for (everything from $10 to $250).

IM seminars, however, are a completely different beast. You pay $2000 (sometimes more, seldom less) to listen to some jack-off pitching his new $5000 membership, and afterwards you get to mingle with 200 IM-nerds all trying to pitch their own stuff.

No, thank you. I will not go. Happy to see this trend go, I hope Mike is right.

2. People are finding out that a large follower list on Twitter and thousands of friends on facebook isn’t pulling in the cash on autopilot as previously promised.

I agree. The first facebook-related product I purchased promised a fortune if following the steps. All it really showed you was how to set up an account, and then vaguely explaining that you could advertise your crap with facebook social ads. Oh. Really?

During 2010 I’ve seen a lot of products pushing really unethical methods of making money on Facebook with CPA advertising programs, forcing people to complete various surveys, downloading spyware, sending obtrusive facebook mail and invites, to see what you have on the fanpage. Some products actually recommended that you did not put up any content, but instead put your energy on making more of these scam fan-pages.

All of the twitter-products I’ve seen have been total bullcrap as well. “Build a large follower-list and push your affiliate offers or products to your followers”. Oh yeah? Really? How do I build the list then? “Buy this software that automatically adds 10000 followers per day, on autopilot!”. What you end up with, is an account you never log in to, that sends out automatic messages to 10’000 other marketers, who never log in and see what you’re tweeting. So basically, you don’t see their promotions, they don’t see your promotions. In the off-chance that you actually have a real person following you, by the 4th promo-tweet in 1 hour, that real person is no longer following you.

Get real, people. Get social. Stop pushing the magic button, all it does is flush.

4. Governments crack down on unethical, immoral and illegal practices

Mike argues that US government agencies will get increasingly active during 2011 and start cracking down on businesses acting questionable. I friggin hope so! Have you noticed how over the last few months a couple of gurus who not only used unethical methods and practices but also encouraged others to do so, suddenly did a complete 180 and started preaching ethics? Some one who once promoted a course teaching how to fraud people by using hidden, forced continuity with low price front end offers, suddenly tells everyone that it’s unethical and bad business practice … Hmmm .. Did the FTC knock on your door, you-know-who-I-mean?

Mike mentions that a couple of people who are currently under investigation might lose their businesses in 2011. I hope so.

I also hope that all marketers affiliated with the disgusting boiler rooms get a pitchfork up their asses! (this links to the Salty Droid, if you are not a fan, please don’t click it, otherwise you will learn who uses these thieves)

While Internet Marketing (not “marketing on the internet”, but the “make money online”-niche) has always been somewhat shady, over the last 2-3 years it has become down right filthy. Let’s hope 2011 will mark a new beginning!