Marketing Ideas

The internet marketing world is as naturally filled with all types of people as the offline business world. There are marketers who weave sales letters of hype, mystery, urgency and non-existent secrets to catch innocent people who are just starting out online. And there are others who appear logical, rational and straight forward but in reality are misleading in a more dangerous way.

I think the lies based on rational thinking and logical reasoning are more dangerous due to their apparent good appearance. When I read a hype-filled sales letter, I know this marketer does not mean much. But when I read a rational, logically written sales letter I am in the danger of being misled at a deeper level.

Here are some blatant lies and what you can do about them:

1. If you are earning $1 from one website, you can earn $100 with hundred websites.

Why is this a Blatant Lie?

Nothing can be further from truth. Each website I create has to get visitors. Unless there is traffic to a website, it is not going to get me any money. When I have one website, I put in a lot of effort to get traffic to the site. This is hard work and I have to spend time and effort on various methods such as getting back links through article directories and social bookmarking sites, offline promotion, email marketing, Search Engine Optimization, etc. Can I do this for 100 sites?

I merely waste time in creating the sites or in uploading the sites, if I buy it from the person who told me I can multiply my income hundred fold. Had I spent that time on one main site, I would have got more traffic, deeper back links, constant visitors who value my content and the personal satisfaction of possessing a valuable site.

What is the Solution?

Supposing I have already bought those 100 sites and uploaded them, one solution could be to focus on one main site where I have real content and use that RSS feed on the other sites to keep them fresh. Over a period of time if I can manage two good content sites, I can use the RSS feeds of two sites. I can choose the feed that will go with the theme of the sites where I am inserting the RSS feed.

Another thing I can do is to choose a domain name that lends itself to adding sub domains that naturally fit in. I could use the materials I bought as sub-domains. I can write and publish good content on the main domain. I can periodically rewrite a bit of the content on the sub-domains.

If I am just starting out, I should decide to work on only one site until such time that it gets a good amount of traffic regularly. I should be free of that website, that is, the website takes care of itself, before I start with another site. I can have a WordPress blog and a blogger blog to complement the site. I should interlink the site and blogs with the hyperlinked keyword, I want to focus on.

2. You can earn by spying on your competition

Why is this a Blatant Lie?

Recently a number of software have come out that will help you spy on your competitors, gather information about their successful campaigns and benefit from their hard work. In the offline world what respect will we have for a person who tells us ‘you need not work hard just go and pick the pocket of a well-employed person and his hard earned monthly salary can be yours’. In the online world the lines dividing what is right and what is wrong is invisible. Before I wake up to realities I might find myself on the darker side.

If I spy on others, can I expect the other person to keep quiet and smilingly allow me to spy. Naturally there comes a software that will protect you from spying. The first person to buy this software may be the one who sold you a software to spy on others. Because he knows he is going to be the victim of his own creation.

So you buy one software to spy on others, another to protect yourself and a third person comes and tells you I have a super upgrade for either or both. We get into a vicious circle of buying and using things that waste our time from real money making activities.

This is true for many of the black hat tactics. Someone finds a loophole somewhere and creates a black hat product. The person releases the product only after a lot of money has been made (or no money has been made because the product is really not what it is expected to be). Once the product is out in the market it has almost lost whatever little chance it had to make money. Since the product has announced the loophole to the whole world, the loophole is not going to exist for long after the announcement. Then you will hear an upgrade to the first product and merrily go around the mulberry bush.

What is the solution?

It is very easy to say do not buy black hat products. Is that going to work? A section of people who inherently possess the gene that gets attracted to such products have to fall for them, come what may. If that is not true, we will not have any credit card stealers, phishing attackers, nasty spammers and virus spreaders. We will not need spam controllers, password protectors and PC guards.

I have only a couple of suggestions, I want to hear more from you.

Remember black hat gains are short lived. Whatever black hat things I buy today I need to remember it is not going to last forever. Of course nothing is permanent in this world but the life span of ‘get rich quick without working’ schemes is over before it begins.

Ask yourself why is this person, who claims to earn thousands of dollars, selling the black hat trick to you? By keeping it a secret the person has chances of earning more. By making it public the chances of finding a cure for that poison increases. Of course, you will hear the person say I am doing it because I love you and I want you to succeed. If you believe that, you are beyond rescue. No one can save you. Will any snake sell his poison so that an anti-venom can be made?

Remember black hat tactics are harmful to oneself. Whatever I do in online or offline business I need to remember I am traveling in the same ship with my customers. Whether it is global warming, nuclear war, pollution or internet fraud, I need to remember I am with the people who are facing the results of my actions. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction and together all of us are going to drown or sail across and reach our goals. I need to ask myself – for a temporary limited gain do I want to jeopardize my business, my long term goals?

I hope whoever is reading this will write a sequel to this article.