WinterPerkins.com

My post yesterday on the Dirty Tactics of Internet Marketing and How To Avoid Them really sparked a huge conversation. Tons of comments, lots of emails, even skype messages thanking me so much for bringing this topic to light. Because of the huge response, today I’d like to share even more examples of the methods being used to prey on newbies. Keep your eyes peeled for this tricky tactics!

The False Sense of Urgency

The Lie

The Truth

The Lie

The Truth

The Lie

The Truth

Multiple Daily eMails

For some reason, this practice is becoming widely used and abused by many Traffic Exchange owners. You know the drill… you get your daily Traffic Exchange email, and not even 10 minutes later you get the “Oops I forgot blah blah blah,” or the “Oh I’m so stupid, I forgot,” mails.

Now I don’t mean to say that this doesn’t really happen. I’ve forgotten to include a link, or send the wrong link once in a great while. But every single day? Every single time you send an email you screw it up? If you are that clueless as to how to get your emails sent out correctly, with the correct information, that often… maybe you shouldn’t be running a Traffic Exchange or be in control of the mailings. I’m just saying… come on.

The REAL reason this is done, is because it keeps the site in front of your face. It brings more surfers in immediately. It gives them a reason to email you all day long instead of just mailing once and hoping more people read and act accordingly.

I’m confused as to why this is so effective (assuming that it is effective) because to me it is beyond annoying. Please don’t underestimate my intelligence by pretending to forget something in every single mail. Mail me once to let me know about your promotion of the day. If I like it, I’ll come surf; if not, I’ll pass on the promotion. Don’t bombard me with emails all day long because you didn’t get the results you wanted from your first email. Or at least title your email subject truthfully: “I didn’t get enough surfers in here with the first email, so let’s see how many fishies I can catch with this one!”

Exclusive/Private Invitations By eMail

While it’s nice to think you’re important enough to be invited personally to take part in a product or website launch, giveaway event, or seminar, trust me… we are not that important to the promoter! There is nothing exclusive about the emails you receive inviting you by “Private Invitation Only.”

Do not be fooled! These emails go out to every single subscriber on that list. You were not hand picked or personally invited. It sucks to find out your importance ranks about as high as anyone else on their list. The only exclusive aspect of these invitations are that you’re subscribed to this particular list… that’s it!

If someone wants to personally invite you to take part in anything, you’ll receive a personal email, a Skype message, a contact on your blog… not a mass email.

When you’re new, these exclusive invitations make you feel special, make you feel important. They do exactly what they are meant to do; make you stop, open the email, read it all, and of course jump into this private event! Don’t fall for it… it’s most likely 100% open to the public.

Exceptions

There will always be exceptions to the rule. When a program launches for the first time, it’s very likely they will have a launch special discounted offer. There’s a possibility that you really won’t see an upgrade offer this cheap again… so take notice of those, and take advantage if you can. If you can’t, you will see discounted offers later, maybe just not that cheap.

Humans make mistakes, we all do. It’s totally possible to forget a link in an email or even include the wrong link. Accidents happen, and that’s acceptable. I’m speaking strictly of the repeat offenders that are using this as a common practice on a regular basis. There is no truth in their “mistake,” it is total BS.

When you get a little more well known around here, you actually will get personal invitations to take part in website and product launches. It’s really exciting and an honor! If you do not get invited personally, it is not exclusive.. it’s a mass mailing, no more no less.

There are many, many tricky tactics used in Internet Marketing. These are just a few to watch out for. Be safe out there, and bring your boots. The BS can get extremely deep to wade through!

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Do me a favor… look at your inbox. Does it look similar to this?

**ALERT** Only 18 Left, 50% discount, less than 24 hours

Internet Marketing Just Got Replaced… UH OH!

Watch This & You Can Literally Be Making Money This Afternoon!

Winter, 1,000 Backlinks A Month. Really

These are actual subjects pulled from my personal inbox. Chances are, yours looks about the same. What’s all the hype about? Just marketing, plain and simple. Internet Marketing seems to be a world filled with dirty, back alley tactics, but is it really that much different from real world applications? Hardly!

Take a look at infomercials… they are geared to target you when you’re sleepy, your defenses are low, and they all claim to have the secrets of xyz, the most amazing thing ever, a product you can’t do without! By taking advantage now, we’re not going to charge you $100, not even $80, not even $60… you get all this for the low low price of $19.99. AND if you act now, you get xyz (a $50 value)… free!!!!!!

Now how familiar does this sound? Almost every marketing email in my inbox follows the same exact pattern. It’s something that will blow my mind, I can’t live without it, I get it for the low price of not $239, not even $99, not even $49… you get all this for the low price of $27 (maybe even free). AND for acting now I get a bazillion ebooks (that I’ll probably never read) included free!!!!!

See the connection? Marketing is a dirty job. Marketing is full of liars, full of fluffed up figures and stats, full of amazingly convincing ad copy designed 100% to get you to pull out those wallets, dig deep, spend it even if you don’t have it. These products (for the most part) are NOT designed to help you succeed; they are designed to make the creators money… period.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some really wonderful ebooks, programs and websites out there. I’ve gotten tons of help from the right books! There are many helpful tools out there, it’s just sifting through the crap to find the treasures.

Does marketing really have to be this grimy? Do you really have to sink to this level to be a successful Internet Marketer? The answer is NO! You can be successful by recommending products, services, and websites that you actually use, and that are helpful to you, thus will be helpful for your list.

The focus should not be on just making you a little cash here and there, the primary focus should be helping your readers succeed! Helping someone that is newer to this game than you are succeed in their efforts here is the best success you could have as a marketer. You might not make a sale on day one, you might not make a sale from that person within a month. That’s ok… you have made a friend, you have made a connection with another human being that now trusts your judgement, trusts your recommendations, your knowledge. That’s priceless!

Now that you’ve gained their trust, you could in theory promote anything semi-relevant that will make you some money, but if at any point, you take advantage of that trust and promote something you know will not be helpful to them, you’ve broken that bond of trust… good luck getting it back!

Sometimes it’s hard to decide what will be really helpful to newbies. Now I use the word newbies with all the love and respect in the world. We were all newbies at some point, and we just wanted some help and guidance! I used to wrestle with figuring out what to promote and what to let slide (even if there was a good possibility I’d make some nice cash). Here is how I help myself determine if it’s worthy of my list.

If my mom was new to Internet Marketing, and she had no clue where to start, what tools would I recommend? What websites would I push for her to advertise in for the best results?

If my best friend of 10 years said “Winter, what you do is amazing! I want to work for myself online too. Please, tell me what to do!” Would I recommend the product, service, or website in question to them? If it was a must have tool, and it was worthy of her attention, would I tell her it’s extremely important to upgrade, or could she get the services she needs as a free member?

These few questions really helps me put into perspective whether or not I’d like to advertise a product or service to my list. Are they my mother, are they my best friends of 10+ years? Of course not, but anyone subscribed to my lists deserve the same respect and consideration. They did not sign up to be taken advantage of. They did not signup to be used and abused and suckered into every opportunity that looks promising. They signed up because they felt the information I provide will be helpful, useful, interesting.

Your list is valuable for many reasons. Yes you will make sales from your list, and that is A goal, but it’s not the only goal. You want to be of value, you want to be helpful, you want to be a source of information that they can trust… today, tomorrow, 2 years from now. You might have a subscriber to your list that buys a crap product right away. Then what? If they don’t get anything out of their purchase that helps them further their efforts, how many more times do you think they’re going to join a program or buy a product on your recommendation. Not many, maybe not ever again, maybe they’ll even unsubscribe!

Treat your list with respect, treat them with dignity, show them the same consideration you would a dear friend. Building that trusting relationship is far more rewarding than making that instant sale. Recommend products, services and websites that you use AND have been successful for you.

It’s all about the golden rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated.

Marketing is a dirty job, but you don’t have to get filthy to see results. You don’t have to resort to scheming, underhanded, scammy marketing tactics to make a sale. You just need to promote from a place of honesty and integrity. The end results are priceless!

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