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12.21.04
Learning To Market Responsibly
 By James R. Sanders
Don't you just hate writers, or at least the ones that write up articles identifying a problem then pitching you information to help you solve your problems for $49.95?
The writing industry has taken a turn where everyone who has something to sell can write an article, submit it to an online venue, and wait for us to read it or download it and see if we'll buy their products or services. Don't you just hate it when you spend your time looking for the information only to find that you have to make a further investment before you can get the actual answers to your problem? You've already spent countless hours looking for it, and now you have to make a monetary investment to boot. Is it a practice you've come to accept, expect, and chalk it up to the costs of running a business, or are you forever turned away from that writer because of their approach? Would you rather have the information up-front telling you that you'll need to make a purchase to actually get your questions answered or do you just expect you'll have to make a purchase as the norm?
Don't get me wrong, even in such material; there is still valuable information to be found. These articles work great for readers looking for a paid solution or a quick fix, but they do little for the "do it yourselfers" who are looking for the "hows" to answer the question and fix the problem themselves. Then there is the time investment problem where you have to sometimes spend large amounts of time digging for the valuable information, sorting out the hype, and tossing away the chaff. The bottom line is that marketing has gotten harder on the internet because of the ways that marketers have conditioned surfers over time. Think back to the earlier days when banner ads were affective. Today, banner ads have taken a downward spiral where effectiveness has dwindled to the point of almost zero. Think about your own surfing habits. What do you usually tend to do when you come across a banner ad? Do you even notice them on web site pages anymore?
Full Page Ads and Time Limited Offers.
The latest craze seems to be building long page advertisement pitches engaging the visitor's emotions and providing them with mountains of testimonials to convince them to purchase the product or service. Isn't it ironic how most of them started out in debt, no money in the bank, house in foreclosure, and after finding this secret suddenly bought their dream home, quit their day job, and drive their favorite expensive sports or luxury car, and accomplished this amazing feat in just a couple months? These stories have variations, but the theme is always the same. Although I have no SOLID proof to offer, I'd tend to believe that many of these "guru's" found a way to prey on people's dreams. They put together some information that sounded good, figured out how to market it, and since almost everyone always dreams of more money, they pitched their idea to people and made armored carloads of money. The point here is that they made their fortunes off SELLING the idea and NOT actually by DOING the idea. They all use the idea of a time-limited offer too. The problem with time limited offers on the internet is that if they do not use a tracking cookie, or if they don't require you to sign up to the site for a membership, there is no way for them to track that time sensitive offer. To prove my point, take any particular pitch you see, bookmark the page, and then go back in a couple days. You'll more than likely find that you get the same time sensitive offer and you didn't miss anything. If that doesn't work, then clear your internet cache in your browser and repeat the same process. You'll then understand what I'm talking about. You're being duped, and they play on that emotion to entice you to make a purchase. When I see one of these anymore, if the product or service appeals to me, I IMMEDIATELY scroll to the bottom to see how much it costs. If it's within my budget, then I MIGHT scroll back up and read the page, but if not, then I close the window.
Don't get me wrong, I am sure that at least SOME of them have been broke, in foreclosure, no bank account, etc, but ALL of them? There are literally THOUSANDS of them out there. What about ones that were just broke and had no bank accounts? Nevertheless, just about every one of those full-page articles tells the same story. Just switch around the job they used to do, the style of home they bought, and the type of car they now drive, and they are all variations on a theme. I am also sure that SOME of them are legitimate, but try to pick out the legitimate from the fakes and you'll have a tough time of it. Then there are those that tell the half-truths. When I speak of half-truths, I am talking about either those that had credit to take out a rather large loan to market their business idea, or those that had friends to borrow the money from or relatives to give it to them. They never seem to tell you about the investments they needed to make in order to make the idea work, just the fact that they make thousands of dollars a month and have everything they want in life. They also fail to tell you how much they were making when they started out. Kind of convenient isn't it. What sense does it make to purchase that information when you don't know if you have the extra funds needed to make it work? Sure, I could sell you an information article on how to make millions waxing turtles. But if it required you to live in Hawaii and was going to cost you $5,000.00 in advertisements to get it going to make those thousands of dollars a month, then what good would that information do you if you didn't live in Hawaii and didn't have $5,000.00 in the bank? If you didn't know that extra information, then you might buy the information, waste money, and never do anything with the information. That's exactly what hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of people are doing. They're buying this information that they might never be able to use, and are loosing har!
d earned money in the process. Are you getting the idea yet?
Read the full article.
About the Author:
James R. Sanders is the owner of Sanders Consultation Group Plus. He has been a webmaster and web site designer since 1997, and involved in self-employment ventures since 1992. He is presently a contributing author of NewbieHangout, and has been published through WebProNews. His goal is to provide practical information based upon his years of experience to help webmasters, web site designers, and self-employed people achieve their goals in today's competitive global market. You can email him at webmaster@sanders-consultation-group-plus.com. |
