Like a person strung out on a narcotic or a person with a drinking problem, both of which in denial that they have a problem, the world of Internet Marketing is a real mess and the "system" has become a dysfunctional "Wild Wild West." Honesty, being upfront and forthcoming are all but gone.
The name of the game is "get the money" by any means.
I remember the days when one could purchase a software product without the "backend" selling which give the illusion that the product has added value. The backend selling and additional bonuses distracts from from the original product one was interested in.
I don't know about you guys, but I hate it when I read a convincing sales page, purchase a product and then hit up with a backend offer that makes it appear that it is a "Must Have." I thought the product I read on the sales page was the "Must Have" product.
And, all of those damn bonuses. Enough already! People are not stupid! Who has time to learn about all of those bonuses? Are not the main products good enough to stand on their own merit? Attaching bonuses to them to give the illusion that the purchaser is getting a great deal is a lie and a sick marketing ploy that underscores the greedy and deceptive mindset many vendors have developed and teach others.
Two other disturbing trends have developed: product or service delivery in a timely manner. After you whip out your credit card and pay you are either redirected to a backend offer, an autoresponder form that you must fill out before you get your product, or a page telling you to check your email address for the download link.
No download link arrives; yet, the vendor promised you would receive it immediately. Most often you have to contact the vendor and ask them "Where is the product I paid for." Some even have the audacity to ask you to provide "proof of purchase." In many cases, it could be 24-74 hours before you get what you paid for. But the vendor gets your money immediately.
Another disturbing trend is that vendors with affiliate programs are slow to pay you or do not pay you at all. This was unheard of "back in the day." I believe the reason for this is that a different kind of vendor exists today. This new vendor is more in tuned with profit than the people who market their wares. In a nutshell, s/he does not really give much thought to taking care of affiliates. Some fall off the radar and do not respond to your emails.
I personally had two vendors I was associated with since 2006 who simply drop off the grid, shut their websites down (probably opened new ones with a different name) and ran off with thousands of dollars of commissions they owed me.
Academy award performances are rampant online. Many of these vendors hype up their products so much that they are too good to be true. Yet, only a handful really deliver what they promise.
The bottom line is to not believe all of the sales pitch about a product. We do not need long videos or long sales pitch pages to purchase a product. Simply tell us what your product does and what it can do for us an if it does not deliver, give us our money back.
Stop trying to sell me additional stuff after I have paid you. I don't have the time. You vendors are stealing my time. I do not give you permission to hold me hostage because of your unquenchable thirst for more money from me. What is wrong with you?
I do not need whiz bang sales pages that are suppose to reflect the quality of the product. This too, is a smoke screen. I simple website is all that is needed. Popup screens and scripts that run under the hood no longer impress me.
Dear reader, be careful. Greed is rampant and even the most sincere-looking person who throws a sales pitch at you, can be a "devil in disguise." These people are very very good at selling you stuff via smooth words and ad copy. They study this stuff. They have it down to a science.
This is not to say that there are no honest vendors and Internet Marketers out there. There are. Finding them is like finding a needle in a haystack. They are covered over by layers of dishonest and greedy ones.
Not only does greed fuel vendors and Internet Marketers, but desperation does as well. Many persons who are online are seeking for ways to make extra money or even a full-time living online. So they create products or become someone's affiliate. They may have lost jobs due to the sagged economic conditions and have bills to pay. They need money. So as an affiliate, they become dishonest and inherit the mindset of the greedy vendor. They too, will say anything to get you to purchase a vendors product via their affiliate link. They will never say anything negative about the product or service that they are affiliated with. Why would they do that? They want to make a sale.
So this who system of Internet and Affiliate Marketing is largely corrupt. It is like a large tree that has become a bad tree and a bad tree that produces bad fruit (dishonest affiliates) who simply mimic what mother (the vendor) teaches them.
Patience, research and care must now be taken before you purchase any product or service online. Especially those that sound too good to be true.
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DigitalDrake.com
is the personal blog of R. Jerome Harris — An Information Technology Specialist
now working in Internet Marketing, Web Design, and Broadcasting. I am an expert of the
