I don’t know about you, but when I’m directed to a blog post, it’s because I want to read something of value. What I don’t want is more marketing.

Alex Mandossian, for example, is now using his blog as a vehicle for marketing his latest product. Personally, I find this annoying; so much so, that I unsubscribed from his list. (I was tempted to give you the link, but I didn’t want to promote him.)

Today was the last straw. I was notified that he had a new blog post. I clicked on it, only to be taken to a video of him talking about a book he was reading. I was already beginning to feel uneasy about things.

Nearly all “experts” in online marketing seem to be friends with everyone else in online marketing. So, during the first part of the clip, I got to hear about who his friend was this time – the author of a new book he’s read four times, but can’t put down. (Barbara Cartland? Maybe not.) Anyway, he talks for a couple of minutes about how the information in the book can help you, and then shifts to promoting his latest service. If you buy from him, you get a deal on the book, or possibly it’s the other way around.

One of my foibles is that I hate it when other people waste my time. When I come to a website, a blog, or a newsletter, I expect the writer to say what he/she has to say, and then to stop talking. What I don’t expect is to get a marketing message that is veiled in an information message. It’s a bit like opening a box of cereal only to find that the top 5% is full and the rest of it is a cardboard frame with a message telling me how I can get a bowl made by someone else by buying another, more expensive box of cereal.

This practice is worrying because it casts aspersion on those of us who do provide something of value in that media. What we’re witnessing, therefore, is not a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; rather, it’s a product, wrapped in some information, inside a deception. Whatever you do: don’t fall for it.