Posts Tagged ‘marketing’

Useless Bonuses

Friday, May 7th, 2010

It’s really not that difficult to get me to give away my email address. All you have to do is offer something free that has value to me. I’ve learned a lot about how internet marketing works by trading my address for all manner of free material.

Recently, however, I received a bunch of so-called bonus information products that had nothing whatsoever to do with the free item on offer. You probably think I’m kidding. Here a sample list of what was in it: Addiction Recovery, Adopting a Dog, Allergies, Attorney Services, Biodynamic (sic) Farming & Gardening, Bipolar Disorder, and Caring for Native Wildlife. And that’s just the first three letters in the alphabet. Theoretically, there’s something here for everybody, but in practice . . . well, you get the idea.

I’m sure you’ve had first-hand experience with the multitude of spam that assaults almost everyone’s inbox. It’s become so serious that many newsletter distributors now insist that anyone using their services to market via email obtain the addresses through a double opt-in method. This means that you not only type in your email address, but that you also confirm that you want whatever you signed up for.

Of course, most of us don’t want anymore spam and so to prevent that, we simply are more careful about who we give our email address to. That’s why marketers offer a free bonus. And that system works pretty well. I give my address in exchange for some information that I want.

This particular marketer, however, simply gathered a lot of useless stuff together and offered it; but he didn’t say that’s what we’d get. He said we’d get something useful. Now to be honest, I don’t know what he promised. All I know is what I got. But, I will tell you who sent it so that you don’t get sent the same rubbish that I did. His name is John Cornetta. If you see this name near an opt-in box, then do an about face and surf to another page as quickly as you can. That way you’re hopes won’t be raised needlessly.

Bruce Hoag, PhD, CPsychol
Work Psychologist

http://www.p-advantage.com

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Tags: free bonuses, marketing, Opt in e-mail
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Who’s Insane?

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

You will have all heard this before: It’s a form of insanity to do the same thing day after day and expect a different outcome. What’s wrong with that, I hear you say? It’s simply this. The implication is that if you do the same thing every day, you will get the same outcome. Is that what you believe?

Everything around us is constantly changing. We talk about it all the time. It’s akin to skiing moguls at dusk. Things seldom are what they appear to be. And not only that, but we expect it to be that way. In other words, we’d be surprised, if not stunned, if it was any other way.

So, if we’re willing to admit that the world in which we live, love, and have our being is constantly changing, why would we think it a form of insanity to expect different results from doing the same thing every day? I’ll tell you. It’s because each of us is looking for the silver bullet, the magic potion, or the secret technique that will get us what we want.

Success in anything requires focus, concentration, and effort. But, all the while we’re doing that, we have to remember that we, too, have to be as flexible as we know the world around us to be. If we fail to do this, we really will go insane.

Bruce Hoag, PhD, CPsychol

http://www.p-advantage.com

Tags: business success, insanity, marketing
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Alex Mandossian: When the marketing is the message

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

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.

Tags: Mandossian, marketing
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