Pig Sty Internet Marketers - Four Warning Signs
If you hang out in a pig sty, you’re going to get some mud on you. When you’re doing business with Internet marketers, be very careful that you’re not getting into a sty that permanently tarnishes your professional or personal reputation.
Don’t accept unethical conduct by rationalizing that “everyone is doing it” or that it is the “key to becoming wealthy online.” Both are false. There are plenty of successful Internet entrepreneurs who run honorable businesses.
Here are 4 warning signs that an Internet marketer is a filthy pig that you should avoid.
1. The Internet marketer uses deceptive sales practices. Although intentional spamming is a great example, there’s a new one on the block. Some marketers are hiding their continuity programs in the fine print of their sales letters, and you’re suddenly getting billed monthly after making what you thought was a one-time purchase.
2. The Internet marketer treats his customers like dupes instead of people he wants to see succeed. Instead of trying to help, he’s trying to see how he can con his list yet another time.
3. The Internet marketer believes he is a celebrity. Although unknown outside of the info product arena, the Internet marketer gets an inflated ego after 1 or 2 product launches. Behavioral changes include wearing gaudy jewelry, leasing luxury sports cars he can’t afford, mistreating the “little people” (anyone he doesn’t know) because they don’t matter, and insisting on special perqs because of who he is (a legend in his own mind).
4. The Internet marketer abuses religion as a sales tool. Marketers who are ethical don’t make a big deal about their religion while speaking at events. They believe that actions speak louder than words. In contrast, pig sty marketers typically shroud themselves in religion, making repeated references to their church, mosque, or synagogue as a way to deceive you into thinking they will treat you right.
I’m sure there are more warning signs that you’re dealing with a pig sty marketer, but these are the ones that came to mind. If you can think of any, please add them as comments (don’t use the names or URLs of particular marketers in the comments).
About the Author
With an advanced international law degree from Georgetown University and more than 14 years of real world legal experience, Attorney Mike Young shows entrepreneurs how to protect and grow their businesses online. He's the author of "Internet Marketing
Legal Secrets Revealed," "How to Create Your Own Internet Business Without a Lawyer for Under $175," and the creator of Website
Legal Forms GeneratorTM. Not just a lawyer who focuses exclusively on Internet and marketing law, Mike’s been working with computers for more than 27 years (his first computer was an Atari 400 with 8 KiB RAM) and started representing Internet businesses back in 1996.
Mike Young | Apr 22, 2008 | Reply
Michel Fortin recently weighed in on continuity programs. The comments in response to his post are worth reading too.
As he points out, a few pig sty marketers can give subsequent legitimate continuity programs a bad reputation.
While I respect Fortin, in this instance he’s a bit too willing to overlook some of the recent shenanigans engaged in by certain Internet marketers by treating their actions as a mistake.
My view is that the only mistake by those who recently hid/disguised their continuity programs is that they assumed they could fool everyone. As it was, they took advantage of friendships to have marketers with large lists mail without any expectation of the uproar it would cause.
They got caught and expect an “oops, so sorry” to make it all go away.
My hunch is that, based on the comments to Fortin’s post and Internet marketing boards, the culprits are going to be on the receiving end of multiple complaints to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by those who were duped.
One has to wonder how many Internet marketers will have to be taken down by the government before marketing practices are cleaned up.