John Newtson Rambles

Here’s a great way to be a jackass online in three easy steps.

Register on forums and blogs under a pseudonym.

Participate in the conversation for say 20-30 posts. Make sure you give good advice so people start to trust you.

Then start schilling your own products as if you were an honest third-party.

Basically, build trust with people so you can exploit it.

That little tid-bit is actually being passed around internet marketing circles these days.

Klassy.

The sad part is I’ve heard, otherwise intelligent marketers, exclaim this is a cool technique. Instead of the stupid, unethical garbage that it is.

It’s stupid because it’s a terribly weak way to market in the conversation-oriented environment of today’s Internet.

I hate to be overly simplistic BUT why not just get a good product into the hands of talkers and ask them to talk about it instead? Just a crazy idea.

It shouldn’t have to be said but apparently it needs to be said:

Any marketing tactic or strategy that would cause you to be embarrassed, ashamed or made to look like an idiot or jackass if your prospects or customers found out you were using it … is bad marketing.

Fake corporate blogs that pretend they’re not fake for example.

Or B.S. reasons why you’re sending out another email to hock your wares because, really, the last few attempts didn’t sell anything.

Or flat out lies about why you’re limiting the amount of product available in order to create a false sense of scarcity. Especially since there are so many honest ways to do it that are far more compelling than the false ones anyway.

Maybe I’m just old fashioned but I don’t consider lying to be good marketing.

For every deceitful trick I’ve ever heard of I can name five or six honest ones that work better anyway.

Maybe it’s just laziness that leads to this garbage. I don’t know. But then, people do a lot of stupid things that remain a mystery to me.