A Disturbing Trend in Online Marketing?

I've noticed what some might consider a disturbing trend in on-line marketing. I'll let you decide (and see how guilty I am).

Lately whenever a new product comes out, many people (including me), immediately jump out to decry the hype. We point out how overpriced it is, how it's not worth the money, et cetera.

But recently I've noticed many taking it even further. Lately, people are telling you how to either get the thing for free, or how to find similar products for free or cheaper. (The "super site" trend, where a marketer gathers all "resell rights" products under one roof, might be a subset of this. Maybe Frank Kern's recent warning about pyramid schemes was the universe giving us a last chance to clean our own house before someone else comes in and does it for us.)

It seems to indicate a brewing backlash against the Guru mentality of overprice, overhype, slash-and-burn marketing that has come to dominate. This may be the first tremors of an impending industry shake-out.

My questions are: How are any of us supposed to make money while we are cutting each other's throats and pocketbooks?

How can we make money off a resell rights product when anyone can go to Google and find the thing for free?

Some of us, myself included, attempt to build credibility by being "super honest," which means cutting through the hype. Doesn't this have a negative effect on the industry as a whole?

Did the Gurus finally sour the land like the robber barons and carpetbaggers of old, or are we who react against the Guru excesses the problem?

Granted many of these products are way overpriced (all things "business" are in my opinion -- write-offs being only one of the reasons). Granted, there really are free/low cost solutions that are just as good or better -- this entire blog is about that! But at what point are we peeing in our drinking well and poisoning our own farmland?

I'm getting uncomfortable enough to think it's a point we've already passed.

Yours,
Gene Nash