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

Is The Mike Chen/Mark Joyner Promo a Bust?

One of the promotional pieces Mike Chen sent out for his big launch this week said, "You're probably wading through a mountain of email today about Mike Chen's Secret Weapon just launched."

All I can say is, "Where's the mountain?"

Seems like hardly anybody's talking about:


* Confidential Intelligence Manuscript Volume II
 http://genenash.com/r/joyner

* Mike Chen's Secret Weapon
 http://genenash.com/r/secretweapon


You may recall my reaction not long ago to the Frank Kern over-hype was "Stop The Madness!" You couldn't open an email without it being about Frank Kern.

That was nothing compared to the ridiculous onslaught that came from Mike Filsaime's "Fire Sale."

Even tonight I received no less than a dozen mails in a row about some free resell rights giveaway going on. (Unlike the Free Ad Giveway, I wasn't invited to participate as a provider in this one. I'm miffed. Grrrr.)

And the Chen/Joyner promo? Yawn. A handful of letters, spread out over a few days, most of them having the promotion buried amongst a bunch of other offers or coming through "safelists."

Wow.

The "mountain of email" was definitely wishful thinking -- at least from the perspective of my inbox.

Now they've rushed out a new desperate promotion to try and up the hype. They're trying to create an "event" with a call featuring four top marketers, followed by a week long competition where you can "watch" four people test different versions of campaigns using the "secret weapon" to see who can get the most subscribers. (Full details abvailable here: http://genenash.com/r/chenchallenge)

They say, "The information learned here will be 100 times more useful than any marketing course you could ever buy." They claim it's "Phase II;" I think it's desperation.

I haven't received a single email about it.

They went back to the drawing board, but someone forgot to bring a pencil.

Yours,
Gene Nash


* The Secret Weapon Challenge featuring Mark Joyner, Gary Halbert, Joe Vitale, and David Garfinkel
 http://genenash.com/r/chenchallenge

* Confidential Intelligence Manuscript Volume II
 http://genenash.com/r/joyner

* Mike Chen's Secret Weapon
 http://genenash.com/r/secretweapon