And, has the product jeopardized its credibility with a "sneaky marketing trick?"

I loose confidence in a product when I suspect that the promoter needs to use a sneaky trick to get me to buy.

The program promises to create a viral E-mail system similar to Google’s Gmail. This software then can then provide free E-mail to people that sign up. Then, the outgoing mail has a branded message similar to the branding that HotMail made famous.

Sounds good, so far…

But, here is the sneaky part.

The product launch was suppose to offer only 500 copies. (Create scarcity.)

But, lots of affiliates were signed up. (The affiliates receive 50% commission.)

So, who is going to promote a product where only 500 copies are sold for half of $147?

Answer: Not many, but what if the 500 copies is only a ploy?

Here is a extract image from an E-mail message that I received on 7-22-09. (The sender’s name has been blocked out in case they didn’t know what is going on.)

And, here is what the sales page said.

Notice that I have to act at once.

But, what happens if you link today, 7-23-09?

Seems like the offer is still available. Maybe I’ll consider buying tomorrow?

Or maybe I won’t!

As I said, I loose confidence in a product when I suspect that the promoter needs to use a sneaky trick to get me to buy.

It is difficult to see how this product is "sold out" when a script is running, and it is difficult to believe that this sneaky strategy was unplanned. The reason: it is running a date script… that inserts the current date into the sales page:

As far as the script itself, the script does send and receive E-mail messages, and does provide Google AdSense ads to users.

But, if the product were truly viral, at one Gigabyte (1 GB) of mail storage, the product could violate the "Terms of Service" of your Web Hosts.

I checked with my Web Host, HostGator, and the installation of Fireball Mail didn’t seem to be against their "Terms of Service," as long as the folks that sign up for the free accounts do not use those accounts to send SPAM. (You’re in for a real hassle if they do!)

Other violations of your Web Host’s "Terms of Service" are to use the system to distribute pornography, viruses or materials that infringe on other people’s copyrights.

Another caution is ensuring that minors do not sigh up for one of these free E-mail accounts without parental permission.

The Fireball Mail test system was noticeably slower than Gmail, even when the software has a minimal load as a "demo system."

Summary: The software does what it says it does, so there shouldn’t be a need to employ sneaky tricks to market and sell it. And, although marketers might have a use for yet another free E-mail system, it is difficult to imagine that others would find such a system useful when Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Live/ HotMail are so well established.

The problem? Sneaky marketing tricks deflate credibility for this product.

However, I was concerned to hear Jeff’s repeated reference to …his guys."

My concern was that Jeff Johnson continued to refer to "his guys" as $8.00 per hour employees. He also pointed out how much money he made on the SEO campaigns that these "guys" ran for him.

My concern is with the ethics that would allow an Internet Marketer to make millions from the work of minimum wage employees. It would be difficult for me to justify keeping so much money for myself if I had employees that were doing most of the work required to earn that money.

The ethical path seems to be, at a minimum, to pass on cash bonuses to these employees for the work that they are performing.

However, in a later video, Jeff Johnson points out that he allows these employees to "learn the Internet Marketing trade" by checking out and studying the $100,000.00 USD library of training products that he has available.

He also pointed out that one of those employees, a relative no less, failed to take advantage of these training opportunities, even when encouraged.

Besides realizing that Jeff Johnson has to pay these employees whether he makes money or not; and that health care coverage for employees, if he provides it at no cost like he should, is exorbitant.

I am sure that Jeff Johnson was emphasizing the $8.00 per hour employee overhead to seminar participants so that they might consider delegating (or outsourcing) much of the time consuming SEO work that low-level employees can perform, so that the business owners can concentrate on running their businesses.

Any employee that studies, observes a real Guru in action, and cannot "convert" their on-the-job-learned expertise into a business of their own probably lacks the mind set for Internet Marketing success.

These employees seem different than the highly paid copywriters, ghostwriters and behind the scenes managers that promote and run the businesses of the Big Name Gurus.

The entrepreneurs are "risk takers" while the rest of us sit and wait in the comfort and security of our predictable (if not limited) prosperity.

Jeff Johnson communicates a sense of personal confidence that, if it rubs off on his "guys" would be more valuable than their monthly paychecks.

And, Jeff Johnson sells plenty of high-end products that his $8.00 per hour "guys" cannot manage, for example his PayPal payment plan for his affiliates. He paid a programmer to get that software script developed correctly, and the cost of this payment to affiliates that avoids the 3% payment fee skimmed by Paypal shows that he takes cares of people who work for him.

So, check out Jeff Johnson’s free Underground Training Lab, and decide for yourself whether he cares about his people enough to pay them well.

This payment stemmed from a promise that QVC’s made to the FTC in 2000. The promise: QVC would stop making false and unsubstantiated claims about the benefits of health-related products that it was selling.

The charges state that QVC aired 200 programs where false and unsubstantiated claims were made for a variety of products. (See article above for source.)

Also interesting to note: QVC’s legal counsel claims that because of the way that the information was presented, there was no deception.

Why is this important to Internet Marketers?

This is important to Internet Marketers because some Internet Marketers are guilty of the same “fine print warnings,” guilty of “masking claims of earning potential” in the language of legal disclaimers, and guilty or requiring that the customer make a careful reading of the sales page to discover disclaimers…while at the same time, these Internet Marketers use motivational and subliminal control language to distract customers from performing this due diligence.

The information that customers “might not (probably won’t) make the kind of returns that the sales letter celebrates” is shoved “under a rug” of hype and hyperbole.

In fact, like cigarette companies, some Internet Marketers hide relevant facts from customers, facts that would aid customers in performing due diligence.

These facts,

A simple, “This is not for newbies” disclaimer somewhere on a lengthy sales page fails to provide full disclosure and allow a customer can make an informed decision.

Here are some sample claims: “I’ll show you everything I did to make $xyz millions…”

Sure, and I can pay Kobe Bryant $10,000 to teach me exactly how he dribbles full court and dunks, outrunning everyone on the court by a car length. However, if I am 5′6″ tall, a couch potato, and 47 years old; the chances are that I am squandering my money. I might not have what it takes to perform at Kobe’s level, even if he shows me how he does what he does.

Another sample claim: “My last product launch made $xyz millions in a week…”

Sure, but commissions were $xyz/2. Expenses were $xyz/4. Payroll was $xyz/8. My profit before taxes was $xyz/8. My after tax profit was $xyz/16.

So, how does this product launch make money since the product owner barely breaks even? Well, the back end sales process might not be Internet Marketing at all, but a wolf-pack of telemarketers who hound purchasers with high-priced coaching, seminar and outsource service offers.
A telemarketing offer might go like this. “You purchased our Whiz Bang product, but perhaps you don’t have the time to learn how to use it, or you don’t have the staff of specialists to make it work; or maybe you are missing one of the scores of skills that you need…

Join our Winners’ Circle, VIP Mastermind Training Membership Club, and for a small initial investment of $17,000; you can take full advantage of the investment that you just made in our our Whiz Bang product. But, if learning all these skills seem overmuch for you, then, our $27,000 ‘We do it all for you’ service is your ticket to the Internet Lifestyle of your dreams.”

Or, the Internet Marketer might not be selling products at all, but rather selling leads to other companies.

Another sample claim: “My last product sold out in less than one hour after launch.”

Sure, but dozens of my big-mailing-list owner buddies were pushing the product for a week before the product launch. And, the number of product units sold was kept abnormally low to justify the exorbitant price of the product.

Another example: “Promote my Product as an affiliate and earn 50% commission.”

Sure, but unless I make three sales of the $97 product, I never reach the $100 minimum payout. So, I will never see the money.

A Story that Parallels the Internet Marketing Deception

There is a trick that basketball coaches pull on unsuspecting students.

They stand looking at a basket 3/4 of the court away. Then, the coach bets team members 50 pushups that the next shot he makes will be a basket.

Of course the team snaps up this bet. Then, the coach turns around and sinks an easy lay up shot in the basket that he was standing under.

This object lesson proves a simple deception and offers good fun geared to teaching students on the basketball team to remain alert.

However, Internet Marketing misdirection fails to offer “good fun,” laughter and camaraderie. People spending money for products that cannot produce the results that they were promised is serious, and a crime.

LLC Umbrellas offer No Protection from the FTC

Some Internet Marketers shield themselves from financial liability behind two or more Limited Liability Corporations (LLCs).

This strategy is effective in protecting the Internet Marketer that “operates on the shady side of Truth Street,” from competitors and creditors. But these corporate trappings do not shield the marketer and any assets (including personal assets obtained in the commission of a crime) from the FTC.

The FTC issues “Orders” and companies are obliged (required) to abide.

QVC, and their $7.5 million dollar settlement (accepted on the advice of QVC lawyers) provides evidence that the penalties for false, deceptive or misleading claims can be huge.

And what did QVC’s Senior Vice-President-General Counsel say,

“When the vendors offered these products on air, QVC believed, and still believes, that there was no deception in the way they were presented.”
(See article above for source.)

This “there was no deception in the way they were presented” phrase is what will hang Internet Marketers once the FTC regulates the industry.

Internet Marketers’ Version: “The way we worded that claim is technically correct, and we can’t help it if those customers didn’t catch our drift.”

FTC’s Stance: “If the wording is so tricky, couched in disclaimers or presented in ways that hide the real promise, then the advertisement is deceptive.”

Internet Marketers should begin gearing up for a “full disclosure” rework of their advertising.

And, due to the nature of the product, consumers cannot read the contents on the package.

For example, a few years ago, a bakery company was allowed to place the label, “non-nutritive fiber” on a high-fiber bread. What the label didn’t reveal was that the source of that fiber was sawdust.

Sure, humans cannot digest sawdust, so the labeling was “technically true.” Of course, consumers believed that they were purchasing fiber from grains like wheat and oats. But, full disclosure would have meant that few people, if any would buy a loaf of bread loaded with a cheap filler such as sawdust.

Internet Marketers need to not only begin a “full disclosure” dialog with their customers, but, they have to quit selling “sawdust.”

The issue is, that if I were to write using such hyperbole and if I were to pretend that “atypical results” are common, then I would be lying to the 98% of the people that purchase the product or service with the hope of similar earnings (without having to work for them).

But, there is some cognitive dissonance because I also believe that one of the Gurus (associated with one of the promotions I was studying) is an “honest and ethical person.” The sales page content and the belief that one of the marketers involved is ethical and honest seems incongruent.

Thinking, pondering and anguishing at this contrary information, I devised a couple of rationalizations.

Rationalization #1: The “Guru” paid a high priced copywriter, and turned the sales page development over to a project manager.

And, with multiple, huge product launches flooding the marketplace each day, there just wasn’t time to study and analyze the sales page vocabulary and hype.

So, the “mega-hype, greed-control” deceptions made their way to the Guru’s sales page.

Rationalization #2: The “Guru” paid to join a “super-high-priced” Mastermind group where the even bigger-name Guru convinced everyone that this “appeal to greed through skewed claims” is the way that marketing must proceed.

And although this just doesn’t feel, or seem to be “just right,” it is true that all the other folks in the Mastermind group are publishing the same “sham-faced” ads.

Rationalization #3: The Guru wishes that he or she could be honest and open about the product and believes in the product; even though the evidence shows that only two percent (2%) of the customers that purchase the product will make any money with it. But, he or she has a large staff…and those staff members have spouses, children, mortgages, college tuition, car payments, etc.

It would be ideal to run a “squeeky-clean” and ethical business and truth-in-advertising operation, but the prevailing marketplace doesn’t support or reward honesty.

Rationalization #4: The product is good, and carries the potential to deliver benefits for its customers. And, just because the “poor chump” that purchased the product failed to perform due diligence, and hasn’t a clue about what to do with the product; well, that’s the gullible customer’s problem.

Some of these high-end products and services seem equivalent to selling a Ferrari to an oil-rich eskimo on the North Slope Arctic tundra. Sure, a car with the potential to go 180 miles an hour was delivered; so is doesn’t matter that the tires spin and dig down into the permafrost and the car can’t go more than two feet from where the helicopter landed with it.

A Story: Teaching Fable

Then, I remembered a fable about a real Guru (teacher in India).

The Master assigned one of his disciples to travel to the marketplace and purchase a new cooking pot. The old pot that was used to cook rice needed to be replaced. The Master gave the student five Rupees

When the disciple returned to the ashram, beaming because he purchased the cooking pot for only four Rupees, and expecting praise, the Master began beating the student with a stick.

“But Master, didn’t I save one Rupee?” asked the student. “The pot was valued at eight Rupees, but I appealed to the religion of the merchant, and he agreed to sell the pot for only four Rupees.”

“Observe the bottom of the pot,” said the Master.

“There is a large hole in the pot, and we cannot prepare rice in it. This pot is useless, and you have lost four of our Rupees”

“But, how could the merchant have done this to us?” asked the student.

“The merchant is in business to make money, not practice religion,” said the Guru, “you should have examined the pot before purchasing it.”

A Better Way

Maybe I expect better behavior from the Internet Marketing Gurus. And I know that Brett McFall writes about a honest and ethical way to write sales copy. Of course, I haven’t read all 9,000 of McFall’s ads to know if he “practices what he preaches; but his writing give me hope that the Internet marketplace can clean itself and regulate itself.

Perhaps, instead of saying that “Everybody is doing it,” ethical marketers could “shame” their colleagues into writing transparent sales pages with verifiable potential earnings data.

But, in the final analysis, it it the customer that needs to demand “truth in advertising” standards from Internet marketers. (The FTC Dragon is already “sniffing out our industry with its fire-breathing nostrils, and regulation is looming.)

Besides, the quality and content of broadcast television shows us that the “sleaze” factor skewers the common denominator to lower and lower levels…as one broadcaster attempts to “out shock and out awe” to gain greater market share.

But, until we have Internet Marketing “Truth in Advertising,” or, FTC regulation, “Let the buyer beware!”

“A lot of people tend to assume that what I’m saying is to be “hypey”
and really “salesmansy” and “showmanship”. [sic] I’m not saying any of that. I don’t believe I’ve written a “hypey” ad ever in my life, because if it’s “hypey”, [sic] it
means it’s BS, right? I’ve lied. But if I tell you what you’re going to get from this
product and I’m going to tell you the benefit of it, that’s not hype. That’s telling
you what you need to know to make a decision.”

McFall, Brett (2005) e-book_marketing_gems p. 29 – 30
eBook Marketing Gems Transcript (PDF)

Here is a summary of the B.U.R.P.I.E.S Formula. It is really good, persuasive copywriting.

B – Big Promise – The Headline

Example: “Seven Good Reasons to Call Now!”

U – Use Imagination – The Clients’ or Customers’ imagination, that is

Create a storyline with mental pictures describing what it would be like using the advertised product or service

R – Rarity – What makes this product or service stand out. Note: Not the artificial “scarcity” tactics advocated created by copywriters of lesser talent and inferior skill

Example: Among our competitors, none offers this…

“Our competitors do such and such, but we…”

P – Points – Bullet Points

The Bullet Points relate to the headline and follow the formula…

“We offer ___ which means ____ (benefit) for you

(Note: Brett McFall would write “page after page” of Bullet Points, but match these Points to the Headline

I – Irresistible Offer –

This concept made famous by Mark Joyner and Gary Halbert

Get Mark Joyner’s Irresistible Offer book

Evidence – Proof, Guarantee

This concept was made famous by Jay Abraham, i.e., take away all risk in the offer

Answer all questions (objections) that clients might have, ahead of time

Example: “If you don’t like our product or service for any reason, period, you don’t pay.”

Best Guarantee in an Internet Marketing offer: “Use this product for 90 days. Pay at that time only if you are 100% thrilled with the product!”

Sidebar => How far the FTC should when it regulates Internet Marketing to quash inflated expectation of income claims. This would help the “cream rise to the top” and help the “bad die young.”

Add Testimonials – Add phone numbers of clients and customers who agree next to the testimonial

S – Sign Off – The “Call to Action”

Tell clients and customers exactly what to do to take action

Use Audio to reinforce what they should do

Make sure to tell them to “Do it now!”

B.U.R.P.I.E.S. Software

Brett McFall sells software that steps you through the B.U.R.P.I.E.S. development process through Clickbank.

But, try your hand at writing ads for a product using the B.U.R.P.I.E.S. Formula to be sure that the formula works.

Once you prove to yourself that the formula delivers, then purchase the software because it will save you time in writing future ads. It might also save time for you in creating ad variations that you can test against each other.

When your ad creation process is “standardized,” your job of testing is made easier.

Here is my Forum post about the need for this FTC intervention.

The "Internet Gurus" are bringing FTC Regulation to the Internet Marketing Industry because of deceptive practices and unsubstantiated claims.

Here are some of those "truth in sales" issues…

• Fine print hides the fact that the "results" reported (potential earnings from the use of the product) are atypical
• Statements that $x,xxx,xxx in sales were made in 24 hours disguises the fact that…
• The project took nine months to complete
• The "Guru" had a staff of 32 people working on the project
• An "Army of Buddies" promoted the product launch
• Commissions paid to Joint Venture (JV) partners and Affiliates ranged from 50% to 100%
• The product launch may have produced a loss in revenue, but money will be made on the "Back End"
• A careful description of what the purchaser needs to have in place (skills, staff, equipment, out source support, Joint Venture relationships, Affiliates, software, Web hosting, Web services, etc.) to actually use the product is missing
• More time and effort is put into the sales letter than into the product
• The market is manipulated with automation software and low-paid workers in India and the Philippines who tilt Search Engine results with articles, forum posts, Blog posts and Blog comments

What ethical marketers must do is comply with some standard of "Truth in Advertising."

Potential customers and clients need to be warned that they will derive limited (or zero) benefit from their purchases unless they have certain prerequisites.

An Internet Marketer that sells a product that they know that only two or three percent of the purchasers will be able to use that product brings the inevitable "Clumsy Hand" of bureaucratic regulators down upon the industry.

Many "Internet Marketing Gurus" have been thumbing their noses at the FTC and dancing on the edge of the "Ethical Behavior" foul line.

The "Get Rich" snake oil is being exposed for the "FlimFlam" that is is, and many of the Gurus will be out of business once ethical standards are in place.

Just wait until some sharp lawyers figure out that their is a huge "mother load" in class action lawsuits with all these Internet Marketing customers [all those people with zero Return on Investment (ROI) from their purchases] as clients.

The only method to stay in the Internet Marketing business long-term: ethical marketing practices.

Help in filing an FTC Complaint

If the complaint is against a US Company…

If the complaint is against a foreign company…