Marketers and SEO folks multiply content, fabricate comments and outsource link-building so that words abound like so many high-calorie but empty of nutrition fluff-foods.

Google and Bing will have arrived when their algorithms learn to dump this SEO junk before indexing it, and find really satisfying content.

Web 4.0 and Web 5.0 content will be as similar to real foods (i.e., organic vegetables, fish, meat and potatoes, salad, fruit, stir-fry) as junk food (i.e., fast-fat, bloat-enabling, tummy-protruding, gout-intensifying, not-fit-for-pigs) content slop is not.

One marketer complained the 15,000 Internet Marketer accounts were canceled by Google. A lot more of these drivel-mavens have to go. Perhaps Google could join forces with the FTC and shake out the dead wood, rotten wood and warped wood that comprises most of Internet Marketing today.

The Internet is a true “Buyer-Beware” marketplace.

(Note: This is my response to a copyrighted E-mail message sent by Mike Filsaime concerning the sale of his 7-Figure Course. That message could not be reprinted here because it contained a copyright.)

Quoted copyright from that message…
“(c) 2009, MikeFilsaime.com, Inc.
3555 Veterans Memorial Hwy, Suite C, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779, USA”

Here is the text of my E-mail response to that high-powered sales message…
_____

I don’t need another copy of the 7-Figure Code. I already have two printed copies. I don’t need another copy of the Butterfly Marketing Manuscript. I have one printed copy, and I also have an electronic copy.

I also don’t want to spend $15 for more copies of the same materials, and I don’t want to sign up for any more of your newsletters. I found that Matt Bacak’s and Russell Brunson’s newsletters to be much better for my needs than your newsletters.

I expected that access to the online 7-Figure course materials to be free, as advertised, but the $15 is not free.

Since I read the 7-Figure Code and Butterfly manuals, I am not sure that the online 7-Figure Course content is worth $15.

Please provide the totally free online content that your ads seemed to promise.

Since I read your defensive E-mail concerning all the people that wrote comments that you deleted and who posted Blog comments; I know that lots of other folks believed that the offer ads failed to live up to the promises that those ads made.

Subtle or distracting wording probably fails to meet the intent of the new FTC regulations that require transparency.

“Totally free” means absolutely no cost. $15 for shipping and handling of products that we don’t need is a cost that is substantially higher than “free.”

If you have trouble unloading 10,000 copies of these (not really free) manuals as your last E-mail plea suggests; even though E-mail sales pitches were sent to over 1,000,000 E-mail addresses touting the offer may indicate that…

1.) The market was already saturated with these manuals
2.) Each person received hundreds of the same E-mail offers as I did
3.) The perceived value of the manuals failed to exceed the cost of shipping and handling
4.) Folks were irritated (even angry) that the free offer turned out cost $15.
5.) Electronic copies of those manuals could have been placed on a DVD (with a higher perceived value) and sold at cost, including shipping for $1.75.
6.) The flood of negative Web 2.0 social media publicity cast too much doubt as to the value of this offer

Hopefully, you didn’t print all 10,000 manuals ahead of time, and only your reputation, not your pocketbook, suffered from this launch.

It will take some time before the current crop of Internet Marketing “gurus” learn to transition to the new FTC requirements for transparency and accurate (no fine print) advertising. So look for quite a few other “gurus” to retire or go out of business.

Hopefully, you won’t be one of the high profile marketers that the FTC chooses to use as a test case to compensate for the FTC’s lack of investigative, regulatory compliance and enforcement personnel.

Thank you.

Joseph Chmielewski, M.S., L.P.C.

Dear Congressman Smith:
 
Here are the comments that you requested.  Your survey card was crafted in a way that guarantees that the answers reflect a narrow, politicized (party) view of pressing issues.

Here is what you need to know, and what you need to do.

Reject the gridlock-oriented party politics of the past and get behind our president. President Obama is a novice and learning the ropes; and he needs your guidance.

What you need to do is learn from President Clinton’s playbook and develop legislation that is moderate and centrist.  Both the Democratic platform and the Republican platforms are stilted and dangerous. Neither party has enough answers to benefit our country. Both party platforms get issues wrong more than they get issues right.

Your cooperation by doing what is right for our country means rejecting the extremes of both parties and helping President Obama get on track. By your extreme resistance, you are driving President Obama into the arms of the extremist Democrats who you vow to resist because their ideas are just as bad for our country as the ideas of extremist Republicans.

Your resistance to doing what is needed (moderate, centrist) for our country guarantees that President Obama will become a Carter-like “One Term Wonder,” but the backlash to the extremes of President Bush go too far in the other direction…and our country continues to suffer for lack of moderate leadership.

Obstinate and wrong-headed Republican and Democratic policies, sticking to extremes and lack of cooperation make both parties look like children on a sandlot…one has the ball, one has the bat…and no one gets to play because they can’t  agree.

My advice to both parties: Grow up! Put our country’s need before party ideology. Finally do the job that you were elected to do. Or, go home and let country-first, party-politics last folks replace you.

Send President Obama the kind of legislation that makes him look like the best president ever, quit squabbling. Send legislation that is good for America, legislation that Democrats can’t refuse to get behind because they would look like quacks, charlatans and idiots.

Right now, both parties look like stooges…hostages of their party ideologies.

It is time for creative, collaborative thinking and cooperative action.

In a way, the scandals reflecting lobbyist and special interest influence in our legislative process act as a smokescreen and a distraction from our legislative dilemma; i.e., trusting in two political parties to do the work that we need when neither of those parties has the wherewithal to deliver unless they work together on centrist common ground.

Please quit being a Republican and become an advocate for America. Reject Democrat ideology and reject Republican ideology, and build a coalition of folks who want real change.

President Obama was elected to bring change to our country because his predecessor damaged our country and our country’s reputation. But, that change was supposed to be a benefit to our country. We were supposed to see cooperation, not a Democratic agenda that will prove just as defective and just as detrimental to our country as that of President Bush.

So, take true leadership and get off the Republican stonewall. Stop the Democratic mule that is heading over the precipice by offering the carrots and sugar of reasonable, cooperative legislation that will stop their blind charge to disaster in its tracks.

Please do what our county needs, and please do what our country needs soon.

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.

Then, we learned that the Sun was the center of our solar system. Now we know that the Universe is about 13 billion years old, and that the Earth is more like the “dust on the dust on the dust of the dust” in importance, size and grandeur.

But folks with expanded perception tell us that this “huge, billions of galaxies” physical universe hangs like a tiny little basket with a golden halo in the incredibly wider, broader, deeper and multidimensional reality of the Astral Plane.

Maybe it’s time to quit thinking that the physical Universe is the center of creation?

Here is the issue…

Many of the Marketers who provided testimonials for the “Advanced Twitter Marketing” product also created sites with the standard…

* Reviews
* Domain Names as variations of “Advanced Twitter Marketing”

Of course, this affiliate relationship leads to doubting the product’s value since the social proof comes from folks with a vested interest.

When I write a review, my reputation is on the line, and there cannot be any profit motive influencing the straight talk, “tell-t-like-it-is” review.

With upcoming FTC regulation of the Internet Marketing space, all affiliate relationships will be required to be divulged.

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.”

His best contribution was the concept of “Multiple Intelligences.”

It is not that these constructs exist in separate realities, but that these ideas break free from the obsolete notion of Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

The point: People have unique patterns of learning and unique patterns of mental, emotional and behavioral processing.

Howard Gardner lists the “Five Minds” as:

• The Synthesizing Mind
• The Creating Mind
• The Disciplined Mind
• The Ethical Mind
• The Respectful Mind

These are more like descriptions of attitudes than the identification of mental functions.

However, there are “Multiple Minds” that are associated with Altered States of Awareness. These include:

• The Body-Mind – Consciousness of the Body, part of the Personal Unconscious
• The Conscious Mind – Mind of the Self
• The Astral Mind – The Mind of Dreams and Past Lives
• The Super Conscious Mind (Mind of the Soul
• The Collective Unconscious – Connection with Consciousness of the Human Race
• The Causal Mind – our Connection with Thought and Being beyond Ourselves

These “Multiple Minds” are easy to explore with the many relics of Altered States awareness:

• Meditation and Concentration
• Dreams and Lucid Dreaming
• Hypnosis and Self-Hypnosis
• Music and Creative Expression
• Trance Dance and other Trance-Inducing Activities
• NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP)
• Chanting
• Breathing Exercises
• Prayer
• Astral Travel

In particular, the techniques of Creative Imagination and Creative Revision provide a workshop for study and use of our “Multiple Minds.”

NLP provides a vehicle for rapidly, even instantaneously, remolding or reworking or revising the past. The basic techniques for doing this include:

• Reframing
• Anchoring
• Repairing Beliefs
• Installing More Adaptive and Useful Mental Processes

In summary, Howard Gardner’s Five Minds represent an investigation into (and an abstract description of) interpersonal and intrapersonal and collective meta-process.

These are higher-order organizations, similar to abstractions such as:

• The Executive Mind
• The Managerial Mind
• The Marketing Mind
• The Mind of a Sales Person
• The Mind of a Leader
• The Mind of a Soldier
• The Entrepreneur Mind

These can be considered “Mindsets” rather than separate minds.

But our “Multiple Minds” are organic, basic, integral, structural and non-abstract. Our “Multiple Minds” are the building blocks of our conscious reality. Experiment with your “Multiple Minds” and see, feel, hear, touch and perceive their reality.

Some others might label such a person, a “Type A” personality.

The fact is that our bodies perform a huge amount of maintenance work during the time that we sleep. So much that, people who spend less time sleeping tend to gain (or retain) more weight. Our bodies use up lots of calories during this nightly repair routine.

But, there are plenty of other uses for sleep. These include:

• Dreaming
• Problem Solving
• Creative Idea Incubation
• Stress Relief
• Insight – Ah Ha!

And, there are a lot of uses for the time, just before falling asleep:

• Programming our Dreams
• Programming for Brainstorming
• Programming for the Next Day
• Prayer for Others
• Self-Affirmations
• Self-Suggestions for Improved Self-Esteem, Improved Self-Confidence, Improved Interpersonal Relationships

There are also a lot of uses for the time just after we awake:

• Programming our Day
• Setting our Goals and Priorities
• Reviewing (Recording) our Dreams
• Adjusting our Attitude for the Day
• Meditation

During sleep, we enter several levels, or Altered States of Awareness. Some of these Altered States are akin to hypnosis, and programming ourselves just prior to sleep so that we use positive goal-directed suggestions is a productive use of sleep.

Upon awakening, instead of jumping up and rushing through our day, we can also focus on Affirmations and Autosuggestion.

Analysis and interpretation of our dreams also broadens our insights and intuitions. Our dreams contain more value to us than a most people discover because most people don’t pay attention to their dreams.

Dreams can:

• Analyze Other People, and Analyze Ourselves
• Provide Solutions to Problems
• Provide Clues and Strategies for More Productive Living
• Show us how to Interpret Other People
• Teach us a Visual Language, a Language of Metaphor
• Anchor Learning into Long-Term Memory
• Desensitize us from Phobias
• Show us Glimpses of the Future
• Show us Glimpses of our Past Lives
• Show us Glimpses of Other Dimensions

It is easy to reframe these uses of sleep and adjust our attitude that “Sleep is a waste of time.”

A bit of experimentation will open plenty of new vistas and new horizons for our sleep time.

Relax and let go, and discover that you have a lot of abilities and skills that reside in areas of your mind and your being beyond the highly-stressed, outcome-obsessed focus of your conscious mind.

Your conscious mind usually thinks in a linear, sequential fashion, but sometimes, other modes of thought are more productive.

Your conscious mind exercises executive functions, but other functions, i.e., managerial, creative, interpretive, intuitive, communicative, memory, habit integration and self-talk reside outside the conscous mind.

Using sleep to its full measure of profitability and productivity is easy and balances our lives.

Find the ways that are easy for you to use sleep, and you will reward yourself.