This week a video of a couple became very popular in the internet marketing commumnity because they were (allegedly) making 2-5 million dollars per month. Those are astronomical figures, but when you look deeper into exactly how that money was made you see they were making it selling diet patches. Yes diet patches.
Pretty soon after hearing that images were conjured up in my brain of scammy sales people on late night infomercials making slick promises such as "slap it on and the fat is gone!"
I'm not sure why people think diet patches work. Maybe it's the promise for people who are desperate that they can put it on and the pounds will melt away. Maybe it's the copywriting or the fake testimonials. Who knows.
Further investigating revealed reports at the rip off report and plenty of unhappy customers. Now, there will always be someone who will raise the flag on any product- whether or not it is really a scam- but there were so many complaints it was hard to ignore. Immediately red flags and alarm bells were going off.
Further digging also revealed this product had no customer support whatsoever and the FTC was investigating the company and its affiliates. The couple were selling their secrets for a big ticket price at a seminar two years ago. Now it became clear how these individuals made their money.
While looking through my inbox later that day and I saw some very big names in the internet marketing industry promoting this product(possibly as affiliates). I was shocked. Some were individuals I trust and take their recommendations very seriously.
It may or may not be their fault they are promoting that certain product. Maybe an assistant sent those emails for them. Maybe they sent it themselves without checking the facts first. Whatever the case due diligence should have been taken before recommending something.
I am not immune to this. Earlier today I came across an email from a well known video site informing me of an upcoming teleseminar promoting a big ticket course on how to leverage your business with press releases and the media. The commissions earned on this product are a couple hundred dollars per item sold. That sounded good enough to me. I had never heard of the individual promoting it but he looked and sounded professional enough.
I put up the offer on this blog and went about my activities. An hour later I decided to do some research on the guest of this teleseminar. I came across a couple of websites that didn't exactly have glowing opinions about this individual. Then I came across some videos at YouTube.
After watching the behavior of this individual in a couple of videos and how he treated guests on national television I immediately scrambled to delete the post promoting the teleseminar. I am not going to promote that teleseminar or any products it offers- no matter what the commissions. If this individual was treating guests on his show like that I can only imagine what he would treat affiliates and customers like.
This reminded me there is a marketing responsibility of making sure your customers actually get value out of the products you recommend them. It also reminded me whatever your do online reflects on you. Make sure the products do what they say they do. If you wouldn't recommend something to your own family then why would recommend something to your customers? You are putting yourself at risk for trouble, not only in the form of a ruined reputation but also lawsuits. You are also putting your customers at risk. It doesn't benefit anyone.
The internet allows us to see individuals in 3D. No one is one dimensional on the internet. People can do a Google search on you, go to internet forums and get opinions about you and your products, etc...
The internet also allows marketers to do this same kind of research on products they are about to promote. Just basic scanning of the website can give you clues. If it doesn't have customer support or an email that customers can reach someone if they need help, don't promote it. Save yourself a tarnished reputation and more importantly save your customers from headaches.
I'm not always the best marketer and today I slipped up a bit but I do have a conscious and know a fundamental rule of business- always do the right thing.
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