Has Information Marketing Become a Shady Business? Part 2

In my previous article on this topic, I discussed the many critical components of an effective sales process used in online information marketing. An effective sales process is one that connects with its audience. It is meant to stir emotions, identify a problem, offer solutions to the problem and proof that the solutions work. The most important part of the entire process is to get the audience to take the action necessary to ensure the sale is ultimately made.

An effective sales process is one that is very carefully and cleverly planned out, tested and refined in order to deliver maximum results. And that's great - there is nothing at all wrong with a well orchestrated marketing and sales process. What I have a major issue with - and I'm sure I speak for many when I say this - is when conniving and lying are woven into the process. When the only goal of an information peddler is to get into your wallet and ethics be damned is when information marketing gets a bad name (and reputation).

And almost always, the information being sold by those who use unethical tactics is very generic in nature and the subject matter is on how to sell information - how ironic is that?

I'd like to tell you about an experience I had recently with an outfit calling themselves "Underground Cash Secrets". (For the remainder of this article I'll refer to this outfit as UCS.) I'm telling you this story in order to help you ferret out fraud to make sure you'll be dealing with ONLY legitimate marketers who operate ethical businesses. UCS was one of the worst examples I've ever seen of the low level some charlatans will stoop in order to get money from your pocket in the name of information marketing. And, believe me, there are a lot of UCS's out there now.

The landing page (a.k.a. sales letter) used to peddle the info package UCS made available for sale was text book and one of the best I'd ever seen. It had the all important, attention grabbing headline in red font face. It had red sub heads throughout the letter in order to keep your attention. It had an audio greeting, pictures of exotic sports cars and mansions, generic pictures of bank statements showing large balances and loads of testimonials. This letter had ALL the elements required to stir a person's interest and to get the sale closed. This sales letter also made claim that the 32 year old person behind UCS was sooooo successful, that he was literally living the life of a rock star.

Of course, this sales letter offered a TON of free bonuses. For buying the primary package being offered, the buyer would receive an additional $2189.94 worth of free bonuses. This is just one of the sleazy tactics used in order to chisel money from your pocket. I understand it's important that the buyer feel they're receiving great value for their money. But, come on, $2200 worth of additional freebies just for spending $49? I personally find this tactic very offensive. I mean, how stupid do these people think we are?

Another all too familiar tactic used is the scarcity angle. The idea is to make you feel that your time to buy the information package is very limited so you better act right now. The UCS web site claimed that only 1000 packages were being made available for sale and there were only 37 left. Once those final 37 were sold, the offer would be gone for good. What nonsense! First of all, for the past several months that I've monitored this site, the number has never changed. The ongoing claim is that only 37 of these wonderful packages are available. Second of all, why would someone who has become so successful selling info online stop at 1000 units sold? If they were able to sell 50,000 units, why wouldn't they do it?

After looking at this sales letter with a huge, skeptical "Yeah Right", I clicked on the link for the transaction page. I don't know why, I really had no intention of buying what was being offered. When I went to close the transaction page, an exit message popped up announcing a "Today only deep discount". The message was now offering me the $49 package for only $17 - this was the discounted price that UCS normally offers to family and friends; or so said the pop up message. This just shows how desperate this particular charlatan was to get any amount of money that he possible could from his site visitors.

Again, for a reason I'm not even sure of, I went back to the transaction page where I was now able to buy this package for $17 (mind you, including the $2200 worth of free bonuses). Now, does this smack of fraudulent nonsense or is it just me? For a second time I proceeded to close out the transaction page and again, an exit message popped up now offering this package for $7. Imagine that, the shyster behind this web site was that desperate to get something - anything - from his visitors, he was now willing to sell the package for only a few bucks.

Well, this time I figured what the heck - for $7 I'll get this package that was originally $49. Try this for yourself next time - I've found that the exit pop-up is becoming more and more popular amongst information marketers.

In the end, by purchasing the package being offered by UCS, I found myself in possession of several hundred copyright free articles and e-books. What I've decided to do is make ALL of these materials FREE on my web site. Simply visit my site, peruse the directories to be found there and help yourself to any and all of them. Truthfully, the information being offered by the UCS web site is terrific information. Obviously, it's the low down, underhanded tactics used to make the sale that I took issue with.

I hope I didn't sound too cynical in this article towards information marketing. I've purchased tons of great information online. What I set out to do was tip you off to the fraudulent tactics used by some - certainly, not all - online info marketers. My intention is to help you avoid getting taken by the growing number of snake oil salesmen to be found online today.

The internet has become the number one most significant business tool created by mankind. Used properly, you can use the internet to research, start, run and effectively market a business of your own. Exercise a little caution when using the web and you'll be sure to thrive in a supportive environment while at the same time, staying clear of those who seek to prey on the dreams of decent folks.