Hype in Online Business

Once upon a time when Earth did not commercialize the internet invention, someone published an ad in a national newspaper saying "Send Me $1 and I will show you how to become a millionaire"

People from all the over the place sent their $1 dollar bills waiting to get the secret recipe to become millionaires. A few weeks later they received the following note "Repeat what I have done and you will become a millionaire. I have just become one from the same ad you responded to"

I believe that this person has set the ground for most of today's business ideas that we find on the internet. The idea includes all the usual hype that we read in many sales letters today:

1-A simple task that does not require much of your daily time.
2-A simple system to copy.
3-No sales
4-No phone calls
5-No sponsorships
6-Takes 30 minutes to implement.
7-You can repeat it as many times as you want
8-Start earning thousands within a couple of weeks
9-A minimum investment

As you can see that the idea and the copy did not make a single lie, yet do you think that the ones who received the note appreciated the clever business idea?

I am sure that their disappointed was great although their loss was one single dollar. Now that person was lucky since he did not want to make a business out of this idea. It was a hit and run operation.

The online business world today acknowledges the fact that such an activity is completely unacceptable. But the contradiction between what is known to be as unacceptable and what we are seeing actually happening even from some of the prominent names in the industry is very evident.

We are still seeing messages such as "Start earning immediately," "Start cashing within a couple of weeks." I know that many will have examples of people who actually hit gold within days of their experience, but can we actually take those experiences and make the audience expect such results for any person who ventures into online business.

Today e-mail inboxes are full of messages regarding the importance of building lists. We all know that this activity alone does not happen either over night or in a couple weeks. So how can we start suggesting to a new person that he/she should be expecting to earn money within days?

The funny thing regarding the List Building sales letters is that they are now promising that their systems would help generate massive lists within days as well.

The Mortar and Brick business world is struggling today to become customer centric organizations. Yet all they do is concentrate their resources on developing efficient processes for cost cutting purposes without any consideration to the customer. The dilemma that the offline business world is living today with regard their truthfulness in becoming customer centric organizations is manifested in the online business arena through the wish of avoiding hype.

What I cannot understand is that every single person who is involved in online business is aware of the negative bottom line effects that hype has, still they cannot avoid being involved at least partially in providing hyped promises.

Whether selling to the end user or encouraging affiliates to sell products, a hyped message will dramatically affect business continuity. Therefore, the online business today has a void for a combined offering that has both a solid product/program and realistic and hype-free promises and claims. The first to fill this void will reap huge benefits in the online marketplace.

A well established name in online business will have a better opportunity at filling this void and reaping the benefits than a new person who is still starting in this marketplace. Yet the challenge for those who are well established to change their ways from partially hyped messages to a complete hype-free environment is tremendous. Accordingly, someone who is new to the industry but committed to providing a consistent and continuous hype-free messages, might be able to surprise the well established.

I hope that this article does not come across as an accusation to prominent online business people that they are promoting hype, yet it comes as a red flag to all involved in online business who are shaping the environment and culture of this marketplace.