More on the state of Internet marketing

Me and my big mouth. No sooner did I make that crack asking if you’d seen my picture on a milk carton Sunday than this pic arrived in my email from my friend Bonnie Boots. Funny girl, that Bonnie Boots. Btw, if you need freelance writing or graphic work, check out Bonnie’s site.

I want to continue the discussion we started on Sunday about recent trends in online marketing, specifically to people like you and me that are interested in ways to make money online.

I also want to give you a quick heads-up on my Ebook Mastermind class. Only 19 seats left as I write this.

I’ll be speaking at Pat O’Bryan’s Unseminar III this weekend and offering the class to the attendees. I’ve sold out every class I’ve offered. Please go to http://ebookmastermind.com/ and sign up now if you’re serious about building an online business.

OK, end of commercial. Let’s talk marketing…

Last time, was talking about the ‘big launch’ where a marketer produces a $1,000+ product, gets all his heavy hitter friends to promote it by offering 50% commissions.

I also mentioned how there’s usually little time to actually review these huge packages before the launch date. There’s also a lot of pressure on these gurus to participate so that said marketer will promote the big package they plan on launching in the future.

One of the repercussions I’m seeing is that many people are unsubscribing from lists when they get this volley of emails.

In the ‘make money online’ niche, people often subscribe to 10 to 20 or more newsletters.

In your typical ‘big package’ launch, each JV partner sends out 3-5 emails (or more) promoting the big day. Well, you’ve probably seen what that leads to yourself. You end up getting dozens and dozens of emails promoting the big launch. And I know many of you get so frustrated, you start unsubscribing from multiple lists.

This is something I’m hearing about all the time. My students complain about it. My subscribes complain about it and I complain about it, too.

Yet marketers continue doing it. Why? Well, these people didn’t become top marketers by accident. I think that they hear the complaints but the results they’re getting are too tempting to give up.

After all, they reason, what’s a few lost subscribers compared to a big payday? Are they being short-sighted? I guess time will tell.

I think the people that can pull these promotions off successfully are the ones that weave their own story into the promotion rather than just sending out the cookie-cutter, me-too emails provided by the promoters.

That way, they’re talking about a hot topic but aren’t seen as just another copycat trying to make a fast buck.

That’s the lesson I’d take away from this. If you want to stand out and avoid alienating your audience, you better have something unique to say. If you don’t, you won’t have that audience for long.

Another major element of the big ticket package promotion is “The Manifesto”. It seems like all the big names are jumping on the bandwagon and making their big prediction for the future. Many of them are pretty gloomy.

Do they work? Are these heartfelt statements, an effective marketing tactic or just ego-driven diatribes?

We’ll talk about that next time. Until then, have a Happy Valentines day.