Vote With Your Feet!

I mentioned it in Tip 6: Understand The (Evil) Tricks of the Trade, but if you haven’t done it you must go and watch the fantastic video demonstration called “IM Victim Services: Beware Of Scandal” (better referred to as “outing the unethical scam marketers) on Mark Dulisse’s Blog – watch the video, read the comments, and absorb it all.

Remember the line “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this any more!“? Well, that’s how I feel after seeing the scum selling scrap with their stock-format sales pages so many times in recent months. This has been happening for years, but it’s becoming an epidemic as these people steal money from (mostly) newcomers to the online business world. And, as Mark highlights, there seems to be a clique of UK-based marketers locking in on this formula.

I see part of my job as buying some of these products, just so I can be able to advise my friends and readers who ask whether they’re worthwhile. I’m getting to the point where just the sound of one of those polished Brit accents makes me either want to close the page or be sick on the keyboard. Every nation has its scammers, and the UK has some great people (like Alex Jeffreys and Lee McIntyre), but it just seems there’s a Mayfair Mafia in action at the moment, all supporting each other and all copying each other’s evil lies and sales tricks.

And Vote with The Refund Button!

We must protest! A lot of newcomers don’t realise how painless it is to get a refund from places like ClickBank, or feel embarrassed to do so. Don’t feel embarrassed, you’ve been lied to and cheated – just do it! I don’t just refund these products, I give both ClickBank and the vendor an earfull about the deceptive tactics (when I am going to buy anything, I always save copies of the sales pages, videos and everything else through the process so I can go back and compare what I received to what I was promised.

Don’t just refund, tell them why – and tell them you believe in ethics in marketing and will never deal with them until they show they’ve changed.

Next, give every affiliate promoting this rubbish a quiet word as well – pointing out that even though they might not realise it, they are promoting junk and earning themselves a bad name. Tell them you’re not interested in hearing from them again unless they, too, start believing in ethics in marketing.

And Vote with the Unsubscribe Link!

After you’ve sent the marketer an email telling them what you think of their tactics, point out you will be unsubscribing and do so immediately. Tell anyone who’ll listen to do the same.

Then do exactly the same with the affiliates. Both are people you don’t really want to hear from again because you can’t trust them!

If enough of us refund, unsubscribe, and tell these people exactly why we are doing it, perhaps they’ll re-think their tactics and some sanity will return to the Internet Marketing World.

Naming Names

The big problem with publishing the names of these people, or the products that identify them, in the same breath as calling them liars, scammers and scum is the possibility of law suits. I’d love to list a bunch of names here (and there are several mentioned on Mark’s Blog), but I’m wary.

However, I think I’m going to start an entirely different thread soon, listing what I buy and making comments on the products. For some products the only comment will be “Refunded”.

Let’s beat some sense into them!

What do you think? Are you refunding things, or have you bit your lip and stuffed the rubbish in the digital bottom drawer?