When is Enough really Enough?

Photo by TW Collins

Internet marketing has been around just about as long as the internet has been alive, but it seems to me that IM is really pushing into a level that it has never reached before.  I like to follow IM because, well let’s face it I am an entrepreneur at heart and what better way to merge my loves of business and the internet than internet marketing? However, it seems that just about everyone is a professional IM’er these days and it is getting very difficult to tell the difference between good solid business advice (content) and a good solid sales pitch.

People use the internet for many things, but mostly people just want to learn and/or be entertained. I happen to use the internet for both (among other things), but I particularly use the internet to learn how to make more money in the most efficient way possible. I read blogs religiously because they offer good content and I find free courses and videos to be very helpful in that respect. For this, I would like to thank internet marketers.

However, the creation of new and easy to use technology has made it possible for nearly anyone to become an expert at anything. I blog because I need an outlet for my thoughts and with a hope that somehow, if my content is worthwhile, I can make a little money on the side. Still, I never claim to be an expert unless it is a field I am an expert in (which there are very few).

The issue I have with internet marketing is not that more and more people are using the internet to try and make a buck, but that an amazing number of people are claiming to be experts on a variety of fields and thus deceiving the public and diluting the internet with bad content and advice. There are hundreds of free courses and online seminars that teach people to be experts without being one and so they take the course or watch the video and begin putting crap on the internet. Soon, thanks to the help of social marketing, this crap spreads and becomes a “good old boy” type of club where people help each other push their bad content out to the masses on a grand scale. As a result, unsuspecting people are spending hundreds of dollars a month or in some cases thousands of dollars buying bad products from people that don’t even know what they are talking about in a field they claim to be an expert in.

Sure, there could be an argument made for “buyer beware,” but the issue for me is one of morality and integrity. As custodians of the internet, it is our job to prevent this www from become a puddle of mud and instead push for progress. I don’t believing in keeping people from trying to make it in the IM world, but I do believe it is our job as readers to make sure the good content gets noticed and the bad is told it is so. There is no need to put good marketers on a pedestal or worship them like some sort of God.

Obviously, now I open myself up to a world of criticism on my own content, which is completely fair. I wouldn’t want it any other way. You could also blame me for trying to push my content to the masses with social networking, but the difference is that I don’t manipulate the system to my advantage at the disadvantage of my readers. I’m not selling anything but ad space and an affiliate product here or there. I appreciate all the help of my online network, but at the same time I ask you all to let me know if I put out crap. The only way to know good content from the bad sometimes is with the help of your peers and readers.

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