About the Author Michel Fortin
Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker, and consultant. Visit his blog and signup free to get tested conversion strategies and response-boosting tips by email, along with blog updates, news, and more! Go now to http://www.michelfortin.com. While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.
Dear Visitors,
I found Michel’s article in My Space and was very impressed. He wrote about my own thoughts, which I cannot express in english. I tried in my Welcome Post at Developyourskills.dysak.net.
Let me quote this part of my welcome post to get an understanding why Michel’s article impressed me that much.
Quote:
…So please don’t be shy, let us know about your way on the Internet and be very frank about it.
There is only one condition I have to insist on: Please stay with the truth, especially when you tell about bad experiences. You know the internet is worse than a boulevardmagazine and the reputation of somebody is very easily ruined. So if you have to critisize certain
businesses only do it if you can proof it. On the other hand the bad experiences are part of our way to success and it is my intention to help newbies not to waste money and time and to keep away from frivolus businesses.
If we try to convince newbies about the advantages of internet business it is our responsibility to do this in the most honest and serious way, without any hype and without any harm for them.
I think many of the advanced and successful internetmarketers should think about using phrases like “you get tons, thousands, hundreds of thousands dollars, subscribers within days, weeks, one month”.
Perhaps these phrases might be true for some of them, but they for sure are NOT true for most of us. And everybody who wants to be respected as serious and as a leader should stay to the truth or at least
to that what is truly realisable.
We all know, that it gets more and more difficult to succeed within short term, because the duplication of Internetmarketing has taken place for quite a few years, since the socalled gurus and internet millionaires made these experiences. We should just not exaggerate.
We should always try to justify the trust we so urgently need from those whom we want to convert to our customers…
End of Quote
I think, Michel did, what I was not able to do. He went into the deepth of the most important quality conditions:
Trust, Seriousity, Honesty, Ethics, Provide Original Valuable Content, which is of real advantage to prospects and customers.
Go on now and read his article. Always keep its content in mind on your way to become a respected Internet Entrepreneur and Leader.
“If you like to gamble, I tell you I’m your man. You win some, you lose some, it’s all the same to me. The pleasure is to play, it makes no difference what you say.”
— From “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead
I’m getting fed up.
It seems to me that product launches of late have less to do with substance and strategy, and more to do with tricks and tactics. Blame it on the economy. But I think we need to blame it on something else. Something more sinister.
In fact, have you not noticed that a growing number of marketers are urging you to join their “club,” as if it’s some secret, back-of-the-room, clandestine poker game?
Admittedly, gambling can be profitable. Very profitable. After all, the more you gamble, the greater you win, right? But do we really need to gamble?
What about the long-term? What about building businesses rather than just making money? What about investing instead? What about investing in your customers that can pay sometimes 10 to 100 times more over the long run?
For example, someone mentioned a new pay-per-follower program on Twitter. (Ugh. How is that any different than from spammers buying bulk email lists?) I responded, and this pretty much sums up my philosophy — it should be yours, too — with:
“I’d hate to treat my customers like prisoners or prostitutes.”
Worse yet, I’d hate to see them lose. Because when you gamble, there’s always a winner and a loser. And if you’re the one who wins, then… Well, do the math.
But what irks me even more — and I started a firestorm of debate on Twitter because of my rant — is that everyone is promoting the same product launch, often using the same gawdawful email copy, and often trying to outcompete each other with myriad bonuses.
(Let’s call it a “mega-launch.”)
My contention is that so many people are promoting the same thing, it’s getting sickening — let alone the fact that this only dilutes their value. Less signal, more noise. Whatever happened to being unique, serving your customers, and offering quality information?
Why am I saying all this?
This week my inbox got flooded with the same product launch emails. Bleeech!
I’ve said this before, but my good friend Paul Myers said it best when he said: “Internet marketers are a bunch of incestuous cannibals.” How true that has become.
Some marketers have even slipped in the “club” word in their promotional messages of late, as if it’s some inside joke that only its members would get.
Really? Wow. Are we that naive?
Don’t join the club. Don’t drink the kool-aid. Don’t be sheeple. And if you don’t know what “sheeple” means, take a look at this definition. The passage I like and want to note is this one:
“Sheeple: persons who voluntarily acquiesce to a perceived authority, or suggestion without sufficient research to fully understand the scope of the ramifications involved in that decision, and thus undermine their own human individuality.”
If you want another example, read the chapter, titled “Cult Leaders,” in my wife Sylvie Fortin’s InternetMarketingSins.com free downloadable ebook.
Be a contrarian. Be unique. Be above it.
Simply, as Earl Nightingale once said, “Don’t copy. Create!”
Or as I often say, “Don’t duplicate. Differentiate.”
Instead of promoting the same product mega-launch everyone and their pet rock is promoting, or worse yet piling on bonuses — bonuses you used to sell and that people have paid full price for, no doubt — trying to outdo competing affiliates, why don’t you offer something new? Something different? Something better?
(And believe me, after seeing the quality of some of the information out there these days, there’s definitely plenty of opportunities for something better.)
Seth Godin taught us about the power of the “Purple Cow.” That is, the idea that you need to be creative enough to come up with a unique product, service, or offering to set yourself apart from the crowd… one that can sell itself based on its own merits.
But some people on Twitter have remarked that it’s hard work. I agree it’s work. But you don’t have to have a “purple cow.” Maybe just paint your barn doors purple.
It’s a great start. 
And by gosh, why don’t you at least zoom in on your core competency, focus on your niche, and cultivate or communicate what makes you unique? I mean, there’s always something unique about you. For starters, there’s only one “you!”
Or, what twist can you give yourself, your product, or your offer to make you appear unique? Even better, how can you serve your market in a unique way?
Be bold. Be different. Bedazzle.
There are many examples. For one, take a look at copywriter Randy Gage’s article or visit dentist Paddi Lund’s website. They dared to be different!
Stop doing what everyone else is doing. And please, stop trying to be all things to all people. I know it’s not easy, and it doesn’t have to be some ultra-targeted micro-niche, either. You can go after a mass market, as long as you do, or offer, something different.
Unfortunately, I know people are hurting right now, and some marketers know this all too well — never mind the FUD (i.e., “fear, uncertainty, and doubt”) they create in order to exploit it. People are scared of “different,” but many gurus instill this mindset, too.
They compound it by saying the usual buzzwords or phrases people want to hear, like, “Do what is proven,” “you don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” “I made it easy for you,” “it’s a turnkey business,” “just duplicate my successful model,” etc.
However, you definitely can be a little different. Brian Tracy once said many have made millions by just being 10% different. Yes, just a tiny bit different.
A great example? Wendy’s® makes burgers, just like every other fast-food burger joint. But their patties have corners. They are square, not round.
Get the picture?
I understand being different is a risk. Promoting the same things as everyone else has little risk, especially if it’s proven to sell. But gains are commensurate with risks. The bigger the risk, the larger the profit windfall.
Sure, you can lose big, too. But you can also take calculated risks and reduce your potential downside. Such as by taking…
… Baby steps.
In fact, particularly because everyone is promoting the same thing, right now is a perfect opportunity to be different and go against the grain. Think about it. If everyone does the same thing, how much more eye-gravity, curiosity, and interest can you almost instantly create by being different?
Needless to say, a lot of people will rebut with, “But isn’t promoting something my audience will love or benefit from a service to them, and not a disservice?”
The question you should ask is, are you really serving your customers by forcing them to do what everyone else is doing?
If everyone implements the newfangled cookie-cutter strategy being taught in mega-launches, it will result in its dilution, more footprints, greater penalization risk (remember the infamous “Google Slap”?), less interest, more competition, etc.
Some have said, “But Michel, most people who buy this stuff will never take action, which makes the strategies potentially beneficial for those who implement them.”
True. But are we talking strategies, here? Or tactics? Are we talking principles? Or drive-by marketing ploys that exploit weaknesses rather than serve customers?
Plus, don’t be so naive to think that marketers expect everyone to implement what they teach. In fact, they not only expect that only a few will, they also rely on it.
They also rely on the fact that many will implement what they teach, and implement it badly. So badly, in fact, that these marketers are killing their own competition.
They’re doing it subtly. Inconspicuously. Unsuspectingly.
So when everyone is doing what, er, everyone is doing, it can and does result in expensive, longlasting ramifications.
If you’re tempted to join the “club,” try to game a system, or want to gamble with your customers, remember the old adage, “the house always wins.”
Here’s one final issue.
Many people don’t dare to be different, not because it’s risky or scary, but because it takes work. And, because they’re expecting those they emulate or promote for will reciprocate.
Just like the whole autofollow fiasco on Twitter, where people follow others with the sole expectation of a follow-back (and this is just as disingenuous as autofollow), people promote for others expecting others to promote for them in return.
In some cases, that won’t ever happen. After all, a lot of marketers are doing it only for themselves — and they justify it with, “Hey, isn’t that why I pay affiliate commissions for?”
But in other cases, it will happen, thus perpetuating the whole cyclical, incestuous, let’s-all-promote-each-other, mega-launch madness that needlessly clogs our inboxes.
(A term of a sexual nature comes to mind that would befit as an analogy, but I’ll refrain. I’d like to keep my blog somewhat PG-rated. Let’s just say, it’s made up of two words that sound like a geometric shape and a Steve Martin movie.)
In short, don’t sell products, serve people.
Don’t follow everyone else, start your own following.
If you want some ideas on how you can be different, read one of my earlier blog posts on how to be the first, not the best. Being different nowadays can be as simple as not doing what everyone else is doing. You don’t need a complete overhaul, either.
You just need to, at the very least…
… Think differently.
OK, my rant’s over. So let me close by asking you, what makes you different or unique? Or what can you make unique? And how do you communicate it? I’m listening…
UPDATE #1: Some people have commented that I’m against product launches. Not at all. Product launches are incredibly profitable, for good reason. Problem is, when everyone is in on a product launch, the signal-to-noise ratio diminishes. All I’m saying is that I’m miffed that there’s not enough uniqueness or alternatives to compensate.
Also, some people (many, actually) have wondered why I don’t name names. Some have said they want me to, to confirm, for them, who I’m speaking out against. Well, I don’t want to name names for three reasons…
- I want to refrain from fingerpointing anyone. I want to focus on bad behaviors and practices, not people. Besides, my rants won’t change these folks. They’re meant to make readers who are contemplating these tactics to think before they jump off the proverbial cliff.
- When naming names, it reduces my rant to a petulant whine or complaint, with no basis or merit. I’d rather rant about what irks me, and by the same token offer an alternate solution to counter it — just like my wife did in her Internet Marketing Sins report.
- Finally, and probably more importantly, by naming names I’m pigeonholing specific marketers (when many of them are not alone). It could be misleading. The problem with this is, readers will think, “He talked about guru [X], but my guru is [Y], so I guess what guru [Y] says or does is acceptable,” when it’s not.
Makes sense?
UPDATE #2: Just got this interesting video by Bryan Bliss. He makes some excellent points, especially comparing product launches to politics. Makes perfect sense. Take a look…
Here are some more thoughts and comment which came up when reading Michel’s article:
What about an affordable training to teach them how to be unique from the very beginning?
I’m trying to convince them, not to work for others any more, but for themselves.
www.dysak.biz/webservice/mlmpromotion
I used MLM as an example.
Look at all the video tutorials talking about registering a domain. O yes that is so easy, and beginners are wasting their money on domains, which later are useless, because nobody tells them how to search for the best domainname for their business. I did not know either, when I started. I did not know how important it is, to build your own name, your own authority. But instinctively I used my own name for my first domain. I did not have any niche at that time, I did not have any businessplan, I just had some ideas, which I tried and never succeeded, because I knew just nothing.
You can read all kind of books, how should you know which are worth to follow their instructions. You do not know, before you bought them and even then you do not know as a beginner.
Can you trust the reviews? Can you trust testimonials?
Who can tell the beginners, how they should proceed to avoid wasting money for products which are not worth the webspace they need.
Why do the merchants write salescopies, which are about 1 to 2 meters long, and at least repeat 3 times the same content in other words. Who has the time to read this salescopies? I just hate them and am looking for the price first. If I cannot afford it, I do not read it at all. If I can afford I read the benefits, the features and 2 or 3 testimonials. All the rest is just wasted time.
If somebody wrote a book, he should be able to write a salesletter too. Who but himself knows his product the best? So a short, precise salespage should convince more then those terribly long stories about of course "no hype". I think, the money-back-guarantee makes it very simple to keep salesletters short.
Where will all the bonusoffers end up, if we do not start stopping this nonsense. Let’s put in 2 or 3 really valuable products and that’s it.
Don’t you think that honesty does not need 2 or 3 pages of salescopy?
Tell the customers what the product is about, its features and benefits and then let your customers build their own opinion by trying it. And if it is a personal service you offer, have first a free of charge discussion with your customer to find pout, what exactly he wants and then offer partial payment. One after ordering, one after submitting the draft and the rest, when your customer is satisfied with your service and the results.
I think a lot of gurus need to listen to the demand of their customers more then reading and publishing their testimonials.
Let’s try to get much more constructive critics from those, who are not satisfied with the handling of internet marketing.
And please stop overwhelming your prospects and customers with articles and offers. I guess most of them are just highlighting and deleting their mails. One information and one offer per week are really enough, especially when you think about the hordes you are subscribed with. 10 times/day the same offer from hundred lists is just too much. I stopped reading my mails. So sometimes I am missing real good information, but I cannot help it. Cannot spend 4 hours a day to find out, which mails are worth reading them. So bye bye to most of them.
So now I wrote enough about all the wasted time for internet marketing.
Let’s come back to the really important things, keep your prospects and customers happy and deliver them little but very valuable content.
Let people the time to earn money to be able to buy from you.
All the best and big success to all of you
Renate Schedl
