When I want to netowork with other Internet Marketers I usually always go to Mom Masterminds. Partially this is because the wise and wonderful ladies that congegrate there have helped me boost my business greatly during my time there. But there is another reason why I love Mom Masterminds AND the ladies who network there….because there is no BS, no get rick quick schemes, and no black hat advice. They are all ethical marketers.
Another forum I occasionally visit is the Warrior forum and I am usually disappointed by the “type” I meet there. A few weeks ago I dropped by and saw a popular thread about making money on Craigslist. I read through the thread and I was disgusted. Basically the concept they were promoting was too pretend you have a dog to sell, then when people email you about buying your dog they get an automated response from you that thanks them for writing but the dog is gone…but hey check out this awesome dog training book. The idea is that you can make tons of sales from people who buy the dog training book you offer instead of the dog that never existed. This tactic might very well work but the thought of making money doing a bait and switch just leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. The marketer promoting this dog training book probably doesn’t even know if it is any good. Money is all that matters.
Just a few days ago I visited again and ran across a post that promoted spamming blogs with trackbacks as an effective method of traffic generation. What??? Those trackback spammers have got to be the most annoying people out there. I spend a lot of time deleting their handy work when they spam my blogs. Yes you may get traffic and your Alexa ranking my be improved but this is really just the lazy marketer’s best method for traffic generation. Thanks but no thanks.
Another post that caught my eye on that same day was from someone asking how to build incoming links to his web site. ALL the responses he got suggested spamming with comments or trackbacks or buying links from link farms. No one (except me) suggested adding quality content and useful information to his site that visitors would want to link to on their own. Am I naive? Am I destined to only be half as much as I could be because I won’t buy into these practices that I consider shady and underhanded?
I would like to think that time will prove I am building my business’s foundation on rock and they are building theirs on sand.
What do you think?
Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, warrior forum, mom masterminds, black hat, Craigslist
MM and sometimes IBMOMs are the only net marketing forums I ever visit. Primarily for this reason!
I have to agree with you, Tiffany. WF has turned me off. Another forum I do attend and is usually quite valuable is Lynn Terry’s at selfstartersweeklytips.com. She has a private folder, too. I belong to that one.
I’m actually not a big fan of forums anymore, really. I prefer learning from and networking blogs.
Good for you for sticking to what you know is ethical and right! Money isn’t everything and it’s best to be happy knowing that what you DID earn, you earned ethically.