Grumpy Old Man

Some random thoughts on forums

Forums can be strange things. Many are very quiet. For instance, Martin Avis has a forum that gets only a few posts a week. It’s still worth reading because so many of the posts are so very good. I post there occasionally myself. Not very often I thought but then I was astonished to see that I have posted about 10% of the posts on the site In the slow forum, the once a week man is king.

The Warriors forum inhabits a completely different world. Posts can disappear from the (large) front page in a matter of hours. Loads of people seem to see this as an opportunity to earn a fast buck. Spam and dubious posts abound - though they are quickly eliminated. Tradition has it that the people who post loads of useful content are given a certain leeway in promoting their own products. This works well most of the time.

However, there is an unusual case over at the Warriors at the moment and it’s causing some fuss. One poster makes some breathtakingly good posts - but in return he wants to be able to post about himself and his problems. Is an internet marketing forum a place for a counseling session? I don’t think so - but if it means that an outstanding contributor continues to participate, I’m prepared to tolerate it. More importantly, the forum owner seems to take this view

Don’t market to me - I’m a marketer

I used to train teachers for a living. One thing I noticed was that they hated doing pair activities and small group work as part of their training. Yet these were the same techniques that they used a lot in their own classrooms because they knew they worked.

Today on the Warrior Forum, there is another example of this. So-called marketers are complaining because the Chief Warrior made them read an advert beofre they could access the forum. They’re going on as if their ‘rights’ had been infringed. Howver, I’m looking at the huge number of sign ups that the owner achieved by forcing people to read the ad and noting how well this technique has worked. As always in marketing, it’s not what people say but what they do that counts.

A great way of syndicating your articles

I’ve been fed up for some time with the return I get on articles I syndicate. One problem is that you can usually only put your link into a box at the bottom of the post and not onto good text within the post. A related problem is that far too many people just delete your box from the article so that your link disappears. Finally, you have to rely on other marketers making the effort to find your articles.

That’s why I’m so keen on Article Marketing Automation. Firstly, you can place your link twice within an article on any text you wish. Secondly, it actively suggests your article to relevant sites within its system. I’ve never built up so many links so quickly.

Highly recommended.

The Economy IS Doing Badly - Whatever They Might Say

I keep reading comments and getting emails stating that the economy is not in a bad state. Guess what breed of low-lifes are publishing this message - Internet Marketers. Now I’m prepared to admit that the rocky times ahead will be good for the ‘gurus’ . More and more desperate people are going to come online, looking for that ‘pot of gold’ to get them out of their financial mess. In their desperation, they’re going to fall for some of the ridiculous claims made by certain people. (I’ll exclude Michael Green from that - his products more or less live up to the excessive bullshit in his sales letters.)

But those of us who sell REAL products online, telephones or beauty products, know that people will be buying less often, and probably cheaper products. I was in a shopping mall in the UK today and the shop doing the business was Primark, the store with a low-price policy.

So while a small group of people might do well out of the recession, most online people will not. Don’t let them sucker you into laying out another thousand dollars before you find out.

Fight the Good Fight?

Last year I stupidly signed up for one of those instant site-making tools. (I was at a conference and all my friends were buying it - you get the picture.) I agreed to pay several hundred dollars up-front and 99 dollars a month fee.  When I got home and started to use the program, it didn’t work properly. Anoyingly, it would work for a while and then sudenly break down. I’ve used a couple of similar programs in the past with no problems. This one seemed to be having difficulty because it was written in Flash and because the server was underpowered.

So I asked for my money back. But then a person I know well and trust moved into the company to sort out their problems. He wrote me a note asking me to ‘hang on in there’ so I did. But nothing changed on the technical level so I again asked for my money back. Not only didn’t I get it but they insisted upon charging me a further $99 before I could leave.

My friend has now left the company. I have no confidence that the company will ever have a decent product but they are still running a very effective marketing campaign. Do I start a campaign warning others against them or do I let sleeping dogs lie?

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