Wouldn’t you prefer knowing exactly who the marketer you are purchasing products from are rather than their trying to make you think they are something they are not?

Now don’t get me wrong, there are some pretty successful marketers out there, and many will have nice cars and houses but do you really care?  Is the kind of car they are driving or the house they live in getting you good customer service and quality products?  Unfortunately, not always.  In some cases it means just the opposite.

I have even seen some cases (I’ll leave the names out of it) where the marketer pictured himself in front of a big sprawling home and standing next to a Ferrari, only to find out when you google the marketer’s address from their domain whois information it comes back to an apartment building in some small town.  I remember there use to be one of the “guru’s” that used to teach people to have these pictures made as part of their sales approach to “imply success”.  Well in my book, it implies deceit.

Remember when the “virtual office” was the big thing?  They would picture some big fancy office building along with their address which was actually the address of a service that was located at that big fancy office building that forwarded their mail  to them (probably to that apartment in that small town).   I see many marketers today that have addresses that have something like “Suite 200″ on the street address only to find out it’s ACTUALLY the “box” number for the mailbox they rented at the local Mail and Ship store in town.

The big problem with this is, if you DID ever have a problem with individuals or companies that use this tactic and wanted to send them registered or certified mail, you’ll never get THEIR signature on the return receipt because “Bob the counter clerk” is actually the one signing for all the mail that comes in every day.  Now I am sure there are some marketers that just never thought about this prospect, but I am also sure that some are doing it as an intentional way to avoid having to deal with you.

Personally, I have no problem letting people know who I am.  I do internet marketing full time, I have a wife and three kids.  We have a modest home, 2 cars (one fairly new and one a few years old) and I either work from home or from a small office I rent in town.  Luxury living to us is being able to take a couple of weekend getaways more than we normally would have or when the air conditoning stops working we can pay to have it fixed without using a credit card.  Maybe an annual pass to the amusement park for the kids or a summer camp.

I never found the need to buy those “status symbols” and frankly, even if I had $200,000 to blow on a Ferrari, I am pretty sure there are plenty of other things I could spend that money on and feel a lot better about it.  I certainly don’t feel I need those things for my customers to feel comfortable  doing business with me.  Prompt and efficient customer service, quality products and honesty is the key to that success, not what I am driving or what my house looks like (though I just put down a new lawn and it DOES look pretty darn good!….lol).

I guess the moral of the story is, “perception” is a big factor when it comes to marketing, but when it smacks of “flaunting”, especially when it’s staged, does it really mean anything at all?

This marketer is on a roll!  Now he’s selling WP Blog Tweet Plugin, yet ANOTHER plugin that you can find FREE in the WordPress.org directory:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=tweet&sort=

When you have marketers like this, it just makes it that more important that BEFORE you buy some plugin thrown into the Warrior Forum, check the plugin directory at WordPress.org:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

He misleads folks further by having this in the sales copy: “Got Serveral Twitter Accounts That Need Updated At Once”  <—-not a typo, it’s how it’s written

Yet, in the message thread below the sales pitch, he admits to this:

“The tweets are posted to between 1-10 random twitter accounts from your account
list, but are not able to post specific posts to specific accounts.  If
you only enter 1 account in the account list, then every tweet will be posted to
it.”

Hmmm, looks like the FREE Twitter Plugins have alot more capability huh?

And of course, the same “drones” that follow these WSOs mindlessly are in there singing it’s praises…..at least on this one there are a couple of people asking actual meaningful questions.

When I saw this one, I couldn’t figure out what was more pathetic…..PAYING for this plugin (there are free plugins at WordPress.org that do this) or just having it on my blog to begin with!  I mean, unless I am running a “literary” blog or something like that, what conceivable reason could there be to have it?

And then…..this post in the Warrior forum where it’s being sold just proves the fact that some have their cronies come in and praise everything they offer…..get a load of this BS comment:

“I’ve just brought this amazing WP Plugin. I’m
excited to has this software that I has been pleased with favorite poetry
showing at the end of my blog post.”

No…what’s amazing is that you PAID for this!!  And the fact that you are excited about it?   Come on…..Really???  This just gives the Warrior Forum a bad name in my opinion.

Geez, the least this marketer could have done is sought out someone that can type in correct English before coming in to praise this absolutely incredible plugin! <–sarcasm

This marketer has a history of offering plugins you can get for free for a price, but free or not, this one is just the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen….and I am not sure who is worse…the marketer selling it or those promoting it for the commissions.

Hey, if you want poetry on your blog, more power to you.  But don’t fall for this garbage.  Head over to the WordPress.org site and search “poetry” in the plugins directory.  Instead of putting poetry at the end of EVERY post, this free one will just place it in the sidebar, which frankly makes more sense!

I purchased the WP Viral Multiplier Plugin today and the first thing that you’ll find that sets it apart from all the other “Viral Plugins” is that it does not involve annoying popups, popins or grey boxes that force the visitor’s hand.

This plugin is super simple and very flexible to work with. It works on any type of website in any niche. It is such a non-intrusive way to getshare buttons in front of the faces of your visitors, I know you will like it.

http://bit.ly/kO260u

Well, just when you thought this craze was over, here they come again.  The big “JV Giveaways”.  You know the ones right?  All the “supposed” big marketers get together and give away tons and tons of products and then get you to “jump in” so you can sign up for all of their lists at once!  Thankfully, the “screening process” for the marketers they include is not that stringent so they usually put a few of the one’s that should instantly raise “red flags” for you right on the squeeze page and usually with a picture too so you’ll know right away to avoid that one.

Oh, and did I mention that many of the products they are giving away are the very same one’s they recently charged you EXTRA to get the re-sale or PLR Rights to?  Yeah…..”highlight, delete”.   Those are  pretty much worthless now.  Exactly the reason I don’t participate in JV Giveaways.  As a marketer, you have 2 choices to “get you in”.  Give away old dusy garbage that has been out there for years OR give away really good stuff that you just sold to hundreds if not thousands of your customers and instantly make it completely worthless for them especially if they bought PLR or Resale rights.

In my opinion, there is no benefit to my participating in these for my customers, and frankly I don’t see the benefit to my customers in signing up for these.  If the stuff they were giving away was worth anything, they would not have to entice people to sign up with referral contests etc (which by the way are usually won by some of the marketers themselves!).  Let’s not forget the upsells once you join.  Some of these upsells are for more old dusty products, some are for newer stuff that you can usually find cheaper with a little re-search, and some I have seen even take a step closer to “scum” status and offer “enhanced commission rates” for an upgrade fee.  Despicable in my book.  All in all…….it’s a HUGE benefit to the marketers wallets, and very little benefit to those that get sucked in…(unless of course you’ve been looking for a way to quadrouple your incoming emails….)

The lesson here is….stay away from JV Giveaways and you might want to re-consider your thoughts on those marketers that would urge you to get in on these at any level.  Though, you may want to see if they offer a list of all the products that they’ve just made worthless so you’ll know not to use the one’s you  already have or purchase the one’s you don’t.

If you build Fan Pages for clients, then you’ll want to have a look at the FB Offline Assault Package released by Martin Crumlish!

http://bit.ly/lVnFNC

If you’re like me, you’ve tried ALL the WordPress plugins and  themes that are out to make FB pages fast and easy.  I always end up  frustrated.
Some themes claim to be fast and simple – but they don’t allow ANY  customization or tweaking to the plain, boring, cookie-cutter theme…   Clients HATE that!

Or…

Other themes have the options and customizations your clients want,  but the settings page is too complicated and slow to quickly tweak for  clients who want results FAST.

This is different:
http://bit.ly/lVnFNC

AND you ALSO get a more deluxe, full-featured theme with awesome  (but easy) options, so you can deliver a fully customized page for those  pickier (and higher-paying) clients.

http://bit.ly/lVnFNC

By now, you know my distaste for marketers that take FREE plugins from the WordPress.org Plugins directory and re-package them for sale.

WPplusOne Version 2.0 is no different.  The claims his is different because he’s added a way to re-direct the user when clicking the Google +1 Button to the site of your choice.  I thought the whole purpose was to let the user send others to your site and I am sure by circumventing  the process on the sly and sending them somewhere else it likely violates Google’s terms of service for use of the +1 button.

Not to mention it’s one a dimesale format (boy do I hate those) so by now it’s over $16…..which is rediculous for a FREE plugin.

Check the WordPress.org directoy here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=WordPress+Google+%2B1+Button&sort  and grab one that works for you 100% free.