Don’t Hold Back – What Really Annoys You
About Internet Marketing?
June 23rd, 2009 | Author: Alice Seba
If you’ve ever gone to an Internet marketing forum and complained about an Internet marketing tactic that made you cringe, you may have met with responses like:
- “Well they do it because it works!”
- “Classic…an Internet marketer complaining about being marketed to.”
What-ev-errr…sometimes it’s okay to get your frustrations out. And here is your chance to complain without any judgment or argument. It’s simply your answer to the question:
What annoys you about Internet marketing (and perhaps an idea of how you could make the tactic better)?
Have fun posting, but then get back to some serious work (even if some of what you do annoys other people now and then)! 
Posted in 28 Responses to “Don’t Hold Back – What Really Annoys You
About Internet Marketing?”
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I think you know mine. I blogged about it many times before.
The excuse that “it works” is OK in some cases (if the tactic is sound and ethical). But when it comes to unethical ones, it’s lame.
It’s no different than saying, “The best way to make money fast? Go rob a bank with a loaded gun. Why? Because it works!”
Ugh.
People following what the gurus do and say like lemmings. Mind you, I do it myself to a certain extent
… but then, I annoy myself 
Oh, and the “systems” that gets talked about and recommended the most are usually the one that pays the biggest affiliate commissions. Doesn’t matter whether they are the BEST or not.
But that’s marketing for you…
@paulhancox
Hmm, where shall I begin?
1. Marketers who promote every launch going. Yes, I know I can unsubscribe from their emails, but in general I’m staying subscribed to them ‘cos I love their stuff, but I wish they would only promote the stuff they have tried/love/believe in etc. Not every product their mastermind group produces, regardless of quality.
Ans: Only promote stuff you have tried and tested and believe is worth someone’s dollars
2. IM Buddies! Again, I know that birds of a feather blah blah blah! Of course, people are going to have friends in the industry and they are going to mention that, but someone is not your buddy if you have met them once or twice at a conference.
Ans: Only call someone your buddy or friend if they truly are a friend – would you drink with them, tell them about your sex life, show them your holiday snaps?
3. Long form sales letters. Yes, the good ones can work wonders but there are so many bad ones out there and in our multi-media world, long sales letters are not necessary. This is one of those “Well they do it because it works” moments. Fine, but many people do it because they “think” it works and tend to do it badly.
Ans: Keep it short and sweet please – I haven’t got all day. And maybe add a video/audio
4. Social Media Experts. Seems to be a lot of those around now, especially on Twitter. Thankfully, the real social media experts tend to call themselves something else.
Ans: If you have 30 followers on Twitter you are NOT a social media expert!
Phew! Got that off my chest. I’m sure I have a few more but I don’t want to hog the comments
Lisa
Long form sales letters! I know that as a copywriter, I’m supposed to sing their praises, but I just can’t stand them. I don’t care what you’re selling. If you send me to a web site with a lo-o-o-ng sales letter, I’ll hit the back button faster than you can say “John Carlton ripoff!”
Twitter: aliceseba
:
LOL…”John Carlton ripoff.” – But that does that means it’s okay for John to use long sales letters, Kelly?
And by the way, Lisa, John Carlton is my good buddy. Hehehehe…maybe not, but I have sat in a bar with him.
Paul, it’s okay to annoy oneself now and then – as long as you don’t start a fight with yourself.
Michel – yep, I know and obviously agree. “It works” is not good enough and if you ever say that directly to the “It works preachers,” they’ll tell you you’re crazy.
And Me: I hate those new video opt-in pages. You know the ones where there’s a video to watch, but if you click play it tries to force the opt-in? First of all, it’s not that likely I want to watch your video (I just came here because someone said your info was good) and so I’m certainly not giving my email to watch it.
That’s just a pet peeve, based on the fact that I don’t fancy video with my Internet. But I do think it’s a bit cheesy to have a play button that doesn’t actually work….and then if you leave, you can see the video without opting in anyway. Kind of leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
Twitter: aliceseba
:
Oh Lisa – I agree on the social media expert thing. And even if you have 50,000 followers…that don’t make you a social media expert either.
Currently, twitter annoys me… even though I’m trying to figure it out. That’s why it’s annoying me. But, sometime in the near future, it will not annoy me so much. Alice, I love your comment about having 50,000 followers NOT meaning you’re an expert!
Also, I agree with the LONG salesletter thing. There is no way I, or anyone else, reads those things all the way through. Attention-grabbing red subject lines periodically… that works for me.
And, I get really annoyed with knowing how to GROW my business, and having selective ignorance at the same time. Who to trust? What product is REALLY worth it. When I try to shave down my information intake, how do I effectively increase my knowledge to grow my business? How can I grow, if I don’t take in anything new? The confusion of that seems to top my list of frustrations.
I sorta say “ditto” to the comments already made. I am really a non-fan (hate) the long sales letter. When I get one, my response is to quickly scroll to the bottom and see the “rest of the story”, i.e. cost!
The other issue I have is with the over abundance of “product launches” and the number of JV partners there with their own version of “don’t buy this product until….”. I am hoping that the sprouting of so many recently is the last of the Spring bloom and they will slow down during the lazy days of Summer. Now, may I tell you about…….
just kidding.
Thanks for providing an avenue to drive my rants car down.
P.S. Just remembered another issue I have when I went to the anti-span word. Thank you for having one that was immediately recognizable. Yahoo Buzz is the worst; sometimes it takes 2-3 times to “get it right”. Thanks again.
Alice, I think you’re honest and ethical, and I don’t blame you for this experience, but I suspect you may want to consider one of your offers from a user perspective. You e-mailed me a link to get a free “Roadmap to Become a [Better] Blogger”. I clicked on that link, and was presented with a page that requested my e-mail. Fair enough, so far. I gave them my e-mail, and clicked through. What I landed on was the longest advertising page I’ve personally ever scrolled through. Okay, still fair enough – until I start to suspect there is no link on it to my free report.
I’m a researcher, and I know it is possible to miss what you’re looking for, so I went back over that loooooooooong page. Still no sign of any link. I was definitely starting to get irritated. I was still trying to be fair, so I hit the back button, and tried resubmitting, in case it was just a bug. (Happens.) No, I got a message saying I had to confirm first.
In my inbox, I found an e-mail telling me I couldn’t gain access to the content I’d been promised until I verified that I wanted it. That gave me pause – why not just send me a link? After all, if I didn’t want it, I could ignore the link. I can waste time looking for the link all over a long page designed to try to persuade me to buy something, then can’t even get it without confirming? Gee, real considerate of them. So I confirmed – assuming, at least, the moment I clicked on that, I’d finally get my link. Still no. I have to wait for another e-mail.
Like I said, I understand this is a third party offer, and I don’t blame you. But this kind of runaround is what I hate about Internet marketing. People who promise something, then run you around nearly indefinitely steam me immensely.
Those jerks have guaranteed two things. First, I just waited for my next e-mail, downloaded the report I was promised – I am stubborn – then unsubscribed. Second, I’d never buy anything from them, ever, and I’d never even look at another free product from them. If they think jerking me around that much is okay, then I want nothing to do with them. Downloading the stinking report was more of a gesture, really. As I say, I’m stubborn.
The only thing that is keeping me from blogging about this, posting about it on forums, and generally being as vocal as I can be about my extreme unhappiness is the fact that I do respect you, and I don’t want to drag you into it. Yes, I’m commenting here, but you can always delete that (although when I unsubbed I referred them to your comments) and I do think you ought to know how this looks to the user.
Twitter: aliceseba
:
Angie – One step at a time. If you don’t like Twitter, don’t worry about. Your business doesn’t depend on it, even if some “experts” want to make it sound like it does.
As far as who to trust, what product to buy? Step back a bit. Find someone who illustrates that they care about your business, has had their own success and you really resonate with the way they teach and the things they teach. Just take it one step at a time…don’t blow the life savings trying to find out what will work for your business.
Hi Wandering Author – Thanks for letting me know about your experience. I actually thought of their offer when I made this post about holding your freebies hostage.
I know that Gideon & Yaro did exactly what I describe in my post and I DO think they can do it better. Their Roadmap and blogging training is REALLY good stuff and that’s the reason for my offering it. Also, when I mentioned it in February – nobody complained to me, but I did walk through the process and thought it was a tad confusing. And of course, that doesn’t mean others didn’t have an experience like yours.
I will pass your feedback on and let them know your concern also concerns me. In fact, I wish I had mentioned it when they created that page for me. I had thought about doing so, but at that point, realized that many other sites had a similar set up and thought perhaps it was just I who was being picky. And over the past few months, I think I’m seeing more and more indications that it’s just not just me. I thank you for bringing that to my attention.
As far as blogging about it, be my guest. It doesn’t bother me at all. My intent was to share a good resource and I’m sorry you got caught up in the confirmation hell that sometimes exists. Maybe there was something to what I was talking about last week.
Twitter: aliceseba
:
Note…I’ve sent a note to Gideon, asking for his opinion as well. I also told him about the suggestion Michel made (that works with some autoresponders).
Hi Wandering Author
I’m so sorry to hear about the frustrations that you had with signing up for The Roadmap To Become A Blogger free report.
It was certainly not my intention for you to get frustrated or unhappy, but just to provide you with valuable free content that can help you with your blogging efforts.
I’m a little confused though, because the process you’ve described is not quite the process we are using for giving people access to our report.
If I understand you right, this is the process you experienced:
1. You clicked on a link that Alice sent you
2. You were then presented with a page that requested your email (most likely this page -> http://becomeablogger.com/roadmap)
3. You entered your details and clicked through
4. You then landed on a very long advertising page with no link for downloading the report you subscribed for (this is what I’m confused about, because this is not part of our process)
5. You then hit the back button and tried the process again, but got told you had to confirm your email address first
6. You then received an email asking you to confirm your email address before you could get access to the download link for the report
7. You clicked on the link, and then got told on the next page that you’ve been sent an email with the access details.
8. The next email sent you the access details.
I hope I got it correct?
So, it seems that your main frustration came at point 4 above where you had to scroll through an endlessly long advertising page looking for the download link. I’m not sure how this could have happened because we do not have anything like that in our process.
That page (at number 4 above) is supposed to be a brief instructional page telling you how to confirm your email address (this one here: http://www.becomeablogger.com/confirm-email/)
We need this confirmation process so that we meet the requirements of international spam laws (so it’s not designed to annoy you but to keep the internet free of spam).
The last thing we want is to to listed as spammers. And we take this VERY seriously because we only send very high quality information to our subscribers, with an occasional promotional message seasoned in between our newsletter emails, as any reasonable business would do.
So, just to set the record straight, when you went through the process for getting access to The Roadmap To Become A Blogger report, this is what was supposed to have happened:
1. You click on a link that Alice send you
2. You then get directed to a page where you can sign up for The Roadmap report
3. You enter your name and email address and then click on the button
4. You then get directed to a page asking you to confirm your email address with brief and clear instructions (no long advertising page as in your case) (this one here: http://www.becomeablogger.com/confirm-email/)
5. You go back to your email program, and click on the link inside the confirmation email which directs you to a welcome page letting you know that your email has been confirmed and that you’ll be emailed the access details.
6. You receive a welcome email with all your access details.
Now, I agree, the above process is definitely long winded and I would have much preferred just to send people straight to the download link for the report.
But as I mentioned before, we, as a responsible online business want to stick to the rules when it comes to international spam regulations. And for that, the regulations require that people confirm their email addresses with a double optin process.
Given this quite restrictive process, I’ve really tried my best to make the sign up process as easy as possible, and at no point did I try to frustrate anyone or make anyone unhappy.
I’m truly sorry that you’ve had such a negative experience with this, Wandering Author, and if there is anything I can do to help, please just send me a personal message to gideon[at]becomeablogger.com (just replace [at] with @ – I have to use this funny notation, otherwise spam trawlers will pick up on it and send spam to that address).
All the best!
Gideon Shalwick
Become A Blogger
Oh and thanks for the suggestion from Michel, Alice! I’ll definitely look into that!
Gideon Shalwick
Become A Blogger
Every now and then I run into something that jerks my chain. But the same thing twice?
I received a Survey (multiple choice). The information that this person presents is very good and useful. So, I figured it was my turn to provide the information this person was looking for.
The survey questions were good but the selection of answers did not fit my website in many instances. I was unable to complete the survey and there was no way to communicate the problem.
Yes, I received the survey again with reminder to please complete it. Same song.
Market Research is toughy if you are going to do it correctly. My wife and I are experienced at it. We have done research projects for the state of California, Toyota, Ford, Honda, and Lexus to name a few.
Maybe we will have better luck with the next survey.
Oh dear…
I’ve just spotted something…
Alice, I think we have a slight program.
The process that Wandering Author mentioned was correct… but it’s for an old promotion from February earlier this year.
I’ll send you an email about this.
Wandering Author, my sincere apologies – you were right – I think the process you have followed is accurate, but it’s for an old promotion, and we have since changed the process to make it easier for people to sign up.
I’m talking to Alice right now to help set this straight…
You were supposed to get directed to this page here:
Blog Roadmap
Regards
Gideon
NOTE From Alice …I edited the link that appeared in the email and it has been fixed to go to the right page. Thanks for keeping up on things Gideon!
Alice;
I already knew that you have class, and you’ve proved it once again. Thanks.
Gideon;
Although I’m not altogether comfortable continuing this conversation on Alice’s blog, overall I think (as long as Alice doesn’t object) it is most fair to keep it here, on the open, so everyone who reads the original comment can follow it. (And the discussion might be valuable for Alice’s readers in planning their own strategies.)
Actually, although I can’t say I’m a fan of hard to find links, the long advertising page wouldn’t have been a serious problem – if I’d found the link there. Obviously, I can’t go back (even if I tried to re-subscribe, there’s a “timeout” feature) to grab the URL, but it was a page offering a six-month coaching program which tied in quite neatly with the free offer. I’ll take your word for it and assume there is some sort of coding error that displayed a page other than the one you intended – but I must add that no user would ever suspect this was not intentional without your explicit assurance, since the program and the free download were so well integrated.
I do understand about the legal requirements, but I must add here that, in other cases, the page announcing I’d successfully confirmed my subscription also included a link directly to the free download. I’m not a lawyer, but I assume there is no prohibition against that, and I can’t think of any technical obstacles, either. That is actually what finally pushed me over the edge; I’d gone through an exhaustive process, and still had to wait even after I’d confirmed my e-mail. Without that last detail, my annoyance might have faded.
I understand some people choose to verify the e-mail address before providing the free download; after all, it isn’t uncommon for someone to give a false address. On the other hand, if they’ll give you a faked address, what will prevent them from unsubscribing the instant they have the download? Or using one of the temporary e-mail services that assigns you an address for a few hours, for the specific purpose of dodging spam? (For those who don’t know, yes, there are such services. I have several bookmarked; I try to be fair and abstain from using them – unless I’m complaining to someone I already know will spam me.) In this case, I gave you one of my real e-mails. (I do have a separate account just for private, high priority messages.) This is just my opinion, but since users can evade giving you a usable address one way or another, and there are so many tricks to dodge validation, it seems counter-productive to even insist on that. Yes, you give away a few freebies for nothing more than a useless e-mail – but in exchange, you show the users who trust you with their real address that you trust them, too.
If you disagree, I understand that. I don’t precisely enjoy being treated with that kind of distrust, but I do understand it. But if you must do that, then at least, the instant the user clicks on the confirmation link and you have your proof the address they gave is valid, pop up a page with the link right there so they don’t need to wait even one more second.
Twitter: aliceseba
:
Max…yeah, that’s tough. Asking the right questions with multiple choice can be tricky. For a survey, it might be handy to have an “other” option where people can complete it. But I guess that makes it harder for the creator to put together statistical data.
Wondering Author
I feel really bad about this.
Sorry to have put you through all this.
I’ve talked to Alice and we’re redirecting people to the new page now, with the updated process.
Sorry about all the fuss – I hope you can forgive me and this silly double optin process
All the best!
Gideon
Gideon;
I do understand mistakes happen. I know I’m not perfect yet.
I hate to say it, but I do suspect there are a lot of people who had the same impression I did, since it really did seem to fit together well. With any luck at all, they’ll read these comments and see it was all a mixup. And maybe someone who reads this will catch a mistake they might have missed otherwise and some good will come out of it.
For that matter, you’ve given a pretty good object lesson in how to handle a mistake once you find it. You faced up to it and admitted your mistake, which is a lot more than many folks do.
I’m sorry for the harsh words in my first comment. I may even resubscribe, once the “timeout” passes. 
Wondering Author
Thanks for your gracious response. I can tell you are a person of integrity
All the best!
Gideon
Hi Alice,
Great question!
My biggest pet peeve would have to *misleading claims* in the IM market.
For example: “Discover how an absolute idiot made $170,000 in 1 day without a mailing list, traffic, product, etc!”
I say “misleading” because the seller NEVER talks about how much work is involved before he made the money.
He never talks about how much time and money he spent learning, researching, planning and implementing his strategies.
There has to be a law against this.
Jarod
If I could summarize what annoys me in one word it would have to be the hype. Hyping something up is extremely annoying to me and is a total turn off for me wanting to buy.
I like it when people give me the freedom to make the right choice for my situation and give good information so that I can make a wise choice.There is nothing wrong with selling as long as manipulation isn’t involved.
All the best,
Eren Mckay
Hi Alice,
I have been reading the various comments that have been going on between you, Gideon and Wandering Author. I just wanted to add in my 2 cents worth.
I went through the same process that Wandering Author went through last February for The Roadmap To Become A Blogger free report.
I had no problem with the process at all or the opt in either. This is the usual process to receive free stuff. Some may find it annoying but if it is an awesome freebie, I believe it is worth it.
I ended up joining the Become a Blogger program because the above mentioned report and thank Alice for her recommendation. I have learned a lot from this course and really enjoy Gideon and Yaro’s help and mentoring.
Good on ya Alice
Thanks Alicia
You rock!
Glad you like our stuff
And thanks so much for your support!
Talk soon!
Gideon Shalwick
Twitter: hippygeek
:
This only applies to people with limited gigs, but I live on the road (traveling in my RV) and have a Verizon aircard. I get only so many gigs a month to use and my husband, as a dev, uses almost all of them.
So when I open a sales page that automatically starts loading a video, I get pretty ticked off. I have to close the page right away…I prefer a video that I have to actually click on to load. Not everyone has all the bandwidth they can eat.
Twitter: aliceseba
:
Gideon and Wandering Author – Glad you’ve worked things out. Having “known” you through my blog and Gideon through Twitter for a little, I know you’re both very good people.
Jarod & Eren – Yep, you wonder how it’s possible, but in the U.S., I think the feds are going to be cracking down on that type of stuff very soon. But you know, even with disclaimers, etc…I think the hype might still prevail.
Hey Jill.. – How is life on the road? The same goes for mobile browsers. I am on my cell phone ALL THE TIME. My mobile won’t load videos automatically, but I miss a lot of info/pitches people want to get to me because I don’t load them.
Alicia – Thank you very much for your feedback. It really is appreciated and I’m not surprised at all that you’ve enjoyed Gideon & Yaro’s program.
Thanks guys….I think there are still plenty holding back. Would still LOVE to hear from you!
One of my pet peeves is video & sound – I don’t have speakers on my computer (I know, shock horror), so can’t hear them!
Another is information that people say will work everywhere, however they are not really targeted at an International audience. Some things work better in the US than in Australia, for example.
I’m late to this conversation, but my gripe is that you never know who to believe and who to trust. I’ve asked a host of people just how one goes about getting those first few sales. Instead of just telling me, they direct me to a book. I’ve bought the books, and none of them still tell me what I’m looking to know. So, like many other people, I flounder at making money, earning my bits and chunks of change here and there, yearning for the day when the light bulb will come on.
That, and the list thing; at some point, it just seems ingenuous to people to pop them onto a list, even if they did purchase something from me, and continue sending them stuff. With my newsletters, it’s different, but with products,… just can’t get myself to do it.