eMarketWorks on the Internet

You sometimes wonder what the difference is between bullshit and marketing, especially internet marketing and beer  commercials. Harry G. Frankfurt, Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, has a little book out entitled, "On Bullshit", and I think a few of his comments are very relevant to marketing in general and internet marketing in particular.

"Since bullshit need not be false, it differs from lies in its misrepresentational intent. The bullshitter may not deceive us, or even intend to do so, either about the facts or about what he takes the facts to be. What he does necessarily attempt to deceive us about is his enterprise. His only indispensibly distinctive characteristic is that in a certain way he misrepresents what he is up to.

This is the crux of the distinction between him and the liar. Both he and the liar represent themselves falsely as endeavoring to communicate the truth. The success of each depends upon deceiving us about that.

The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him … He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose."

You don’t really believe that those buxom hotties in the beer commercial are salivating over you because of the beer you drink, but your reptilian brain does. Bullshit marketing is aimed squarely at that part of your brain. That’s what makes you click that BUY NOW button when your rational brain is screaming NOT TRUE NO WAY WASTE OF MONEY at you.

Here’s the perfect example of bullshit marketing. How many sales pages have you seen that blast this claim at you, "I GUARANTEE THAT ANYBODY (EVEN A DOLT LIKE YOU) WILL MAKE MONEY USING MY SYSTEM." Then in that obscure part in the footer labelled, "Disclaimer", it says, "I don’t guarantee that anybody will ever make any money using my system and you will probably even lose money for any or all of the following reasons including that you spent money to buy my stuff."

So what good is that make-money guarantee in the sales letter? It’s not meant to be good or bad, just bullshit that suits the bullshit marketer’s purpose.

Have you ever wondered what an internet marketing guru looks like? Of course you haven’t because you’ve seen plenty of their pictures.

But have you seen Michael Green? Michael keeps a low profile when it comes to his image to keep his internet business separate from his "real life" because his real name is Grant and he is also a member of Parliament.

I thought I would share this picture with you because Michael came to visit me when I was a student in one of his mentoring programs.

Yes, he flew in from England. I can’t say that he came just to see me - I’m sure he had several students in the United States that he visited on that trip. But here’s the point - he took the time to come and help me personally, not meet me in a gathering of internet wizards in some big hotel where you are competing with hundreds of others to get someone’s attention.

While I feel that Michael is a business friend, there was one thing that was wrong with the mentoring he gave me. Because he has mastered internet marketing and can sell ice tea to eskimos, he forgets that things are not so easy for the likes of me. So he left out the part about doing market research and guided me into writing a book that no one wants to read. Now I bet he could sell lots of copies of my book to people who aren’t even interested in gardening, but I can’t. Especially not about gardening with native plants. Oh well, live and learn.

The bottom line for you? Do some research to determine that there is a viable market for your ebook before you write it.  There’s a good chance nobody really cares what you have to say about your "passion".

If you are an eBay affiliate, you will want to be aware that the eBay is changing its affiliate program. This note is particularly relevant to those who are using Jeff Mulligan’s eBay Quickie Profits strategy. You will no longer need a Commission Junction account to apply this strategy.

We are excited to announce eBay’s new global affiliate platform: the eBay Partner Network.

The new platform will go live on April 1st, 2008 PST, at which point eBay will no longer be running its affiliate program through Commission Junction.  Beginning April 1st, affiliates should register with eBay Partner Network and migrate their links from CJ to the new platform. 

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