Lots of people come and go on email lists. A few of them actually tell me why they unsubscribed. These are some of the most fascinating responses because they’re usually passionate — and I struck a nerve.

Here are a few reasons people have unsubscribed from my email list this year and last year.

******

I am unsubscribing because of the most recent post and your saying that we should not have responded to 9/11. Thank you.

(I suggested forgiveness as an alternative to revenge. So this guy unsubscribed. Go figure. -RMH)

******

It’s just a lot of e-mail to add to already too much e-mail received daily, especially when I never explicitly opted in to receive these e-mails

(To this woman’s credit, I checked my opt-in page and realized I wasn’t saying subscribers would get email updates. So I changed this. -RMH)

******

I just have signed up for too many blogs. I’m on information overload.

******

I am sorry.But you have no value or you do not give any free e-book guides,software,cource,etc,.

******

Very good and valuable information but have to decrease the amount of email coming in… hard decision but will have to unsubscribe at this time. Thanks for all you do!

******

internet marketing is a huge scam and nobody honestly makes a living online

******

Tired of being sold things instead of given useful content.

(This one surprised me. In the month of April 2010, I’ve published 8 posts. Four of them have had soft sales pitches. Not a single pure sales message — and this person still freaked out. -RMH)

******

To many newsletters, I need to focus on the most relevant ones to my industry. I think you do good stuff. Except the references to your religion, then, I better not say anything.

******

I love your writing, I just don’t have the time to read everything in my inbox

******

I am an Obama supporter and DO NOT appreciate you posting such negative remarks about him…I no longer want to hear from you. You are entitled to your opinion and I am also entitled to mine. I did not like this post.

p.s. I WAS really a big fan and follower of you and your IM work. Not anymore.

(Amazing how radically a political difference of opinion can polarize people. This response proves it. -RMH)

******

Believe it or not, I’m actually happy when I get passionate reasons why people unsubscribe. It tells me that I’m bonding with people who are on the the other side of a particular viewpoint.

It also tells me that I’m standing up for something.

The only way you’ll ever develop a loyal following is by standing up for a particular point of view. This allows other people to identify and bond with you.

You can’t be all things to all people, so this is a good thing. Embrace that you’re never going to please everybody. Just do your best at being who you are — and writing to the white hot core of your fan base.

-Ryan M. Healy

Social media can be a huge time waster when it’s used incorrectly.

Unfortunately, most people use social media the wrong way. They spend hours every day tweeting, Facebooking, and who knows what else — only to find that they’re a day older and not a penny richer.

Here’s a useful principle for business:

If what you’re doing for business is not producing additional revenue, then you need to either a) change your approach until it does produce revenue or b) stop the unproductive activity altogether.

This is especially true of social media.

Here’s another useful principle:

Find people who have already figured out how to generate additional revenue from social media — and then simply do what they’re doing.

Obviously, modeling another successful person does not a guarantee that you’ll have the same degree of success (or any success at all), but you can at least be sure that your approach will have a reasonable chance of succeeding.

With this in mind, I’d like to tell you about Charlie Cook’s free teleseminar series called “The Insiders’ Secrets to Profiting With Social Media Marketing.”

During this series, 8 experts (including me) are presenting some of their best knowledge about how to use social media to grow your business. It’s free to participate — and you can listen to just one teleseminar or all of them. It’s up to you.

All you have to do is register with your name and email.

• Jack Humphrey will be sharing blogging strategies.
• Jan Vermeiren will teach you how to build (and profit from) your LinkedIn network.
• Kyle Lacy will be revealing how to use Twitter to build relationships and get more referrals.
• Plus, there are five additional presentations — including one in which I share how I use my blog to develop my business.

I haven’t heard any of the other presentations, so I can’t vouch for what kind of value you’ll get. But I can tell you the content in my presentation will be worth your time. (I delivered the same material to a local business group, and they responded very positively to it.)

To get registered, please click here.

Note: This is my affiliate link. If you decide to buy the recordings later, I’ll get a commission. Otherwise, all 8 presentations are free.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. When you go to register, you’ll see a sales letter. For the record, I didn’t write it. I would not have used the word “killer” to describe my blog and sales letters.

Anyway, I suggest you scroll down to the speaker profiles and see if there’s anything you’d like to learn more about. If something catches your eye, go ahead and register.

If you’re thinking about attending the Copywriting & Direct Marketing Master Class on April 12, 2010, but you’re still on the fence, then here are 3 more good reasons you should attend.

Reason #1:

I’m going to be there.

In fact, I’ve already booked my flight into Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), and I’ve made my hotel reservation.

Reason #2:

I’ll buy you dinner if you register through my affiliate link.

If you register for The System Seminar or either of the Master Class bonus sessions using my affiliate link… and you’ll be at the hotel on the evening of Sunday, April 11 or Monday, April 12… then I will personally buy you dinner.

Just let me know you’re going to be there by emailing me at rhealy [at] gmail [dot] com.

Reason #3:

I’ll give you a lifetime membership to Copywriting Code if you register through my affiliate link.

Right now, Copywriting Code is only $19.95 a month. That may increase in a month or two. We’ll see.

But no matter what happens, I’ll give you a free lifetime membership to Copywriting Code when you register for The System Seminar or either Master Class through my affiliate link.

Again, just let me know by emailing me at rhealy [at] gmail [dot] com.

See you soon?

So there you have it: three more good reasons to attend the Copywriting & Direct Marketing Master Class.

Get registered here. I hope to see you soon!

-Ryan M. Healy

I’m a huge fan of continuous life-long self-education. That’s why I love books and courses so much. You can go through them at your own leisure and review them as often as you like — an excellent way to learn.

And yet sometimes books and courses are not enough. Sometimes you need to actually go meet the genius behind the book. Here’s why…

Distractions Are the Rule, Not the Exception

The problem with the do-it-yourself book-learning approach is that life gets in the way.

For instance: You intend to study copywriting… to dig into all those classics on your bookshelf… to actually start writing out winning letters by hand… but you keep putting it off.

Because let’s face it. Life in the 21st Century isn’t exactly slow. We’re all serfs and vassals living in the feudal kingdom of Urgency.

Not to mention, the number of distractions that invade our lives every day is enough to make even people with ADD cry for mercy.

It’s no wonder that many of the important learning goals we set for ourselves get pushed weeks, months, even years into the future.

Often, when we finally take time to review the year, we find that we’ve not made any meaningful improvements in our education or skills.

Do This to Achieve More in a Day than You Do in a Year

One way to overcome the tyranny of the urgent is to block out an entire day — and dedicate it to one thing and one thing only.

I find that when I really want to accelerate my learning in a particular subject, it’s beneficial to block out a day or two for a live seminar or workshop.

When I’m working at home, it’s next to impossible to escape the distractions. If I wake up at 5:30 to read and study, my kids will wake up at 6:15. Not enough time to make much progress.

But imagine how much knowledge you could soak up… how much progress you could make… if you carved out a whole day and dedicated it to the advancement of just one skill or project?

3 Copywriting Masters Team Up, Promise to Reveal Closely Guarded Secrets

Right now, you have a unique one-of-a-kind opportunity to spend a full day sitting at the feet of copywriting legends Drayton Bird, Perry Marshall, and Ken McCarthy.

Each one of these guys is a genuine copywriting and advertising expert. Each one has sold millions of dollars worth of goods and services through the written word. And… each one is a published author.

• Drayton Bird, once the leading trainer for Ogilvy & Mather, is the man behind the the modern classics How to Write Sales Letters that Sell and Commonsense Direct and Digital Advertising.

• Perry Marshall, most famous for his Adwords expertise, but also a copywriting expert in his own right. He is the author of the Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords.

• Ken McCarthy is the author of System Secrets and The System Club Letters. I have purchased and read both books. And while they may not be at the top of the bestseller lists, they’re filled with direct response marketing gold.

(Not to mention, Ken is the guy who turned me on to Dick Benson’s classic book Secrets of Successful Direct Mail.)

When you attend the Copywriting & Direct Marketing Master Class, you get direct access to all three of these men’s collective body of copywriting and direct marketing knowledge.

For an entire day.

Obviously, this opportunity is not for everybody. But if you think you might be interested in being a part of this one-day Master Class, then I strongly encourage you to get more information (and get registered) here.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. In my experience, you will learn more insider information in a small workshop format than you will from a book. That’s because authors tend to always hold back some of their best material — only revealing it to small groups of people.

They do this to prevent their best strategies and techniques from becoming overused (a big problem on the Internet).

Plus, after the publication of a book, certain things may change. Often, the only way to get the most up-to-date information is to attend a live training event.

Anyway, I mention this because what you learn during the Copywriting & Direct Marketing Master Class may not be available anywhere else. And a whole day dedicated to the craft of direct response copywriting could pay you big dividends for the rest of your life.

Click here to register for the one-day Master Class.

One of the tactics that I’ve seen recommended throughout the years is to sell your product before it has been created.

Some say you can gauge the success of the product by selling it in advance. If it sells well, create the product. If it doesn’t sell well, scrap it and refund your customers. (One of my clients actually did a dry run via direct mail back when it was still legal — a fascinating story.)

Others say that selling a product ahead of its completion date creates an incentive for you to finish it because you’ll look bad if you don’t follow through.

How I Created a Coaching Program

When John Anghelache and I partnered a couple years ago, we sold a high-level coaching program about how to get copywriting clients.

We had not actually created the content prior to selling the program, but we had mapped out all eight modules and knew exactly who was teaching what.

The only thing left for us to do was to flesh out each module, compile our resources, and deliver the coaching during one live teleseminar each week.

We never missed a deadline and never fell behind schedule. We delivered everything we promised and more. This model worked for us because we did a lot of planning and preparation up front.

The Dark Side of Advance Selling

While I understand the advantages of selling a product in advance, I can also see the potential for problems.

For instance, what if the final product doesn’t deliver on the promises made in the sales copy? Or what if the product is shoddy because you were rushed into finishing it?

These are questions you should carefully consider before publicly announcing or selling a new product that hasn’t been created yet.

Beware of Experts Who Sell Products from the Stage

In the seminar business, the majority of the profit comes from selling products at the back of the room. Naturally, a seminar organizer can’t have the same speakers at every event. So they actively seek out new talent.

But in order to speak at a large event, each speaker usually has to have a product that costs at least $1,000. That’s because the seminar organizer usually gets half of all receipts. He depends on these back-of-room sales to turn a profit.

If a new talent is speaking for the first time, and he doesn’t yet have a product that costs at least $1,000, he will be encouraged to create one.

So the first-time speaker will come up with an idea for a product and sell it from the stage — even though the product may not even exist yet.

A Recipe for Getting Ripped Off?

Giving somebody a grand or two for a product that doesn’t exist yet is a big leap of faith. I know of at least one case where a “done for you” service was sold for $10,000 from the stage. Unfortunately, the service was never delivered. Refunds were not given.

The same thing has played out many times at all different price levels. A speaker pitches a yet-to-be-created product, collects the money, and fails to deliver. Customers are left with nothing but lighter wallets.

Personally, I would never buy an expensive product that didn’t exist yet unless I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the person I was buying from was going to deliver. Even then, I would probably hold off.

An Approach that Works

No matter what price product you want to advance sell, I recommend that you have part of the product created before advertising it. This puts momentum in your favor and increases the chances of you creating a quality product on schedule.

If you’re creating an expensive product with a lot of content, then wait to advertise it until you are getting close to finishing it. If most of the product is already created, then there’s very little risk in collecting orders in advance of the public release.

But if you’re starting from scratch, and all you have is a product idea, don’t advance sell it. Don’t put yourself in a position where it’s easy to let your customers down.

-Ryan M. Healy

Social proof is one of the six pillars of persuasion. Robert Cialdini dedicates all of Chapter 4 — more than 40 pages — to social proof in his book Influence.

Of course, in a marketing setting, you want to use social proof to your advantage. But every once in a while, this technique can backfire.

A Live “Tweet-Stream”?

Apparently, at Yanik Silver’s Underground Seminar #6, they had planned to have a dedicated screen showing a live tweet stream of all the tweets about the seminar.

All the tweets tagged with #UG6 would be displayed on the screen during the seminar.

For some reason, they decided at the last minute not to go ahead with this plan. The live tweet stream was still on the Underground Seminar web site, but it was not displayed in front of the audience.

A Saboteur in Their Midst?

A jaded insider who caught wind of the live tweet stream decided to use it to broadcast his less-than-positive opinions about some of the speakers at the Underground Seminar.

He set up an anonymous Twitter profile (“Illuminated Dude”) for the sole purpose of covering — or, more accurately, exposing — the speakers at the event. You can see his profile here:

http://twitter.com/IlluminatedDude

Not All Social Proof Is Good

In an ad or sales letter, you get to control the social proof. This is a situation where social proof can help further the sale.

But be careful about giving up control of social proof. It can easily turn against you, as the example above proves.

Personally, I’ve found Twitter to be a great place to build positive social proof. I’ve gotten a few unsolicited endorsements, which has been pretty cool.

And yet I don’t have a live, unmoderated tweet stream on my web site either. It would be way too easy for somebody with an axe to grind to take advantage of that.

Just something to ponder as we move deeper into the uncharted waters of social media.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. I’m adding more content to Copywriting Code on a regular basis. The monthly rate is a bargain right now, but it won’t always be that way. Take a gander at the page below and sign up today…

https://www.copywritingcode.com/amember/signup.php

When I first communicated with Lynn Terry in January, it was to apologize.

Fortunately, she was gracious. :-)

Lynn runs a great blog over at ClickNewz.com — and we decided to exchange interviews. Keep reading to get Lynn’s take on picking a niche, affiliate marketing, traffic generation, and more.

You’ve been online for 13 years, which I think must be at least a century in Internet years. Why were you drawn to the Internet? How did you first try to make money… and did that project fail or succeed?

LOL – True! I was drawn to the internet back in the 90’s because it was just hitting the scene. I was in my start-up year with an offline brick ‘n mortar business and initially got online to find parts and suppliers.

I immediately took an interest in creating something online. I made my first personal web page on angelfire, then geocities (which I won an award for). A friend of mine introduced me to an email discussion list where women all over the world were talking about online business ideas, and the rest is history as they say! ;)

My first official venture was a web development company, ultimately employing an international web team. I worked with local businesses and nationwide companies to establish a presence on the internet, and to create online marketing plans.

It was a very successful business, and a model that is once again brimming with opportunity and profit potential…

Obviously, 13 years of experience has made you a lot wiser. Give us the short version of how you now pick a niche to start a new online business. Do you pick something you love, something that is commercially viable, or a combination of the two?

A combination of the two is ideal, passion and profit combined. Obviously you can’t monetize a passion that doesn’t have a buying market.

That said, given a choice between two profitable niches, I would go with the one based on my personal interests – even if the other had slightly higher profit potential. Regardless of the numbers, you’ll always do better in a market where you are personally invested.

There are 3 ways to choose a niche like this. It can be based on your professional experience or expertise, a hobby or skill, or it can be something you are interested in learning more about yourself. Perhaps you’re just taking up snowboarding, or starting to collect something, etc.

A new personal interest is always a great niche, as you’re in the research phase yourself. You can really connect with your target market, share resources, conduct case studies, share video and photos, etc.

Do you recommend selling digital products only or physical products too? Why?

I’m a big fan of promoting physical products as an affiliate. While digital products offer a higher commission, physical products see a higher conversion rate. Buyers are less skeptical, often pre-sold, and online product sales are just continuing to rise dramatically every year.

A combination of product types and offers is ideal, depending on your market. If you’re promoting physical products, you can often do that with low-cost (or even free) info products that help your market with the buying decision…

Once you’ve proven a new business idea, do you rely on organic search traffic, paid traffic, or both? How does Adwords figure into the equation?

I am currently using organic search (free traffic from high search engine rankings) as my primary source of visitors. SEO is easy, and it’s free.

I started out using Google Adwords to get targeted traffic, but quickly got annoyed with all of the updates and “slaps” – entirely too high maintenance for me. Especially compared to SEO. PPC requires too much constant attention for my taste.

The model I use is taught by Dan Thies free in his guide at http://www.SEOfaststart.com

I understand you have an Internet marketing blog and a forum. Who are they for, and where can my readers go to check them out?

I have been blogging for about 6 years now, running a discussion forum for online business owners for right at 8 years. Both offer a variety of content & resources for anyone that wants to learn more about marketing their business online, or starting an online business.

You’ll find the forum at http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/members/ and my blog is http://www.ClickNewz.com. There is active cross-over between the two, and it’s a great community. If you stop by, be sure to leave a comment on the blog or post an intro at the forum – I’d love to meet you!

If you enjoyed this interview, make sure you check out my interview over on ClickNewz: 3 Simple Ways to Improve Your Online Business

Direct mail advertising is very different than online advertising.

With direct mail, you have to find or compile a list of people who will be a good fit for your offer. The people you mail may or may not be interested in your product or service. They’ve never asked for you to contact them.

Plus, to complicate matters, the cost of printing and postage can be significant, especially if you’re mailing a large list.

Online, you get a few clear advantages. You either market to people who’ve already given you permission to be marketed to; or you market to people who are searching for exactly what you have to offer.

And, as an added benefit, the cost to advertise online is usually lower than advertising with direct mail.

Before I ever start writing a word of sales copy, I want to know how the message I’m writing is going to be distributed.

Is it going to be sent via direct mail? Is it going to be published in a magazine or newspaper? Is it going to be posted on the Internet and advertised via Adwords? Is it going to be advertised via banner ads on targeted web sites? Etc.

The answers to these questions have a HUGE effect on how you should write your copy and how you should design your conversion process.

Fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to help with both online and off-line direct mail advertising campaigns. Every experience teaches me something new: sometimes the lesson is obvious, other times it’s subtle.

There is one thing that all forms of advertising have in common. That is you must make sure that you are going after a market that 1) can be reached affordably and 2) has money to spend on your product or service.

If either of these two pieces is missing, you’re headed for swift and possibly devastating failure. (It always depends on how much money you’re spending up front, before you have any results.)

It seems this year I will be doing more work in the direct mail advertising field. I’m actually really looking forward to it because it seems that there’s something more “real” and gratifying about physical forms of advertising.

Certainly, every piece of mail a client pays to send is that much more accountable to results — a true test of skill and dedication.

-Ryan M. Healy

Late last week, on January 28th to be exact, four suspicious nominations were submitted to the recent post where I invited you to nominate your favorite Internet marketer.

After reading them, I suspected they were fake nominations. Here they are in the order they were received:

Comment #1

“TERRY KARLIN”

I would like to nominate Mike Filsaime.

His success speaks for itself. I’ve bought many of his programs through upsells.

Comment #2

“JOHN CARMICHAEL”

I am amazed that no has yet nominated the coolest IM guy ever: Frank Kern.

Frank is 100% down to earth, genuine, always over-delivers and completely devoted to customer service.

I love his videos and his laid-back attitude. His Mass Control 2.0 is awesome for any serious marketer. I was delighted to recently sign up for his monthly continuity program at only $297 per month. What a steal for such great material.

–John

For the record, “Terry Karlin” and “John Carmichael” both posted their nominations 7 minutes apart from IP address: 24.5.xx.47

But it gets better. Because then these two comments came in a few hours later:

Comment #3

“TERRY GOMEZ”

I would like to RYAN DIESS.

His Perpetual Launch model and software is sheer genius!

Through a clever piece of scripting you can make it look like you are giving a live webinar and hence capitalize on the “urgency” of a live event (cf. Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula) without the stress of actually delivering a live event. The software he provides completely automates the process and leads the viewers to believing whatever their active imaginations’ want. You can segment your list and mail to selected portions each week about the “event.”

His prior partnership with Perry Belcher, convicted felon, should not be held against Ryan.

Comment #4

“MARK PASSION”

My nomination for trusted, high integrity, high impact IM guy is Frank Kern.

Why? So many great products … and just view this super professional video on “The State of the Internet”: [link removed]

It’s rather long (about 30 minutes) but jam-packed with great information and just remarkable in what Frank says. It speaks volumes about his clear integrity and desire to make a difference for all of us in IM.

In a pattern nearly identical to the first two comments, “Terry Gomez” and “Mark Passion” both posted their nominations 12 minutes apart from IP address: 64.134.xxx.148

Digging a Little Deeper

It’s uncanny how similar the tone and even the words are in all of these nominations, isn’t it? Let’s examine some of the similarities.

First of all, there are the shared IP addresses. Both pairs of comments appeared on my blog the same day spaced a few hours apart.

Second of all, I find it humorous that while inventing four different people, our mystery commenter couldn’t even think of four different names. He had to use the name Terry twice: Terry Karlin and Terry Gomez.

What’s more, there’s “Kar-lin” and “Car-michael” used as last names in the first pair of comments. Obviously, the mystery commenter couldn’t use “Car-lin” and “Car-michael” — that’s too obvious. So a letter “K” was used in Terry’s last name.

Third, each of the four comments is completely anonymous. No gravatars. What appear to be fake email addresses used on all of them with the possible exception of Mark’s (he has come back to comment a few times).

Fourth: What’s most interesting of all is the similarity in word choice between John Carmichael and Mark Passion. Look at this:

“I am amazed that no has yet nominated the coolest IM guy ever: Frank Kern.” -John Carmichael

“My nomination for trusted, high integrity, high impact IM guy is Frank Kern.” -Mark Passion

Funny that both John and Mark like to use the acronym “IM” instead of spelling out Internet marketing. (Mark even uses the phrase a second time in the span of three paragraphs.)

Both John and Mark like to use a lot of superlatives. Their nominations are quite salesy and product focused.

In fact, Frank’s products are used as evidence of his character: “over-delivers,” “awesome,” “a steal,” “great material,” “great products,” “great information,” “remarkable.”

John and Mark really like the word “great,” don’t they? And is it just me, or do their comments sound more like thinly veiled sales pitches than genuine nominations?

Mark Passion’s Passion

Mark must not have liked how I flagged his comment along with the other three as being fake. He returned to my blog on Saturday night to try to defend himself. Here’s his comment verbatim.

Hi Ryan,

My entry to your excellent blog was NOT a fake!

Sorry to have to correct you, but my nomination of Frank Kern is quite legitimate. (As is that of my girlfriend for Ryan Deiss!). We wrote our nominations on the same laptop, right after each other given our joint visit to your blog. Is there something wrong with that?

I’m not sure what you hoped to achieve by publishing the IP address– Is that meant to somehow silence my voice and cancel my vote through some cloaked threat that you can hunt me down via a simple-minded IP lookup??

Please keep an open mind and please do allow everyone to link to Frank Kern’s simply remarkable “State of the Internet Address” at [link removed]

If you have some real evidence or verified data that Frank Kern should NOT be nominated, then by all means please post it publicly so that we can all see it and make up our own minds. Your censorship of the link smacks of totalitarianism. Let’s keep the web open for everyone to decide for themselves.

I’m sorry if my nomination offended you but I did follow your guidelines.

Thanks!

Mark

In addition to this response, Mark used his anonymous twitter profile (“TraderPassion”) to tweet my post.

But of course he twisted the truth to make it look as if I had christened myself “sheriff” to clean up Internet marketing. He also claimed I was preventing Frank Kern, Mike Filsaime, and Ryan Deiss from being nominated. See for yourself (click to enlarge):

None of Mark’s claims are true.

I have not anointed myself sheriff. I’m not trying to clean up Internet marketing. And I’m not preventing legitimate nominations.

I am trying to prevent fake nominations. Big difference.

In my opinion (and I could be wrong), all four of the nominations I’ve listed above are fake. And I’m not afraid to say it.

The Holes in Mark Passion’s Defense

In Mark’s defense of himself, he claims that he and his girlfriend were using the same laptop to read my blog, and that’s why the two comments came from the same IP address.

I don’t buy it.

Most females I know would not nominate a guy for his “sheer genius” and then immediately deliver a blatant sales pitch for “a clever piece of scripting” designed to fool would-be customers.

(Ladies? Can I get an amen?)

And what normal person comes out of nowhere saying, “His prior partnership with Perry Belcher, convicted felon, should not be held against Ryan.”

I also find it unusual for Mark Passion to be so passionate about promoting Frank Kern. This goes beyond a nomination. Twice he has attempted to link to Frank’s blog — the second time with the admonishment to “keep an open mind” and “please do allow everyone to link to” Frank’s blog.

Huh??

This is not the behavior of a normal person nominating someone.

Then there’s the issue of Mark’s Twitter account, TraderPassion. (Update: As of 2/2/2010, this Twitter profile has now been deleted.) Notice how Mark tries to spin the story to make the gurus look good and make me look bad.

Based on what I know about Frank’s products, it appears to me the person behind this is trying to turn this into a story about how Frank Kern, Mike Filsaime, and Ryan Deiss are really the good guys who’ve been unjustly attacked.

Frank did the same thing when he got busted by the FTC. He took the story and turned it into a selling point.

Last but not least, there’s Mark’s parting comment: “I’m sorry if my nomination offended you but I did follow your guidelines.”

Oh, yeah. That’s right. I didn’t say, “No fake comments.” So like any normal person, Mark thought it would be totally okay to pose as multiple fake customers and plug his favorite gurus’ products.

Disinformation, Subterfuge, and Propaganda

One of the problems with the Internet is the ease with which you can pretend to be someone you’re not. The temptation to be anonymous is too tempting a power for some.

If you’ve read the comments on Salty Droid, you’ll often see a dissenting voice appear. More often than not, it’s a guru engaging in some kind of subterfuge.

Back when people were finally becoming disillusioned with James Brausch (a.k.a. “Diego Norte”), James himself lead a campaign of disinformation on Crunch Gear to confuse people and make it look like he was really a good guy.

He even took the fight to a different web site and made false accusations against the author of the original post, John Biggs. Biggs then had to run a follow-up post to defend himself. The comments got so crazy on the second post that he was forced to close them. He wrote:

I’m closing comments because whatever Ponzi scheme these guys are running it’s clear they’re crazy as all get out.

Fortunately, there’s no army of interns leaving fake comments on this blog. At least not yet.

So far, it appears that the fake comments are coming from either Frank Kern, Mike Filsaime, Ryan Deiss, or one of their buddies.

Either way, it’s kind of sad that in the absence of legitimate nominations they’ve resorted to fabricating nominations so they’ll get on the list of ethical Internet marketing teachers.

Which, in case you hadn’t noticed, is a good way of making sure you’re not included on the list.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Mark Passion tried to make the argument that censoring his comment “smacked of totalitarianism.” Let me point out that propaganda is a technique much favored by totalitarians. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Tse-tung come to mind.

So when you think about it, my censorship of Mark’s propaganda is fighting fire with fire. A totalitarian technique requires a totalitarian response.

P.P.S. Contrary to the recent propaganda, legitimate comments are welcome. Post one below.

Earlier this week, Remarkablogger (Michael Martine) suggested:

Consider a post that rounds up a list of the “good guys,” too.

I think this is a good idea. I’m going to put together a list of trustworthy online marketers. But I need your help.

With that in mind, I want to know:

Who are the good guys and gals in online marketing? Who would you want to be on this list?

Most importantly, why?

Two rules:

1. You can’t nominate yourself.

2. No bashing or flaming allowed. Recommendations only.

Got it? Now scroll down and nominate your favorite online marketer in the comments.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Why are comments now closed? Read why here: Disinformation, Subterfuge, and Propaganda