Ed Howes writes:

I am encouraged by the fact that more people are finding value in giving. I wonder how many testimonials we might have on this subject among the nearly 30,000 EzineArticles authors, some of whom track the results. It would make for an interesting author contest.

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Lance Winslow writes:

I especially was happy to see Adam’s article on How Not to get ripped off by wannabe Marketing Gurus. Indeed I have been extra critical of such folks. That was a good article and I will finish reading all his articles here tonight. Good stuff indeed. So, far I have to agree with Chris and that is to say that Adam has some real world street smart wisdom to depart and that is hard to come by these days. Keep up the great work Adam, while I soak up all your observations, experience and real world knowledge, and Adam, thank you for that. Indeed it is highly appreciated.

Ed – You sure come up with some great ideas, every time I turn around Ed has another great idea. I think Ed, you should write an article on how to clear the table so to speak in your mind and help others come up with great ideas. Keep up the great work on that for sure!

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Edward Weiss writes:

I’ve seen the same kind of sign up box on another site… I think selling a postcard marketing e-book. Gets attention that’s for sure.

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Ed,

Yeah, this one:
http://www.marketingwithpostcards.com/

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Lance Winslow writes:

I have an observation. And that is when someone uses EVERY marketing and sales trick in the book, when does it become to salesy? When does it turn into a virtual circus? At what point do the smart and sophisticated best customers turn it off and click out? How much flashing lights, tricky little tactics and marketing tactics can one take, before it looks like all SHOW and No GO!

The reason I ask, is I keep seeing the SAME OLD online marketing tactics, perhaps because they work and everyone copies everyone else instead of thinking and coming up with something new. Once this happens they all look fake.

I see so many online pretenders all doing the same thing and it is pathetic really. The same old sales tricks both online and during first contacts. Too many non-personal auto responders, assumptions and garbage. It is a real turn off to smarter business people. Are all these sales marketing folks going after and targeting all the stupid people, the largest percentage of the market, rather than the best possible clientele?

If so, and I believe this to be the case then in reality there must be one heck of a lot of room at the top for the REAL PROFESSIONAL and knowledgable marketing consultants. There are way too many wannabes out there. And you know what in my day, we literally ate them for lunch. You know at some point the BS has to walk and all these sales tricky tactics need to be seen for what they are.

A nice touch on a website might be this Post Card thing, which is fine. But when it is followed up by other tactics online, after a while it just all looks fake. And really having been in business for 27 years and set up our franchises in 23 states and 450 cities where we did business, well it just seems to me I see a whole lot of talk from a whole lot of wannabes and it quite frankly concerns me.

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Ed Howes writes:

What if we look at copy cat marketing as an inevitable part of our growth as a global community. If it seems less common in the brick and mortar world it is only that far fewer could get in the game. When Joe Six Pack gives up TV, copy cat marketing everywhere will diminish. Because of your marketing eye and experience you are much more sensitive and annoyed by this than the average people who may not be stupid at all, just heavily distracted. If it was not for the copycats, I’d have a tough time spotting and appreciating the innovators. If just 3% of the copycats evolve into great marketers who can teach us all, I’ll quietly tolerate the other 97%.

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Lance Winslow writes:

You bring up an excellent point. The 3% does in fact show up as unique simply because of all the copycats. I wonder how Chris deals with this on his website. Everytime he does something every other article submission site tries to copy him. I tell you it use to drive me nuts, but we out innovated everyone and it got to the point we were modifying our marketing every month in our company. As soon as you produce something and the word gets around, everyone copies you.

On the Internet where your competitors surf your site daily, it is a wonder how you can tell sometimes who was the originator of an idea or marketing plan.

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Ed Howes writes:

Hey Lance,

Right now I’m trying to get two innovators to sopy each other. Whichever incorporates the other’s best features first will be THE super directory next year.

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Lance Winslow writes:

You know it is funny your mention that because when I use to race motorcyles there were things I liked about my two-favorite bikes, both different manufacturers, if I only have both those features on one bike, now that would have been something that every racer would have loved. It certainly would make racing more fun, enjoyable and competitive. Today 20-years later I see it has now finally happened. And yet I wonder what took them soo long?

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Ed Howes writes:

Lance,

It took so long because evryone thought you should build it. :-)

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Lance Winslow writes:

Indeed, perhaps so, but Winslow Labs has not been created yet.

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