Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Does This Mean I've Crossed Over to the Dark Side?
I get a lot of biz op junk mail. I don't know whether me being involved with Internet marketing gets me more than most people or not.

I know, though, that I get a lot of invitations to "free" seminars that are merely veiled pitches for $2,500 business-in-a-box programs that sell people a site-building tool that they'll never use because it's too complicated for anyone but the developer to understand.

The other biz-op scam I receive a lot sent me another (very elegant looking) pitch today. It's the old "have a business of your own by servicing vending machines!" scam. There must be a lot of money in getting people to sign up to service vending machines, because the mail I get for this biz-op is staggering.

It ticks me off every time I get one of these biz-op mailings because I know that people, who desperately would like to experience the freedom of making a living off of their own business, will take the scammers up on these "opportunities" and get burned.

I didn't throw that piece of mail out today like I usually do, though. A delicious idea crossed my mind.

I thought, why not save up all this deceitful biz-op junk mail for a month or so and then do a short video showing the accumulated pile. I could then decry the predatory biz-op schemes out there and contrast them to the low-cost legitimate business training that I provide on Employee-to-Entrepreneur Blueprint?

The idea of using a pile of scam mail to show the worthless scams that prospective business owners fall victim to seemed too delicious to pass up. "Let 'em send me junk mail," I thought. "I'll just use it to make my point about how much worthless junk is out there."

You know what this means, though, don't you? I am now officially SAVING junk mail. I've already saved a few sales letters that were exceptionally well written so I could get ideas from them when I write sales letters. But now I'm even saving junk mail scams!

My mentors always told me that the day would come when I would stop looking at ads as an irritation and start seeing them as opportunities to learn lessons -- good or bad -- from other marketers. I guess that day has now officially come.

I don't know if that means I've crossed over to the dark side, though. That would be if I started scamming, or at least focused on methods that others would find intrusive.

I look at it as becoming a better marketer: seeing opportunities where others see trash, learning to avoid intrusive techniques and make my messages more focused on customer needs.

I don't think I've crossed over to the dark side. I'm just seeing a bigger picture in my chosen field.
Jeff

Labels: entrepreneurship, marketing