Are YOU of the herd mentality???

by Kim Standerline

Posted: 14 years ago 18 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I was just thinking about a recent thread which has just been deleted thankfully which epitomised the Herd Mentality. (I'm sure many will know which one I allude to).

Someone wrote about how successful he had been online etc and it was utterly amazing how many people swallowed what he had to say hook line and sinker with absolutely no proof etc given whatsoever.

You know guys unfortunately there are a whole lot of scammers out there on the Internet, and whilst I'm not saying this person was a scammer (I'm definitely not saying that), it makes me realise why fraudulent WSO's etc are so prevalent despite the frequent warnings to do your due diligence etc.

Many are looking for the Internet dream and dangled carrots from those who claim to have "made it" online can often prove to be irrisistable.

I've seen it many times in many threads, and a very successful scammer can whip folks up into a virtual feeding frenzy where they are practically begging them to take their money. (Heck I've been there myself).

I'm probably not explaining this very well, so I'll just finish by saying please be careful when folks come onto the forum making outragous claims.

Sometimes if it smells and feels like bull****, it most probably is

Paul Myers sums it up perfectly here http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...Hp4tNykoV8hKpI

Cheers
Kim

#herd #mentality

Scott Ames 14 years ago

Mooooooooooooooo
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- Liam Hamer 14 years ago
  
  I know the thread you mean, but only briefly browsed through it. To be honest, when I first saw the thread title, I thought to myself "introducing yourself by making public your monthly income is NOT a good idea", but I didn't post in the thread.
  
  I have never been of the herd mentality, in fact FAR from it. It's just not who I am. In life, I have been on the receiving end of it a few times and it's not a nice feeling at all - thankfully not for a long time now though If someone is getting a hard time, whether it is in day to day life or on the internet, I don't jump on board because I think it's pretty pointless and doesn't help the situation.
  
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- Dan C. Rinnert 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Scott Ames
  
  Mooooooooooooooo
  
  I was going to say that!!!
  
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lgibbon Banned 14 years ago

Nope.
My motto is: Don't believe anything you hear,
and only half what you see.
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- Kim Standerline 14 years ago
  
  Well heck I know you aint, and I love your philosophy
  
  I noticed your bull****ometer went into overdrive on that thread as well
  
  Originally Posted by lgibbon
  
  Nope.
  My motto is: Don't believe anything you hear,
  and only half what you see.
  
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KarlWarren 14 years ago

I smell burgers...

I'm a little herdy, just because I like to keep abreast of the market and know what's going on. I have my business plan and I'm sticking to it though, so there's no 'flitting' from project to project anymore.

And, income claims mean nothing to me anymore - they did when I first started online, but that's before I started working towards my own goals.

Kindest regards,
Karl.
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AmyBrown 14 years ago

It's closely related to the mob mentality where everyone starts piling on based not on their own research or thought but because it's what everyone else is doing.

Either way people should come to their own conclusions and in most cases there is more than enough information readily available. It's usually best to watch what people do rather than what they say.
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R Hagel

14 years ago

Let me echo some of the other comments: Moooooo.

By the way, I was once like you. Struggling to pay the bills. Not daring to answer the "unknown caller" calls because I just knew it was going to be another bill collector. I didn't even know where my next meal was coming from.

Then I discovered a money-making secret so powerful that it changed my entire life.

The first week I used this secret it put $835.94 into my PayPal account.

By week two, I was pulling down $1600 (and I only worked one hour a day).

Fast forward a few months and I'm now consistently pulling in $48,000 each and every month.

These days I spend more time golfing, doing needlepoint and playing with my dogs than anything else. I have my dream home. And forget about fancy cars -- I just take the helicopter everywhere...

cheers,
Becky

P.S. BTW, just ask and I'll tell you how I did it. For free. No strings. I just looooove helping people.

Thanks
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Martin Luxton

14 years ago

Originally Posted by R Hagel

These days I spend more time golfing, doing needlepoint and playing with my dogs than anything else. I have my dream home. And forget about fancy cars -- I just take the helicopter everywhere...

cheers,
Becky

Caught you telling porkies, Becky.

That's a VH-60N Whitehawk chopper and everybody knows you've only got a clapped out UH-60 Blackhawk.

Martin

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theemperor

14 years ago

Originally Posted by R Hagel

LOL

You missed the bit about PayPal holding $1M of your funds indefinitely and then having to sell the chopper to pay the dog's vet bills

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Ken Preuss 14 years ago

Nice Scott. And certainly great points made by Kim.

Here's the reality. We ALL possess a herd mentality here to some degree. Why do I say that? Because we're all "herded" together here out of a shared belief for what's possible financially on the internet.

Does every single one of us need to keep that mentality in check? Yes, and I agree with you on that. But the truth is that even the most experienced IM'ers on this forum get sucked into buying products, WSO's, etc. virtually against their own will due to their mentality and immense desire for what product X or Y could do for them.

That said, I do think the mentality evolves over time. Once you've been around the block enough times it becomes clear who the ice cream man is and is not.

But the lesson remains the same. The seed for people's involvement here is opportunity. Opportunity for what's possible financially on the internet. This opportunity-seeking mindset definitely needs to be kept in check.

Ken
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travlinguy 14 years ago

Like it or not we're all part of some herd or other from time to time. This board is a microcosm of the wide world of Internet Marketing with a certain specialty for the 'make money selling info products' niche.

This niche attracts a lot of people looking for the answer to their dreams. It also attracts a lot of newbies, people who are either completely new to marketing or to business as a whole. And unfortunately, they have few, if any filters when they see stuff like: Make $50K a week on autopilot using dirty little ninja secrets doing only 3 hours of work.

Follow that header up with some slick graphics, some BS bank screenshots, some phony testimonials, and a bogus video endorsement and you've got a lot of people going mooooooooooooo together.

Maybe it's because there will always be predators out there to separate the inexperienced folks from their money. But if the old saying, "If it sounds too good to be true..." applies, heed the call and instead of saying mooooooooo, just say nooooooooooooo
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George Wright 14 years ago

The death of the herd will be the death of marketing for any niche. The herd, yours, mine and even Leslie's is alive and well, thank goodness we have a we smell a scam herd. And their noses work most of the time.
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dsmpublishing 14 years ago

Hi kim

its like the screenshots of income and how many of them are faked just like with the testimonials. I know it happens because people fake testimonials from me without even asking me for one!

When i am interested in something i look past the screenshots and focus more on the person and im more likely to believe someone who earns 500 a month than someone that earns 50,000. I like income streams so i would still purchase a system that generates that $500 a month!

The more honest you are the better your business and rep will be. one of my subscribers had been doing really well then their income dived in december with the xmas rush etc and posted the results on their blog and it got more views and replies than ever before and it was their best day ever for sales.

So to anyone considering lying dont do it being honest will earn you a lot more money in the long term.

kind regards

sam
X
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Writer 14 years ago

Here's what I appreciate - Those with the balls to question that guy. Why?

Because to me, it was obvious --

When ANYONE tries too hard to "prove" him/herself, you should start watching the bottom of your shoes...because you just stepped in it.

Too many want to believe in ANYTHING and EVERYTHING...without question.

Sure, some were miffed at Life for posting those links but it showed the other side that he wasn't willing to reveal.

MY NEXT PEEVE: Stop telling me what you grossed. Give me NET/NET/NET...which means what was your profit after COGS, EXPENSES, and TAXES.

Hell, I've made over $10K a month on a website for over 3 months before and now it's less than $100 (it's not adsense). But it doesn't take into account the expenses and taxes.

Just keeping it Real -

Writer
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Brian Tayler 14 years ago

Allen Says had some really good threads about the herd mind on the old forum. Not sure if they are still available, but they're worth reading.
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- SirLucius 14 years ago
  
  What makes this niche very easy to take advantage is that many newbies are in desperate financial situations and they treat each product like a lottery ticket. Scammers love a hungry, desperate market because that's where people will be more willing to trust them.
  
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  Paul Myers 14 years ago
  
  Having just deleted a bunch of posts from this thread, I can pretty much tell it's going to keep going back to the referenced topic, rather than the larger point.
  
  Kim, if you want to rewrite this so that it doesn't focus on a specific incident and re-post that version, I think it could be a useful discussion. There's nothing to be gained by rehashing deleted threads.
  
  Paul
  
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Are YOU of the herd mentality???

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