Ain't this illegal?

That would imply everyone on the planet reads him. I know that's not true, as I've never even heard of him, lol. Are you sure this isn't meant in jest?

Maybe its time you stop reading Dean Hunt

ED

Its crazy and I've saw it nearly a billion times in the last few months. LOL j/k okay no I know there are some of us who are a little bit off in our "guesstimates" but that is just outright lying. Exaggeration is one thing but do these type people really think that stating something like that is going to make more people read?

We should all just move on and not waste on more time on this

Are you sure this isn't an attempt to get people to go to his site? I went to it and could not find this claim?

I'm thinking if it's there, he was kidding... there seems to be an element of humor to his blog...

Looking at it from another point if view...

What constitutes a "reader" in his definition? Maybe it's hits or page views. In that case the term "readers" may be misleading, but not illegal.

Plus, saying he has 6 billion readers doesn't really hurt anybody, so it would be difficult to prosecute anyway.

If it's NOT meant to be humor it may be unethical, not against the law.

All the best,
Michael

Agreed Michael, there is no literal harm in his stating that amount of readers and it could very simply be hits because I know there are ways to get unheard of hits to your blog and I do hope to someday get a nice amount of hits if I ever get mine up and either way, things are often take out of context, he could be meaning it in humor, or not, most will never know either way

Well, you guys are WRONG! First, I THINK there are supposed to be about 7 billion people in the world. Second English is only the 2nd or 3rd most popular language in the world. Supposedly, only about 380 are native speakers of English. GRANTED, English may be about the most popular SECOND language, but how many will read his articles DAILY!?!? ALSO, MANY of those that speak english either can't read, or don't use a computer to read pages on the internet.

So 380 million readers would be OUTSTANDING, but unlikely and hard to believe. 6 billion? NO WAY! BESIDES, many of them are too young or too old or isolated.

Steve

This could just be a matter of definition, like Michael Oksa said.

If you recall at one time McDonalds had signs that said 1 million served. Then it gradually increased until it reached 99 billion served. Now most of them just read billions and billions served. Now we know that there are not 99 billion people on the planet. They just get a ton (pun intended) of repeat business. So it's just a matter of definition, and not illegal. Otherwise McDonalds would have been in trouble a long time ago.

Sarcasm, perhaps? If used in fun and playful way.

Chris

alexa for the win

Got you talking about him didnt he? Crazy Marketing Scheme? maybe...not

#1 -- if he isn't selling ads based on readership, it is probably not fraud, and therefore not illegal
#2 -- even the FTC ignores "puffing" or posturing
#3 -- It is obvious to most people that this is hype at worst and perhaps humor or parity

It's probably just a hype like john Chow =]

It would help by having people subscribe to his mailing list though! Pretty genius imo

TeoAdiputra

You may want to change your signature
The forum is set to replace certain "bad" words that are not welcomed in this forum...

lying is only illegal when a person is misrepresenting something that they are selling.

I actually thought it was quite amusing when someone showed me....

He's clearly jokin' around with it...

Seems like he has had to explain himself a few times though, he gets a little stick in the comment section of his blog... lol

Peace

Jay

That is meant to be humor /// satire, and no, even if it were a boldface lie, it's not illegal. He doesn't really have killer bunnies either .... or does he?

For those who are not familiar with him, he is a very well known "buzz marketer" ... His writing, his blog, his ideas and his products are second to none.

with claims like that his credibility just went out the window i will not be reading his blogs ever

Just for your info awhile back and warrior related...
RichGrad.com Has 6 Billion Readers? - Google Search

Dave

Maybe in 8 то 10 years, that could be possible, when we consider, what`re the predictions about the population growth

I wish I had 6 billion readers!

But honestly, how could you trust someone like that (unless it is just a joke)? And if it is, apparently no one got it!

Yes it should! How dare him.

Throw the man in jail.

First, it's something that possibly could not be proven or disproven, therefore, it's moot. However, technically he could make such a claim and it could possibly be true. For instance, people magazine state total circulation, although that figure is much larger than subscribers, and much smaller than readership.

For instance, one copy of people magazine can be read hundreds of times a month by patients waiting in a doctor's waiting room. Now multiply that by the number of waiting rooms worldwide and multiply that number by the number of years people magazine has been published could equal many times over the population of the entire world at any given time in history.

So, in the case of Dean Hunt's claim of 6 billion blog readers... statistically possible. My personal belief or opinion... not probable.

I'm a bit surprised at how many people took it seriously in light of all the other obvious jokes on his blog. Also as to the Ego piece, the byline on the blog is "because everyone is entitled to my opinion" which is an immediate full-frontal assault from the get-go.

Dean Hunt has been around for some time now and I believe is speaking or spoke at Yanik's Marketing Underground Seminar.

You just fall in his trap xD.............

(He's a buzz... or may be "drunk" marketer )

maybe he is just exaggerating to get attention from people.

Personally, I think it's just another hype (exaggeration as ken_p puts i) to get people talking and clicking his site. There's no way 6 Billion people will visit his site cos what about the other part of the world population with no power not to talk of PC or internet access?

It worked though, his site probably got mentioned more times here than it has been ever before, ANYWHERE

Huh? What An Amateur...

I get 6 Kazillion (Times Infinity) Every day.

The dude needs to learn how to market.

Take Care,

Michael Silvester

Imagine a Buzz marketer getting free traffic from people commenting about his blog. Incredible!

He would be pissing himself at the stupidity of some people....

Dean who?...after this thread he just may have his 6million.

Couple of days ago I read an article about selecting keywords that will make the reader stay blank at least for couple of seconds. Now it is important to attract people. I believe he is doing the same thing here. And I think we just made him reach his goal.

To answer the question. It's not illegal when it's that obvious that it's not true (i'm guessing that he's based in the US).

If he'd said that he had 50.000 readers (and he doesn't) that another matter and might be considered illegal depending on how he uses it.

No one has mentioned his "Get Reviewed By This Blog" Price ... lol

Illegal???

Hyperbole is not illegal.

When Dean wrote that sentence he knew that no reasonable person would believe that he had 6 Billion readers. Nor would any reasonable person think that Dean intended the reader to believe that he actually had 6 Billion readers.

There is power in the use hyperbole.

Dean's hyperbolic statement has lead us to debating the current population of the world. Inspired at least one of us to attempt to disprove Dean's hyperbole by researching the number of English speaking people in the world. Gave one of us cause to question Dean's credibility. Lead one of us to determine that he is an egomaniac that does not deserve to be followed. And somehow zigged over to questioning if the McDonald's claim of billions and billions served was intended to mean customers or just hamburgers.

His legs bestrid the ocean: his reared arm crested the world.
Hyperbole found in Shakespeare's Anthony & Cleopatra.

There did not seem to be brains enough in the entire nursery, so to speak, to bait a fish-hook with. (Not implying anything here. )
More hyperbole from Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

I don't have time to mow the lawn today because I've got a bazillion other things to do.
Hyperbole used by my son just before he mowed the lawn.

Dean may not have 6 Billion readers, but his words seem to have the power to set of interesting (strange?) debates.

Got to go to lunch cause I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!

Take Care,
Gene

He's great at what he does