Should the "Is this a scam?" Tactic Be Banned?

Kim,

Good for you. You've built a good reputation among internet marketers and you
don't want someone to tarnish it.

Not questioning if it works. As I said it's slanderous no matter if it is intended
to be. Your saying it is "quite innocent" because they are drawing traffic to a
review? We know exactly how the tactic is used but again... it's slanderous and
it could give a product or person a bad reputation. It's not innocent but it may
be done in ignorance.

I think others that agree understand... when you think what if negative things
were said about my product or name that are completely out of order.

I wouldn't want the tactic being use with my name or my products. I would do
the same as John and give them chance to pull a negative ad and suspend their
affiliate account if they didn't comply.

The end or outcome doesn't justify the means. Tarnishing the brand of others isn't
an option for me.

Internet marketers already have a bad rap to start with.

Thanks for your feedback everyone.

Bryan

Hi Chris, I hope you're doing well.

Did you get a chance to read the blog post?

John was basically just encouraging others to take it upon themselves
to discourage the practice, especially as a product owner. We can
certainly speak out about it and voice that it's not as cool as many
affiliates think.

Product owner's can certainly lay down the law and would be smart for
them to do so. There's been a few people already that mentioned that
they do exactly what John did. Kim, had actually went through this
herself and I'm sure this was very frustrating for her.

Of course we're not talking about informing customers of real scam.

Let me ask you this - Would any marketer bid on keywords out of
the bottom of their heart to alert a potential customers of possible
scam? "If that were like that...."

Recently, I was doing a search on Google to find a product that I thought
would be helpful for my subscriber base, and when I plugged in the
name of the product or something close, there were four Google Ads that
showed up. Guess what... three of the ads were affiliate ads, and all 3
used the work fraud or scam, and I think one used both!!

I was thinking, man this is out of control. I almost thought for a
second because there were so many... could this be a crap product?
But of course it is just a tactic invoke curiosity and have people
clickthrough.

We're no police here, we just want to voice that this tactic isn't all
it's cut out to be and that it can effectively hurt a product/merchant's
brand.

I had recently bought an a affiliate marketing product which includes software for creating adwords ads and there were around a few of
these defamatory phrases that could be inserted in the ads. :confused:
It's become part of the affiliate culture. lol

Many affiliates for a long time have been saying this is a great technique,
and most of us on this thread are saying ... no way, this is a horrible
tactic... "I would NOT want my name or any of my products associated
with this type of selling tactics."

I'm doubting that it very effective for avid buyers of IM products too,
since many us that are aware of this tactic, and steer clear of it.

I rather click on an ad that compels me to check it out by stating a
specific benefit. But, then again this thread isn't about the effectiveness
of the tactic.

Take care,

Bryan

of course there is. you just refuse to pay the affiliate if they don't stop. I don't run my affiliate programs through CB (I like to have control of them) so yes I can stop it.

When we first launched EasyMemberPro, we had an affiliate using this method. I nearly died of shock when I googled Easymemberpro to see how many links we had and saw a google ad saying Kim Standerline is a scammer.

Yes the affiliate was selling lots of copies, but when it got to the point when I had friends and family emailing and phoning me out of concern because they had seen it, it had to stop. It also raised a few titters as well which I didn't particularly like either.

Kim

Good point, but I've been desensitized to it for awhile. I'm sure many
others are nowtoo after seeing it so much. It's almost like the "cry wolf"
story.

It's boring me big time. Two of my favorite copywriters are super affiliates,
and I think their conversions are so crazy high because they're REAL, and
come across like decent guys. Many other internet marketer's come
across like the slimy used cars salesman stereotype, with the plaid pants
and full of false promises.

The best copy writers on the earth are ones that know how to empathize,
and put at the potential customer at ease. Bonuses and stuff is great, but
I usually buy from those I respect the most - Marketer's that cut the bull
and talk to me like a real person.

I highly recommend you guys read "Scientific Advertising" by Claude Hopkins.
You should find it to be quite and eye opener. One of his points in his book
was that a salesman shouldn't think of people in mass but as a typical
individual that would buy from you. He basically mentions that marketers
should talk to the person as if they were speaking to them face to face.

This kind of approach will transform ad copy. Sorry to go on a tangent.

Have a Great weekend everyone!

Bryan

Don't underestimate the power of the question mark (?)

Is [insert name here] a scammer?
Is [insert product name] a scam?

I could care less if the person's ego gets bruised while they rake in all the commisions I send them. They have two choices; kick me out of their affiliate program or shut up and collect/count the money I sent them.

Funny thing, they always choose the latter.

Nice linkbait by Reel even though he is a dark knight as well.

This thread is a scam and should be banned.

While I agree that this is a bad tactic for affiliates (if I search for "scam" I don't want to keep running across dozens of shills).

I have read some of the marketing material from some of these "big named marketers" where in they taught and promoted this very same tactic to their own affiliates.

The reasoning behind this is that for the most part, there will always be someone accusing you of being a scammer (goes with being a big name), and that the keywords such as "scam" and "fraud" may as well lead to a friendly affiliate site, as opposed to a real smear story.

In the blog mentioned, he was talking about accusing "product A" as being a scam, in order to promote competing "product B". Which is unethical and could/should expose the affiliate to a defamation lawsuit.

Just my take.

X, I have kept a pretty low profile, but I'm sure if you were ever to come across some people with who I have worked, your opinion about my software knowledge would change. I own his software along with every other bit heap in this realm, so I am aware of its capabilities.

As for Mr Reel, all I ask is for a bit of consistency. It seems disingenuous to me to rant about something as trivial as the phrase "Is this a scam" while supplying software that gives people the ability to steal. Yes, they have to exercise that choice but let me also remind you of Napster.

If he wants to write articles like he is some sort of affiliate choir boy then perhaps he should clean up the rest of his act or he will be taken as seriously by all as he is by me.