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Information Crapola

by Scott Ames
21 replies
Everyone in marketing is aware that they need to create articles in order to get noticed. They hire writers, they spin articles, they throw something out there just to get the search engines to notice their link/s.

Information marketers know that all they need to do blend information from several profitable info products sold by others or have a writer create a product for them and they can sell it.

Somewhere in all of this the true expert, the person with a passion for the subject and with the most knowledge, seems to get overrun by the aggressive marketers. Their products are not found but on the deep pages of Google. Their sales page is junk because they focus on creating good info more than sales. Their product is top notch, but no one buys it or finds it.

It struck me when I searched for some medical information that half or more of what I saw on the first page of Google was copy cat marketers, affiliate sales review pages, and off the cuff articles which could have been spun, etc. Dangerous? Very well could be. A lot of that information is copied and sold as fact when perhaps its not the best advise that could be given.

Where will all of this lead? I don't know. Google created the problem or at least caused it to become prolific. Ironic that their quest for good content has led to lots bad content. Not all is bad, but I question a bunch of it.
#crapola #information
  • Profile picture of the author urbt
    Banned
    Very good point. I always wonder how many 'rehashings' an ebook can take before it becomes absolute crap. The answer, I'm afraid, is probably unlimited. Which means that this problem isn't going to go away soon...

    Ed
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  • Profile picture of the author alexander13
    Urbt,

    I don't understand your point. An article/ebook can go through unlimited rehashings before it becomes "absolute crap". Meaning it never becomes crap.

    I doubt this is your meaning and it seems after a 3-4 revisions the thing becomes crap...or at least far less useful than the original.
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    • Profile picture of the author JustaWizard
      If I'm *getting* your post correctly, you're making the general point that due to a bunch of marketers out there trying to dominate a niche, true expert info being put on the web by those who don't know much about SEO are getting buried by junk or at least less-than-expert-quality information being propagated by and from marketers.

      If that's the gist of your post, I'd like to chime in on that and agree with you. I personally am an expert in a couple of niches, specifically confidence building for shy guys with respect to meeting/dating/approaching women/girls, and also business marketing / lead generation / lead conversion using speaking and seminars.

      I keep up on my niches with Google alerts, RSS feeds, and other methods and I constantly find blogs and websites that are nothing but scraped content or auto-content-feed blogs/sites that are clearly just marketing/seo efforts (adsense all over it, links to affiliate products, etc.).

      Now to be clear I do NOT, DO NOT begrudge anyone wanting to make money or market products and/or services they are not an expert in or at. In fact, marketers serve a valuable function by bringing people who desire products/services together with those products/services.

      My concern, on the other hand, is that the focus on "get the money" and slick seo techniques cause truly terrific expert info to get buried.

      Best,
      David Portney
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  • Profile picture of the author urbt
    Banned
    Sorry Alexander, I just meant that in theory the information would be watered down and the product would deteriorate every time it is rehashed. Didn't think that out before I wrote it. I'm still quite confused about it myself!

    Ed
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  • Profile picture of the author mogili
    I'm reminded of Gresham's Law which says that bad money drives away good money. Similarly, on the internet, bad information is driving away good information. We have to ferret out lot of junk information to get solid and original information.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adaptive
    Doesn't this situation provide a superb opportunity for good marketers? I mean good in both meanings: skilled and ethical. Someone who can find and respect real experts, show them that well-marketed crap sells well, and makes a JV partnership to bring true expertise to a market obviously eager to find real solutions. Won't good marketing be a good long term investment, to help the real experts offer their real help long after the latest flash in the pan has fizzled out?

    Regards,
    Allen
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  • Profile picture of the author Randy Bheites
    Historically, this happens all the time, in every niche/product. When something sells, tons of people are attracted to selling it, and produce endless variations in order to sell it. It keeps things alive, provides product and industry flow.

    How many different kinds of soap are there? Pens? Cars? Hotdogs? Encyclopedias? The market will bear what the market will bear. It's free enterprise. Competition and variation is a good thing.

    Here's a cautionary tale of what happens when a single product dominates: currently, Ethiopia is having a major economic crisis. Housing, you say? Banker shennanigans? Nope, Coca-Cola.

    That's right, a huge portion of the Ethiopian economy is tied into distributing and selling Coke. In bottles. In bottles only. What's the problem? There is an acute shortage of bottletops. No bottletops means no bottles of Coke means no product to transport, store, distribute and sell, means a huge number of people out of work and bringing down the economy (not making money, not spending money).

    An entire country brought to its economic knees because there aren't enough bottlecaps.

    If only they had Pepsi in cans and 7-up and Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew and Shasta and Root Beer and ....
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  • Profile picture of the author Marty S
    Originally Posted by Scott Ames View Post

    Where will all of this lead? I don't know. Google created the problem or at least caused it to become prolific. Ironic that their quest for good content has led to lots bad content. Not all is bad, but I question a bunch of it.
    There is a lot of facts to support this, but it also fuels the desire for advertisers to start using AdWords, so I doubt Google views it as a problem.
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  • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
    I would like to make a point here. Will anyone here dispute my opinion that Dr. Phil is an idiot and dispenses bad and even dangerous advice? Yet how well known is he and how much money is he making?

    TomG.
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    • Profile picture of the author Randy Bheites
      Originally Posted by tommygadget View Post

      I would like to make a point here. Will anyone here dispute my opinion that Dr. Phil is an idiot and dispenses bad and even dangerous advice? Yet how well known is he and how much money is he making?

      TomG.
      Sorry, can't argue with that. Phil is a douchebag.

      On the other hand, he is "legal".
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      • Profile picture of the author Charles Washington
        Originally Posted by Randy Bheites View Post

        Sorry, can't argue with that. Phil is a douchebag.

        On the other hand, he is "legal".
        He's legal? I thought he WAS NOT a deal Dr. Am I wrong?
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        • Profile picture of the author Randy Bheites
          Originally Posted by Charles Montgomery View Post

          He's legal? I thought he WAS NOT a deal Dr. Am I wrong?
          He has a doctorate in clinical psychology, which legally makes him a doctor. If by "real" you mean a medical doctor, no. But he is very careful not to "dispense medical advice", or when he gets close, to issue a caveat along the lines of "check with your doctor".

          Douchebag.
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          • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
            Originally Posted by Randy Bheites View Post

            He has a doctorate in clinical psychology, which legally makes him a doctor. If by "real" you mean a medical doctor, no. But he is very careful not to "dispense medical advice", or when he gets close, to issue a caveat along the lines of "check with your doctor".

            Douchebag.
            Anybody who has managed to "Pile it Higher and Deeper" may call themselves "Doctor".

            There used to be a marketer by the name of "Dr." Jeffery Lant, who would have regular hissy fits if you forgot to call him "Doctor." Even though his PhD was in Elizabethan poetry or some such nonsense...

            At least Dr. Dumbass is operating in a field related to his schooling, at least when he isn't kissing Oprah's sizeable behind...

            If either one of them told me the sun was rising in the east, I'd want my own window, watch and compass before I believed it. I apply the same standard to anything health-related online.
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            • Profile picture of the author Steve Sanchez
              Media controls what the masses think. Those that think for themselves can see through all the B.S. and make educated decisions. You have to decide if you want to differentiate making money with providing a quality service. Quality will win out in the long run.
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    • Profile picture of the author SteveJohnson
      Originally Posted by tommygadget View Post

      I would like to make a point here. Will anyone here dispute my opinion that Dr. Phil is an idiot and dispenses bad and even dangerous advice? Yet how well known is he and how much money is he making?

      TomG.
      I second that one...
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  • Profile picture of the author BizBoost
    Originally Posted by Scott Ames View Post

    Where will all of this lead? I don't know. Google created the problem or at least caused it to become prolific. Ironic that their quest for good content has led to lots bad content. Not all is bad, but I question a bunch of it.
    You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Doesn't it make sense that the people who are too lazy to look beyond page 3, or who are too hasty, or anxious to verify such information if it's for some important use, should suffer such a fate?

    Using myself as an example, I search until I find information that seems really well written and then I try to verify the information from several different authoritative sources. Those who don't are just demonstrating one aspect of Darwin's Law. You can't force people to be intelligent... you can lead them to water, but you can't make them drink.

    Best wishes,
    Eric
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    • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
      Banned
      Originally Posted by BizBoost View Post

      You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. Doesn't it make sense that the people who are too lazy to look beyond page 3, or who are too hasty, or anxious to verify such information if it's for some important use, should suffer such a fate?
      By the same token, perhaps the "experts" are too lazy to employ the same techniques that the marketers do to get their information ranked higher.
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      • Profile picture of the author Herricks
        Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

        By the same token, perhaps the "experts" are too lazy to employ the same techniques that the marketers do to get their information ranked higher.

        On the same note, maybe they need to up their game in order to truly be experts and get the ratings they deserve...
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  • Profile picture of the author Anna Johnson
    Good post Scott. And it just underlines the importance of marketing and salesmanship. Merit alone won't always (if ever) get you noticed and rewarded. You have to go out there and sell yourself. It happens in politics, it happens in organizations, and it certainly happens in Internet marketing.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by Anna Johnson View Post

      Good post Scott. And it just underlines the importance of marketing and salesmanship. Merit alone won't always (if ever) get you noticed and rewarded. You have to go out there and sell yourself. It happens in politics, it happens in organizations, and it certainly happens in Internet marketing.
      Anna, you just reminded me of a quote from Will Rogers...

      "In every election, I always try to vote for the best candidate. Trouble is, that man seldom runs for the office..."

      I think it works the same in marketing, online or off. The best and brightest are too busy making money to work at selling 'how to get rich' stuff...
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