I was quite overwhelmed by my first post on Untemplater. The quantity and quality of comments were fantastic. The idea that choosing an untemplated path in life might not be that easy seemed to really resonate with people.
Click here to get rich while losing weight in your sleep.
Perhaps I am not alone in my disdain of websites and people promoting easy and quick solutions to life’s problems. Get rich quick, lose weight without dieting, easy passive income, speed learning, blah, blah, blah. Enough already. Where are the real stories of real people with real struggles? It is so refreshing to find people like Cody McKibben and Adam Baker who are not afraid to tell the real story. I don’t want to hear about how great people are, how young they were when they started their own business, when they retired or how many countries they have been to. You are not a better person because you tell me so.
I am so popular that I don’t want you little folks to feel left out.
There is some value in exaggerating experiences in order to look more credible or worthy. Some of the most popular bloggers are certainly guilty of a little creative license. Many of the ‘how to make money online’ gurus actually recommend small deceptions. Is it wrong to say that a special offer is only for a limited time but then extend the offer because “so many people couldn’t get in?” Or how about ‘only for the first 50 registered’ but then it gets expanded because the offering was ‘so popular.’ The one that annoys me the most is where they deliberately put in faulty links so that they can email you again and apologize. “I’m sorry if you tried to sign up but couldn’t. That was my mistake. I got so many emails from people who couldn’t get in that I am extending the offering for another week.”
More sales at any cost.
There is no question that those tactics work, but should we do them? Is it about more sales at any cost? I was listening to a popular marketing podcast where the speakers acknowledged the effectiveness of great copy writing. They said that most of their customers were Florida retirees who probably couldn’t even turn a computer on. The speakers were actually proud of the fact that they could sell online marketing programs to people who couldn’t really implement the advice of their expensive program. Is that the goal of business to sell as much as possible even if it isn’t what your customers can actually use? I wonder what percentage of customers of those make money blogging programs actual manage to make a living blogging? Judging by the fact that no one offers success rate statistics, I imagine the number is extremely low.
I single-handedly wrestled 15 grizzly bears with one hand.
We are all guilty of inflating our experiences for resumes or perhaps trying to impress someone on a date, but where does it cross the line? Can’t we just be ourselves?
So men are bigger liars than women and because of it they are more successful. Obviously these tactics work, that is why people keep doing them. We all want to hear about the James Bond, rock star, billionaires NOT the guy next door and all of his everyday problems and worries.
Our relationship is only a transaction.
Is it just me, or does anyone else see a problem in affiliate marketing? People only recommend things they get a commission for. Of course, the disclaimer is, “I would never recommend something that I didn’t believe in myself.” What a load of crap that is. Look at how much people love Apple products. How many bloggers write posts about why you should buy a Mac? I bet if Apple had an affiliate program, everyone and their blogging dog would be selling Apple gear. Does every relationship need to be monetized? Don’t even get me started on all the people who make money by teaching you how to make money online.
My question to you is, do you have to lie to be really successful? Maybe the ends really do justify the means? There is a lot of talk about authenticity online but I don’t think that is what makes money. We all need to learn to make a living so maybe it is important to creatively adjust the truth? I for one can’t stomach the sort of exaggerated claims of the top self-promoters. Am I destined to languish in obscurity?
John, this is an amazing post! I love it and I just want to know why untemplater has so many awesome articles and authors! I’m looking forward to your next posts. You think that I can become such a great writer when I grow up? ..
Hi Ken,
Thanks for the kind comment. I also want to be a great writer when I grow up. 🙂 The problem is that I am not sure I want to grow up.
I think it also depends on the blogger or website. As much as you can get to know someone by reading their writing on a regular basis, personality does come through at some level (or it’s *really* good marketing). Some trust is built that way.
I hope that you don’t have to lie to be successful and I’m convinced it’s not the case. I recall years ago, when interviewing for my first programming job, I was asked a question to which my response was “I don’t know.” The person interviewing said that was the best answer he heard all day and that on the job that would lead to the most efficient result (teaching me how to do X right away) rather than fumbling around thinking I knew what I was doing in that particular case.
Hi Anil,
I think that trust and relationships are becoming far more important online. Those long sales page are probably losing their effectiveness because there is no real person and dialogue behind the sales pitch. However, even the ‘trustworthy’ blogging celebrities use deceptive marketing tactics. Those tactics obviously work and if you don’t do them you are at a disadvantage.
I agree that people respect honesty however, as your example shows, there is still a lot of lying going on. I think it is a fine balance. If you say, “I don’t know anything about this job but I really want to learn,” you are not likely to get the position. A little creative exaggeration goes a long way.
I think we are soon entering an age where there is a backlash against exaggeration (particularly with claims to internet business) and a search for true authenticity.
If the popular jocks in high school all have beer guts now, it can’t be long be long before it’s the revenge of the authentic nerds….
I’m trying to help people get back to remembering their own authenticity on my blog….
I hope you are right Kara,
The problem is that authenticity takes time to prove and lies sound good now. Just look at how we are drawn into titles on blog posts and magazine articles.
Check out a magazine rack and you will likely find that the content of the articles seldom match the expectations the titles created. I am frequently disappointed after reading an article because the great copy writer managed to mislead me.
People exaggerate or misrepresent information because it works.
Which title would you rather click?
How I built a Successful Business with little money and no experience.
OR
Ten years of hard work and sacrifice to create a job that I don’t particularly like anymore.
I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard of men who exaggerate or blatantly lie on their resume or an interview. It wasn’t until this post that I realized I’ve never heard a similar story from a woman.
“So men are bigger liars than women and because of it they are more successful.”
This really hit home for me. Does this mean, as a woman, I should lie or exaggerate my experiences in order to see more success or compete on equal ground? If more women did this, would that make it fair? I don’t think so, but it seems impossible to level the playing field any other way.
Hi Danielle,
One more point that is worth mentioning is that these types of exaggerations are cultural. In many countries, especially my current home of Japan, modesty is highly valued. Resumes are for facts not marketing spiel. Over-the-top self-praise is primarily a Western idea that is probably worsening by Hollywood.
Do you need to exaggerate and lie to compete? I would say yes. If you don’t, you will be screened out before you have a chance to prove yourself. Is it fair? No, but that is reality.
One positive note is that credentials, experience and education are becoming less important. Smart companies are starting to look only at the things you have done. What you say is becoming less important. A teenager can often have more experience with an Internet application than a veteran IT person.
Talent will play a larger role, but we will always see the hyped-up personal promotions. I’m afraid that it might be necessary to play that game to compete at the same levels.
PS – In my RSS feed, and on this blog, the Google AdSense that is served next to this post demonstrates the perils of AdSense on blogs:
“Mom Bloggers Wanted”
“Passive Income 101”
“Millionaire in 12 Months?”
“I’ll Show you how I did $77 million in 2 years”
“Turn-Key Business”
“Proven Marketing Methods, Start Earning in 30 Minutes”
“Ready to earn money”
Its just one big cycle of get-rich-quickness! Where are the info-products on STEADY WORK FOR 5 YEARS MADE ME KINDA-SLIGHTLY-RICH BUT I AM HAPPY SO IT DOESN’T REALLY MATTER!
Thanks for sharing this.
Need I say more?
I will update my “Get Real Manifesto.”
Build the life of your dreams with 60 hour workweeks in 20 years or less guaranteed!
If you are not successful at the end of 20 years I will personally refund the entire purchase price plus shipping and handling. You can’t lose.
Any takers? 🙂
Internet marketing is as old as the first salesman hawking goods from a horse-drawn cart in the Middle Ages…its the same techniques, the same buy-it-now deadlines, the same authority-building language, the same soft deceptions…all re-purposed and packaged to the masses online.
So I am not surprised to see people making good money selling empty promises or dime-a-dozen info products – and even more unfazed that the top bloggers are in bed together. The Internet is a business after all, and lots of us are here to make money. Certain people choose to do it a certain way. I do not think you have to lie to making money online, however. I think that if you are good at what you do, if you create spectacularly useful content that delivers, then are allowed a little bit of bravado – and profit.
I also think that you need to determine your own priorities, because “making money online” means different things to very different people. I might be ok with $20,000 a year, and someone else might want $200,000. I don’t compare myself to the uber-successful people above me, because that is not where I want to be.
I need to be comparing myself to the person I strive to be, because it is only by comparing ourselves to our authentic/true/ideal selves that we can ever truly be better humans. Rather than wasting time competing and comparing, the only person we need to be competing with is the image of our own perfect/ideal self. Its intensely personal, and intensely rewarding. That comparison between who you are and who you want to be, and the process of growth to bridge the gap, is at the heart of my untemplated life.
Great comment Nick.
I am not against making money. I believe every good business transaction can and should create value for both sides. It is not profiting that is bad. It is the misleading tactics and deliberate lies that I feel are underhanded. Even some of the most respected bloggers are guilty of trying to fake scarcity in order to squeeze out some extra sales.
Anyone who is great at what they do certainly has earned the right for a little bravado. However, I have found that the better people get at something, the less they need to tell the world how great they are. The best talent is often (not always) quite modest.
Seth Godin doesn’t need to say “I am the Marketing Guru that has writing a gadzillion books and consulted to Fortune 500 companies.” Everyone knows he is great. When you are real, you don’t need gimmicks and lies.
I love your life philosophy.
“the only person we need to be competing with is the image of our own perfect/ideal self”
Oh man, dont get me started on the fake scarcity! I hate it how you go to a site that has literally just launched a product – and the price is already slashed and it is already telling you that there are limited spots! WHATEVER. I dont trust those tactics, and I wish people would stop using them – but people have got to stop falling for them first! And its hard to re-wire the human brain, because we want something that others want, and we want something even more if there is less of it…kinda silly really.
Those scarcity gimmicks work though. We all know it is bullshit but yet we buy. Maybe that is our lizard brain as Seth Godin says.
This is an interesting post especially in connection to a post I read recently on Get Rich Slowly about bloggers and feelings of doubt.
I think bloggers these days do have to walk the thin line between knowing what they talk about and not sounding too egotistical. They also want to acknowledge their readers while at the same time not trying to sound too popular. They provide free content and deserve to be paid for some of their expertise but they can’t just be pushy or fake salesmen. They need to be honest, and describe the whole messy situation and not just the sugar coated ending, while remaining optimistic and make the reader feel good about it.
It’s a thin line but an important one because insincerity comes across smelling like rotten fish, even through the internet!
Thanks for the comment Becky,
I think it is important to be confident in what you know. People who are masters of their field know what works and what doesn’t work. I think we all respect that level of knowing. It is the people that misrepresent their real abilities and knowledge that I lose respect for.
I’d actually disagree about such a blanket statement on affiliate marketing. I know a girl with lyme disease who pays for her (very expensive) medication by honestly reviewing products and special discount deals on amazon to get the affiliate money. But she has a personal relationship with the people she reviews for, because the reviews are placed on her personal blog that is read by her supporters and friends — if she reviews crap, or tries to sell us junk, we’re not going to use her reviews anymore. She’s held accountable, and we trust her because she takes her responsibility to provide honest reviews very seriously.
Affiliate reviewing doesn’t HAVE to be a load of crock. It often is, but one of the services I intend to provide on my website when it’s operational is reviewing material to help study history… and yes, I hope that affiliate linking to somewhere like Amazon.com will bring me some side income. Will I review just anything? You bet not. I passionately believe in helping people make history relevant and enjoyable — I would be very unhappy if I felt I was misleading people.
Kari,
Of course a good affiliate marketer is careful about promoting only things he/she truly believes in. That’s the only way to keep people believing in the things you sell them.
The point John was making was that [and here comes a big generalization] an affiliate marketer only promotes things that make them money. Given two products – one that is amazing but has no affiliate program and one that gets the job done and has a lucrative commission – the affiliate marketer will promote the average product even though it’s not the BEST choice.
Sure, the average product works and you’ll make a living promoting it, but how honest are you being if you know that there’s something better that you’re failing to mention?
Well, looks like I waited too long to hit “submit.”
Thanks for coming to my defense Tyler.
I’m sorry that I didn’t wait for your response first. 🙂
Hi Kari,
Thank you for the thoughtful comment.
I agree that many, probably even most, affiliate recommendations are genuine. Bloggers don’t want to jeopardize their relationship with readers by promoting sub-standard products.
However, the issue may not be so black and white in reality. What do you think the typical blogger would promote more fervently:
A fantastic product that everyone loves with no affiliate commission?
Or
A good product that pays 50% of each sale?
I think the lessor quality product in the above example would always win out because we are all motivated by our own self-interests. That is human nature. Incentives always change the outcomes.
I happen to think that affiliate programs are a great way to market. In fact, I believe a good affiliate program will likely be a better promotion than offering products for free because bloggers will more often publicize something that makes them money.
Not sure if I want to jump in at this point, but I would hope that the response to this either-or question would be both. Promote the fantastic product for no commission because it provides value. Promote the good product because it provides value as well. Definitely don’t promote based purely on money, no matter the quality of the product.
I guess I’m just in the crazy camp, because when I’m wild about a great product or service, I often review it and recommend it to people without any incentive! If I think something will make people’s lives better, you can’t make me shut up about it. You do make a good point about the incentive of pay, though.
Ahh, another enjoyable post John! Keeping it authentic is a wondeful experience.
When the posts in my personal finance community continue to be about affiliate marketing, I don’t visit for a couple weeks afterwards.
But, doesn’t everybody know that if you visit my site and read everything, you will become a multi-millionaire guaranteed? 🙂
Best,
Sam
Greetings Sam,
Thanks for all the support.
We need to make a living so I am not saying that making money is bad. However, we are all influenced by financial incentives. Saying that we are NOT motivated by the 51% affiliate commission is not very convincing.
Look at all the top bloggers. They go around in a circle and promote each others expensive products and membership programs. Each program comes with glowing reviews from the others. They are not competitors because they earn commissions from each other. Do we really need to sign up for 10 different make money blogging membership sites? If each really worked, wouldn’t just one be enough?
Indeed, one is enough, but like potato chips, you can’t just have one.
If you ever see me go on the pimp wheel, remind me to re-read this post.
Cheers, Sam
When I was looking at which posts would go up this week, I saw this one and was like “hell yeah!”
Fantastic John, you already know how I feel about this.
Regarding your questions, I don’t know yet. People say that quality eventually will rise, but I’m not 100% there yet, I think there’s something to mediocrity, self-promotion and exaggeration that’s very hard to eliminate.
We’ll see how it goes, but for now, I don’t think those that know that are producing amazing content have any choice. You just have to keep doing awesome stuff, because you won’t be able to make others see the lack of ethics of their work.
We definitely agree here.
Online marketing reminds me a lot of high school. The athletic and ‘cool’ guys had the prettiest girlfriends and were the most popular. It didn’t matter if they were not particularly intelligent, honest or even faithful. Just being noticed was enough.
The shy quiet students studying in the library never got noticed because they did very little to bring attention to themselves.
Twenty years later those ‘jocks’ have pot-bellies and lousy jobs because they spent the first half of their lives with their brains turned off. Those ‘geeks’ from the library are building big companies and have become successful.
There may be justice in the long run, but it would also be good to be in the ‘in crowd’ in high school. 🙂
another great post.
I am soooo sick of people who sell dreams. In so many different
aspects of our lives (appearance, love, career, family) we are trying to live up to these fake lies that aren’t attainable. I love bloggers like you who keep it real.
Thanks Nicole!
For all the talk of living original and authentic lives, it really is frightening to see the power Hollywood and popular media have on shaping our views. We all really believe that each of us is exceptionally talented and deserve the huge beach front mansion without work. The world owes us that lifestyle just because we are that good.
In virtually every study, people always think that they are above average in almost all categories. Everybody feels they are better than everyone else. I am guilty of it too.
What if we are all equal? What if we are not more talented or smarter than others? What if hard work and luck are the only real differentiating factors? If people begin to realize this then maybe all the short cuts and gimmicks will fall out of fashion.
Here is my “Get Real Manifesto.”
You are not special because you think so. Only those that work harder and create more value for others have the right to expect more from life. Even then it is not guaranteed.
It’s also a waste of time to echo someone’s comment on their blog, Hugh. Parroting, even though it’s honest, is even less helpful than lying.
Great job in calling these phonies out! The liars, exaggerators, and snake-oil salesmen of the world may have some success, but it’s not sustainable. Sooner or later bad business practices, karma, or whatever you want to call it, will catch up with these people. I’d much rather be the business owner who is sincere about his work and his customers and has a relationship-based focus rather than a transaction-based focus. So, to answer your question, you definitely don’t need to lie to be successful. To take it a step further, lying is one of the best ways to cripple your lasting success.
I don’t know Hugh. A little exaggeration of the truth seems necessary to market yourself as an authority. Blatant lies will be found out, but small truth stretching seem to be a keep component of success.
In the Clay Shirky post I linked to, he mentions that misrepresenting your skills and experiences in order to get new opportunities is a ‘signal’ that identifies you as willing to try harder and do more.
Maybe lying is bad but misrepresentations are part of the game?