What I Don’t Like About Big-Name Internet Marketers
Anyone who does anything in the e-commerce or internet marketing arenas has heard of Mike Filsaime. I’m going to pick on him in this article pretty heavily, but what I’m about to say applies to a lot of other big-name internet marketers out there. Mike is extremely successful, there is no doubt about that. His products are useful and helpful and he makes millions of dollars a year. Good for him and good for any regular person who used one of his products to make a living or even get rich.
But from day one of my experience with Mike Filsaime, I’ve had an uncomfortable feeling about him. That feeling is present whenever I watch, listen to, or read something from some other big name internet marketers, or Mike clones as I call them. Whenever I watch one of Mike’s videos I feel a really hard sell going on, even if he’s not actually selling anything. I feel he appeals to ego and to people’s materialistic desires more than focusing on the benefits of the product. I also have a slight feeling he is condescending by having to talk to us regular folks. I see the hint in his eyes, the expression on his face and I hear it in the tone of his voice. Remember when you’re mother used to say “don’t use that tone with me”? That’s what I feel like telling him.
That’s fine and it’s good marketing because people buy based on emotion a lot more than logical decision-making. I say “a lot more” instead of “always” because there are still a fair number of folks who have a specific need, save the money for the purchase and then buy it with cash. I’m also glad to say the number of these logic-minded, cash buyers is increasing.
Personally, I hate to go shopping. I don’t shop, I buy. I’m one of those people who plans purchases, looks for bargains and saves cash to make them. I’m very likely to get up and leave when someone is trying to sell me something I didn’t plan to buy. I’ve only bought one used car from a car dealership, and only because they had the car I wanted at the price I thought was more than fair. I’ve only owned three cars (I’m 47), and two were purchased directly from the previous owners in private sales.
I bought one of Mike’s free offers where you pay the shipping for one of his high-demand products. In the process of paying for the shipping, I was taken through a sales funnel that defines “up-sell”,”down-sell” and “one-time-offer”. I was offered so many products before I got to the end that I lost count. A 5-minute process to get a product I was interested in took an hour. They were all one-time-offers, meaning I’ll never see them again. You buy right then or never. I was more than a little ticked off, but then realized I had just learned a very valuable lesson about a process I don’t like and won’t use.
A few weeks ago I received a phone call from one of Mike’s staff. I was on his list from the product I’d purchased and this guy was offering Mike’s coaching program to me. First off, he didn’t identify himself or his organization before he asked to speak to me. That was a hint it was a sales pitch. I had to ask who he was and who he was with. During our conversation he looked at a few of my blogs and told me I gave away too much content for free and to stop writing content and produce a product to sell. He also said I needed to build my list, and I do.
When I told him I was a recent Blog Mastermind graduate, he didn’t listen to me and told me to stop producing so much free content, develop a squeeze page and start selling something. Internet marketers as a group just don’t get blogging for some reason. They seem to be adverse to the idea of plenty. They tend to give as little away for free as they can get away with, and then they push to sell something.
Part of what he said is correct. I need to develop a product, write a sales page for it, build my list and sell the product. Or do something along those lines with affiliate products. But he completely discounted what I have spent the past 7 months of my life working on, blogging. I’m not here for the fast sell. I’m here to write, to build relationships with my readers, and eventually make a decent living doing it.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being told I’ve just wasted 7 months of my life doing what I enjoy and making some income from it. I also don’t like being told I should drop what I’m doing and sign on to Mike’s $5000 coaching program to start making tens of thousands of dollars per month. I just don’t buy the get-rich-quick thing. It plain doesn’t work for too many people no matter how many thousands of dollars they’ve spent with mentors with various schemes. If a style doesn’t fit you it probably won’t work for you either.
When I told the guy I couldn’t afford $5000, he immediately offered me $1000 down and $4000 due after I made my first $30,000 online. When I told him I couldn’t afford that, he offered me $500 down and $4500 due after I made my first $30,000 online. I didn’t sign up because I can’t afford $500 right now either. I’m not sure the program will still be available when I do have $500, but I wouldn’t spend it on this program.
I’ve spent the last couple of weeks trying to unsubscribe from Mike’s email lists and I’ve unsubscribed from 4. I just got another email from one of his lists today, and I have to unsubscribe from that one, too. How in heck to do you get off this guy’s list??? I find this really aggravating.
I’ve also been trying to unsubscribe from his print magazine that I get in the mail. That has been a huge runaround. When I signed up for my free issue, they gave a phone number to unsubscribe if I didn’t find it worth my money. At $29.99 per month, I didn’t find it worth my money. $360 a year is more expensive than buying the Wall Street Journal at the newsstand every day, and believe me, this magazine doesn’t have even a tenth of the content of the WSJ. This magazine wasn’t for me. It’s not where I picture my online business going. I gave it a real shot and even paid for one month to see if the second issue was better. It was about the same quality. The magazine may be just what someone else needs, but not me. So why does it have to be such a chore to unsubscribe? And they won’t give you a refund if you’re trying to unsubscribe but are billed before they “straighten it out”.
To me, that’s just bad business. Mike, take my cash now because you’ll never get it later with your tactics.
Even with the above experience, I couldn’t put my finger on why I don’t like Mike until I watched the video launch of his new product, ReviewCrusher. In this particular video, Mike goes over his background from his previous full-time job back in 2002 to the present. It was intended to give him credibility for anyone who doesn’t know who he is. In this short resume he revealed his previous career before he became an internet marketing guru. He was a car salesman at one of the largest car dealerships in the U.S.
Now I know why I’m uncomfortable with him. He’s a car salesman. Of all the types of sales people on this earth, I have the lowest opinion of car salespersons. To me they are the scum of sales, though there are a lot more jobs that are much scummier than being a car salesperson. Debt collector is at the top of my scummiest jobs on the planet list.
I also don’t like his sales tactics. He seems to have brought his car sales ruthlessness with him onto the internet. He does scarcity marketing. You have to buy it right now before they run out or it will never be available again at this low price. Or, if you buy now you’ll get this ridiculously low price (or you just pay the shipping), but if you wait the price will triple or quadruple. That’s just not my style.
I don’t dislike all internet marketers who are just as successful as Mike. John Reese, the guy who wrote the Traffic Secrets program in 2004, launched BlogRush, and just released Traffic Secrets 2 this month, is a completely above board, honest guy. He offers valuable, free content and then he offers his product at a reasonable price without a scarcity tactic. Buy it now, buy it later, never buy it; it’s available whatever you want to do. And the price won’t go up.
My Blog Mastermind mentor, Yaro Starak, is very successful also and doesn’t practice hard selling or scarcity. He did take Blog Mastermind off the market for 7 months to rewrite it, but it’s back as of July 29, 2008 and won’t be off the market again until it needs a substantial update. But then I’m sure it will be right back. Anyone who wants to become a blogger or become a better blogger can sign up for Blog Mastermind whenever they’re ready to do it. Yaro’s blog, enterpreneurs-journey.com, is about 3 years old now, and has a huge amount of free content. That’s what we bloggers do. We write and publish on our blogs and hope people will stop by and read it. For free.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Mike is a scam artist or dishonest. He sells valuable products, he makes a legal living and helps others make a good living as well. But his marketing style just doesn’t fit me and I don’t like it. Judging from the product I did pay the shipping for, Mike is not above selling you something that’s not quite as valuable as it seemed on the surface. He doesn’t practice under-promising and over-delivering. He uses a lot of hype and the value of the product just isn’t as great as I would have expected from someone who is so highly thought of in the internet marketing industry. I’ve found that to be true with other internet marketing gurus, like Keith Wellman, Marc Horne, and Hollis Carter. I just got another free product where I paid the shipping from Jeff Mulligan, and with my prior experience so far, I have low expectations and haven’t made the time to watch the DVD or go through the book. Maybe Jeff will be different. I won’t know until I go through that package. I may be pleasantly surprised, but I’m not motivated to make it a priority.
I guess I’m more used to Yaro’s style of giving a heck of a lot away and then over-delivering on what he does actually sell. Maybe it’s just a blogger’s mindset versus a hard-core internet marketer’s mindset. I don’t know. But I do know Yaro Starak and John Reese are a lot more my cup of tea.
I know that when I work with someone I’m not intrinsically comfortable with, I feel I’m selling out doing what they require I do to work with them. I’ve left offline jobs because of this and I refuse to buy back into it online just for a quick buck.
When you are looking for a mentor, you need one with knowledge in your business niche, and you need someone whose ethics match yours or you won’t be comfortable learning from them.
Have you had similar or different experiences? Please tell your story in the comments.
Sherri Joubert
Just trying to stop being underwhelmed by the overwhelming amount of information that keeps flying at me.
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