Internet Snake Oil

We are in awe of this wonderful being called the internet, fortunes are being made through ignorance and fear.

It’s like the old days when the bogus quack Doctor sold “snake oil” to cure all ills and gullible people queued to buy his wonder potions.

That’s exactly the scenario we have today.

Look around the WWW and what do you see?

All the old ideas, repackaged, and sold at 5 times the price.

The greatest work of all time, according to those who know on here, is a work called Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins. What a wonderful name, you couldn’t make it up!

That was written over 100 years ago.

Yet it’s still being promoted as the best thing since sliced computer chips.

Forget the get rich packages you see on the internet, where wonder kids will introduce you to riches beyond your wildest dreams.

Don’t believe me?

Some of the greatest financial brains of our time had orgasms over the wonder of the internet snake oil revolution.

Their greed and their fear of being left behind led them to invest billions of dollars on internet dreams.

We saw the dot com revolution where fortunes were made overnight with dubious promises…and we witnessed the spectacular dot com crash when those dreams were found to be just that.

The snake oil buyers got bit!

Everything you see and hear on the internet is the same as it’s always been.

Nothing changes.

All the marketing and sales skills which work so well in the real world also work on the internet.

OK, you have to dress them up a little differently.

But isn’t that true of the skills you already have and the way you apply them to different customers?

You wouldn’t sell a Roll Royce to a millionaire in the same way that you’d sell a nose job to a Barry Manilow wannabee.

But the principles are the same.

I have subscribed to a so-called internet marketing guru for three years now.

He has yet to talk about any technique, ploy or subterfuge which isn’t used every day in some form by every marketing person who has managed to keep their job.

Yes there are differences.

But the biggest difference is so basic.

No matter how good your product or ideas, they must be communicated effectively to sell.

Without the ability to communicate, your ideas are useless.

And on the internet, the method of communication is by writing supported by graphics.

And that, dear reader is why success on the internet has to be accompanied by good writing skills.

Write Selling…the art of marketing in a different media.

Enjoy your weekend,

Mike (Samuels)

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