Ethics and Proof of Traffic
I’m sitting here with my family on Easter morning, attempting to enjoy them to the fullest.
Problem is, I can’t get this situation out of my head. It’s driving me nuts…
I figured the best way to get it out of my head is to air out my thoughts.
Recently, a competitor released an automated traffic robot. With them being my competition, I watched it to see what they were doing. I’m on over 100 marketing email lists and saw a ton of promotion for this product.
They definitely did some smart things with their product from what they claimed on the sales page.
Being that they are my competition, I’m not going to do the whole “Name and Shame” thing. If you glance through your email box, you’ll be able to figure out who I’m referring to. Please don’t blast them in my comments section either.
It was on their sales page that I saw something so shady that it made me want to puke.
They had a graphic of Google results for the name of a product. The page showed the name of the product in the search box and a fair amount of competition for the term and they dominated nearly the whole page.
The problem came when I glanced at how many results there were for the term and found that what they searched in Google was not the term that they left in the search box. Here is an example:
They had “product name” in the search box, but the real search was for “product name scam”.
It’s the most obviously misleading example of faking proof that I’ve ever seen.
What they did was dominate the entire page for the term “product name scam”. Then, they did a search in Google so they could screen capture their results. What they did wrong was erase the word “scam” from the search box before taking the screen capture.
I couldn’t believe the balls. Anyone could see it for themselves if they just took the time to look closely at the graphic.
Disgusting.
This brings me to something I’ve been doing for my products since I’ve left StomperNet. I have tons of proof I could show for different things I’ve done lately, but a lot of it is for Reputation Management stuff, which I cannot show due to the nature of what I’m doing.
I’ve got plenty of search listings I’ve snagged lately. My favorite was being able to rank #1 for SEO Software and Traffic Software for 3 days. I got a TON of traffic for that and know exactly how to do it again whenever I want…
Yet, it’s misleading to put up a graphic of the 2008 visitors I got to the page during the 2nd day. So, I refuse to do it.
I use proof like search listings, because that’s what my software is all about: Being able to get traffic from Google.
My ethics are costing me money…
Yet, I’m able to sleep at night and be happy with my business as I rebuild it. I’m proud of myself and after discussing this with my wife, loved the way her eyes shined at me.
I’d trade more money for that any day.
What do you think?
Automated traffic? Already sounds like a scam.
Sadly it seems as long as people are looking for quick fixes, they’ll be unethical marketers to provide it in any way they can shove it out there.
I’m not on many marketing lists myself so I don’t know the product you’re referring to but it sounds pretty darn bold of them to just leave proof of mis-information right on the salespage.
I linked to the pledge I made to my own blog readers and market in my website link, because it seems appropriate. Of course there are ethical marketers out there and I’m glad to see you’re one of them
Cheers and Happy Easter,
Angela
Ross,
integrity and ethics in marketing is something that is essential for long term business growth, what you describe is spot on.. and something that unfortunately many don’t even realise.
If something is too good to be true.. or you don’t get why.. then ask..
We’ve seen a couple of incidences recently of downright fraud, and been shocked by who was duped by it.
Keep highlighting the bad stuff.. and we’ll have ethical web marketing in place soon
as for “web domination” and dominating search engine results.. its so easy now for anything except 1000 or so aggressive key word phrases (especially for one day), that showing seo results is surreal
Keep up the good work
Simon
http://www.TheDomainDashboard.com
I wonder if that violates the FTC guidelines for fake testimonials, even though its an image.
BTW, add scam to the search they have in the image and the results are different. They lost the #1 and #2 positions already.
Looks like Ross still has the positions he shows in his images.
Plus…
Traffic Magnet is cheaper.
I would check out TM before purchasing the other software.
Chad Van Norman
.
Angela – I like your pledge. It would be nice if more people followed it.
Simon – Welcome to my blog bro! I don’t want to make a habit of highlighting stuff like this, it’s not good for me personally, but this one was really bugging me.
Chad – Thanks for the praise!
Hi Ross.
Gutsy article Sir, gutsy. Highlights an epidemic in this industry.
Plus, why on earth would they do this when Mr Goldberg is watching?
Jonathan
PS. I’ll be operational soon and will be in touch.
Ross,
Integrity always wins in the end. You don’t have to continually look over your shoulder to see who might “find you out” and, like you said, you can sleep at night.
In my book, your reputation just got bumped a little higher…and I already thought a lot of you.
Keep on doing things the right way…
Jonathan – I wouldn’t call it gutsy. What they did was gutsy. If a product works, there isn’t any need to be misleading…
Susan – Normally, I just go back to work when I see something, but this one was too extreme to ignore.
Wow, pretty grimy, I normally don’t even look at those “Proof” pics because it’s way too easy to get the results you want, but that is ultimate grime. Lest we forget that Google keeps track of your searches and clicks. Eventually they will start showing results that are relevant to you as the searcher, regardless of what the real SERP is.