Using deception as a way to gain popularity is something that goes back to the beginning of man. Even today, school children lie about their pet turtle being able to fly, fisherman lie about the biggest fish they caught, presidents lie to go to war, and representatives lie to raise taxes.
Deception is seen as a way to gain visits and respect throughout the respective community. Many make money online bloggers lie about the latest, greatest product to have their visitors buy through their affiliate program so they, themselves, will earn money.
They tell about the fabulous new advertising program, only to have you to sign up through them to receive the $20 referral bonus, even if you never earn a penny. Others will lie about how much money they made during the past month, just to get praise throughout the community. They will edit their checks, just to make it look as if they somehow have more authority than someone who flips pancakes for a living.
Every so often a new blog pops us stating they know the latest, greatest technique, but will only share it if you pay $19.99 for their eBook. My first thought is always, “If you are making so much money, why do you want someone else to pay you, since you obviously don’t need the money and why aren’t you using your own methods to make money instead?”
Photo by circo de invierno ~
Ah the power of deception. The fact is, most of the time it works. How many of you visit sites like JohnChow.com and sign up to every new advertising company he mentions? Just visit his latest monthly income report and view the part about affiliate commissions. Every dollar made through affiliate commissions is because you bought into what he said, and signed up or bought the latest item mentioned.
John Chow doesn’t make money because he uses these programs. He makes money because he sells the program to you. He is a master salesman. Each post he makes, over one-hundred people comment. No matter how many ads he sticks on his site, or how much bad press he gets, people come back and buy into what he says. That is power of deception and the power John Chow has as a blogger.
I do not condone these activities. However, I also do not fault those who use them. People fall for half-truths and lies everyday. It works. If it didn’t we as humans wouldn’t lie. It is our nature, and because others fall for it humans will continue to do so in the future.
What Works
Faking checks. There have been many who faked checks during their early years, only to later gain the same amount put on the check. Do it well enough and act like you make that amount and others will believe you and do everything you say.
Faking experiences. If you read about something so much, you can just as easily fake experiences with it. Never sold a product in your life but read twenty books on doing so? Someone who never sold a product will listen and gladly follow every word.
Faking news. No, not The Onion type stories, but stories that could be true but aren’t. For example, Prison Planet. Sure, some of the stories may be true, but it is almost impossible for every single one to be. Prison Planet is constantly on the front page of social news sites across the web due to their conspiracy theories and ‘fake news’.
What Doesn’t
Faking RSS subscribers. Honestly, no one cares and it can do more harm than good. If someone views your website and you have supposedly 10,000 RSS subscribers but no comments, chances are the visitor will not care or give it a second thought to sign up.
Faking page hits. There is a reason why the 1998 page counter isn’t used any longer, and it isn’t just because it is ugly. If your site has horrible content, the visitor will leave even if your site ‘received 1,000,000 visitors’ yesterday. Visitors couldn’t care less about your stats, unless you are an internet marketer then your readers will even find it hard to believe if you fake it too much.
The fact is, if you aren’t listed in Google or have initial readers, no one will see your deception. Just because your feed counter states 1,000 no more people will see your site. Your site will not automatically receive #1 for your keywords.
Written: Mar 5, 2008
Jens P. Berget
March 5, 2008 @ 11:57 pm
Hi Gary,
Very interesting article and thanks for the link. I am a little curious about the link though, are you referring to my blog as a new blog and that I am using the power of deception to earn money?
Gary R. Hess
March 6, 2008 @ 12:23 am
No not at all. The link is just because it is seen as a new, great technique to gain traffic. I didn’t mean it was deception at all on your blogs part, I would have used different anchor text for that
Sorry for the confusion, just enjoyed your article and thought it deserved a link.
Jens P. Berget
March 6, 2008 @ 4:42 am
Hi Gary,
No problem at all. I didn’t really think that you referred to my blog or blog post that way. But since I am Norwegian, I just have to check… the english language is not always easy to understand or interpret.
Thanks again for the link.
Stephan Miller
March 6, 2008 @ 8:14 am
Great post. If you are the one buying the product and your results don’t meet the faked ones, it can be very deflating. It’s really hard to condone any of it.
BizGiftGuru
March 6, 2008 @ 11:53 am
at the end it is all about your “brand”. John Chow can now keep on posting 2 guest posts and 2 paid reviews for every posts that he actually writes (about what he ate yesterday
) and he will still be seen as THE BLOGGER.
The point is to get there where he is. Where people do not care what you do or what you sell, as long it is YOU who is selling … The power of brand …
Gary R. Hess
March 6, 2008 @ 1:33 pm
John Chow wrote something that got popular on Digg, then he wrote another article about the traffic he got from Digg. Then he wrote another article about that, getting on Digg once again. After that, he had enough visitors to give out a little information and start receiving guest posts. Then he had a contest giving away stuff, which gave him more links.
By this time, he was being referred to as the Digg master, receiving links from popular bloggers around the net. He started doing interviews, etc. getting his name out since Digg ended up banning his website.
On a different note, I know of a few bloggers who have faked their way into the game and are now seen as a top blogger in their area.
Of course it is about brand. John Chow used Digg to get where he is, because Digg was easy to manipulate at the time. Others have been known to use Reddit, Fark, and even Flickr as a way to get into the game. No one cares about what they did at the time. It is know that they are popular and how they got there is now forgotten.
Even evilness can be forgotten over time, but your brand will remain powerful. Just look at Wal-Mart, Ford, or even Thomas Edison. They have all ‘cheated’ their way to get where they are, but people still talk about them, shop there and praise the companies even if there is still a select few who bad mouth them.
Jonathon
March 6, 2008 @ 3:49 pm
Very good article Gary. I know of several blogs that use this technique to try and gain visitors, and to also get them to sign up for their affiliate links.
I don’t particular care for that, unless they clearly explain that it is their affiliate link (which I can find out anyways) and that they would appreciate you signing up through them if you try the service.
Deimos Tel`Arin
March 7, 2008 @ 4:51 am
Call me a dumb mofo but I still believe that honesty is the best policy.
Faking it just to convince my readers, visitors? Hell no!
But, this is a good article, nonetheless.
Nice guide for those who would be interested in taking up this path … -_-
Mirjam
March 7, 2008 @ 5:39 am
I enjoyed this article, it fits in really well with some of my thoughts and observations over these past weeks
Lincoln
March 8, 2008 @ 1:42 am
I recently turned down a high paying (almost $100) paid posting opportunity because the guy was an affiliate spammer and running a fake review site. I criticized this type of strategy before on my blog and was branded an idiot and a schmo who doesn’t understand that in order to be successful you basically have to be a lying scumbag with no conscience. Meanwhile they’re making thousands of dollars a day while laughing in my face for calling out their B.S. Money talks and since I don’t have any I’m mocked and ridiculed for it. Lovely.
I took a closer look at John Chow’s sponsors and a plurality of them come from the “reverse funnel” pyramid scheme. Quite a few others are suspicious in nature as well, so when it comes down to it, Chow’s revenues largely hail from advertisers with questionable backgrounds and products.
Up to this point I’ve turned down hundreds of dollars from advertisers mostly because I felt they were dishonest or because there was no way for me to ascertain the quality of their products and services. I understand that if I want to make more money then I need to relax my standards, but unlike many money grubbing scumbag bloggers, I kinda like having a soul.
Jens P. Berget
March 8, 2008 @ 11:46 am
One of my advertisers is promoting the reverse funnel system. I did allow him as an advertiser, but that’s because I didn’t know much about reverse funnel. I still don’t know much about it, but Lincoln I can see that you say that it’s a pyramid scheme.
Maybe I have to look into the nature of this program and question what I am going to do with my advertiser.
Thanks for the information.
Lincoln
March 8, 2008 @ 1:43 pm
Jens,
A good starting point might be here:
http://tinyurl.com/23konv
RFS is one of the most polluting schemes I have ever seen. They must have an army of members who have invested an obscene amount of time to spam Google Search, advertising networks (including Adbrite, Adwords, etc.) and high traffic blogs with their ads . Search results in Google show the first 100 hits at least lead to a landing page affiliated with RFS. It’s disgusting.
Crystal
March 17, 2008 @ 3:53 pm
Well said! For beginners in the business, it’s easy to get sucked into the void not knowing how pros deceive their readers.
Rudy
March 7, 2008 @ 8:25 am
I always support those who are against bad blogs.
Thanks for your insights, Gary!