Thanks to Alice Seba for pointing this out…
(be forewarned, I’m writing this as my 4-year-old is tugging at my sleeve saying “are you done yet?”…)
Thanks to Alice at http://www.internetmarketingsweetie.com/ whose Twitter tweet brought something to my attention…
Here’s how it breaks down…
Alice posted a link to Rick Butts’ blog which referenced a post on Ross Goldberg’s Blog about the “Worst Internet Marketing Advice Ever.”
Here’s the play by play:
Ross: “I believe you should sign up for every single newsletter you can find. I’m talking about everyone from Mike Filsaime to the littlest marketer you can find.”
Rick: “That’s stupid and here’s a video to watch that tells you how stupid it is.”
I do agree with Rick that it is a bad idea. You know why? Because someone else recommended it to me quite awhile ago and it’s done nothing but suck my time away. So I believe that Ross is just regurgitating advice he himself heard somewhere.
However, there is a hint of logic to subscribing to other marketer’s lists, especially ones that have been around forever and have established a solid reputation for themselves but one has to consider a couple of things:
First, you would think that you could glean some tidbits of information from them but the question arises…what tidbits? What piece of that promotion (because let’s face it, 99% of the time they are all promotions), should you pay attention to? Unless you have access to their testing results you simply have no idea, you can only “guess”.
Second, many of the “gurus” built their lists years ago. So why should that matter? Well, to me at least, it’s because years and years ago people bought into nearly everything - they simply didn’t know any better, yet I’ve rarely seen the sales tactics change.
But if you do as Ross suggests you will literally be inundated with emails on a daily basis. Personally, I think it’s a conspiracy to keep everyone busy so that no new competition can come running in. “Keep ‘em buying and keep ‘em thinking that they need Y when they just bought X which was incredibly similar last week. As long as they’re in information overload, we’re in the clear.”
Yeah, maybe a bit harsh, but, even though I too market online, I also take into account what irritates me in the emails I receive. I don’t care how “big” the name is, if I’m getting irritated, surely someone else is too. So, note to self “don’t replicate what ticks me off”.
In a nutshell, I do think that Ross was good-intentioned in giving the advice but think that Rick offers a much better argument; although I believe that Rick did tend to “pick on” Ross quite a bit…and the video does come across as Rick being a little bit of a “big bully”.
None the less, you have your own mind, so you can make your own decision on the matter.
Here’s the link to the video on Rick’s blog: http://rickbutts.com/268/ross-goldberg-worst-advice/
