Come On! Is This Industry That Thoughtless and Short-Sighted?

Jan 29, 2012

Come On! Is This Industry That Thoughtless and Short-Sighted?

By Nana Gilbert-Baffoe, View comments

One evening an old Cherokee sitting by the crackling campfire remarked to his young grandson about a fierce battle that goes on inside everyone. "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is greed, arrogance, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other is good. It is peace, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, and compassion."
After pondering for a moment, the grandson respond: "Grandfather, which wolf wins?"
The Grandfather replied, "The one you feed..."

Before going any further, I understand that many of you may not agree with what I'm about to say, but I see this as a huge problem that's only getting worse and something needs to be said, changes need to happen, a stand needs to be taken even if it's not popular. I want you to read this with an open mind, and take a moment to think about what you read, and where I'm coming from.

As the developer of one of the most widely used tracking platforms in the industry, I am lucky enough to be in a position where I get to see the bigger picture of the happenings in this industry, which we all love.

This post is based on my experience, observations, and what I feel needs to happen. This is not my "I'm Holier Than Thou" moment, I'll be the first to admit that many years ago I when I first got into CPA marketing I did my share of trying to promo offers I wouldn't touch now that I'm fully aware of how it all works.

People, it's time to wake up and realize that some of your aggressive actions and behavior are harming people, families, and you (for those of you who are only concerned for your own well-being).

Can you proudly stand in front of everyone who went through your marketing funnel and proclaim...

YES, IT WAS ME...

I'm the advertiser that created the crappy/scummy product.

I'm the network that accepted the scummy offer.

I'm the AM that told my affiliates to run that crappy offer.

I'm the AM that told every affiliate how other scummy affiliates were running the offer.

I'm the affilate that wrote that ad copy.

I'm the traffic source that allowed the ads to run.

I'm the affiliate that created the landing page/flog/farticle that made you buy that crappy product!!

I'm the affiliate the used deceptive marketing practices to push the offer

I'm the network that looked the other way.

I'm the network that told affiliates how to not get caught.

I'm the advertiser that didn't care what happened because the offer was backing out.

Would you want someone you really care about to purchase the product you are promoting in the misleading way you are promoting it? If not, you may want to reconsider your actions.

Yes, I've heard of all the multiple reasons, excuses, and rational on why it's ok to keep marketing the way you are.

You can try blame it on the customer for not reading the T&C you got your lawyer to write for you and slapped at the bottom of your page in light grey, 6-point font.

You can claim that if you don't do it someone else is going to scam them, so might as well be you.

You can blame the affiliates for being shady.

You can say you didn't know.

You can say it's the advertisers fault, or the network's fault for creating and promoting the offer.

You can even say yeah, I know what I'm doing and I don't care one bit.

But, my response to all that is this...

"The future of this industry is in everyone of your hands. If you love the lifestyle and opportunities that it brings, then think twice about every action you take. Particularly, ones that are equivalent to slowly killing the goose that lays the golden eggs."

I didn't mention this back then, but this played a big role in our decision to shut down the hosted tracking202 software. There was simply too many unsavory offers and campaigns being run through our system, so much so that to this day you can't type the tracking202.com domain anywhere on facebook without it being blocked. This is a perfect example of a few bad apples ruining it for everyone else. The same thing is happening in the industry as a whole, but we still have time to turn things around.

Whether you agree or disagree with my opinions, share this post with your peers. What are your thoughts, let's get some dialog going on this.

Networks, Affiliates, Tracking Software vendors, Advertisers, Traffic sources, industry bloggers and anyone who has a major role in the health of this industry let's work together to clean up. My email address is [nana][@tracking202][.com] if you want to reach out to discuss ideas and plans of action.

Notifications

RSS

Jan 29, 2012