Don’t Be Sleazy

When I rank websites on sleaziness in terms of their marketing practices; honesty and integrity in their messages and delivery, the top five has a new member.  Classmates.com just became one of my top all time offenders.  One of the sleaziest websites in marketing practices.  And I expected a little more out of them.

They send you an email telling you that some guy from your class just posted some exciting news, come and check it out.  So you do.  Turns out that the person is from a different class and what they did post is behind the Golden Wall (membership required).

But wait!! For only $29.95 a quarter, you can see what he and everyone else is saying about you behind that magical wall. Ok, so you lied to me in an email and now your website is less than honest and forthright.  I can’t get to what you promised me I could unless I fork over a lot of money.

So I hit ext button but get stopped by a fade-in stating that “ok, maybe the listed price was too much.  How about a full year for only $9.99??”   A full year for under ten bucks?  Ok, you went from $10 a month to $10 a year??

Now I think I may be interested.  So I hit the button to see the details.   What do I get next?  A  page that says “Opps, sorry but that offer you selected has expired. Not to worry tho, there are still good deals” and lists some new prices close to the original prices.

Just for clarity, the “offer” was one they presented to me, not one I selected.. I closed the window just to make sure no other fade–ins happen.

For some reason I didn’t expect such a slime ball, low rent style marketing tactic from such a well established website.  I immediately went to my affiliate accounts to make sure I wasn’t pimping such a disgusting company. Thankfully Classmates.com is not one of my affiliate products.  If it was, I would immediately remove it.

Look, the FTC has bloggers and Internet marketing companies in their cross hairs.  The recent rules they enacted are just a warning to get our act together and cleanup the marketplace. At a recent Affiliate Summit meetup I attended, they talked specifically about this topic.

That it is up to us, the affiliate marketers, to set the standard for marketing on the net and not let such creepy marketing practices like classmates.com does, to survive. To look more for the honesty in the message and the integrity of the offer.

We also must check to make sure we are not one of them.  To make sure that the message we are sending out is as informative as it is honest and ethical.  Yes, we need to make money, but we also have to set an example. What we post in content matters as much as who we have on our site for Affiliates.  The image is there.  Don’t be one of “those” sites

The interesting thing is that we may be small business owners with small traffic websites with affiliate marketing on them.  But if enough of us stick to our guns, we have the power in numbers.  Making websites like classmates.com either clean up their act, or starve defending their sleazy ways.

Hope this Helps.

Mark Anthony