I know it's not the moral thing to do, but....

I have been doing some research on cheap marketing. And I cam across a source which said lying can be one of the best thing you can do.

For instance I could come in here and say;

And, they have been flooded with traffic and AdSense clicks. I would never do this myself, but, the question is - does it work? and have you ever done it?

 

If you do a good enough job lying, I suppose you wouldn't be lying after a while.

 

No it won't.. a lot of traffic from users that only click google ads will get you banned. You need quality visits.

 

Most people will know if your lying. Some people will not bother with the site and others will read some info and leave. Be honest and people will like your site more.

 

my favorite sites lie to me. i go to them often.

 

It probably does work in the short term. But it can kill a business in the long term. People always find out, and you can be exposed very publicly, meaning people won't trust you if you ever decide to go into a different business model (or give up on your business when it flops, when trying to find a job). The second you stop thinking about long term consequences, you doom your business to failure.

On top of that, depending on where you live, it's very possible that lying like that is illegal (and can get you into tax trouble).

 

I guess if it works, you can continue to lie.

 

Yeah, true.

I don't think you understood what I was saying, read it again .

 

There are sure a lot of gullible people, but most bullhockey meters will go off. Considering it basically SPAM I wouldn't advise it.

 

"There are sure a lot of gullible people" - DealWorx

Aye, and I'll cheerfully admit to being one of them!

When I see claims like that, I always think "why would they lie?" Yes, after many years of being stung, I finally figured out that people do lie quite outrageously.

Yet still.....there is a part of me that goes "what if it is true?"

It's not greed either, it's....well, hope I suppose. The belief that something out there will work and provide an income.

Whenever there is a discussion over the truth of some 'claim' and you hear people sneer "if they were making so much money do you really think they'd be telling anybody else" you'll find me muttering quietly in the corner "well I would!". Okay, maybe not sell the information or whatever, but I'd be telling all my poor friends and others in need, how I made bucketloads of money and show them how I did it. 'Course, they prolly wouldn't listen, but I'd try.

So yeah, it could work in the short term, but you'll hopefully feel very very bad about taking advantage of people like me.

And as jhmattern says, eventually it'll kill your business because even suckers like me ultimately wise up. You'll then earn yourself some horrible karma which is not of the good.

 

Well guys, just to let you know I wasn't going to do this myself but...I heard of some website where this girl linked to the site saying she had sold 500,000 records through her site alone, and the traffic poured in. And I think she actually sold a lot of real records because of that .

 

Interesting question.

Who lies? Some of the greatest marketers of all time. Dan Kennedy is probably one of the best (if not the best). If you go to his website, and click on his "most amazing free gift ever" link, it'll say something along the lines of the gift being only available for the next 253 people.

It's said that for months (maybe years) now. Hmm...

It doesn't bother me though, because it's an incredible deal anyway.

If you haven't checked it out, read Seth Godin's book "All Marketers Are Liars". Great stuff.

 

If you are trying to prime the pump for a commodity sale like records... it's hard to see anyone getting hurt (although it is still smelly). If you are dispensing advice, then the worst thing that could happen would be for you to succeed. Supporting the bull poop will become exponentially more difficult. Don't lie... the marketing community is smaller than you might think.

 

Its funny .. lying might not help but evading the truth might be the answer

Who knows that you havent made that amount ? Its all about perceptions..

I posted a thread a few months ago "Trying to Market Cocaine Online".... the response from dp members was overwhelming.. but i wasnt actually trying to push anything...

So you never know...

 

Being in PR, I call tell you that evading the truth can completely destroy your business as much as lying can. People aren't always as naive as we'd like to think. Once someone calls you out or accuses you of trying to hide something, you can lose trust in your business or yourself (not good if you name is remotely important to your business). Once trust is lost, it's very difficult (and often quite costly) to get it back.

 

Hah, it's always fun to see threads starting with this sentence

Well a guy called Abraham Lincoln said:
"You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

Lying will destroy your credibility - and that's something you really need. In Internet - news travel faster than light, so getting into the path of lying is not a good strategy.

Besides, you have to have a darn good memory to pull it off

 

Hope. I can identify

 

I've heard some of the top marketers online use the phrase "fake it until you make it". I think this is important in business. If you don't have an appearance of knowing what your doing, you will not have near as many clients. I don't think you need to directly lie to them though. Lets face it, unless you actually really do have a product that does what you say it does, they will not spread the word about it. Half the battle is having people talk about your website to get it really going.

I would imagine Hostgator gets most of their business through word of mouth (although they do a pretty good job of other marketing techniques too). Just realize that the best lies in the world is not a long-term solution.

 

LOL dont get me wrong when I say evading the truth I mean by not disclosing everything..

Itll work in some cases but long term prob not..

But I know in a lot of cases with internet business , its getting off the ground thats the tough part...

I whole heartedly agree with PHPGator - brilliant!

 

"Fake it until you make it" isn't necessarily about lying or even not disclosing the full truth. Think of it more like the saying "dress for the job you want; not the job you have."

If you want to be a professional, highly paid writer, you need to present yourself in a professional manner. That doesn't mean that you make up credentials or hide your lack thereof if someone asks, and it doesn't mean that it's ok to pretend you're making enormously more than you are.

It means you always put your best foot forward, and act in as professional a manner as possible, even when you aren't in huge demand or making very much, because that's what will actually get you there.

It means that you know the worth of your work from day one, and you don't let people take advantage of you.

It means that you don't let clients or anyone else disrespect you or treat you like you're their employee or slave for that matter just because you're new.

It means you respect yourself and your work, and you show that in how you handle your business.