This is in response to an article written by Terry Brock entitled “Are Internet marketers today’s ‘used car salesmen?’“

I came across this article today in a Google search for Internet Marketing. It was a news result blended in the middle of the normal search results, but that’s another story. Anyway, you know that I recently wrote an article about SEO ethics entitled “What happened to ethics? SEOs that hide their methods and mislead clients” so obviously I do feel that there are some clear issues in the Internet Marketing industry. However, my article differed from Mr. Brock’s in that it clearly outlined specific examples of where these issues are to help educate businesses on what to look out for. I didn’t say that the entire industry was corrupt or make equivalent blanket statements. As with any industry, there are good people and bad people out there…

Anyway, Mr. Brock’s article does not give specific examples of ‘bad behavior’ in the industry. He doesn’t tell people specific things to look out for. He basically goes on a rant about the industry and compares Internet Marketers to used car salesman. His only specific critique is that some of the high profile speakers in the industry do not have the same personality they have on stage when approached in person. I’m not sure what this has to do with anything… Doesn’t any speaker create a certain persona when on stage and in the spotlight? Don’t people who are presenting have to overemphasize their speaking, body language, physical movements, etc. in order to command a presence and entertain an audience? Aren’t there even some strange people out there that are more comfortable presenting to a group than presenting one-one-one? (Not me! )

The article perplexed me and I wondered what exactly was the point of this article, and how did something like this even manage to get published. The article lacks focus, doesn’t present a strong argument, and isn’t really informative. It doesn’t explain what Internet Marketing is, what the benefits are, what specific strengths and weaknesses the industry has, and what ways a consumer can become educated on what to look for when comparing service providers.

Then I found a link to the author’s site and the point became very clear - self promotion. Obviously most writers in business publications are writing with the purpose of self promotion. They want to become an authority in their niche, get their name out there, promote their company, etc. That’s fine, but normally publications don’t allow blatant self promotion like this. If you take a trip to his site you will notice that he is a public speaker who speaks to, coaches, and educates people that they shouldn’t focus on e-commerce, they should focus on building relationships. He says “We have to focus on the Relationships of Business, not the Electronics of it. We need to be able to focus always on the human needs, not just the latest and coolest technology that is out there.”. While I agree that building relationships is extremely important and a key element to any Internet Marketing campaign, there is A LOT more to it than that.

Clearly Mr. Brock is attacking the Internet Marketing industry with the goal of promoting his own public speaking and coaching services. It is comical that this attack does not have anything concrete behind it, but it is even funnier that when you go to his site and click around, you will see that him and his approach is straight out of an infomercial - something you would see running on TV in the middle of the night. If any comparison can be made to today’s used car salesman, I would say late night get-rich infomercials are just that…