How to Survive Marketing Quicksand

Have you had this experience

You join a program and everything starts out sowell.

Youre convinced youve found what youve beenlooking for online. The upline, all the way tothe owner, seems to know whats up and what thenext step will be.

Youre happy.

Then... everything changes.

In my five plus years of online marketing, Ive seen this happen over and over and over.

From affiliate programs to advertising co-ops,it seems that some individuals lean towarda latent tendency of self-destruction.

HERES THE SCENARIO:

You sign up and start putting all of yourenergy into building your share of anyparticular program. You are working HARDat it, and the owner of the company isso supportive and encouraging and helpful.

Then, you begin to notice a few odd things.Emails, or maybe even phone calls, where thatperson just doesnt sound quite right. Youcant put your finger on it, but your internalalarm is definitely trying to tell yousomething.

You move onward. The emails get strangerand stranger. This once reasonable personbegins to sound alarmingly like he or sheis slipping a gasket. You begin to worry,not just for yourself, but because you may have also convinced your close friends and associates that this was the right program,too.

A bit more time goes by, youve been prayingfor a miracle, but...

Now the alarms are ringing loud enough towake those in neighboring countries. The emails and postings and/or phone calls definitely sound like this person has jumped off the deep end.

Meglomania has struck and youre beingsucked down in the quicksand!

I dont know why this happens. I do know,from various program participation, that it does. The old saying, Power corrupts has struck again.

Ive witnessed normal people like you andme change virtually overnight. A tiny bitof success with their program and WHAM!They become a legend in their own mind!

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD SPOT:

You know its not you, but you also knowyouve been backing the wrong horse.

Now youre in a moral dilemna not of yourown making. You need out, and out fast,and you need to inform others of yourdecision, but how

My advice First, dont be embarassed or afraid! It happens. It happens a lot more often then you may be aware of...

But, no matter what, never resort to name calling. Never threaten. Never mislead. Never lie!

Just calmly and clearly contact those youmust, if you must, and state your decision to leave that program.

This is the best way. Always keep your ownpersonal integrity intact. Remember we allmake mistakes. Its much better to fessup and begin damage control than to letothers, who may or may not be aware of thesituation, continue their own downwardspiral.

STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE

I believe there is a reason for everything.I also know that that reason is not alwaysclear to us in the moment.

But...

The universe watches. How you handle thistype of situation now, handled well orhandled poorly, will come back to you... tenfold :)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Theresa Cahill, a two decade veteran of marketing, is the owner of and invites you to take a look at the services of MWA and download fr.ee helpful information and more at

Whos Doing What to Who?

Last night, just before calling it quits and turningoff the computer, I received an email from a gentlemanwho wondered how in the world his email address hadended up in my classified ad board program.

Now the program he was wondering about was one ofthose create your own classified ad boards, and wassomething that I had LONG ago eliminated completelyfrom my ezine website.

So of course I was wondering the same thing! How couldsomeone post to a board that should not, andphysically does not (to the best of my knowledge),exist

Well, I researched back a bit and view sourced theheader to another Classified Ad Notification I hadreceived - the fact was I was receiving a lot of them,off and on. My intention was to find out and stop this,but I confess it was one of those when I get the timeIll investigate it! sort of things. In the meantime,I was treating them as junk mail and just throwingthem away - not keeping the names and emails - thatwould have been unethical.

And what did I discover

Lo and behold, there was the server information for aprogram - a membership site - that I had cancelled mysubscription to at least a year ago!

Hmmmm... Whats up with that

Of course I wrote to them immediately, and yes I didinclude the person who contacted me in on my email,after all if it werent for that gentleman and hisvery appropriate question, Id still probably havethis on the back burner to be taken care of later.And, because of this, it did appear from his point ofview that I was to blame.

Their response Quite snippy to say the least LOL! I was even vaguely threatened that my statement of since its not mine, gain somewhere else must be the reason [paraphrased I assure you for brevitys sake] was a crime to put into writing...

Okay, now whos doing what here

The header information from all notices sent to meclearly shows THEIR server still serving up this form - somewhere, somehow, for some reason.

Since I no longer am a member, and most certainly have not been hosting this ad board myself, what conclusion can I draw What conclusion would YOU draw

The best reply these people could have sent me wouldhave been a formal apology. Did I get that No, as Isaid I was vaguely threatened instead.

What sort of professional service is that...

My best advice when joining programs and membershipsites, etc., is to watch them carefully.

The majority ARE there for your benefit, one I love inparticular is ISO Register, a very inexpensive butjammed packed website for online marketers,http://www.mywizardads.com/RD/ISO.html. These are good people - and the owner is a down-to-earth, I-want-to-help-you, sort of person.

This other site I speak of without naming, for heavenforbid I should write anything criminal whilestating only the truth... well suffice to say thatall that glitters is not gold*

What I could have done, but did not do, would havebeen to write them back and tell them that a whileback I was personally contacted by another ex-memberwho was having similar issues.

So, again I say, whos doing what to who here

Watch your back out there. There are plenty of goodfolk to do business with... The others Stick up foryourself and get what needs to be taken care of...taken care of! When you are in the right, dont beafraid to say so... just be sure you have proof,of course :)

*J.R.R. Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring - A commonly-used phrase meaning not everything appears to be what it appears to be.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Theresa Cahill, a two decade veteran of marketing, is the owner of and invites you to take a look at the services of MWA and download fr.ee helpful information and more at