Devoted to online marketing, viral marketing, and web marketing

With the owner of the Kimkins diet business going to court today, it brought up an interesting topic we all need to be reminded about, and that is being scammed.

There are two sides of being scammed that we all must face: being a victim or being a perpetrator.

One would think that being someone doing a scam is obvious because it's being planned and done on purpose; but that isn't always true. For instance, in online joint ventures, someone may be excited to start marketing a program developed by someone else without checking it out thoroughly, so they could be promoting something that isn't that great or even that works.

We have to be sure that what we're promoting is quality and above board.

That brings me to another point that can't be avoided, and that's that no matter what is offered out there, it won't work for everybody. Taking the Kimkins diet as an example. Some of those that have used it swear that it has worked for them, and is still working, while many more obviously believe it's a total scam; which it sounds like it probably is.

This happens in the marketing of products or services as well. No matter what we put out there, there is always someone that it won't work for. That's why we have guarantees and policy's in place so if it doesn't, they can get their money back without hassle.

There is one thing we all must consider when entering into an agreement with someone, and that is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

No matter what we attempt in life, it will take hard work and sacrifice to get there. If someone does the marketing thing that makes it looks like it can be done with little effort, etc., it's a promise that probably can't be kept.

That's the problem we as marketers face. We want to offer interesting headlines and points to draw people into reading our ad copy, so we must make interesting promises so they further read. Think of the old "The Lazy Man's way to Riches" as an example.

The point of it isn't that a person can sit on a chair doing nothing and money will roll in, the point is it gets people to continue reading in the belief that it's possible for them to improve themselves.

So on both sides of the marketing issue, we have to be careful of going too far in our promises, and at the same time watch out for those that are offering us more than seems possible.

The way it can all be handled is in the guarantee. Offering an ironclad guarantee and backing it up is the best way to battle this problem. That way whether you're buying or selling, you can have confidence you're safe in offering or trying it.

The problem with the Kimkims diet plan, is the owner of the business wasn't practicing what she was preaching. She made assertions that were found out to be false concerning her own success on the program and was outed on it.

Now she may end up paying a big price for not being authentic, which in the end is what this is all about.