Tweet

Won't get fooled again

Guest post by: Seth Godin

Article Overview: I know you say your media returns results better than anyone else's. I've heard that before.

Won't get fooled again

I know you say your media returns results better than anyone else's. I've heard that before.

I know you say that this stock is a sure thing, even better than gold. I've heard that before.

I know you say you'll work full time on business development even though it's hard work and there are distractions everywhere. I've heard that before.

I know you say that your promotional strategy for this movie is huge and we should run more ads and promote it more as a result. We've heard that before too.

The reason that people don't believe you isn't that you're a liar. The reason we don't believe you is that the guy before you (and the woman before him) were unduly optimistic hypesters and we got burned. We believed, we leaned into it and we got stuck.

If you catch yourself making a promise that's been made before, stop. Don't spend a lot of time and effort building credibility with this sort of promising, because it doesn't pay off.

Make different promises, or even better, do, don't say.

Related Articles
  Don't Support Outdated Rules
  Don’t Look Back and Other Tips for Life after Foreclosure
  Are You Labled As A Bad Manager?
  Don’t Be Fooled Again-Avoid Underwater Mortgage Advice Scams
  Beware of april 1st announcements
  Do You Want to Earn Money Now Online?
  5 Fears That Stop You from Starting An Online Business
  Office Porn Could Get You Fired
  Creative Online Business Ideas for Beating Your Competitors
  - Business Development Training - How to Beat the Fear of Meeting People
  Quote of the Day
  Rule 16 Make Your Advertisement Look like Editorial Content
  Hire a Sales Rep - Not a Product Rep
  Testimonials May Benefit You More Than You May Think
  Making Your Goals Happen In The New Year
  Destined or Doomed?
  Power Marketing Tips 01 Warning marketing can be fun
  Is Business To Business Marketing Different Than Business To Consumer
  Do You Want To Get Into Internet Marketing?
  Fearing Franchise Losses

Article Tags: better than gold, business development, credibility, distractions, full time, liar, promises, promotional strategy, stock, sure thing



Related Forum Posts
Re: Suspicious/Problematic Users - Hey Mal, Sounds like you might have taken a bit of offense to my last post? I assure you that I didn't mean anything bad by it. I only said he "fooled" you because you replied to a couple of the posts. I didn't realize you had already caught on to the problem. Sorry about that! Trent
Re: Suspicious/Problematic Users - Hi Trent, Well done on your diligence but I was not fooled at all. The first post I saw seemed harmless enough although off topic so I replied. It was because I was suspicious that I checked out her other two posts and based on those, I tried to report them but David was on the ball and had done that already. I advised her to get out of our forum as she is in the wrong place as you will see. As we don't have the power to remove posts I left that to GT, cheers, Mal.
Re: Suspicious/Problematic Users - I already sent a PM to GT but I figured I would post it here too so the rest of you can keep an eye out... Member: Luis21 He/she posted 3 posts that don't really have anything to do with anything. At first glance they do look somewhat legit (almost fooled me and apparently did fool Mal) but they aren't. They are somewhat related to the subjects of the thread but they don't really make any sense in the discussion if you think about it. So I Googled one of them and found that the entire thing was taken directly from Yahoo answers word-for-word and it was from way back in 2006. Then I checked another and the same thing was true. I assume the other one probably was too but I didn't check. For future reference, if something doesn't quite look right just do a little digging and you will find that it probably isn't.
Re: Building Links By Spamming Forums - I do see your points GT but I just can't agree with you. In my opinion NO spam is ever good at any time for any reason whatsoever. As I said, I have been moderating forums for years. The first one I started moderating was in 2003 and have moderated at least 10 forums during that time (some are no longer around). So I have seen it all. In my experience, once a spammer always a spammer. They are getting more tricky with trying to make the spam look legit so they can get away with it and it's sometimes easy to get fooled by it. Most new people who come to a forum and post something that comes off as spam will most likely never return anyway so I have no sympathy for them either. I also say that leaving any type of spam is a very bad idea even if it's not offensive or blatant. Let it slide at all and eventually all the spammers will catch on to the lax moderating. Pretty soon the forum will be overrun with spam. I've seen it happen many times. Plus, if you leave it then it is serving their purpose because that is what they are hoping for, so in the end it is helping them and contributing to the problem. NO SPAM EVER!!!
Please delete spam posts! - I've seen a lot of spam posts go un-deleted. I've even seen moderators reply to such posts as if they are legit. A big part of a moderators job is to delete spam and keep the boards clean. Let's all make sure we are doing that. * If someone posts the exact same thing several different times, or a slight variation of it... it's spam. * If a new members post has a self-promotional or affiliate link in it... it's spam. * If someone writes a post for the sole purpose of getting people to click on the link in the post or in their signature... it's spam. * Sometimes people get creative and try to disguise their spam as a legitimate post. Do not be fooled. You can usually tell if you try. * Spammers also like to copy legit posts or articles from other people and then go post them on forums just so they can get their signature shown. They look legit so you have to be on the lookout for them. If it looks suspicious just take a sentence from it and paste it into Google. If a bunch of exact copies come up it's probably spam. If you are the moderator of the forum it is posted in then please delete it. If you aren't then please click the button to report it so the moderator of that section will know about it.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What I Really Want Is...

Tips to Take Control of Credit Card Debt

The State of the Sustainable Furniture Industry

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.