This
incites no end of questions for me.
For example, exactly how will my mastery of Real Estate Cyberspace have improved by sending these schmucks a dollar?
If I send two dollars, can I be twice as wizardly?
Precisely how much value should my clients put on a real estate designation that is just as difficult to obtain as an Official Inman News sippee cup — but $148 cheaper?
Yes, yes, I’m sure there’s fine print, but I’m a high D and I don’t care. Here’s the question that made me crazy for days:
I don’t know of all of those twenty-six people who lent their names and faces to this vastly stoopid promotion, but I know of quite a few of them. Presumably they took some pains to make themselves famous in the real estate vendor space. My question:
Why would they deliberately wreck their reputations by associating themselves with this sleazy wreck of a real estate designation?
I’m quite serious. I’ve had this email open all week, trying to figure it out. I get slimed all the time by creepoids trying to leech away the value of my recommendations, but the sole power I have in the marketplace of ideas is my reputation for integrity. Because I never attach my name to crap, you know that, if I do praise a product, I’m doing so for reasons I consider valid. I can’t imagine taking money to endorse a product, but, surely, it is far worse to take money to endorse a product that — by its own admission — is not even worth a dollar!
And it’s not one wannabe real estate bigfoot up there, it’s twenty-six of them! Reputation is all there is in the Web 2.0 world. Why would they squander the intellectual capital they worked so hard to accumulate?
I couldn’t work it out, but then I stumbled on an infomercial-like sales presentation that made the whole issue clear to me:
Mind what goes into your mind.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing
Brian Brady says:
Love the video- master those five words and it becomes clear to all
August 6, 2008 — 8:42 am
Tom says:
Wow, and their site is so web 2.0… not…
That site is truly amazing, it encapsulates almost every poor technique in internet marketing out there. The look, small type, overly loud video introduction.
Greg, maybe it is a spoof site in the Monty Python tradition?
August 6, 2008 — 9:13 am
Mark Madsen says:
Greg, I laughed through the entire video.
Do you believe Truth is out of style, or is the gap just increasing between those who stand for something and the others who will fall for anything?
Great article, thank you.
mm
August 6, 2008 — 9:19 am
Greg Swann says:
> Greg, maybe it is a spoof site in the Monty Python tradition?
Alas, no. Alike unto ePro and another one — Webineezers? — RECS is a bad joke, but it’s a for-real designation.
August 6, 2008 — 9:21 am
Greg Swann says:
> Do you believe Truth is out of style, or is the gap just increasing between those who stand for something and the others who will fall for anything?
What happened is that the world has changed — endorsements have been disintermediated by the participatory internet — so the tyranny of hackocracy is dead, but the hacks don’t know it yet. So much the worse for them.
August 6, 2008 — 9:28 am
Mark Madsen says:
>What happened is that the world has changed — endorsements have been disintermediated by the participatory internet — so the tyranny of hackocracy is dead, but the hacks don’t know it yet. So much the worse for them.
I agree 100%. Vendors need to earn their business by participating in online communities with the professionals they serve.
Spam emails containing celebrity endorsements are becoming more insulting than productive.
August 6, 2008 — 9:51 am
Geno Petro says:
I don’t know. That Kendra Todd is kind of cute. Again, what all do you get for a dollar?
August 6, 2008 — 10:58 am
The Harriman Team says:
Resistance…is …futile.
Must…pay…dollar.
August 6, 2008 — 12:54 pm
Michael Fisher says:
“I do not wish to be in any club that would have me as a member.” — Groucho Marx
August 6, 2008 — 2:24 pm
Vance Shutes says:
Greg,
>”Mind what goes into your mind.”
No truer words were ever written here, my friend!
August 6, 2008 — 2:56 pm
Dylan Darling says:
Anything to make a buck on the internet! 10,000 members- a quick $10,000.
And why do “they” keep calling me to sell me 1st page SERP rankings when I already rank on the first page? I’ve resulted to coming out of the nice guy shell and having fun with these vendors. Great work Greg!
August 6, 2008 — 2:57 pm
Jason says:
*putting on wizard hat*
Greg maybe one of the funniest spams I’ve read in a while
Thanks
August 7, 2008 — 5:11 am
Beth Skinner says:
“stoopid” – hee hee! I like that word.
God’s honest truth – as I was reading this post some dipshit called to offer to put me on page 1 of Google – then she had the nerve to LIE to me and say she had just Googled me and I was on page six. I was going to argue with her but decided my time is better spent reading great blog posts! So I just hung up. (Like I don’t Google myself all the time???)
But then I got kind of creeped out because considering I happened to be reading this post when they called I’m thinking they’re watching me! I need to get a tinfoil lined closet.
August 7, 2008 — 10:23 am
Greg Swann says:
> But then I got kind of creeped out because considering I happened to be reading this post when they called I’m thinking they’re watching me! I need to get a tinfoil lined closet.
Watch your mail. A vendor will offer you the personal unit for only $49 a month or the team-sized tinfoil line closet for only $129 a month.
August 7, 2008 — 10:29 am
James Boyer says:
Money Money and more Money is why they did it. Sometimes people think with their bank accounts rather then their brains.
August 7, 2008 — 12:06 pm
Judy Peterson says:
The video is priceless, kind of a bewitched howdy doody. This is a tough time for gurus and “wrecks” if you count the phone calls and emails from all who want to put you on the front page of google (I’m there), or sell an ebook for the “next great thing” marketing scheme guaranteed to produce leads, yadyada. If only..
August 7, 2008 — 12:16 pm
Paul Francis, CRS says:
Greg,
At first I glanced over the screenshot and did not pay particular attention to the names, automatically assuming it was just another one of the many e-mails (spam) we get every day that promises to “take us on up” to the next level.
But then… I noticed the names. Some very prominent names that are always out to sell something.. anything.. as long as they are selling.. something.
August 8, 2008 — 10:34 am
Sue says:
I would be very embarassed to have my face on that site…and its true, they probably went thru great pains to get it there. Perhaps soon they will be trying to find a way to get off! That video is funny. Thanks Greg
August 8, 2008 — 3:45 pm