Spotlight on Marketing

I’ve come to the conclusion that the whole affiliate system leaves an icky feeling in my gut, and I don’t want anything to do with it. OK, so maybe I’m not very business-minded or entrepreneurial. Some people are great at negotiating deals, putting sellers in touch with buyers and taking a cut; I’m just not like that, and I don’t want to be.

Many people tweet to recommend an article or blog posting by someone else, but do not credit the writer of that article or blog posting in their tweet. I find that odd, unhelpful, unethical and just plain rude. …it’s not just about common courtesy and giving credit where it’s due - I’d be more likely to click on a link to an article if I recognise the author’s name (especially if it’s someone famous or someone I respect).

Thanks to http://www.copyscape.com I just discovered that an advertising/marketing guy in India has plagiarised huge chunks of text verbatim from my website.

A potential client recently contacted me, asking me to edit her monthly e-newsletter. She proposed that because she has no budget for marketing, she’d pay me for my services by referring others to me. I say pay me AND offer referrals.

In recent months I’ve seen lots of e-mails, e-newsletters, invitations and tweets that use variations on the word “kill” in order to tempt me buy a product, use a service or attend an event. But I don’t want “killing” to have anything to do with how I do business or relate to people.