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Is Internet Marketing Just a Millionaire Boy’s Club?

June 29, 2007

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Not too long ago I was discussing a project with a lady at an Internet marketing conference, and she commented on something I had never noticed before. She said, “Sometimes it seems like Internet marketing is just a millionaire boy’s club.” She told me to look at the speakers at most of the events. You could also look at the big jvs (the quickest way to promote).

Almost all the speakers at any Internet marketing event are the same men time and time again. Sure you see a few women speaking, but no where near the number who are good marketers online. We won’t even go into the joint ventures.

I disagreed with her at the time, because I must have been blind. I had some reasons I gave her about why there were more men speaking at the events, but they were just excuses. I never thought about the question before.

I’m ashamed.

It’s never been more clear than this past week that much of internet marketing is a millionaire boy’s club.

All you have to do is take a look at some of the recent marketing going on. The rich jerk is having a conference at the Playboy mansion, and promoting it in his usual over-hyped, offensive promotional style (although he is being more rude and obnoxious than usual if that’s possible).

And what do you have…many of the “top gurus” promoting the event.

You are who you associate with.

Of course, I already knew what a few of these promoters were. It’s just a few of the ones both speaking and promoting the event who surprised me. They claim to be family men, and a few of them claim to be Christian family men. Yet, they’re promoting this event from the normal rich jerk style. Some even have the gall to say things such as, “I don’t agree with him, but I am promoting this event anyway…” or “I’m just going for the networking…”

Let’s not even discuss this from the point that it’s being held at the Playboy mansion. I’m offended at that part, but not everyone has the same values on that.

What’s the bigger issue is just how offensive the millionaire boy’s club is.

For example, the less offensive letter “by an affiliate” for the event starts (this is a direct quote)…
“If my wife knew I was mailing for this, she’d KILL me…”

Well, let’s say for a second we believe this person and that they’re not outright lying to us. They’re confessing to hide their business affairs from their wife, because money is much more important to them than their marriage. If they would lie about their business to their wife, why in the world should I believe them?

But some of the big gurus claim, “it’s for charity…we’re not making anything.” Yeah right…and I have a bridge to sell you. I’m not a noob who just started yesterday and doesn’t know how joint ventures work. You might not make cash from the promotion, but you do make money from the joint venture deals that will go on. It’s about the money. It’s not about the charity, or we’d see a lot more mention about the charity itself.

What becomes more interesting in the whole controversy is how most “internet marketing discussion boards” have responded. A major discussion erupted on one of the most popular internet marketing forums about this subject.

Dozens of posts occured from both men and women who were concerned about this and what was going on. Even though almost all the posts were very reasonable, that whole thread was deleted. Yet, somehow another discussion on the same board which promoted the event stayed. When several of those members inquired about the deletion, their accounts were deleted.

Interesting…and some have told us it is all for charity. Right…it seems to the good ole boy network has stuck again. Criticize a guru, get deleted. Criticize women…and get promoted?
(Gee I wonder just how many gurus I’m going to tick off this time - might never see me do a major jv again).

Jennifer Knox posted a very interesting Squidoo lense on this topic: Internet marketing and women

Here are a few of the interesting blog postings about this subject:
More on the Rich Jerk…
Why Paul Galloway isn’t attending…
You are who you hang with…

My biggest concern with this post was that I’d bring more publicity to this already overhyped event. I was very happy to see Mark Hendricks is having a free Internet marketing conference the same day. I’ve met him a couple of times and I was impressed with his honest concern for the attendees at a recent event I was at. While I don’t know him personally other than meeting him a few times, I’m going to recommend his event…

I most definitely don’t get anything for this as I haven’t even contacted Mark about promoting him here. You can find out more about his event on his blog: Mark Hendricks’ Free Two Day Conference.

Want to help charity? Attend his event…and give the money to charity yourself! Then you know who is actually getting it.

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9 Responses to “Is Internet Marketing Just a Millionaire Boy’s Club?”

  1. Eric Graham on June 29th, 2007 3:28 pm

    Terry I couldn’t agree with you more!

    One of my friends and clients (a VERY well known marketer who shall remain nameless) asked me to go to this with him (for free) and promote it on my blog and I must admit I was surprised he even asked me.

    My faith and Christ/family centered life is no secret to my clients, so he should have known better than to even ask.

    He and I had a long conversation about whether or not he wanted his name associated with this event. Unfortunately he is still going. And I’m still disappointed.

    But, his invitation made me curious enough to take a look at the “Rich Jerk’s” sales letter for this event and while the “uncensored version” was simply too offensive to even stay on for a few seconds, on the “toned down” version I was highly disappointed to see several other marketers (again a couple of who are friends, clients and claim to be Christian family men) who I HAD respect for, proudly attending this event.

    Some have told me that they are going just for the networking… But even if I could take that at face value, I still have to question the wisdom of associating your name and personal brand with pornography or such a morally questionable event.

    Morality aside… Just from a business standpoint, with “trust and credibility” playing such a critical factor in the online selling process (and my test results indicate it’s becoming more and more important all the time), you would think that some of these guys would want to avoid ANYTHING that would tarnish their reputation.

    But Terry, the fact that these guys are attending and promoting this event is probably good marketers like us… Because it makes those of us who promote ethical, integrity based online marketing just stand out from the “crowd” even more.

    God bless,

    Eric

  2. Terry on June 29th, 2007 5:26 pm

    Very good points Eric. Even though we’re direct response marketers, we all have brands…and those brand names become more important and valuable all the time.

    It shows a very shortsighted viewpoint. They might make a few new joint ventures, but they offend a large portion of their own customer base.

    I just found who was attending this event and how people reacted to it quite revealing. And the whole issue brought back that discussion I had about the “millionaire boys club” before at an event.

  3. Alison G on July 1st, 2007 1:03 am

    That was a great post, written very well. Kept my attention. Thank you for opening your eyes & having insight that there are some powerful women who are going to pave a road that will eventually blow most men out this water :)

    Thanks for a honest, humble & easy read

    Alison

  4. Titus-Armand on July 5th, 2007 7:51 am

    Very good points there Eric. Interesting read.

  5. Louise on July 11th, 2007 2:30 am

    Hi there Terry

    Do you know if Eric James was at this event? It would not surprise me, as he has no ethics. I really hate how so called guru’s are covering up for this man. I was scammed by him (I know I’m not the only one), but threads in forums (the big boys club) just get deleted. Why are they protecting him? I want to get my message out so that other innocent people do not get ripped of. Can you help?

    Regards

    Louise

  6. Terry on July 11th, 2007 6:05 am

    Hello Louise,

    I don’t know who all was at the event except the advertised speakers. I read your link and can tell you many of the testimonials are old as mine was around 6 years ago (not positive). I am doing a test there right now and may post more on it after the test results.

  7. Patrick Pretty on July 16th, 2007 5:49 pm

    Terry:

    Thank you for sharing your view on this important matter.

    It is my hope that Internet Marketers will continue to engage in the debate.

    My view is that we’ve seen a new low.

    Regards,

    Patrick Pretty

  8. Louise on July 17th, 2007 7:43 am

    Hi there

    I did not know that you gave him a testimonial, and I’m sorry to put you on the spot like that. Actually, it just illustrates my point. Erik James continues to make money of all the old testimonials, but has done nothing to keep his service abreast of the times. I figured out how he got people to subscribe, and I hope to get it up on my site by tomorrow. It IS a scandal after all.
    Keep well

    Louise

  9. David Wilkinson on August 5th, 2007 4:14 am

    (Bit late jumping on here, but what the heck…)

    Kelly Felix in the past few months has become increasingly desperate. If the rumours are true, and he and his ‘crew’ of ‘rich jerks’ are indeed having financial troubles (kinda defeats the ‘rich’ bit) then this could be a massive way for them to recoupe losses.

    Pretend to give to charity and throw an event at the PlayBoy mansion. Make thousands of dollars whilst effectively giving nothing of value back, whilst more likely than not breaking up the odd marriage or two.

    Sure as hell sounds like Kelly’s team.

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