If you’re on any internet marketer newsletter or email list you’ve certainly been inundated over and over again with the Mega-Launch of the week. You get a bunch of emails, many exactly the same pitch with exactly the same headline, that some big-name guru is or will be putting out the very product you need to make it on the internet. (Personally, I like it when lazy affiliates just copy what’s been given to them, because then it’s easy to eliminate those emails without plodding through the pitch.) And apparently Tuesday is the best day to launch. Oh look, 87 new emails! Must be Tuesday!

A trend I’ve seen growing is that of the marketer who’s giving away his stuff on CD for a measly $7.95 or so to cover the postage for the big box of stuff he’s going to send you. There’s probably a “trial” subscription to their expensive newsletter that you need to agree to in order to get the big box of stuff. No objections from me on doing that, as long as it’s very, very clear on the sales page.

What leads me to write today are a few emails I’ve received about the latest greatest launch where the marketer tells me how he’s gotten this very special deal for me. One even hinted that he’d spent his own money to secure this incredible offer for his subscribers. Huh? I’ve already had a jillion emails telling me about this offer, including one from the guru himself, and I know it’s an affiliate attempt at sales. Why lie to me?

I know I’m not the only person who subscribes to lots of IM mail lists. In fact, many of the big marketers tell newbies to do exactly that so we can see what the big guys are up to and learn from their methods. Not one of them, however, says to lie to your list members.

The marketers who lie to me lose me as a member. Even if they have previously provided value in their information or products, it just brings me up short that they’d lie over something so inconsequential. Is this just a lack of good judgment or is it habitual behavior? Don’t know, don’t care. Either way, I just don’t trust them anymore. I’m outta here!

Harsh? Probably. Particularly for such a minor infraction. But my time is too valuable to me to spend it reading their stuff and wondering what little deception of half-truth or inappropriate advice I might be getting.

And here’s another thing. I’ve been looking at and researching and doing internet marketing for a couple of years now. I also have a lot of life/business experience that gives me a perspective on how I want to run things in an ethical way. How about the young newbie who looks at this kind of behavior as a role model? How does that help him? How does that help the world of internet marketing, already looked at by some as scammy?

If you take a close look at the really big, hugely successful marketers, both online and off, the folks who have been around for a long time, you see that they’ve built their businesses honestly and ethically. You don’t need to scam someone - or shade the truth a bit - to make massive amounts of money. The less than honest folks are eventually found out and their businesses crash - or in extreme cases are closed by the government.

Is it worth it to make a few bucks now and jeopardize your future?

Stay well, stay honest, make some money!

Whether you’re heaving a huge sigh of relief that the little darlings are headed back to school or just note that it’s one of those ‘time passing’ markers, it is time to reflect on the fact that 2/3 of 2008 is gone.

For me, it’s an “oh my” time as I see I’ve managed to fritter away a bunch of time. It’s going to be really hard to hit my goals for this year. Then again, maybe this is finally the push in the behind to put on that full court press to GET STUFF DONE. We’ll see.

Although I’m behind in the number of books listed at eBay, that pace is starting to pick up. And I had enough listed and sold to do a bit better each month - and that in July and August, slow months for any marketer.

One thing, finally, is that I’m working hard at monetizing my sales. I’m trying to focus more on digging through all the private label rights products I have, branding them, and adding affiliate products that I think enhance the material. I’ve also changed around the offer on my delivered CD product, offering inexpensive PLR and MRR packages. Roughly half of my customers buy books related to eBay or internet marketing, so I think they may want access to these digital products, either to sell themselves or to learn from. Since I just figured this out (a DOH moment), we’ll see.

If you’re interested in inexpensive rights packages, check my offers here.

Speaking of PLR, I found a product today that I’m very excited about. It’s just a little software program that’s very inexpensive, but I think using it is going to be very helpful in managing some of the stuff collecting digital dust - and to make me some money.

I’ve talked before about all the ebooks I’ve managed to collect. Just going through them is a major pain (self-inflicted, of course, since I am the one who let them just sit there for so long). One frustration is finding a great product with private label rights, but that has been given to me in pdf format without the source doc file. Now what? I can either sell it as is, without being able to take advantage of the plr aspect of the product, or I can retype it into a word program myself. Depending on my mood, some were put into a “get back to it later” file, and some of them were just tossed.

Today, I found my solution. It’s a little program called Tiger PDF Convertor, and that’s exactly what it does. You open it, click on the convertor button to load the pdf you want changed, click another button, wait a couple seconds for it to do its thing, then save the generated text file. Sure, you still have some work to do with the text file, but that’s sooo much easier than typing everything just so you can begin the format! Take a look here. The suggested price for it is $17.00, but I’m passing along my good deal and only charging $5. It’s also a resale product, so it comes with images and a sales page. You have to do your own thankyou/download page, and truthfully the sales page can use some work, but it’s a great product at a great price.

And another note about rights. If you get this tool, please remember that you can’t just start tearing apart all the pdfs you have and redoing them. Check the rights of the product before you start mucking around. If you don’t have rights that specifically state you can remake the product or tear it apart for articles, etc., or that you can claim ownership, don’t do it. You might think you won’t be found out because there’s so much out there on the web. And maybe you won’t. Then again, you might. I recently read a post by a fellow who found out the hard way. His mistake was inadvertent, but the original author decided to be a jerk about the whole thing. Some lawyers made a lot of money; the fellow who made the mistake lost a lot of time and money and lived a very stressful life for awhile.

eBay Cheater Update: After a couple more seemingly nowhere messages from eBay, I checked on the seller I’d found doing a booming digital delivery ebook business, and he’s not there anymore. Finally! I have seen other listings that are suspect, but until eBay works out their reporting systems for this, I don’t think I’m going to wade in any more. I did have an interesting exchange with one seller, though. She blatently listed a cookbook as being delivered by email, and she was charging a $.25 delivery fee. I asked why. She told me it was to cover paypal fees and that since she was selling her book for $.99, what with eBay fees, she really wasn’t making any money. Huh? Her sales are mainly hard goods, so I don’t understand why she’d jeopardize her account for this. Funny world. I’m not going to try to report her, but someone else might…

I think that’s enough for today. Be well.