The New Landrush is On

In late 1893, September 16th to be precise, the United States  government opened up the Oklahoma Territory to the greatest land rush in US history. Settlers could grab a plot of land and own it free and clear just by claiming it first. As you could predict, the contestants were members of almost every walk of life at that time and included criminals and incompetents that really had no business claiming free land. The country was in one of the worst depressions it had seen and people were out to take advantage in any way they could.

In the past year or two, every so called “guru” on the Net has come out with his or her own product to “teach” people how to use digital marketing to help local businesses show up in the search engines. The products range from simple instruction on how to fill out a Google Maps listing to full on bells and whistles courses costing thousands. The only trouble is that most of these gurus have no idea what they are doing in the brick and mortar world. Nonetheless hundreds if not thousands of “expert marketers” are swarming local businesses promising  making promises they could not keep in a million years. Hey they took a $47 course didn’t they? Or making the promise then taking the money and running out.

They are also making it harder for legitimate digital marketing veterans to get past the skepticism of the local business owner in order to help (sometimes save) her business. They are like so many roaches running all over leaving their bad aftertaste on the business community. We’ve just heard a few weeks ago that even Anthony Robbins the self help guy is getting into the “internet marketing” instruction business with his own course line. Are you kidding me? How many thousands will he sell on late night TV? He also has a radio spot running 24/7 on talk stations. I wonder if any of the “gurus”/info marketers are going to take some responsibility for the damage they are doing to the marketing field in this time of recession when business needs real professional help. Doubt it. It seems that mediocrity is a large part of our new online reality.