Internet Marketing Is A Nasty Business
There is on doubt that web marketers are some of the most intelligent, motivated, and competitive people on the planet. Most people cannot be in the web marketing or affiliate business. It’s too competitive and somehting that takes time. Time to learn, time to age, time to grow. Most people want a quick buck.
That doesn’t stop plenty of “get rich quick” sites from going up, Usually, people will figure out that there is a ton of money in Affiliate Marketing or Poker Marketing to be specific, so they find a place like Tripod, or some other free website kinda place and throw up some banners.
Of course, making it in this business isn’t that easy, so they get frustrated and quit. for those that do stick it out and take the time to learn, it’s a great business to be in. Lots of work, but loads of fun! Also, just by being around people in this field you get to rub elbows with highly successful people with the same goals as you, to make money!
However, this business has an ugly side, with competitive people you are bound to end up rubbing someone the wrong way. Sometimes you have your content stolen, or your domain is too much like someone else’s, or some people for whatever reason just don’t like you and vise versa.
I recently got an email from a very large affiliate that was not happy with one of my new sites. I have hired a writer to do Poker and Gambling News and my writer apparently used an image he got from google images and that image belonged to someone else.
Here is the email I got this morning:
The rakeback picture you are using from Rxxxback.oxg is created by
us, copyrighted, and may not be used by you nor anyone else
without our permission. <----- lol ?Note that we are very close with Cake Poker’s owners and will
contact them asking that your account is closed down if you do not
stop violating our rights. <------- Jeesh, I’m very worried because I don’t think Cake wants the 40 players a month I bring them lol~We look forward to your explanation for not respecting other
people’s work.
Now, as I said I pay someone else to write content for me and they used their picture, fair enough this is a mistake by me and one that needs fixed. However, does this guy think threatening to have one of my affiliate accounts closed really puts me in a very kind mode?? I understand that as I mentioned above, we all have to deal with scammers and low life’s in this business. That doesn;t mean people should stop giving the benefit of the doubt though..
Also, in my writers defense the picture was in google images and had the emailer’s site URL in the photo and the pic was linked to their site. Still, I guess he didn’t care for the free ad space. 
Of course, I apologized to the guy, took his pic down, and gave him a link back for the mistake and to show good faith on our part. It just goes to show that we sometimes deal with so many bad webmasters, we forget that there are some very good ones still out there, and they are trying hard to run good quality websites. Not everyone is a scammer or low life..
Just remember, that it’s always better to try and be nice first and threaten later. Thsi kinda reminds me of my friend Grahams’ IPoker Affiliate Blog post from a while back where he had a nasty run in with another webmaster.
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Comments
As far as getting rich quick…internet marketing is anything but that. I actually think it is harder than just going out and getting a 9-5 job. But if you put in the work, it’s worth it…so I hear.
With regards to the unethical marketers and webmasters, I don’t worry about them too much as far as the long run is concerned. Most of those sites seem to have a lifespan between a few months and 2 years.
Fair points Randy - I actually keep a list of people whose approach I consider to be ‘unprofessional’ and avoid them where at all possible…
This industry attracts a lot of poker playing ‘kids’ (and some old enough to know better / in from other areas types) who do not have the faintest idea about how to interact on a professional (or even courteous) level.
will definitely add that rakeback outfit to my ‘avoid list’ after seeing that mail though.
Cheers, Mark