Brands.  Any company has one, whether it be great or not so great.  Even if the company doesn’t want to admit it, they are responsible for what their brand portrays to their customers.

Today I heard about an up and coming internet reality tv show which was dirtied (in my opinion) by one of the coaches.  I won’t go into detail with that, you can do your own research, but it just goes to show you that if you don’t keep tabs on what your employees are doing, you will likely suffer to some extent.

Here are some things that might help keep the people who don’t know any better from doing something stupid:

• Flat out tell them that they are not allowed to discuss the project, business, or whatever with other people.
• If something does get out, then publicly address it.  If you have to, then reprimand your employee.
• Along the same lines as discussion, don’t allow them to release any media without your approval.

In business your brand is your image.  It is often your customer’s first impression of you.  No matter what you do, you brand will at some point get tainted.  How you deal with it is up to you.

I just clicked on a spam comment and it redirected to some adult website.  At first I got a little annoyed, but then I came to quick realization.  The people who create spam will suffer a great problem at some time.  That is the fact that it is not sustainable.  At some unknown time, the method they are using to make money will fail and they will have to start from scratch again.  Not only that, but look at the guy who recently got caught spamming Myspace.com.  $230 million dollars I believe is what Myspace wanted from the guy.

Why I Hate Spam…

These people are not providing any form of value.  Instead they only exist for one reason- the bottom line.  The spammer is only after one thing and that is money… and at any cost.

I don’t think you can base a business off of spam.  Yes, you can make money, but it won’t last for long.   So do you think it is worth it? - I don’t.

Would you like a business you can tell your family and friends about?-  A business you have built from the ground up, that continues to grow and also gives you the chance to meet new people.

Or would you just like to scrap by and make some quick money, see that quickly fade away, and then start all over again?  Would you be able to justify what you do to your Ma, Pa, or Grandma?

In the end, I feel that everything we choose to do defines our character and philosophy on life.  Like Jim Rohn says, Liars are called “liars” because they LIE.

I was moving some feeds to a new plugin in FireFox and had to go out and grab some from blogs I read quite often.  I was a little surprised though, when I saw that some of the blogs I read on a daily basis don’t have that great of RSS buttons.  In my experience, the RSS button was always a orange button with a little broadcast type symbol in it.  However, on some of these blogs, I noticed people using something like a grey button that says “RSS”.  I even saw some bloggers with hyperlink instead of a button.

In my opinion, using anything other than the standard button is a bad idea.  Yeah, it’s great to think outside the box, but you have to make the button visible and immediately recognizable.

Today I watched a movie called, “Expelled,” starring Ben Stein.  The movie got me to thinking about a lot about religion, but more specifically, how easily people on a whole are led.  Yesterday I was surfing around Youtube.com and tapped into the ring of religion.  Needless to say, it was an interesting experience.  At first I found Richard Dawkins.  I don’t consider myself well versed in big, “scientific,” minds anymore, so I didn’t know who this man was when I started.  I watched him for a few minutes, jumped to another video, and then another.  He posed some great and very convincing arguments which didn’t seem to have any counter-arguments (or so I thought).  However, if you have used Youtube, you know that there is always a list of related or response videos to what you have just viewed.  So I ventured on to a video that looked promising- a counter-argument to Richard Dawkins and Atheists alike.  The video was simple, yet very powerful.  It was a slide show type with some intriguing facts.  This video was sort a bridge to another set of videos I began watching shortly after.  This set was also creationist themed and was filled with convincing information.

For about an hour and a half I went back and forth watching videos from either side of the argument.  I like to think that I have an open mind when it comes to religion and other people views, so this is why I was surfing back and forth between the two sides.  In the end, my views on religion did not change, yet my general feeling of people and religion did.  It was not until I watched the Ben Stein video today that I really began to put the pieces together.

What I Noticed

Manipulation can be a very dangerous thing, especially when you don’t know where you are being led.  How many times can you remember being told something that sounded so great and convincing that you didn’t really have any questions or counter-arguments?  I feel that these videos on Youtube and any other manipulation for that matter all follow the same pattern in which the author entices you and then meets his or her own agenda.  By writing this information, and possibly giving some people insight, I hope to in fact help those people who are not already recognizing and aware of these tactics.

One tactic that I noticed right off the bat, was something I first saw a man named Derren Brown do.  Here is the way that this tactic works and why it is so effective.  I will use the most common example which is politicians.  It will begin with a politician talking about something slightly interesting but not too interesting.  He or she will then begin to ramble on and on for what seems to be forever.  Most people are not aware of what the politician is talking about, but are more so drawn in by the initial topic.  The tactic is then ended by the politician doing something a little sneaky.  At the end of this long talk, the politician will throw in a phrase that is at the heart of his actual agenda.  The ending phrase doesn’t even have to be related, but has to be somewhat relevant to what he was talking about.  I would say that this is by far the most difficult tactic to become aware of, simply because it puts you (the listener) in a trance sort of state.  Once the trance is broken with that last phrase, you walk away thinking that speaker really does have all the answers.

Skewing uncommon facts.  This is a probably the most common thing I see in heated religious debates.  Using facts that hardly anyone has ever heard and twisting them to become in line with your own agenda is a great way to proving your point.  For example, taking something from biblical texts and changing it a little is hardly ever noticed by most people.  I personally never attended church on a regular basis and thus never learned specifics about the bible (I know I can just read it and don’t have to go to church to do so).  I know from my friends and family that my position is not unique.  There are many people who are not well versed on the bible.  So can you see now how easy it is to tell me the bible says one thing, and you can be fairly confident that I won’t go to the actual texts to research it?

Conclusion 

In conclusion, a lot of what I see is the product of what are called NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) and other conversational strategies being used.  If you are not familiar with the study of NLP, I do not have time to write about it now, but I will definitely talk about it in the future.  I’m not claiming to be an expert, but again I am only trying to help those people that do not notice these tactics right away.  Do you have any questions or perhaps notice something that I don’t? – Feel free to comment below.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

If you have visited Chad’s blog at Cdfnetworks.com you will have noticed that he has a contest running right now for a free week of mentoring which ends on April 30th, 2008.  This is a great concept for a number of reasons, but primarily the winner gets something much greater than most other online contests.

How many times have you seen a contest on the internet (within affiliate marketing circles) which awards the winner with TVs, gift cards, and cold hard cash?  Well, I see them all the time.  To tell you the truth, I get a little sick of seeing them.  Yes, it is amazing that the people giving out the money are giving it in the first place, but they could at least be creative with the requirements to win.

A lot of people might think that money is the best prize in any contest, but when it comes to affiliate marketing, (or any field for that matter) experience is the greatest thing you can receive and gain.
You now might be wondering why I gave you the above quote, but I think it relates quite well to Chad’s contest.  In terms of the traditional contests, if you win money, the money will at some time be used up and you will have to find another means of getting more.  Yet, if you are given the ability to make your own money, you will be given something much more valuable.  You will be given a way of sustaining and growing your income.

In conclusion, I definitely think that experience tops a hand out in any situation.  It will also be interesting to see how Chad manages his 100+ comments (as of now).  I tried to be a little creative with my response by meeting his requirements, but also getting around the rules a little.