The Etymology Of Black Hat Marketing With Media Releases
Monday, February 25th, 2008Thank you to all of you who have responded to my latest post re: unethical media releases.
Please, for all those who have emailed me directly, please use the blog. I really appreciate it.
I don’t intend to be negative and I certainly don’t want to sling mud. There is too much to be positive about and it is something that I have always strived to be–positive in all that I do, including my outlook on life!
Several people have referred to this unethical practice using media releases as a black hat marketing strategy and that is exactly what this is.
Before I share with you what I plan on doing, I want you to understand the following five point that separate the black hat marketers with the white hat entrepreneurs…
That means that we must define our terms first. Definition of terms is always crucial. Just like when we advertise that no one else is teaching *how to* create customized education, we mean just that. This not to take away all those who sell free reports (hundreds of entrepreneurs), or from those who have used customized free reports (Denis Waitley, Brian Tracy, Eben Pagan and Alex Mandossian have used them—very few others), but no one today *teaches* how to create them, let alone has created software to do this for you.
(By the way, we have been teaching the science of using assessment instruments in order to customize your content for the past 6+ years, but I digress.)
That leaves us with two terms to define. A Black Hat Marketer is someone who manipulates marketing techniques and strategies to under mine some else’s promotion or leverage another’s success for their own success. I refer to this person as a marketer and not entrepreneur as I do NOT consider unethical practices to be a part of entrepreneurship.
A White Hat Entrepreneur is someone who puts value and one’s prospective clients first. This person combines one’s passion and expertise and creates incredible value from the person’s unique perspective (UPP) and one’s system for solving defined problems (USP).
A Black Hat Virus is the worst kind of virus. It combines elements of truth with elements of dishonesty. It does what Mark Joyner discusses in his book, Simpleology, which is to get the market place to agree upon some basic truths, and then take them down a path that simply cannot be verified. (Note: I am not saying that Mark’s book has anything to do with black hat marketing!)
Here is the etymology of this type of black hat virus:
1. The Black Hat Marketer makes a decision to focus on ‘you’ and not the value that you can put into the market place. This is always a recipe for disaster and what causes me to laugh every time I see another ‘business-in-a-box’ product being advertised. Now, I am not saying that every marketer that creates these kind of products is a black hat marketer, but they are preying on the ‘quick rich’ mentality that always leads to disappointment to those who buy these products.
2. The Black Hat Marketer creates the virus by piggy-backing on the success of the White Hat Entrepreneur instead of creating one’s own case studies. This is one of the reasons that every program we have has been case-study driven. In fact, in our latest book, Author and Grow Rich (http://AuthorAndGrowRich.com), each chapter ends with a case study.
3. The Black Hat Marketer advertises to the media that this person and the White Hat Entrepreneur have a great partnership.
In the Recommendation Age, you must have social proof or you are dead in the water. Every media release that we produce today is case-study driven.
Again, when you come from the place of that sweet spot which is the intersection of your passion/expertise, you come from a unique place that incorporates your UPP, which is one of the keys to carrying a virus into the market.
I have referred to Seth Godin’s book, All Marketers Are Liars, several times (by the way, the thesis of the book is not that legitimate companies do anything unethical, but that they are masters at telling a story of what they do—critical in the Recommendation Age.) and the need to craft your UPP.
However, what is even more powerful is your ability to have others take this to the market for you.
4. The Black Hat Marketer Uses half-truths—the ultimate black hat deceptive technique—to promote the relationship to the world in the best form of social proof today—the power of promoting thru the power of the media.
We have all been conditioned to believe the words of an expert. It’s the strength of Milgram’s Law and the fact that if you do not have a book in The Recommendation Age, you are a nobody.
In fact, I challenge you to consider that last interview you watched on Larry King Live, CNN, or FOX News. Did you once question the words of the expert being interviewed? And did you realize that the person being interviewed was an author? (In fact, the expert must be an author in order to gain the media coverage in the first place.)
This is what makes this deceptive practice by this marketer who used me in a media release all the more deplorable!
5. The Black Hat Marketer fails to let the White Hat Entrepreneur know that there was a ‘supposed Joint Venture’ created between the two!
This is the ultimate form of deceptive Black hat Joint Venture partnership.
These are the five keys to creating a black hat virus.
I had no intention of blogging about this, but since it happened to me, I thought it a perfect venue to inform you to be careful.
This is definitely not over with.
By the way, I am planning on phoning this person and will inform everyone of the outcome.
And to end on a positive note, The ‘Trump The Donald’ Contest has taken off with a bang!
One thing I have always stated: When you build momentum in the market place, there will be all kinds of situations that come about to try and derail your focus.
Stay tuned as I keep you informed about the outcome of this form of black hat marketing and how this situation is resolved…
To Your Legacy!
Glenn 
