The biggest pile of biased crap I've read for a long time and confirmation for me, at least, that The Verge is ultimately no better than any of the outlets it was trying to replace.<p>They take some bad apples from a niche and use that to extrapolate a whole business model and set of practices as being bad. I think it's sloppy, non-objective, ersatz journalism that merely peddles FUD. And even their choice of "bad apples" is questionable: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Frank-Kern/137568852956377" rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/pages/Frank-Kern/137568852956377</a><p>I can only speak for Kern and Jenkins but they've both put out some good products and are essentially info publishers who use certain high exposure and highly effective marketing techniques.<p>But if using cheap products to build leads who you then sell bigger ticket products to is a scam, well, a large amount of HN readers are involved in that "scam" too (yes, offering a webinar or a PDF to get people to sign up to your e-mail list is a "scam" supposedly!) Except, it's not a scam.. and this article is just a badly written pile of crap, all IMHO, of course.
While I agree with the author that there are so many scam artists out there and you do need to do your due diligence, I do not think how the following sentence defines marketing on the internet is correct:<p>"The term Internet Marketing describes both a particular business model used to sell fraudulent products and services online, and the community or subculture that embraces it."
It's too bad this article didn't make it to the front page.<p>I've seen a few of these in HackerNews albeit not as complicated as the ones in the article.<p>Typically around teaching developers how to get extra income, becoming a millionaire, running a startup, having your own businesses, etc.
Interesting article, it could've used a little editing - too long, fluffy, and has unnecessary descriptions that hurt the piece, e.g. "(which, for some reason is rated “M for mature,” like Grand Theft Auto IV)."
scammer on stage: "the economy is crappy, so there's never been a greater need for contrarian financial advice"<p>wut<p>scammer on stage: don't worry i'll explain to you how to make products and everything; that takes 4 minutes"<p>facepalm
Hey, fuck you Verge. I'm reading this heart wrenching story and then suddenly "Boo Hoo! This video can't be played with your current setup".<p>Way to fuck up.