Monday, May 31, 2010

Evil and Marketing, Friends or Foes

Writing from a coffee shop in Santa Monica, as I wait a few days for the movers to bring our stuff.

A fellow in our business sent this article out.

I got a kick out of the examples, as they definitely illustrate the challenges in marketing, making money and being transparent with your users.

http://searchengineland.com/evil-conversion-when-optimization-goes-too-far-42838

(bonus: the site itself disclosed informative information on why I received the popup overlay when I first visited the site)

So, what are your thoughts on what is evil and what is not in the world of online e-commerce?

2 comments:

Jake of All Trades said...

Welcome back!

Cool article. That RealPlayer page used to drive me mad any time I had to install it on a work or home computer. Good riddance!

There's a fine line between being "helpful" and being "misleading" sometimes. If it costs a user money it probably falls on the side of evil; in other situations (like inadvertantly signing up for a mailing list) it might be more case by case.

SpaceMonkeyMojo said...

Stealth menu bar installations.