The anonymous beneficiary

A month ago, after being “followed” by an individual on Twitter, he contacted me promoting his website that was about a Twitter marketing e-book. The e-book was completely free, as the website said on numerous banners and flashy-text and the person suggested that it would really help me.

At that point I was quite amazed because it was the first time someone personally approached me via Twitter PM and offered a friendly suggestion, for free even.

So I went for it and clicked on his website link. Got to the website, scrolled down a couple of miles and found the 300 x 500 pixel download button and as it usually works, entered my name and e-mail after clicking the download button.

The download started and finished in a few seconds and after seeing the PDF file size I asked myself – “How could anyone fit anything useful into a 15KB PDF file?”. Boy was I surprised when I opened that PDF file. There where only a few pages, most of them blank and one with a short introductory text and a Pay-Pal “BUY” button.

The realization

After realizing that I have just almost been tricked into buying something that was firstly presented to me as being free – I closed up the website, deleted the PDF file and blocked the person who so nicely offered to help me out for free.

There is one thing I want to make clear here: It was not a problem for me spending those $5 or $10 on that book that might have good content in it but the fact that the website was just a big lie really insulted me.

I guess the owner thought people would get to the “BUY” part and think to themselves “Ah well, if I came along this far in the process of getting the e-book, I might as well pay the money.”

Conclusion

If you are doing Internet marketing, affiliate marketing or just selling your own product on the street next to a hot-dog stand somewhere, the most important thing is credibility (would like to give props to Lisa Irby of “2 Create A Website” for all her texts and videos about credibility in affiliate marketing, it has taught me a great deal).  How highly do your potential customers think of you and your opinions (or of your company if you present one)? Always try to play fair and don’t mislead your customers because a few failed sales can hurt you a lot less than one disgruntled or insulted customer.

Thank you for reading and I would like to know what YOU think about my experience and other similar situations. If you have personally had a similar experience I would love if you would share it in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Getting Rid Of Twitter DMs
2. How I Got 300 Twitter Followers Without Mass Following Others
3. How to Spice Up Your Product Presentation