Keep Your Squeeze Page Ethical – No More Sleazy Squeezies
For those folks who wish to make money online, I suppose it goes without saying that they want to do what works, which makes perfectly good sense. However, just because something works in solving a goal in order to accomplish a task, doesn’t mean it is right or ethical. There is a right way and a wrong way to do online marketing, and there seems to be a fine-line on the scale of ethical Internet marketing strategies. Perhaps, this is a topic we ought to discuss. Okay so, let me start with this dialogue.
Not long ago, I was discussing online marketing with an individual who has a proprietary product which they sell online. Yes, it is a unique and needed product, and just an all-around good idea. My acquaintance tells me that they’ve set up a nice website, blog, and are getting at least some decent traffic now, although like anyone marketing online, they’ve had a bit of trial and error in the process. Indeed, I suppose that goes with the territory and in many regards it is much similar to any type of business on or offline.
They also mentioned that they, like a good many online marketers had a squeeze page, but they were unsure about it, and how it would play out. If you are like me, and you come to a squeeze page, immediately asking for information, such as name and email, well then you are probably wondering “what the hell, why should I give this website ANY information” and just who are they going to give my email address too, and what sort of SPAM are they planning on deluging my email in-box with?”
To me the concept of a squeeze page seems inherently troubling to my sense of fairness. I understand the concept perfectly well, but it bothers me, because folks come looking for something, and are forced to unload information to the unknown website owner prior to getting what they thought they were going to get by visiting the website and clicking on the link, thus, it seems like a form of trickery.
Thus, unless someone is giving what they are promising – generally information, it seems unfair to send someone to a page without telling them first the type of website they are going to and what’s there. Now then, if the website has relevant information, plus “if you want more” then sign up, that’s an entirely different thing, this I find acceptable. To me, it’s as if there is a fine-line between fairness, audacity, sales, and informational marketing. Question is; where do you plan on drawing your line, in your Internet Marketing endeavors?
Indeed, I hope you will please consider all this and think on it. And in full-disclosure, I do not have a squeeze page of any type, and do not consider myself an online marketer. If you have any follow-up questions, concerns, or new concepts, I am all ears, so shoot me an email. I am also interested in listening to case studies, and real issues in this venue.