I agree with you.

I also canceled a membership from one of these gurus because his email was so full of bull. He doesn't agree with RJ, says he doesn't support him yet he will attend a "charity event" at the Playboy mansion with RJ. The man is talking out of both sides of his mouth. And this is supposedly one of the "more honest" gurus out there.

Today I really saw how much these gurus really lie to people and basically only promote their friends products. It's always the same cast of characters. It's also a little good ol' boys club as well. Exclude women marketers while they get raunchy and treat the "models" as sexual objects at the party.

They pretty much disrespected their female clients who would not be comfortable attending this event. How would a normal woman even get these people's attention around scantily dressed women.

Ugh today I did spring cleaning and unsubscribed and cancelled lists and memberships galore.

There are better people to do business with than these sexual monkeys.

Vote with your unsubscribe buttons and hit them in the pocket book - the most important thing for these guys.

Chris Responds: Hi Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment Melina. I also thought of all the female readers of my ZERO Theory Report newsletter and how THEY would feel about such crass, offensive marketing. FYI I spoke at about 10 seminars last year and am continually gob smacked that with over 50% of the audience being women, they are still way under-represented at Internet events when it comes to speakers.

Interestingly, my ex-business partner (and good friend, Conny Yvonne Torney) was never once invited to speak any of the events I spoke at despite the fact that she now owns 14 houses as a result of the things we did online.

Best Regards

Chris Bloor

Thanks for this one! I too had to unsub from several lists this morning as well.

I totally agree with your take on RJ and this shock-em style fad that he has created. It's not only just plain sick, but sad too. I mean WHY would any marketer deliberately alienate 50% or more of their audience not to mention destroy their public image just to play the "me too" game?!?!

It's beyond me! And what a sad state internet marketing will become if this envelope gets pushed any further.

Thanks for having the courage to say something against it. Usually, it just gets blamed on us females but I know of many men (many of them "Gurus") who are equally offended. You spoke out and I commend you for sticking to your principals.

Chris Responds: Hi Amber, Thanks for your feedback. I believe that "if you have integrity, NOTHING else matters" and that "If you DON'T have integrity, NOTHING else matters"

Warm Regards

Chris Bloor

They tell me that The Rich Jerk is just being funny and not to be taken seriously. Well, I don't think it is funny to use the kind of language that you quote - and here I take your word for it as I have no intention of going anywhere near The Jerk's site - and it would never be used in serious advertising off-line.

I'm also told that this guy makes loads of money by being rude to people; must be a lot of silly people out there, but at least he won't miss the money I'm not going to give him!

Best Wishes.

Fred.

Chris Comments: Thanks, Fred. I agree with you - "There must be a lot of silly people out there" I am just amazed at how many famous people are behind the guy. It seems like some people will do anything if there is a dollar in it for them. I even had one email from a guy claiming he really was a family man and was against what the Rich Jerk stand for but that he would attend the event (which according to the Rich Jerk's sale letter will feature naked P**n stars) 'for business purposes' I read the email and thought; "Right… 'For business purposes…' What a load of codswallop!"

The greedy gurus are part of the Rich Jerk herd marketing mentality themselves. What clones they've turned out to be!

They want to be just like the Rich Jerk. And yet most of these "family type" gurus emails stated how they don't support the RJ marketing tactics etc etc yadda, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah.

One greedy guru even called himself the anti-Rich jerk. And just like the sheeple they are, the gurus are endorsing and promoting the RJ and his abusive and sexist values. What stupid and insulting hypocrites they all are.

Yes, there are a few of us in the business that still have integrity:

Rich Jerk Drags Affiliate Marketing to An All Time Low

I am one of the "sheep" that promoted the party. Understand that there is absolutely ZERO affiliate commission. All of us that promoted the event did so out of the good of our hearts, it all goes to charity.

Maybe you should check the details before commenting like this?

Thank you for your blog post.

You are definitely not the only one. But watch out where you express your opinion. (You are smart to do it on your own site).

I tried to initiate a rational discussion of this topic on ForumKnowHow–Robert Puddy's new paid forum–but after a brief debate, the thread was deleted.

At least a dozen men and women expressed their concern, disgust, or dismay at the Rich Jerk's tactics–and the number of major marketers who seem to support them–on the Warrior Forum (the largest Internet marketing forum on the 'Net) earlier today.

By and large this long thread (over 80 posts) contained informative, well-reasoned, and civil arguments on both sides.

Some important questions were raised about the nature of the charity that some of the proceeds will allegedly go to. For example, the charity does not seem to have 503(c) status as a nonprofit. They have only one site linking to their web site and that one site is an online poker site. The Playboy Mansion staff had no record of an arrangement with that charity.

Others pointed out that when the gurus claim that they do not benefit from sending out the "I don't agree with him but I'm going to promote his event" emails they are not being completely honest. They receive free admission for themselves and possibly others for sales they bring in.

So what happened to that thread on the Warrior Forum? It was deleted.

And what happened when some members, myself included, politely inquired as to the reasoning behind the deletion–particularly when a pro-Jerk thread was left intact–that second thread was not only deleted but at least three members, myself included, had their accounts deleted by Allen Says.

Mr. Says never explained the rationale for his actions.

And people claim that there is no "Good Old Boys" network that looks out for its own? Give me a break.

Mark

" All of us that promoted the event did so out of the good of our hearts, it all goes to charity"

Ross, seriously, charity justifies trash like the RJ? C'mon! If you want to support charity, I invite you to come with me to China in September and feed some starving street kids.

Read the feedback on Paul Galloways Blog and see how many women are offended… How many men are too.

http://biztoolsbrief.com/2007/06/23/why-i-am-not-attending-rjs-party-at-the-playboy-mansion/

Like the good book says; "Pride comes before a fall"

In my entire marketing life I have never seen so many people making such a colossal marketing blunder as this.

Ross, people are UNsubscribing from lists!

The guru's have a saying don't they? "The money is in the list"

HINT: So don't promote smut that offends a sizeable demographic of your list! Even if you are fine with the morality and crass language of the Rich Jerk (which I am definitely not) from a marketing perspective alone it is as iff the guru's have turned into lemmings and are busy rushing to see who can jump off the cliff first.

Ross, anything that causes deep offence like this - that causes people to LOSE respect for various marketers, to unsubscribe from their lists and cancel subscriptions en-masse is NOT smart.

BTW I have always said that the truth is the money is in the 'relationship of trust and respect' that you take time to create and deserve with your list.

Looks like some people have thrown that out the window this last week…

Trust me, those of us who cut our teeth marketing in the real world to multi-million dollar businesses are gobsmacked at the list alienation aspect of this. I have worked for 500 OFFline companies and have seen them do some stupid things but never anything like this.

The truth is that people like yourself and I and others are not in the minority.

Though Kelly Felix (aka. Rich Jerk) would have us believe that the persona he invented is purely satiricle and harmless and that only “loosers” would be opposed to such filthy language, mistreatment of women, and endorsement of pornography and promisuity…

He is in fact in the minority.

It is bad business to email or blither on publicly about your sexual promiscuity and lack of respect for women, family, and other people in general.

Kelly (aka Rich Jerk) thinks that this is “success” being able to say what he wants and make money doing it.

I have a different definition of success and his behavior has gone from cute to wildly disrespectful in a way that probably would ashame his own mother.

I too am shocked by the public behavior and even language used in forums by those who are attending the event and forgot that speaking perversely about women in forums is not only unacceptable to most rational business people but also will negatively impact their business, reputation, and own clientbase perminately.

I also was shocked when I saw people rationalizing why they should attend such an event and attempting to insult or put others down for standing up and speaking out against such rediculousness.

Embarassing is the way I described it in the warrior forum where it got 3 pages of responses (most in support) and 2000 views in one day before the entire thread was deleted due to the negative reaction toward those who are promoting this garbage and their excuses.

Kelly (aka the Rich Jerk) posted a response himself in the warrior forum to defend against some alligations such as the fact that the “charity” he supposedly is raising funds for was not aware of his event etc.

Unfortunately he did not just post to defend himself against false alligations but he felt it necessary to post “insults” and act in his “character” and use his pen name instead of coming out like a man to address things in reality.

For me the embarassing behavior of those endorsing this event, begging people to send them money to attend it, and those promoting it is a real eye opener.

People, can be led to drop their guard and forget who they are and who their clients are at the drop of the hat simply because they want to feel “cool” and participate in some adolescent fantasy.

I posted a rebuttal to Kelly in the warrior forum without anger or venom but to keep the positive nature of the warrior forum alive both threads the one started by me and the one started by the Rich Jerk were deleted.

There is a time that right minded and rational people who have respect for others stand up and let people know that is appropriate and what is not.

Anyone who does not realize how absolutely idiotic it is to speak this way and promote such things to your client base needs to get their head checked and simply take a poll of their own client base to get their opinion.

I support you and will stand up to oppose this kind of garbage as an unacceptable busines practice in whole heartedness.

Hi Chris,

I commend you for your blog post!

I was one of the people who was involved in the Warrior Forum discussion mentioned above. We did a fair amount of investigating and found out, as Mark said, that while they don't receive cash compensation, each marketer received a free ticket to go to the part and after I believe 5 referrals they receive an additional free ticket.

We've run out of places to talk about this issue, so I thank you for having your blog comments open. People are afraid to tick off the gurus, but in our sheer numbers as regular people, I believe we can make an impact that will be noticed.

Thanks Chris for your post! In fact, I found it after someone added your name to my "Wall of Fame" on my site where we are talking about this issue. I'm asking for people to post publically the names of people who were AGAINST this marketing and stood up for themselves and their readers. I'm proud to have you listed there!

Thank you!

Josh and Jennifer thank you both for your comments. Josh, I actually used you as an example today in speaking to someone of a marketer who has 'Integrity a mile long' and who delivers outstanding value for money.

I'll call you this weekend and share what has been happening in my life these last six months. Would love to fly you down to Australia again for another seminar.

Josh I think you are correct, Out of scores of emails from my list only one person said they supported the Rich Jerk but dozens and dozens and dozens told me they had unsubscribed from people's lists that promoted the event as well as cancelled subscriptions.

I just cannot understand why anyone in their right mind would think that promoting such an event with such offensive copy wouldn't alienate or offend people.

It is as if an entire segment of the guru community have caught collective 'marketing insanity' all at the same time.

I am really glad to see the response to that campaign, because as an Internet Marketer myself, and particular a female internet marketer, I felt that the industry had dropped to the cave man era and was horror stricken that others would feel this was an appropriate event, and the content in the promotions was disgusting. I blacklisted anyone that sent me that piece, because if they support this, God knows what else they do for a buck.

I was very grateful when none of my mentors promoted this, and felt the entire thing was not only degrading to women, but to humanity and the progress it had made.

Chris:

I just finished reading your post on the Rich Jerk Playboy Mansion Party and the marketing behind it.

It is said than sunlight is the best disinfectant. I'm glad people are talking about this party because a debate in full public view is necessary.

The excuse of "that's just marketing" is wearing thin.

Thanks for creating space for people to share their viewpoints on this important matter.

Patrick Pretty