Recently, while talking to an old friend, I was reminded of a company I know of (to protect myself from the overly litigious I won’t mention how I know of them, what my relationship was with them, or even where they were located) . This company (which is now out of business but shall remain nameless all the same) sold online traffic to clients in all types of industries. They were a performance-based marketing company, meaning their clients only paid them for the traffic they received (leads, sales, etc).
This company had many problems, from poor management to a flawed business model, and just about everything in between. But the biggest problem was that their entire operation was based on a house of cards. More to the point, what they were doing was fraudulent. Specifically, the traffic they were sending to their clients was garbage, and they knew it. The traffic was called “incentivized” because users were compensated to complete offers (such as surveys, quotes for auto insurance or credit cards, or even purchasing actual products). Once those offers were completed and the users received their rewards, they would promptly opt-out of the surveys or cancel their quotes or purchases, usually leaving the advertisers (their clients) with nothing to show for it. Eventually of course the advertisers would wise-up and cancel, occasionally sending an official cease-and-desist letter in the process. They would then have to find new clients to replace those that had left. It was a shell game. Not surprisingly, and most deservedly, the company eventually went under.
I promised myself that I would never engage in business practices like that, and that I would do everything in my power to make sure that our services were not only legitimate, but also in the best interests of our clients. I’m happy to say that at DanMatt Media both are true.
The traffic we use comes from either the world’s largest search engines (Google, and to a much lesser extent Bing) or from our vetted collection of online and offline pay-per-call publishers. None of these sources reward their users for completing offers or buying products. That vastly improves traffic quality and ROI for our clients. To be fair, not every marketing campaign we run proves successful for our customers. Some do not obtain the ROI they are looking for, and eventually cancel. But that’s not because the traffic is fraudulent. Sometimes things just don’t work out, but if the intent was honorable and the traffic is legitimate, we can always hold our heads high.
One can learn a valuable lesson by studying this unnamed company. You can’t build your business on a house of cards. There is no get-rich-quick scheme in business that works longterm. Offer your clients a valuable service, based on legit traffic, and give them the customer service they deserve, and you’ll be rewarded with a successful career. It won’t work out for everyone, but by and large it will work well for most.