Invisible Fence Doesn't Get It
Regular readers will remember that the lawyers for Invisible Fence had objected to some aspects of my site describing my experiences as an Invisible Fence customer and why I found their product useful. I used the site as a simple AdSense case study. I made several changes to the site to accomodate their wishes, but I didn't acquiesce on everything. Although I'm traveling right now (which is why I haven't been posting very often lately… things will go back to normal after Labour Day), I do check my email occasionally, and I was surprised to receive yet another complaint from the Invisible Fence lawyers. Here's the text:
Eric,
Our client appreciates your continuing efforts to comply with our requests and the revisions you have made thus far to your website. As I had noted in my prior email, however, there are still two lingering issues concerning your Pet Fence Guide website, located at the URL, http://pet-fence.ericgiguere.com (the “Website”), that should be addressed.
First, in the top section of the Website's home page, there are links to phrases incorporating the term “invisible” and “fence” or “fencing” (such as “invisible fencing,” “invisible pet fence,” etc.). INVISIBLE FENCING is a registered trademark (U.S. Reg. No. 1371021) of our client, “Invisible Pet Fence” is a phrase that is confusingly similar to our client's registered trademark, INVISIBLE FENCE (U.S. Reg. No. 1600470), and INVISIBLE is also a registered trademark of our client's (U.S. Reg. No. 1765230).
As you detail in your blogs and books, these links are means by which you direct traffic and make money from the entities that appear as sponsored links when one of those links are selected by the visitor. This is problematic for our client because you are essentially using our client's trademarks as a means to direct traffic to websites belonging to our client's competitors, such as High Tech Pet Products. While I understand that the sponsored link results are produced by Google, you have complete control over what phrases are atop the home page of the Website. Accordingly, we ask that you take down any of the links atop the Website that use any phrase incorporating the term “invisible.”
You noted in your prior correspondence to me that you had had discussions with the Invisible Fence marketing department. I understand from my contact at the company that while you were permitted to attach a link to Invisible Fence's website, the company did not permit – as they were unaware of the situation – you to continue compromising the Invisible Fence trademarks by using them as search terms on the Website.
Second, while there may arguably be some fair uses of the marks in the source code, those marks that are included in the meta tags (specifically “invisible fence” and “invisible fencing”) serve no purpose other than to direct traffic to the Website, whereby you will profit from visitors who select the links atop the Website's home page. Accordingly, these two marks must be deleted from the meta data located in the source code of the Website.
Kindly contact me if you have any questions. Your assistance and continued cooperation is much appreciated.
This is starting to get annoying. As I've tried to explain to them before, those links they're objecting to are actually AdSense link units and appear automatically courtesy of Google, totally out of my control. They should go after Google for those.
However, there are two aspects to their letter that I find particularly objectionable:
- The idea that I'm “permitted” by Invisible Fence to link to their site. No one needs permission to link to a site, that's simply ludicrous.
- The request to remove Invisible Fence keywords from the meta tags because they're there to direct search engine traffic to my site. If those tags were completely unrelated to the site I'd have to agree, but in this case they're not: the site is about Invisible Fence products. And it's a positive site to boot. This is why their marketing department was happy to see the site.
I'm going to sit down and write a reply to these folks, but I wish they'd spend their time more productively than going after a happy (well, maybe not so happy anymore) paying customer of theirs. Maybe I'll just take down the site entirely. But that's what they want. Or is it?
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Eric Giguere is the contextual advertising expert who wrote Make Easy Money with Google and Uncommon AdSense. If you like this posting, why not link to his blog or bookmark it as one of your favorites?
Dale Carnegie Never Had So Many Friends
Editor's note: While Eric recovers from his vacation and tries to burn
through his backlog of unread emails, we thought we'd keep you entertained by
providing you with this extract from an unpublished manuscript we've come across,
Confessions of an Internet Marketer. In this chapter we hear an unknown
Internet marketer known only as The Farmer describe why the easiest way to
make a lot of friends is to own a large mailing list.
* * * * *
Confessions of an Internet Marketer —
Chapter 8: Dale Carnegie Never Had So Many Friends
I met the Farmer again and ordered him his favorite drink. As usual, he didn't
allow me to write or record anything he said, but here's my recollection of how
the session went.
The Farmer started by asking me a question. “Are you on anyone's mailing list?”
he asked me.
“Sure,” I said, “I've signed up for a few lists. Some because I bought
someone's product, some to get free e-books and software.”
“You need to sign up for way more,” he said. “In fact, I want you to sign up
for every list you can find in the next week. They're all over the place, it won't
be hard.”
“Why would I want to do that?” I asked. “My mailbox is full enough
already!”
“Two reasons,” said the Farmer. “As I told you before, the quickest way to get
going in this business is to see what others are doing and to copy it yourself.
The more lists you're on, the more patterns you'll see as to what works and what
doesn't. That's the first reason.” He took a swig of his drink.
“And the second?” I prompted him.
He smiled. “To make some new friends.” He took another drink. “That's how you
really make money, you know.”
“But I've already got friends,” I protested. “I'm certainly not desperate
enough to join mailing lists to make a few friends. Besides, they're kind of
one-way, aren't they? Wouldn't I be better off using a social networking
site?”
“Ah, but a 'friend' in Internet marketing lingo is not the same as a friend in
real life,” he explained. “If you join a mailing list, what's your relationship
with the owner of the list?”
“A customer,” I replied, “or maybe a client. Or a subscriber.”
“Nope,” said the Farmer. “That's your business school mentality getting in the
way. You're not a subscriber. Or a client. Or a customer. You're a
friend. You join my list and you're automatically my friend.”
“Um, I don't think it's that easy. Don't we need a relationship?”
The Farmer shook his head. “You are in a relationship. You've agreed to
let him or her send you mail. You've given your name. That's a big step in the
online world. It's not a deep friendship, but it's a relationship. And now you're
his or her friend.”
“But I don't think of them as friends!”
“No, you probably don't. But they do. Why else would they call you by your
first name and send you special offers.” He changed the tone of his voice.
“Dear John, I thought I'd let you know about this great offer that's come my
way.“
“OK,” I said, “now you're making fun of me!”
“Kind of,” he admitted, “but what I said about list owners being friends with
their subscribers is true. It's one way the list owners keep their subscribers. If
they can make their subscribers feel special — hey, this guys sends me
good stuff and seems to like me — then they're less likely to
unsubscribe. Which is good, because a list owner needs a lot of subscribers to
make money with his real friends.”
“Who are the real friends?” I asked.
“That's easy,” he answered. “Other online marketers.”
“And that's because…?”
“Because you have lots of friends,” he explained. “You build yourself a
good list where people trust you and other online marketers will come knocking at
your door, wanting to be your friend. Because a friend of a friend is also a
friend, if you know what I mean.” He winked at me.
“If you join a lot of lists,” he continued, “you'll see what I mean. Watch for
someone to announce a new product. Then on the day that the product launches,
check your inbox. You'll be deluged with emails. Each list owner will be talking
about the great product that 'my friend XXXXX' has just launched and how
you should really go and take a look at it now. Trust me, Dale Carnegie never had
so many friends.”
“If I get so many emails,” I asked, “isn't it obvious that the 'friendships'
are fake?”
“Well, most people don't join as many lists as you or I do,” the Farmer said,
“so it's not as blatant. Besides, the marketers have a way to handle that problem:
'You're probably getting mail about product X from others today, but if you buy
it from me I'll throw in these free bonuses'. The list owners are competing
with each other, so if they can get more sales by sweetening the deal with some
stuff they've already got on hand, they will.”
“So the list owners aren't friends with each other?”
“Oh, sure they are,” said the Farmer. “There's nothing wrong with some friendly
competition. Besides, one of those competitors might turn around and offer you a
product to sell to your list someday. Everyone's a friend, you see. They're all
one big happy family.”
“A greedy family,” I said.
“Oh, sure,” he replied, “but what's wrong with that?” He finished his drink and left the building, leaving me alone to contemplate what he'd said. And to pay the bill.
* * * * *
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Eric Giguere is the contextual advertising expert who wrote Make Easy Money with Google and Uncommon AdSense. If you like this posting, why not link to his blog or bookmark it as one of your favorites?
New reader-built sites: TeamFR.fr, Qecis.com and Chakras.co.in
Some housekeeping to catch up with. Here are three new reader-built sites:
- TeamFR.fr is the site for “Team Frenchy” — Call of Duty 2 Frenchies Snipers and Servers.
- QECIS.com is a directory that needs work because it's only showing PSAs.
- Chakras.co.in is an introduction to chakras, nadis and kundalini yoga.
Thanks to all my readers, keep up the good work!
P.S.: I'll be posting lightly for the next three weeks while I do other things. Now would be a good time to catch up on the postings you missed before you started reading this blog…
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Eric Giguere is the contextual advertising expert who wrote Make Easy Money with Google and Uncommon AdSense. If you like this posting, why not link to his blog or bookmark it as one of your favorites?