How to Kill Your Business Before Getting It Off the Ground

You may think you have the best thing since Easy Cheese and that might be true, but how you go about promoting yourself could be the only thing it takes to make sure you never even taste success. We all want to the world to know how awesome our new product or services is… it's just that we don't all go about it like idiots.

I'd like to take a look at the recent example of KeywordSpy.com, a purported competitor to our beloved SpyFu. I only heard about them after a few blog posts hit the industry circuit lambasting them for their ultra-spammy practices. Apparently they've been contacting potential customers and soliciting them with a barrage of creative emails and forum comments like;

“I found this great adwords tool KeywordSpy.com . I'm using it and it has really improved my profits. It offers Free trials.”

“For your keyword research try using KeywordSpy.com – a keyword research technology that will help you know what keywords your competitors are using and how it generates money for them, you can use those keywords to drive traffic to your site and give your business the exposure it needs. It offers Free trials.”

Now, wouldn't you sign up after reading such a persuasive pitch… especially after seeing it again and again? Of course not. It isn't just unappealing… it's infuriating. Not because they're 'doing it wrong' but because inherent in their lack of understanding of how to promote themselves is the assumption that people are dumb enough to fall for this type of spam. In fact, their efforts have resulted in a worst-case-scenario for them: a boycott. Congratulations, KeywordSpy; you've instantly alienated your biggest user base by spamming them like its 1996.

Part of me can't help but feel a little sorry for them. The tool doesn't look that bad and a lot of effort probably went into making it usable and visually appealing. As far as I can tell, it does exactly what SpyFu does. So what's the big deal? Get over it and give the tool a proper chance, right? Wrong. It takes either a lack of understanding, a lack of oversight, a lack of attention, a lack of business ethics or all of the above to push you business like it's bootleg Viagra. In either case, this isn't a company I'd be willing to do business with. As David Naylor so succinctly put it: “if i sign up are you going to just sell my credit cards details or email address to even more spammers”

There's probably a lot of head-smacking going on at the KeywordSpy office right now. Guys; if you don't know how to do something, call the professionals.