The REAL TRUTH About Rich Schefren’s Attention Age Doctrine Nobody Talks About
Posted by Sant Qiu in : News, Updates & General on December 5, 2007 , trackbackI’ll probably rile a few people with this post, but I think I owe it to you, my readers, to post a truthful opinion on the latest Rich Schefren buzz. Just last week, Rich Schefren, the guru’s guru of Internet Marketing released his new Attention Age Doctrine 2.
In it he describes the increasing scarcity of attention prospects are willing to give to marketers. He also talks about the overwhelming ‘new wave’ of the Internet that is Web 2.0. He states that the future is in Web 2.0 (interactive websites such as blogs, social networks, forums, etc), and that the ‘old-way marketing’ is going to be dead.
I came across Rich’s work not too long ago. And I’m a fan and I think he provides tremendous value with his reports. More importantly I respect him as a very good marketer. He has strategically and successfully positioned himself as the guru’s guru.
BUT..!
Is what he presented in Attention Age Doctrine 2 really the case? Will Web 2.0 really overtake everything in Internet Marketing? Will traditional online marketing strategies really be left for dead?
Personally I don’t think so. While Rich’s presentation on the scarcity of attention is spot on, I have some reservations about the enthusiasm surrounding the whole Web 2.0 taking over the Internet theme.
And I’m not the only one doubting this. But let’s take a look at a few revealing things…
Rich released his Attention Age Doctrine 2 via his blog and email to his subscribers. He then drives all the traffic to an opt-in page, asking people to subscribe before downloading his doctrine. That is plain-vanilla traditional marketing technique, not some fancy Web 2.0 thing.
Granted that blogging is part of Web 2.0. But how effective is blogging as a marketer’s tool? Now, before you pro-bloggers get all work up about this, let’s listen to a few prominent pro-bloggers:
Andy Beard from Niche Marketing just wrote:
I Am Disappointed
Over the last 10 months I have been quite prominent in my support of Rich, but very few of my readers seem to trust me enough to give Rich an email address to download a free report…
RSS Readers Are Not Responsive
… I am honestly quite disappointed in how poorly responsive my RSS Readers are when offered free information from a source I trust.
Another very prominent pro-blogger I follow, Yaro Starak from Entrepreneurs-Journey commented:
Like you, I’ve been very disappointed by RSS response rates too and frankly, I don’t think RSS will ever replace email as much as I’d like it it.
RSS readers just don’t engage in the content the same way they do to an email in their inbox. That’s why I started building my email list to go with my blog and emails I send out ALWAYS outperform the posts I make to my blog.
You need to have the blog of course, but use all the efforts you are putting in here to attract traffic and get people onto a newsletter.
I’ve also just met up with my friend Alvin Phang of Gather Success and creator of Atomic Blogging: Step-by-step blogging system for newbies. He too mentioned that some of his secret strategies to his rapid rise in the blogging world that he revealed in Atomic Blogging is based on ‘traditional’ strategies as they are more effective.
Isn’t that interesting? This supports my earlier findings that traffic from social networks might not be as good in quality.
Another tell-tale sign: Just take a look at how often successful Internet Marketers blog. In general they (including Rich) blog much lesser in frequency compared to pro-bloggers. If Web 2.0 is really taking over, wouldn’t all of the big names be blogging more regularly?
Now, a sensitive question: Who do you think make more money? (I know the question is not specific and hard to compare etc, but I think you get what I mean)
But that’s not all. At the end of the doctrine, Rich also promotes his products. Doesn’t this sounds like traditional viral e-books? Isn’t what he is doing more like a traditional product launch strategy? By the way, there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it is an excellent strategy.
I think Web 2.0 is definitely an extremely important trend that marketers must pay attention to and leverage on. However, be very careful about just latching on to one idea (in this case that traditional online marketing strategies are going to be replaced fully by Web 2.0) and going to the extreme.
The ‘old’/'traditional’ principles of Internet Marketing are still working very well. This is because they are based on human nature, and human nature changes very VERY slowly, even though technology changes extremely fast. The best is to combine old strategies with new one, like what Rich has done, and not use them exclusively.
Again, I’m a fan of Rich’s work and I have a lot of respect for Rich. Just don’t get caught up with a new, ‘unproven’ idea and take it to the extreme.
Take care.
Thanks for the honest review, Sant.
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Very interesting comments.
i agree with you about how the Attention Age was marketed. As an affiliate and a big fan of Rich Schrefren I can confirm that I was encouraged to send out to my mailing list and blog.
Despite the commenst above, I have had far more opt-ins from my blogs which is interesting although perhaps my mainstream list feels slightly divorced from the Internet marketing whirlwind.
The Business Coaching Blog offers advice and help for all types of companies to grow and prosper.
You bring up some good points Sant.
I think the future holds a melding of social marketing combined with traditional means.
Traditional marketing will always be important, we are talking about human beings so classic triggers like scarcity, reciprocity, social proof and the entire product launch process will always work to some degree, but - and this is the point Rich is making - it won’t be enough on it’s own.
You need to blog, you need to see what people are saying on other blogs. The social voting sites are also fantastic and deciding what is of value, which is something all Internet marketers need to stay aware of.
Great write up!
Thanks for all the comments so far.
Yaro. I absolutely agree that there will be a blend of ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ techniques of marketing. The spread-the-news effect of social media is extremely powerful. And so it is unwise to miss out on those useful strategies.
However, it is important that people don’t go to the extreme and abandon the tried and proven. They will still work excellently. But if you add the social media aspect, it will be much better, so why not? Doing only one is like short-selling oneself. That is my point.
Paul, yes, if your opt-in list is not as targeted, then it is expected that they won’t response/convert as much. Your blog readers may be more qualified than your opt-ins.
Thanks for dropping by Michael.
And Frank… no offense intended… I’m just wondering whether the negative post is ‘on purpose’? I’m wondering because, as Rich wrote on his doctrine, he keeps tracks of the social media on any mention of his name during launch time, especially the negative ones. This is a great way to get Rich to drop by the blog and reply. Which was what happened
If this is on purpose, cool move. Though will this translate to anything later remains to be seen.
If it’s a sincere comment. I hope my question doesn’t take away anything from your opinion.
Thanks guys.
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