Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

A friend recently asked me to take a quick look at “something really great.” And, as she was describing it to me (over beers at the baseball game), it did sound pretty cool! (Of course, I was on my second beer). Now, great things have started over cocktails - some of which we can even talk about in polite company. One notable example is the legend* of Herb Kelleher and his cocktail napkin idea for an airline. That one little scribble of a triangle changed the world of air travel. Of course, what folks tend to forget is that a whole lot of hard-nosed planning, deep-brain thinking and roll-up-the sleeves work went into making that scribble a reality.

My friend is a smart cookie with true entrepreneurial spirit - so, a couple of days after game, I check out AdCalls and its “free long distance” VoIP dialer (Warning: the site instantly bombards you with music.)

Hmmm #1: Looks like network marketing. Uh-oh, looks like pyramiding. Hmmm #2: Does anybody ever actually sell anything, except to each other? Whoaaa, they want me to buy all kinds of great stuff before I see any revenue. Hmmm #3: The ad program allows me to compile “lists of thousands of client profiles.” (I’m sure those thousands will be thrilled to get cold-call marketing pitches from me.) Oh dear, the program requires yet another little piece of equipment (the dialer); what happens when it doesn’t work? And so on and so forth - you get the idea.

Then, there’s the Engadget blog post, Get free VoIP calling, lose all your friends. (Here’s hoping I’ve not lost my friend by telling her what I think about AdCalls.)

Looks to me like another one of those old “make thousands working at home” schemes dressed up for the Web. And, the Internet has certainly made many things possible for people, but the old saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it is” still applies. (And, yes read that fine print - it’s almost always there when something is “free” or “100%” or “totally.”)

* I don’t know if there really was a cocktail napkin - but as the newspaper editor said inLiberty Valance, “When the legend becomes the truth, print the legend.”

Tags: business development, network marketing, adcalls, Internet marketing, advertising