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Figuring Sex Into Internet Marketing

Following my last post which attempted to guess the upcoming lineup on the conference track at January’s Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas, Sugarrae helped pointed out that I had assumed she was in the wrong session.

For the record, she’ll be speaking at a SEO site review panel with Michael Gray, Michael Streko and Greg Boser. Check the summit schedule to make sure you don’t go to the wrong session and send me angry “I didn’t see Sugarrae” emails after the event.

Sugarrae (AKA Rae Hoffman) is an experienced affiliate/internet marketer who doesn’t pull her punches when it comes to expressing her opinion. Depending on your comfort level (and likely self-esteem), you’ll find her frankness either abrasive, or refreshing. Pointing to a 2007 post “A Note to My Fellow Women of SEO“, she highlights the fact that credit ought to be assigned on the basis of merit/competence, rather than gender (I’m assuming her reference to “kickass-ness” doesn’t apply to men wearing bras).

When it comes to your business, and more specifically your income, I doubt any rational business owner will pick a service provider on the basis of gender, rather than skill. There might still be a couple of throwbacks, though they’d probably be left in the dust over time.

Although compartmentalization works in order to create shortcuts and ease of reference, it seems a little silly, for example, to call me the “Asian internet marketer”, or the “affiliate guy from Singapore”. But I can see the value of calling something a “Women of SEO” panel for easy reference, compared to the blander, more generic “SEO Strategies” session. For marketing purposes, putting a smart, tidy label helps.

Is it being fair to the panelists? More specifically, would Scott Polk be concerned about being lumped with the “Women of SEO” with Kate Morris, Carolyn Shelby and Lyndsay Wagner? Does that imply he’s one of the “women”?

Frankly, my brain is a little focused on other elements of my business to take offense out of the numerous examples of sexism, ageism, and other forms of discrimination I see happening in the online and offline world. (Calling someone “lame” or “retarded” is a slight against the physically handicapped and mentally challenged in my opinion).

And if we’re all being politically correct all the time, it’s going to put the brakes on taking risks and breaking new ground.

Regarding my post “The Amazing Women of Affiliate Summit“? Am I contradicting everything I’ve just written? Maybe. But it could also  show that I can’t be consistent 100% of the time.

Live long and prosper.

1 comment on Figuring Sex Into Internet Marketing

  1. Rocky
    November 18, 2009 at 2:16 am (14 years ago)

    Meh. I’m not consistent either. And I think it’s impossible to be politically correct 100% of the time. Some one will always be offended, they will always be hurt, always think you are attacking them. That’s what society has told them they have the right to feel.. I think it’s nuts, but people are sheep.

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