I felt very disturbed after I read an email from Edmund Ng, Chief Executive of Infinique Technologies.

Who’s Edmund? He’s a Singapore-based Internet business owner.

Last week he sent out an email entitled: “Forget about those ‘So Called Guru Seminars’ that costs thousands that don’t teach you much.“

He had some pretty negative things to say about a recent concluded seminar and claims he doesn’t want to refer to the Internet guru by name.

My best guess is that guru is Derek Gehl, head honcho of the Internet Marketing Center.

[Left: Andrew Wee, Derek Gehl, head honcho, Internet Marketing Center]

In the email, Edmund asks a seminar participant:

For 2,388 what did you learn from the 2.5 days? [quoted directly from the email]

To which the unnamed event attendee answered:
there were just case studies after case studies…that took up 40% of the time…Oh…the guru’s then started selling their stuffs. $3,888 for their softwares and $12,000 for their PERSONAL COACHING‘

Edmund goes on to proudly proclaim: “Gosh…I hope not many of my subsribers attended that hyped up seminar. There are better things out there.” [spelling has been left intact…]

I don’t know about you, but the Internet Marketing world is pretty small.

If you start slagging one of the big guns, whether it’s Derek or somebody else, pretty soon everyone’s going to know about it, especially if you sent it to your entire list. (email takes about 2 seconds to forward onwards to others!)

I’m not sure about the wisdom of picking a fight with someone 1,000 bigger than yourself.

Are you going to come out on top?

To be diplomatic, it’s not going to be a pretty sight.

Aside from creating personal animosity, let’s look at this from a business point of view.

You create illwill with that Internet Marketing guru and their inner circle. Some may not realize that Derek and the IMC work closely with:

• Rosalind “Super Affiliate Handbook” Gardner
• Bert “Madeen Football guru” Ingley
• Jermaine “Hear and Play.com” Griggs

Suppose you wanted to work with them, and you had already slagged their mentor/partner, Derek.

Would they be inclined to work with you?

I didn’t think so.

I’m not sure what the intent of the whole email was.

(it was rife with suspect grammer and spelling)

It looked like a preamble for some Jay Abraham materials and Alex Mandossian’s Virtual Seminar Week.

Edmund goes on to proudly proclaim: “Did I tell you I was a Jay Abraham fan? He is my mentor but I have never attended any of his seminars that cost a few thousand dollars.”

Is this a wise thing to say?

A mentor is someone you look up to, that you model and learn from.
Wouldn’t you want to attend their seminars and conventions?

I don’t follow the logic.

I had my deep reservations about the rest of the email.

Let’s look at the positioning of the email.

• How can you simultaneously tag one event as a ‘hyped up seminar’ and then promote another?
• How can you say you saved money, not going to a seminar, then say you should invest in Alex Mandossian’s VSW?

As a neutral reader, it looked rife with contradictions.

• Are we supposed to save money?
• Spend it?
• Invest it?
• Avoid the hype?

What are we supposed to do?

Inherent in all these comments seems to be a deep obsession with saving money. Would this hold back on investing on your personal development?

Let’s go back to the guru he was slagging again.

Would investing $2,388 or $3,888 or even $12,000 be considered a waste?

After all, they have proven results. They’re not some unknown Singapore business owner sending out emails to their list.

Would you, as this ‘Internet Marketer’ puts it, go to a “hyped up seminar” because “There are better things out there”

I can’t fathom the intention behind this.

Does one unnamed seminar participant causes the whole event to fall into disrepute?

As was shown in a recent television debate, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, when confronted with some statistics, asked: Who are these people? What are their names?

You can’t just throw out an unsubstantiated opinion and expect us to swallow it!

And if you’re going to be critical, how can you simultaneously promote an event like Alex Mandossian’s Virtual Seminar Week?

There were plenty of affiliate links embedded in his email.

Was this merely some cheap marketing ploy to encourage sign-ups?
Or was there some other purpose?

Taking a step back:

Can we make a blanket judgement that everyone who attended the unnamed Internet guru’s “Hyped up seminar” didn’t benefit from it?

If even one person got some benefit from it, can we tar the whole event as ‘hype’ or suggest there are ‘better things’ out there?

I have serious reservations about an agenda where someone is painted negatively, while something else is promoted.

[Left: Alex Mandossian, Andrew Wee]

For goodness sake, I have met both Alex Mandossian and Derek Gehl, they are both powerful and charismatic individuals.
They both have track records and proven results.

You can check out their blogs:

• Alex Mandossian: Have You Watched AlexTV?
• Derek Gehl: Check out this awesome *FREE* web site performance testing tool!

Is it truly necessary to embark on a one-sided mudslinging campaign?

(I doubt that either Alex or Derek would take note)

As we’ve seen in the US elections, does anyone really come up on top?

I’m sure this is just the efforts of an isolated, perhaps inexperienced, Internet Marketer.

Take note and take heed.

What do you think?