Road Rage on the Information SuperHighway

I sat in the right lane at the busy intersection waiting forthe light to change. A scruffy looking male driver in the leftlane looked as impatient as I must have. Finally, on green, Icontinued down the 6 lane road. About a half block up I saw asight that horrifies me to this day.A child, no more than 3 years old, was starting to saunteracross this crazy road. Alone. Reacting instantly, I sped upand got ahead of the driver to my left, then sloweddramatically, turned and stopped my car across both lanes toblock traffic. Jumping out, I snatched up this tyke just asshe was about to cross the center line and into oncomingtraffic. The timing could not have been closer.The story gets better.As I was hurrying the toddler to the safety of the sidewalk Ijust about stumbled over her younger brother, who was startingto wheel his stroller between parked cars into the street,following his sister. Of course, he was safe as traffic wasnow blocked, and suddenly I felt blessed to have arrived atthis critical moment.Where was mom during all this? You shouldn't have asked:-) Shehad apparently told her kids to wait on the sidewalk while shewalked across this major thoroughfare to go into a store. Thesiblings were simply trying to find her.What I said to this poor-excuse-for-a-parent you don't want toknow and has nothing to do with this article, but what does isthat during the entire time I was making sure these childrenwere safe (which really wasn't that long) there was a car hornblowing furiously in the background.Guess who?Yep, the disheveled looking driver in the next lane. When Ireturned to my car, he made a point to open his door, stand upand scream at me at the top of his lungs (in what I perceivedto be Arabic). After witnessing what had happened, he was VERYupset WITH ME because I inconvenienced him! This my friends,is referred to as road rage.I would assume that most people (and the drivers behind him)would have breathed a heavy sigh of relief that neither ofthese kids were hurt, or worse, killed on that road that day.But this article is not about "most people". It's about "somepeople" and a phenomena on the Internet that is becoming alltoo commonplace. And I don't like it one bit. It's what I callRoad Rage on the Information SuperHighway.The majority of people I come into contact with as customers,resellers (I own 2 affiliate programs), newsletter subscribersand folks who email me with questions or advice, are simplyput, wonderful. But since I am communicating with sheervolumes of 'netizens', I am receiving more and more blatantlyangry email. I mean the kind of ugly verbiage that most peoplewould never have the parts to say to your face. And, I'm notalone. I'm in contact with many Internet marketers who areexperiencing the very same thing.Here are some recent examples, straight from my email files.Bear with me as I attempt to set these up for you.I've written, and sell through a popular affiliate program, abest-selling marketing eBook called The Ezine MarketingMachine. The ordering system is state-of-the-art (digitaldelivery) and extremely dummie-proof. When a customer inputstheir final order information on our secure server, theyreceive a 'Thank You' webpage with the simple instructions onhow to download their book and bonuses. It's virtuallyimpossible to miss the simple process and get instant accessto your goods (I send an automated email with the samedownload instructions as back-up), but a minority of customersdo. I am only too pleased to quickly assist them and am onlineto do so from 6:00 am til 9 or 10 pm seven days a week.However, one particular customer didn't quite "get it" andfired off no less than five emails within an hour. Theyarrived around 11:00 p.m. when I wasn't online. I've extractedthe content (verbatim) from the three I've kept:#1. "I've paid the $$$ for your program, now what about thegoods? The info sounds wonderful as does your yada-yada! Whynot deliver the goods now so a mere morsel like myself maypossible take advantage of the material you allude to as"Gospel" for success?"#2. "Is it time to take all this stuff to the next level??I'm prepared to do just that unless you can resolve thisTONIGHT."#3. "Why is this such a hassle?? I sent my $$$ and followedyour directions. Where the hell is final product?? You"Gurus" appear to be all the same. You promise the moon anddeliver nothing."To top off his nastiness, he called at midnight and left atotally vile message about what a "#&@*!! thief" I was. Now,what makes this quite humorous is the fact that thisunfortunately computer-unsavvy person actually had his filesthe entire time, but never knew he had to click to openthem:-)Here's an example of how not to relate to content providers ifyou're a publisher on the Internet. Again, a littlebackground first.It's common practice on the Internet that newsletters, or'ezines'(there are over 300,000 in existence currently),publish articles from writers and in lieu of payment, featurethe author's "resource box" at the end of that article. Thepublisher receives the content free of charge and the writerreceives the exposure whereby the ezine readers can link totheir website. A win-win.As a widely featured writer, my publicist, Anne Marie Baugh(who is very highly regarded on and off the Web), sends my newarticles to those Internet publications who advertise forarticle submissions. Upon doing so with my latest article, shereceived this response from a publisher:{{{{Anne edit below (we can save 150 or so words) for the bestparts and keep the last par.}}}}}"Could you please tell me why you are sending me thesearticles? Oh, I think I know the answer. I am supposed toput these articles in my newsletter to generate business forRick Beneteau. Right? Well, what do I get out of it exceptabsolutely nothing. I will be honest with you even though youmight not like what I am about to say. I am pretty sick andtired of all the scamsters and opportunists on the net thatwant something for nothing or only want to take and don't knowhow to co-operate so that everyone gains. In the first place Iam not stupid enough to publish these articles just to benefitRick Beneteau and secondly the articles sound too much like amotivational, inspirational speech that mlm companies use. Ifthey had practical tips that you could apply to business thenI would print them but as it is they don't so I haven'tprinted one yet in my newsletter and I don't plan on printingone in my newsletter anytime soon.As for the money that one can make with an ezine ornewsletter. Let me fill you in on something, there are amultitude of "I want something for nothing" type of people onthe internet and as long as you keep giving they will keeptaking and give you nothing back in return. This is realityeven though it is not pretty. Unless you actually can get realbusiness people subscribed you won't make a red cent. The onlyother way that you may be able to make money is if you areselling people hype and pipe dreams and books that tell youhow to become a success. This is what business opportunityseekers are buying, they are buying dreams and not reality.It is kind of obvious that Rick Beneteau knows this and iscashing in on it. Unfortunately, I don't wish to lie and conpeople. If I can't run a business the honest way then I don'twant to run it at all.I would sure like to hear your thoughts on what I have saidand I don't want to hear some business hype because I don'tbuy it and I've seen it all before."Now, what makes this publishers reply not only naive andunprofessional, but also funny, is that her last paragraphinvites a response from Anne. Anne sent her a brilliantlyworded letter that not only defended me but politely providedthis angry person with a little education on Internetpublishing. What happened next? I receive a VERY polite letterfrom her complaining that Anne was "harassing" her:-) Does thephrase "get a life" apply?:-)Lately, I've encountered some very ugly "flames" fromsubscribers to my opt-in newsletter. Some were long-termreaders who woke up one morning with amnesia, suddenly unawareof the publication they subscribed to and had been receivingfor months and wrote me the spam riot act, complete withexpletives. A few thought it prudent to report me to the "spampolice". Good thing I keep subscription records:-)Ok, before you begin thinking "this Beneteau guy has probablylet off some cyber-steam", well, I have. Occasionally, I'vereacted out of pure emotion when someone has attacked myintegrity. I am fully aware of this "trigger" in me andusually know better than to fire back when I'm hot under thecollar. A few times, I've been embarrased by my own words.Nothing vile or vulgar mind you, but an unprofessional displayof anger. So yes, I'm guilty too:-){{{{{Anne, re-write the next paragraph}}}}}A good rule of the road - if you feel any kind of negativeemotion when communicating by email, complete it, but don'tclick send. Let it sit there until your temperature reachesnormal again and remove the "emotion" from your words. Asevidenced above, you just may be wrong, but even if not, youwill be acting in a totally professional manner.Now, some questions to ponder.Does a dial-up account come with an unspoken license to spewvenom?Will the whirring sound of a connecting modem actually boosttestosterone levels?Is the faceless Internet the new, global venting ground?Is the Net getting nasty or what?