One month ago, I received a telephone call asking me to subscribe to their advertising services. They claimed that their portal has huge visitor hits and they also can help me place advertisements on Google and Yahoo. They did not realize that I am very familiar with internet advertisement and marketing. I asked them how much it cost – and they told me that for $100 per month, my advertisement will appear at the top for Google and Yahoo and on their own website. OK, I asked the lady so how the changing is like – is it based on cost per click (CPC) or cost per impression (CPI) ? She did not seem to understand me and said that their charges are flat and I get "unlimited" advertisement. Immediately I knew she was trying to deceive me. I scolded her for misrepresentation and not being transparent. It cannot be "unlimited" advertisement because there will be other advertisers. It is impossible for all advertisers’ advertisements to appear on the "top" of Google and Yahoo search simultaneously. Some kind of rotation is required. I needed to know how this done. In other words, I needed to know exactly what am I purchasing. So far, online advertisements costing are based on CPC and CPI. I’ve tried both before and I have been using Google’s Adwords for more than 1 year already. The lady never heard of Adword. What kind of salesperson this is? Misrepresentation and total ignorance about their industry’s practice. She did not even know what she was selling!

This is the same way many financial advisers sell their products. They don’t know what they are selling and the worse of all – their clients do not know what they are buying.