As a recovering critic, I didn’t want to say anything, so I was glad to see Chris Guillebeau’s post, “Why People Hate Marketers.” He has enough standing and success to criticize what almost rises to the level of an industry, namely online marketing of online marketing.

Call me old school, but I am of the opinion that marketing is a function that serves a product, and there is something wrong when marketing solely serves itself — marketing in order to do more marketing, or pre-marketing for a product to be determined later. That is part of what is wrong with muti-level marketing.

The point of marketing is to move product. I am very suspicious of any pitch that doesn’t get to that bottom line, because ultimately, that is the bottom line: something is for sale.

Chris Guillebeau is actually in a gray area, but he makes a conscious, concerted effort to demark the black and white. He often makes an “anti-marketing” statement, where he says explicitly that he is not selling something, and he makes it clear when and where he is selling something. That is a very important distinction, and it is very important that he makes it.

Whenever I am reading a blog post that mentions a book title with a hyperlink to Amazon, I have gotten into the habit if checking to see if the link is an affiliate link, indicating that the writer will profit if I buy the book after visiting the link. Right or wrong, that colors my perception of the writer. It tells me this person is in the book selling business, and what I’m reading may be compromised. It’s one of those petty little corruptions that is pervasive in the blogosphere.

And guess what… MyMindshare has a referral program that specifically enables people to profit from making referrals to MyMindshare. I am guilty of creating yet another one of those petty corruptions, and I would like nothing more than bloggers to take advantage of it.

Hypocrisy self-administered.