I read an article today that really surprised the honest person in me.

The article stated that a certain Mike Bayard placed an ad on several websites like Amazon and Buy.com in which he offers good money to anyone who writes a positive review on Belkin products.

Via LinkedIn it came to the attention that Mike Bayard is a sales rep within Belkin!

I must say, I give him ten points for creativity, but a lot more points for undertaking such a coward action to boost his sales!

He obviously cares more about his sales figures, than caring about possibly deceived consumers or company’s reputation.

This story reminds me of that television program “Kitchen Nightmares” in which famous chef Gordon Ramsay helps out restaurants that are on the edge of bankruptcy (I admit I’m a fan because I just love the way Gordon just spits out his disbelief towards the restaurant manager on how the hell he could mess up his business so badly!). Anyway, when Gordon read great online reviews about one of the restaurants in need, he got suspicious and it didn’t took him long to find out the manager himself was writing positive critics on the internet under false names. Boy was he busted on international television, how painful is that! Not to mention Gordon’s famous swearing tirade after the confession of the restaurant keeper. (Forward to 7 minutes to see this particular television fragment!)

I think I’ve made myself clear here and let me conclude with this advice: promoting your business by giving false information is just not done.