If you’re interested in looking your best (who isn’t?), and you feel okay about seeking some expert help from time to time (who doesn’t?), naturally you turn to the World Wide Web. After all, where else can you get hundreds—no, thousands—of free informational pieces on your topic of interest? Where else will you find Web pages written just for people like you?
Well, yes, and no.
Researching a plastic surgery procedure or cosmetic treatment is a must before putting your health and wallet on the line. But before you get started on the Internet, remind yourself that most of the information you’ll find about cosmetic surgery and aesthetic procedures is written for marketing purposes, not for altruistic reasons.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the information you find on one of these sites is of no value. Professional societies and directory companies compile information and make money from ads or memberships/listing fees or both; many also offer valuable background information. And many plastic surgeons and doctors of aesthetic medicine develop beautiful, informative websites to, yes, market their services. But they are also interested in educating prospective clients. A good doctor knows that an informed patient is more likely to make the right choices and end up happier with the results than one who doesn’t know much about the procedure and physician he or she is considering.
When you find a good cosmetic surgery or cosmetic treatment site you’ll know it. It will have a reasonably objective feel, covering both risks and benefits. It should offer, at a minimum, well-written overviews of most procedures, links to other resources, complete background information on doctors and aestheticians involved and some before and after photos.
Unfortunately, however, some of what you’ll find on the Web is just bad. I mean bad as in horrible, wrong, and even insulting. What’s worse is that many sites these days are not even written for legitimate marketing purposes. Some exist simply as vehicles for online ads—these are some of the most poorly written sites you’ll ever see. Others are written to swindle you into plunking down hard earned money for ridiculous scams.
I think of the poorly disguised ad vehicle sites as “time wasters.” I make a mental note of these just so I can avoid them at all costs in the future.
“Time waster” sites have one purpose, and it’s not to inform you. “Time wasters” exist solely to make money from clicks. They are fairly easy to spot for several reasons: they have Web addresses designed for search engines (like bestinsertsurgicalprocedurehere.com), and they post new content frequently to continue to try to attract search engine traffic.
Another mark of “time waster” websites is a generic-looking design, with the bulk of the site’s real estate devoted to ads, ads, ads. Ads are even featured above the copy—and the copy itself is invariably awful!
The lesson here is how to spot one of these sites and avoid them like the plague. The more horrible the content, the more prominent the ads, the more you know there’s nothing for you there. They may be making money from clicks, but you don’t need to let them make money from you. The best revenge you can take if you land on a “time waster” is to remember it and never visit again.
Even worse than a site that wastes your time is the “too good to be true” site that wants you to trade some of your precious dollars for false hope. If there were a way to vote sites off the World Wide Web, there are several out there that would get my ballot.
“Too good to be true” sites are, fortunately, as easy to spot as “time waster” sites. These sites are not afraid to use outlandish claims and hyperbole to the extent that it’s hard to believe that people actually get sucked in.
The language of sites like these is the very best clue that you should make a quick exit. There’s one site out there that promises to transform you into a timeless beauty goddess (100% Guaranteed) for less than $40. In fact, on this same site you’ll discover how to achieve a “Complete [procedure] in 7 Days Without Surgery.”
If you need more evidence that you should flee a website like this, look carefully at what you actually get. In some cases, the actual product, treatment or program you get for your money isn’t defined. Is it a CD? A cream? A book? One sheet of paper?
Another clue can be the spokesperson’s inexplicable credentials or unverifiable location. If there’s a true medical expert behind a product or program, you should be able to understand their background and find them on websites other than one promoting a non-mainstream treatment. Some of these “too good to be true” scams have their home in foreign countries where regulations may be pretty lax.
So what's the main lesson? If a website offers you a 100 percent guarantee on a treatment related to your looks, run. If it uses terms like “magic bullet,” “perfect” and “dead easy,” run faster. If a spokesperson in an unknown location with bizarre credentials says you can get surgery-like results without surgery, run like the wind. The old saying was never more apropos than on the World Wide Web: “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
As a plastic surgery writer, I’m amazed almost daily by the power of the Web. One of its incredible strengths is also a weakness—just about anyone can post just about anything. Please remember that when you’re surfing the ‘Net looking for quality information on cosmetic treatments.