Stop with the Internet Marketing BS and False Promises!

So you want to make money online, you have been told that you can make a lot of money with internet marketing and in many ways this is true but after spending quite a bit on internet marketing products and software you are now at your wits end and in the dumps, both emotionally and financially.

Killer New Software that Sells Unlikely Dreams

Here lies the problem you are now in; most internet marketers make their money selling the type of rubbish you bought which has cost you your time and money. Often the software promises more than it actually delivers. Usually the software or system will never be able to deliver what is promised as soon as you and hundreds of others start to use it.

They tell you that the system they are selling will make you money, that special automated software that uploads re hashed articles into PDF’s on sharing sites, or the software that adds your Clickbank affiliate code into eBooks and then sends them to the four corners of the internet will not make you rich.

On paper, having hundreds of eBooks on the internet with affiliate links seen by thousands of people in theory could make money but they didn’t tell you that most of the eBooks and articles that you upload to sharing sites will be rejected as they refuse duplicate content and as you are one of several hundred suddenly doing just that, do you think your eBooks will be accepted? Of course not.

Using a piece of software to upload the same websites loaded with the same articles as several hundred other people will not make you money either, you need traffic, you need people to see the site and you need to stand out from the crowd. How are you just going to earn a lot or AdSense commissions when you have no one seeing your site? Another thing you were not told.

What might make you rich is to create a piece of cheap software that will make a simple job that little more easier and then sell it to hundreds, maybe even thousands of people for up to $47. Add a few training videos that have been made by the software developer over in India and add them to a special members area then you can sell it all at an over inflated $197 or more. That is how these people make their money, not by using the software they have just sold you.

Have you noticed how very little these so called internet marketing guru’s have actually given you in the way of knowledge and help? Very little indeed! The emails that they send you once the specially created 7 day follow up sequence has finished will become nothing but the ‘buy my crap’ types of emails that every other marketer sends out.

Affiliate product after affiliate product will pour into your inbox every week, some might be smart and create their own useless product to sell, after all, if they are perceived as being a ‘guru and the product has their name all over it then they could sell a lot more. A cheap product could in fact be what is known as a front end product, simply designed to get you excited for the bigger product that is to follow which works better than the front end product. Or so they tell you!

The Never Ending Sales Funnel Process

The front end product could be an book/eBook, or a DVD which are sold for a small price of $37 or cheaper. Once you are a buyer you are more likely to buy again and marketers know this, they create a funnel designed to generate more income from previous buyers. They create a system for each product they sell.

I know for a fact that one of the UK’s top direct mail marketers actually wanted his front end products not to work. While the customers were struggling to make the system work they would receive another mailing in the post offering the more expensive follow up product promised to be the missing part to the system that will make the system work better or faster and miraculously start to make money.

If you were lucky, or unlucky depending on how you want to look at it, you would then receive another follow up mailing for the ultimate product, an expensive seminar with a millionaire who will teach you the full system which is usually extremely costly to set up and after you have spent the several thousand pounds attending the seminar you will be left with no money spare to invest.

These systems and the men selling them were never classed as scams because they themselves actually used them and made money, so they were the social proof that was needed to prove that they were not selling a scam. The problem is that they were part of a few who made it work and who had the money to invest in the system but they also knew how costly and hard it was but still felt justified that they could sell the teaching of the systems for an expensive price.

In many cases, you only need one person to make money from a system to show that it works then it can be sold for thousands, whether the system is workable for others doesn’t matter or whether it really is worth the price tag they add to it.

If one person makes an amount of money that can change a lifestyle or at least improve it then to a marketer, how it was achieved is worth a lot of money in many cases several thousands of dollars/pounds. As part of my work I once attended a seminar here in the UK that cost £12,000 which was nothing more than a course on email marketing! I know! Zac Johnson gives that information away for free!

But you have to ask, if these systems make a lot of money then why are they teaching them to people? The reason is this; there is a lot more money to be made selling a system for thousands of dollars/pounds to a few people.

They know the average person cannot afford to make the system work or will make it work, but that doesn’t concern them. Many shops sell shoes but it isn’t the shoe shops responsibility if the customer doesn’t wear them, why should the marketer worry if the person who spends thousands on a course or seminar doesn’t do the work or cannot afford it? Is it illegal? No, unethical? Perhaps, $5 or $5,000 what is the difference? The customer is responsible for his actions.

The Progression of Offline to Online Marketing

Now I have digressed a bit, those are the actions of offline direct mail marketers, but they now sell stuff via the internet and the internet itself has opened up the doors for a newer breed of people who create digital download products based on information or money making software which they sell for hundreds of dollars/pounds.

Now I am not saying that there are not ethical people out there selling useful products or information because there is. They do however tend to sell things at a cheaper rate giving more value than what they are asking for unlike those who work on perceived value rather than actual value. Bloggers sell blogging courses that have far more value and information than most internet marketer’s products or courses. Bloggers lead the way in giving value for money over any other form of internet marketing.

You really need to be aware of what you are buying or who you are buying from. When watching those slick video productions you see on sales pages that look like a director in Hollywood was paid to make, think for a minute, a lot of money was spent to have the videos made so they can sell more units. They were optimised with all kinds of psychological tricks to make you desire the product and get your credit card out.

If you want to make money online look around, you will be surprised at what information you can get for free and from really good sources. By all means pay a premium for getting all the relevant information in once place with good support but choose wisely.

I understand how hard it can be because seasoned marketers sell the dream and not the information in their sales hype so it can be hard to tell if you will get quality information, tutorials or methods until you have paid for it.

They very rarely give anything away upfront, and this is usually a good sign not to spend your money on their products. It will either be expensive or a cheap and useless front end product as part of an expensive funnel system and once you have paid you could be locked into a very hard refund policy or costly monthly support.

With information products the product is the information itself which means once it has been read it can be in your head or copied and cannot be handed back like a damaged book, a torn jumper or a pair of scuffed shoes. When you hand back a pair of shoes, you are left with nothing but when you hand back a system there are a number of ways to keep hold of the information, simply doing it and remembering it is the main one.

To avoid people copying the information then asking for a refund, marketers often lock you into their hard to get out of money back guarantees that state you cannot get your money back unless you have done the maximum amount of work without getting the results they promise. It is a tricky one, you can understand the idea behind the hard refund policy but at the same time it sounds harsh.

What if you paid a lot of your money to buy something that was sold in a very hype style sales letter that sold a lifestyle and not actually said what was involved with the system but once you looked it over you decided that it wasn’t for you? The truth is you will struggle to get a refund.

The marketer’s know that most people will not do the work expected to suit the refund criteria so getting a refund is going to be very hard. This is usually done more by the off line direct mail marketer’s, online marketer’s who use places like Clickbank cannot have such hard refund policies as part of the conditions of using their service. Clickbank refund everyone within a certain amount of time as part of their promise to deliver service to customers.

The message in this article is a simple one, be very careful when handing over lot’s of cash when buying information or software to make money online because you might lose more than what you actually gain.

This guest post was written by The Secret Insider from internetmarketing-advice.net.

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12 Comments

  1. Hello,

    I really like this post because you simply show to people what not to do! Thank you very much for such a content! You there are many products online that are not worth to buy them but if the marketing is great then even a product with not so value can be sold! However if you are serious and you make some research you will find the best place to start your dream! I am sure that you can find a lot of great free and paid information in order to accomplish your goals!

    Thank you,
    Zouras

    1. Hi Zouras,
      You are right, there is a lot of quality information that is free or at least priced responsibly, you can gain all the information you need from spending a little time reading and researching. Then the next step is to take action, that is the one thing seminar junkies do not do, and many marketers rely on people not taking action as that means they will buy the next expensive seminar.

      I once spoke to a guy who had been to at least 4 seminars, I dread to think what he had spent.. possible £40 -£50k and yet he still didn't do anything.

      Thank you for your comments.
      SI
      My recent post Do What You Love and Love What You Do.

  2. Pretty much on the money… I actually read a book that had a chapters based around how to design this type of business and bill yourself as the expert and charge ridiculous amounts of money to people and give very little in return. Pretty sad really, there is even a term for it called cult of personality
    My recent post Ultra-thin Bluetooth KeyBoard Case for iPad2

    1. Hi Darren.

      Thank you for your comments, what is scary is the amount of people who are willing to pay large amounts for basically free information from people who know very little. I attended a Facebook workshop which was priced at £6k, the information was no more powerful than what was selling in a book on Amazon for less than £20…

      That is the power of copywriting for you!

      Cheers
      SI
      My recent post Do What You Love and Love What You Do.

  3. Spot on Zac! Most of the software out there is garbage, but there are some exceptions if you know what to look for.

    I use very little software in my day to day tasks aside from dragon naturally speaking. If your a blogger, or do a lot of work online, it is a big time saver.

    The only proven strategy is hard work, and treating your internet business like a real business.

    Then you will see success forget the software:)
    My recent post List Of Useful Sites To Drive More Blog, Or Website Traffic ( Updated For 2012 )

    1. Hi Jay, yes you are so right, hard work is the main key and as you say, treat it like a proper bsuiness, not some dream like 'I am going to become very wealthy now because I am an internet marketer so I can sit back and hit a few keys!' because that isn't how it is. Like all businesses you need to plan what you are going to do, decide where you want be and how you are going to implement things.

      And that takes work not simple cheap push button software.

      Regards
      SI
      My recent post Do What You Love and Love What You Do.

  4. Boy, did you hit the nail on the head. I got a call the other day from someone that wants to sell me a course that teaches me how to teach affiliate marketing. Hello, if I knew how to teach it I wouldn't be requesting information. I now just delete all emails touting info, PDFs, training, etc. except for a few that I really learn from, i.e., you, Yaro, Gavin.

  5. Wow Man,
    bet you made a few Internet Marketers grind their teeth with this one hahaha. But hell it's a real pleasure to hear someone with a higher profile than your average Joe Blogger, actually speak the truth about Internet Marketing & the number of scam artists out there. I think it is a real shame that these unscrupulous people seem to prey mostly on those in greater need, those willing to try just about anything if it will solve their problem. Shame on them!

    Good on yer for speaking the truth mate, what a refreshing change.

    Regards Steve…

    1. Hi Steve, thank you for your kind words, I work within the industry and it saddens me and unfortunately I believe it is getting worse, I am fortunate though because I have learned a lot and I intend to share my knowledge for free and warn people of the scams.

      I have learned that blogging and ethical methods are the best ways forward, for me at least, and if I can help or persuade others to do the same then that is great.
      Regards
      SI
      My recent post Do What You Love and Love What You Do.

  6. Hi alchmo, you have brought up a very good point, we should create a small list of people who we regard as mentors and follow them. Delete all the other emails we get from all of the 'buy my crap' email marketers and unsubscribe from their lists.

    We can become muddled down with too much misinformation or contradicting ideas and that can rob us of our focus. I have Zac and Yaro as 2 of my blogging & marketing mentors, I have a small list of people that I pay attention to, and I keep that list small by choice. 🙂

    Thank you for your comments.
    Regards
    SI
    My recent post Do What You Love and Love What You Do.

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