Welcome back!

Since developing our online businesses, I have come to realise that there is something decidedly smelly about the way the internet marketing industry works.

It is completely possible to make money online - we do - but it is not at all like the image that it is portrayed in all those sales letters and sales pitches from stage.

I knew nothing at all about internet marketing at the beginning of 2007. I was vaguely aware that people were running seminars about it, and I had thought to myself that I should probably check it out sometime and find out what it was all about, but my life was full, and I hadn’t got around to it.

One day in 2007, I think it was May or early June, I got an email offering me a free ticket to one of these internet marketing seminars.

I’m one for following up on coincidences, so I went along. I was really pleased to run into two of my friends in the lobby as we waited for the doors to open. One was a real estate investing friend, and the other was from a Team Management and Leadership program I had done about five years before.

The term for this, which I have since learned, is “social proof”. Because these other people that I respected were also at the event, I was immediately reassured that it was something worthwhile.

Its just as well, really, because some of what went on that weekend certainly tested my faith!

Every single speaker had something to sell. And of each 90-minute session, about 30 minutes was a sales pitch.

It wasn’t so bad for the three of us, because we took advantage of that time leave early and get our coffees before the main crowd left the room and swamped the single cafe on the premises.

However, it was annoying. My time is valuable, and I was giving up time with my family, because it was a weekend, so it was doubly valuable to me.

I am a reasonably intelligent person, with a fair bit of business experience, so I was quite disappointed with some of the speakers. They managed to use up the whole hour that wasn’t their sales pitch with “fluff” like photos of their homes, cars, and kids at Disneyland, or screen shots of big paydays from Clickbank or wherever, and basically provide very little information of value - and then they asked us to pay them $3000 for their products!

Why would I hand over $3000 to someone who just wasted 90 minutes of my time giving me nothing useful or specific that I could use?

Fortunately, there were a few speakers who actually provided some good content, enough for me to work out some of the business models for making money from internet marketing, and to pick one to try for myself. There was also a copywriter there who offered to review and critique any sales letters I wrote for a whole year as a bonus with his product - that bonus alone was worth the price of the product, so I bought it. Never logged in to his forum, never got on a conference call, never signed up for the email lessons - but I did get my sales letters critiqued!

Afterwards, I got to thinking about the other people in the room. People who have not had experience running thier own business, or developing a business strategy.

I used my business skills to understand the different business models people were talking about, and to choose which business model suited me.

I chose a business model which would be easier for me to do, because I already had most of the skills required to do it.

But most people don’t know enough about business models to figure out what the business models are - especially based on the sometimes vague and often hype-filled talks the seminar speakers give.

In fact, I would lay odds that most of the people in that room didn’t even realise that the speakers were talking about radically different business models from one another. Some people bought two or three packs from two or three different speakers, and there is no way that they were going to be able to use everything they bought.

1. There is a bunch of stuff that speakers tend to assume you know - but many people don’t.

We have put up a page on our site called “Internet Basics”, which will hopefully start to fill in the assumed knowledge for people, so you have a better idea what the speakers are on about.

2. There is more than one way to skin a cat - or make money online.

There are several very different business models for making money online, and they require different skill sets. They also suit different personality types.

3. Seminars often throw a “fruit salad” of speakers at you, who are talking about a wide range of things, and when you are new it is really hard to tell which one can actually help you to make money.

You need to have your own “business plan” - an understanding of your goals, the skills you have, and the next skills you want to develop - before you can make a sensible decision about which internet marketing products and services you should buy.

4. Seminar speakers expect you to fail.

Don’t get me wrong - the genuine ones really hope you will succeed, but they don’t expect it.

Sadly, it is a fact of human nature that a majority of people left to their own devices will not take action, even when they have paid for a product or service.

Seminar speakers know that the majority of their clients will not even read or watch the materials in the pack, let alone try to apply them. In fact, someone I know did an experiment - in a 10-CD set, CD number 6 was blank. He had a big “apology gift” prepared for the clients who reported it to Customer Service. Out of over 1000 people who bought the 10 CD set, just three (3) people noticed that CD #6 was blank, and asked for a replacement. That’s 0.3%, three in a thousand.

Now, the existence of this phenomenon allows internet marketers to get lazy and careless. Some do get lazy, and some don’t, so you need to find out about a given speaker from their other clients - but you can’t believe the video testimonials they show during their presentations. (More about that in a later blog post!)

Because so many people aren’t going to do anything, some internet marketers just don’t bother with providing much follow-up help and support. You’re on your own.

Now, even if you are very motivated and you are willing to put in a lot of time and effort, you are very unlikely to accidentally stumble on the right things to do without some guidance. Especially if you are new to the whole industry, or new to being self-employed, or new to sales and marketing.

I believe that many more people would use these $3000 products properly and make money from them if they had the proper guidance from the start.

If they bought the right products in the first place.

If they developed their skills in the right order, focusing on one thing at a time.

If they earned money - even just a little - while they were learning.

If they knew what the “end game” was - the long term business model for internet marketing.

And if they had help and support at the moments they got stuck - from someone who actually knew what they were talking about.

The problem with the internet marketing industry is that it throws a vast array of products at people who have no real way to determine what, if anything, they should buy right now.

Then it throws them in the deep end with their newly-purchased probably-unsuitable products, to sink or swim.

And if they sink, it turns up in their inbox or at the next seminar, saying “never mind about that - it’s old news anyway - buy this new thing and you will finally get going”.

There is no STRATEGY to this merry-go-round, and for most people it will only end in disappointment.

There is now so much free information available about internet marketing that you can educate yourself to the point where you can develop a strategy of your own - without spending a dime.

If you invest the time in the beginning and develop a strategy, you are much less likely to make expensive and time-wasting mistakes. Nobody in the industry will say this to you, but it is the truth.

Take advantage of all the free stuff you can find, but don’t buy anything unless it fits with the next step in your strategy.

Photo: flickr.com/photos/adactio