When You Buy an IM Product, Do You Actually Use It?

Yes you are correct.
George Wright

Yes it is very much true. It mostly happens with free stuff. People get free stuff full of information that can make them rich and they don't use it and don't act.

I have been doing this from a long time but now I am getting serious about it.

This is one of those questions that are hard to answer because approximations can never be verified. We can't even figure out how much money the IM industry is worth, how can we ascertain how people spend such money?

Additionally, there is no absolute answer with regards to the question. I, for example, belong to the "buy 'em and use 'em" group one day, and the "buy 'em and forget about 'em" group the next.

Why would you buy a product and not use it?

If I have an immmediate need to do a specific thing, and I find a product that addresses it, I'll use it immediately. On the other hand, I've bought a few thinhgs that were great products that I bought or got with the intention of going back and looking at them in the future. Most of those have never left the hard drive. That's why I like products in the class or workshop format. I'm sort of forced to participate, so I make the time, and get much more from the product. A great benefit is that you build new relationships with the person giving the workshop and the other participants.

I definitely use the products I buy. I doubt that there is any free or commercial product that can "make money" for you, but they certainly help, so any tool that can automate or speed up something, or reveal some new strategy, is worth buying from my point of view.

Time is money.

Nowadays I'm alot more selective about the products I buy and only tend to buy products to fill gaps in my knowledge.

Mind you, I've lost count of the number of ebooks, dvd sets, cds, books, newsletters and memberships I've bought over the past 5 years that I've barely looked at. I must have blown $000's on these.

I've been one of those guys that has learned a little bit about alot of subjects within IM but made the mistake of not becoming an expert in one or two of them instead. That's what I'm putting right at the moment.

Great theory, eh? Let's see if I can put it into practice.

Steve.

A few years back when I was just starting out, I bought a lot of cheap and crappy ebooks, which I very rarely followed or used. But when I started buying higher-priced, higher quality products I started using what I was learning.

I think even back when I knew nothing I realised when I was reading crap.

To me sometimes it seems like decisions made by committee

I get some information from one WSO that is special to me and then purchase similar another to help fill in the blanks or slant the project toward the way that I want ot to proceed.

It is better to take a chance, than to do nothing

A strong rope is made by intertwining many smaller fibers

Best Regards

Yes, people love to buy but hate to do.

This is one of the reasons people sell info products on how they make a living and people say, "Why are you giving away all your secrets on how you make money for $39.


1. The product owner knows the vast majority of people who buy his products will not do anything but move on to the next big thing, if that.

2. The internet market pool is so big that the fish or should I say "sharks" will not even make a dent in competing sales. There is so much to go around.

3. The product owner is not always going to reveal every single detail.

4. The product owner may have moved on or changed business models.



-John

A couple of comments I'd like to make here.

Firstly, has anyone else ever noticed that when you buy one product you get swamped with similiar products 'free' and on a limited time to use basis? This is sooooo distracting and can take one right away from what they originally wanted to buy and use because 'they can always do that later'. This is where I think some up sells kill the original product. It may be excellent marketing but from this consumers POV it becomes another time/motivation/focus killer. But then I know I have this curious mind and simply love learning new things.

My second point is that I'm sure there must be others out there like me who buy products because they are good and start to use them but get lost in the technical know-how. I'm not a techhead and I've got some stuff that would have worked wonders for me but I simply couldn't get the hang of how it worked. By the time I get back to it to reuse it, the novelty factor has worn off and the method doesn't work any more.

So much stuff, that is, automation type products, seem to work great guns when they first come out but lose their effectiveness over time and as more people use the system.

I'm quickly (finally) coming to the opinion that the best way for a long term business income off the internet is content. Writing, writing and more writing.

Information, knowledge, research what I don't know, write it up for others to know as quickly as possible and back to more writing or research/writing.....

Google (and other search engines) want content. Content for the average "Joe" and "Jill" to quickly access and use. So, I've decided to try giving them just that.

But a bit of humour and quirkiness makes them stick around a bit longer too.

Balance, I think is what it's all about so if I balance my learning between technical ability and mind development and am able to share knowledge gems perhaps I'll get through and make contact with like minded people? One day the SE might even like me :-)

Regards to all,

Jan

Don't have much budget right now for IM so first I decide what I need and when I see a product that fits my requirements then I'll give it a second look.

I don't pay much attention to special offers or discount products but that's me.

I will definitely use any product I buy. It may take a while until I find the right time to use it but definitely it'll get used. How effective, there's no way of knowing yet in advance.

Back to the point of this thread. People do buy products and never use it. That's just the way it is. But for every product unused, there still some happy gut our there, the seller. :-)

I devour regular books and products pretty often, but I have been a dumbass before. I spent $1500 on a product and after watching the first couple of videos (and being pretty disappointed) never watched the rest.

I'm sure that most people who buy these products don't go through them though. And it's not restricted to the IM niche. Last year I paid around $4000 for a product on some training in a particular area and while I'm not ready to use it yet, it was worth the money and I'll be using it eventually.

Sean

Yes I always watch and devour everything immediately. That's why I buy things to learn from them and put stuff into action.

Yes I have brought a lot of stuff I have never implemented especially in the beginning when I first started on the warrior forum I was addicted to wso's now I am much more selective.

I strongly suspect most beginners are the same

I try not to buy something unless im 100% certain that I don't already know the information.

For ebooks, I usually read it one time and that's it. For those with resale rights, I will sell them to other people

I can relate to this. People love to get something for free, but when they do they tend not to make use of it. Why is this?

I am a Life Coach. When I started out in this business I tried giving away 4 free telephone/internet coaching sessions to build my client base. What a waste of time! I had a lot of takers, or should I say time wasters. I had people not keeping appointments, not doing the work that I recommended to make their lives better etc.

What I realized was that if people don't pay for something they don't value it. So I tried a different tack. I offered the same 4 free sessions at a 75% discount, and what a difference I saw. The fact that someone had paid for something (even though it was a very modest amount of money) their attitude was totally different. They had "bought" into the idea and were motivated to make use of it. i.e. they had made a personal investment.

Freebies are a great method of list building, but if you want someone to buy into a service of product I would recommend the heavily discounted method. That way they have to actively engage with it, and therefore they will be more committed to it.

Frank.

Really depends on what I wanna do at that time.

Normally I will buy and I use it, but if you are saying about utilising
it, that is a different case.

I'm trying to be better about this. I hate it when I don't use what I buy, but it happens sometimes. But I am trying to buy less, there are so many offers every day. I am trying only to buy things I already know I want, not new things that are being offered. If I am not looking for it, I am not buying it.

When I first got into this IM thing I would purchase everything that looked good, but I noticed that it was difficult to juggle 3 or 4 different types of IM statagies at once. And then there were times when I would purchase something, then download it and never open the file again until it was time to do my taxes and I would see the reciepts for things that I had forgotten about. Now I make sure that the money that I spend is for something that will produce an immediate return of money, knowledge, or contacts.

Joel

I bought a copywriting study course and the desperate book guide to niches.

Now, it's just digital dust.

Bummer.

Hi

after all they do say that 95% of people that buy info products dont use them so you are spot on with this one. Even with my downloads of my orders i notice some eople pay for the goods and then dont even bother downloading them!

kind regards


sam
X

I can't answer for anyone else but can tell you I have personally purchased many eBooks and sold a few as well. The problem I think lies in that most people who purchase these books including myself start out knowing nothing about IM. So it's quite alluring when doing your research to fall prey to the EASY MONEY ONLINE WITH MY SECRET scenarios used by very skillful copy writers.

They know what buttons to push and we fall for it since we haven't got a clue. After reading many of these so called Secrets I have found that most of the information you need to make it online is available for FREE. You just have to search for it. It takes time and effort to make it online and if you're not willing to put the time in then you're destined to fall prey to all the Get Rich Quick Schemes and Promotions promising you Millions without doing much work.

How do you make it online? ACTION, ACTION AND MORE ACTION! Just reading these books won't do a thing for your bank account unless followed by, yes you guessed it ACTION.

Of course. In some form or another, everything is used.

Ha ha.. Man, I thought I was the only one...
I probably bought over 100 ebooks over the years and
read about half.

But if it's short enough and right to the point,
I read them more than once.

BTW, you are from Vancouver, eh? Same here!
We should probably hook up one of these days.

I must say I don't use them immediately but I will take a mental note of everything that is covered in the ebook or if its a software what it does then when its time for me to try something I'll think which report covers this or which software has this feature and use it.

Long back I bought a bundle of products with MRR one of them was a paypal 'buynow' button creator. After a few months when I was launching a mini site I knew that I can create a paypal button without having to login to paypal website so I used that software.

When I read your title it got me thinking of a video released a few weeks ago by Tony Robbins Interview with Frank Kern and John Reese

Great stuff!

I think part of the problem is that often a system requires that you spend more money to implement. For instance, you will have to buy a couple of software products etc. before you can implement the plan. That's why people end up buying several products and not putting it into action. Also, there is that learning curve on learning a new tool, it may take 3-4 days to get familiar with it and people don't want to put in the time and energy to learn, they just want to plug something in and turn it on.

This is what I call the student mindset.

Many aspiring IMers are stuck in this mindset and NEVER take action on what they learn.

I definitely use everything (and I mean everything) that I buy because I'm a knowledge junkie. The secret is to take bits and pieces from everything you buy and make your own strategy. I found out that only a handful of strategies actually work so I focus on them. I'm not into the next fad in marketing because they rarely work. Stick to fundamental marketing principles and you will succeed.

I use almost all of the product that I buy - however, I agree that most of the people never try them. And then they complain how it doesn't work.

Software/scripts that I buy, I do use them unless I managed to find alternatives subsequently. But, ebooks etc I might not. Most of the time I will go through the info and evaluate if it fits within my plan. If yes, then find ways to integrate, else digital dust.

Get a refund if you don't use it. Just one resource per month would be enough.