Do you blindly follow Gurus?

Different rules apply to different people depending on their level of progress.

A kung-fu master will perform moves that he will never allow a new student even to attempt and the application of those moves might appear in complete opposite what the master is teaching a student.

When you understand subtleties of a skill/art you can break the fundamental rules you had to learn in the beginning to achieve mastery.

Well, as someone who is still quite new to the world of online marketing, I try to soak in as much information as I can from others who have had experience. And for newbies, following a "guru", taking note of their advice, etc. is not a bad place to start out if they know what they're talking about. I do see what you're saying but I've found that most reliable, experienced marketers admit that there is never a guarantee of success in with any method and that there are a number of variables that might affect the level of one's success. This means that sometimes people will need to experiment a little and make slight modifications to strategies that aren't working -- there is no "one size fits all" approach.

I don't blindly follow anyone... unless she has a sexy voice!

That said, no one person is going to guide me to a million dollar business overnight. Frankly, if I don't work my ass off I'll never have a million dollar business. I think people often read a sales page and believe they will be served a million dollar business on a billion dollar platter.

You don't buy businesses-in-a-box and turn it into a multi-million dollar empire. It is simply impossible, regardless of what the sales letter tells you.

Personally, I question everything. I want to know why they say what they say and not just what they say. It's kinda like religion I guess -- there are those who will blindly follow the imam/priest/rabbi and there are those who will ask why.

yes of course

I'll take some of their advice sometimes and see if I can put my own spin on it. I never assume I can follow their exact system and reproduce their millions. On that note I do assume their income claims are grossly inflated too

Don't waste your time and money falling for the guru's crap it really will just eat a hole in your pocket and waste your valuable time. There is NO push button software solution or get rich overnight thing, it's about putting together a sensible and sustainable plan and putting it into action. If you want to pay for a mentor like i have then by all means that's fine, but don't fall for their hype it is all lies!

Here's how I learned my marketing.

First, I followed 'gurus' - of course, after carefully choosing them.

"Followed" as in 'copied', 'reverse engineered' and blindly did the
same things they did - to the extent my home page design once got a
C&D notice from the leading IM website because it looked almost the
same as their site!

Then, after I had modest success that allowed me to afford coaching
by some top specialists, I actually learned the RATIONALE and LOGIC
behind WHY those "gurus" did what they did... and it was nice to know,
and so I kept on doing things which I already knew worked well - now
I just happened to know WHY they worked so well.

Giving away ebooks/infoproducts for free is one such tactic.

Understanding WHY it works involves learning stuff like marginal net
worth of a client, allowable cost of acquisition, and many such
fancy sounding terms typically spouted by those MBA types - but
that solidly ground any business enterprise!

What I'm saying, in a long-winded and roundabout fashion is this...

Blindly following a "guru" may well be a great winning strategy.

At least until you understand the nuances of how things work - and why!

All success
Dr.Mani

There are lots of self proclaimed gurus out there. You just have be careful, and look at what they are marketing from other perspectives. Don't just assume their ways is the best and only way.

Also, the fact is that what can work for some people will not work for others. Can depend on many variables...experience, resources, connections, etc.

I guess it all depends on how you go about it. But like i said there is no push button software miracle like they make out on clickbank etc. But there can be things you can learn from them as they have made a success in this space and there's some things you can copy and make a success for yourself. I tend to agree with a lot of what drmani said above, but for all newbies out there be careful, there's a lot of hype and it can burn a hole in your pocket fast if you don't know what you're doing. However, the strategy of giving something away, then selling, upsellling etc. is a very sensible and solid business model to use.

Bang on Mike, i couldn't agree more

I think by doing things yourself and eventually find your own way in doing things you will be far better off. How do gurus differ from each other? It's because they have their own unique twists to them. There is no right way of doing things. There are more right ways..

Blindly following anyone no matter who they are will end up dry likely to fail and fail big.

Ok so this guy says about offering something free and then selling but this IMO is very IM selling at the core. So things people do to build as bigger list as they. An and just play the numbers game. Where they will generally bombard with 1-2 emails a day about the next big product. There is of course money in this but only if you can generate a big list. Even in the examples above they are things people expect to pay for so are likel to get their credit card out. A lot of people that subscribe to these lists for something free will probably be reluctant to want to pay for anything, especially with the amount of emails they will get (as have no doubt signed up to lots of other lists too).

I'm not blindly following any gurus , but I take from them what seems worthy to me and try to implement into my business .

lots of people are blindly follwing a certain gurus methods. and for the result they fail.. because lack of creativity... be more creative, you'll make more money for sure

Most people never take action it's just the reality of the world we live in

I learned a long time ago not just to question everything, but to test, adjust, and test some more.

In any event, I don't know what a g-u-r-u is. But I will say this, I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't learned from other successful marketers. They shortened my learning curve by years and that's made a tremendous impact to my bottom line.

RoD

Gurus are full of great information, but the thing about it is, you are better off doing what they do, not what they say.

What does a guru do?

Creates a product, gets killer ad copy and site design, sells the product, builds a list, sells more products on the back end of their own or as an affiliate.

That's how most "gurus" make their millions.

Learn from the gurus: do what they do, not what they say they do.