Was It The Credit Crunch Or Poor Quality That Killed IM Home Study Courses?

10 replies
I've just thrown out a whole load of home study courses from 2006 though to 2010, and it has made me think about how the IM niche could support what at the time seemed to be weekly launches of $997 courses?

Only one of them made me a positive return on investmnet, and looking at them now I wonder why on earth did I buy that crap? Hours and hours of DVD's from some people who have vanished faster than they appeared, perhaps it seems my wife was right all along...

Putting quality aside, did the economic good times and excellent copywriting also fool us into thinking that we could use the cheap credit and pay it off with the profits next month? I suppose with that attitude it was hardly surprising boom turned to bust!

Ultimately I'm a lot happier now I've chucked it all where it belongs, I do hope that the local council don't recycle it and try to use any of the information
#courses #credit #crunch #home #killed #poor #quality #study
  • Profile picture of the author icoachu
    It was the get rich quick mentality of providers
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by icoachu View Post

      It was the get rich quick mentality of providers and customers
      "Fixed that for you ..."
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTerraK
      It was people snapping back to reality and realizing that there is no easy button, that any of the myriad of methods to make money on line from home takes work.

      What was sad to me was that some believed the higher priced the course was, the better "secrets" it held and was the missing piece of the puzzle. But in actuality, they had the secret and the missing piece of the puzzle the whole time. The secret and the missing puzzle piece is always you.

      I don't think the failing economy or the quality of products are the culprits holding the smoking gun at all.

      Terra
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      • Profile picture of the author maggie2
        Originally Posted by MissTerraK View Post

        It was people snapping back to reality and realizing that there is no easy button, that any of the myriad of methods to make money on line from home takes work.

        What was sad to me was that some believed the higher priced the course was, the better "secrets" it held and was the missing piece of the puzzle. But in actuality, they had the secret and the missing piece of the puzzle the whole time. The secret and the missing puzzle piece is always you.

        I don't think the failing economy or the quality of products are the culprits holding the smoking gun at all.

        Terra
        I agree with Terra on this one. However, I also know that the home study courses have evolved and now we have webinars, lots of courses on DVD, and other mediums.

        I can't begin to think how many dollars I have spent on courses/books/webinars/ etc. etc. and only one of them has really benefited me. Some of the others have given me little pieces of the pie, but not the whole thing. I keep reminding myself to quit buying such offerings but the dream is still alive...to make a decent living from marketing on the Net. I am part way there, and I am continuing to work in the area where I have had some success. One of these days I will get there...or bust trying!
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        Marg

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  • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Bratcher
    Are IM home study courses dead? Of course not! They may have transformed into online information products but they didn't die. Like matter, products are never destroyed but only transformed.

    You are right. There have been well-know quality issues with all of these products for years because both the barrier to entry was low and it attracted grey area ethics driven by high sales numbers. It's sad knowing that there are so few marketers with great products out there. The average person gets duped way before they find a legitimate IM opportunity and are discouraged and paranoid about it happening again so just stops their training and is never successful.
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    “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
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  • Profile picture of the author GforceSage
    Enough people have been burned at a vulnerable time looking for the magic answer to their problems, that it now takes new ways to sell that magical home study course. The sellers realize this and by turning down the greed, thus reducing the price, they find that product still sells even if it's rehashed methods with a few new twists.
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  • Profile picture of the author ExRat
    Hi Andrew,

    It was the 'gold rush' mentality, except that the internet (at the time) was a new type of gold that had never been discovered before.

    In retrospect, it would have been silly to have not jumped on the bandwagon (buying and/or selling information), bearing in mind that what we are talking about is the ability to access a worldwide marketplace from a single PC anywhere in the world.

    It's the equivalent of finding out that everyone has a new kind of gold buried within their own backyard. How many people would be digging up their backyard right now if that were the case and how many others would be selling 'backyard mining' related tools, courses and machinery?

    People realised that they needed to act fast and getting access to information was a priority - kind of a 'you snooze, you lose' situation - hence the premium prices.

    I think that the key thing which has changed between then and now is that market leaders (such as Google, Amazon etc) have settled in their top spots and started to consolidate their position, which means that the 'easy pickings' have gone, which people quickly find out when they arrive online and create something which simply stagnates either with no traffic or no income.

    So I don't think that it was either the credit crunch OR poor quality, even though both of those played their part. I think that it was simply markets maturing - loopholes closed, easy money not an option, experience and persistence now required - and that was always likely to happen because the benefits of online business are so great that everyone and his brother wants an online business.

    Do you know many offline business people who have in recent times come almost totally online? I do. Have you noticed that many of them are now struggling online too, due to the saturation, their lack of ability to innovate and general lack of online experience/understanding? I have.

    Just some thoughts and observations.
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    Roger Davis

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  • Profile picture of the author vCr8
    Asking if it's dead or not... well I don't think so, there are still a lot of people offering such money making schemes that promises gold after sign up... Well while, many hopefuls have grown up with the gold rush mentality, there are new breed of hopefuls just waiting to be victimized... It is sad for most, that they had to spend so much money just to realize that this business is not as easy as advertised. I agree that it have changed over the years, it is definitely not gone but it is changing...
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