Making Money Online: Reality vs. Fiction

Let's see, how about, "a fool and his money are soon parted"? Or, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is", or Caveat Emptor.

Always been like this, heard of Bernie Madoff and his billion dollar Ponzi scheme? Then there is Charles Ponzi who used the "Madoff" scam 96 years ago.

And the small timers, like Chase Revel, founder of Entrepreneur Magazine or Napoleon Hill, serial scammer.

Here is the PROBLEM. Sometimes a marketer gets lucky, right time at the right place or has the right connections. Multi Millionaire Jody Victor is one of Amway's superstars, didn't hurt him any his father was one of the 9 original members and he was the one who brought Nutralite into the fold.

But, Jody did work hard. Can you repeat his success? Well you can try as thousands have done over the decades, just as you can try to replicate the success of some of those Internet Marketing gurus.

All too often, you will find what you bring along.

Bring with you the idea there are secrets, strategies and cookie cutter methods you can follow to get the same results as some guru, you're going to have a tough go of it.

Bring along some common sense, a real world view and a work ethic which says try, adjust, keep on, keep adjusting and don't quit, and you have some chance of reaching your goals.

What have you brought with you to this forum?

GordonJ

Some people like teaching others once they are successful (and charging money for it). I started in 2008 and through a lot of trial-and-error, I managed to close around 50K in one of my best months.

If you look on WF, I have also launched a couple of courses which sold well a couple of years ago. Yes it made me money but since people gave me good reviews I am assuming they have seen good results.

So yes, some people like giving back, in return for money of course

they sell things that you can search on the internet. And what to make money for them, they never sold

If they are doing so well why not just mentor a select few for free? Not resell their techniques to as many as they can for money.

Stop looking to buy products because you think they
might contain the secret system for cashing in and start
buying products because you've determined they will
enhance your current business in some way. When you
do that it won't matter if they made money, or not.

The truth is there are so many variables that even if you
followed their instructions meticulously your chances of
duplicating their results are slim.

Exactly. By the time they sell their "system" to you its probably outdated or does not work anymore(if it ever did in the first place).

I would say AT LEAST 99% of the people charging money to "teach their lessons of success" are either too good to be true or just got lucky once or twice and were never able to repeat their success.

It's that 1% of people who REALLY are making money and can PROVE it (and no fake it) that you would want to deal with.

Good luck in your endeavors and be careful since there are lots of scams out there.

I wonder why would you believe on them even.

If they were this much credible, they would've been built emperor. As a matter of fact lot more people try to be ostentatious.

It's not like people are not making. They must be making some good money but those who have guts they don't need to market them. People know them. More precisely, beauty needs no ornaments.

Don't believe income claims people make on the internet, especially if they're trying to sell you on the concept of making money. At the very least, be skeptical.

Just because it worked for the author of the course, does not mean it will work for you. Results always vary.

You can even use the same system, but what makes your results different is your own individuality.

A lot of these ways of making money also become saturated very quickly, so the best option to make even more money is to offer a course!

There is not only saturation but also technology. What worked 5 years ago might not work now.

I remember when people were making thousands a month with "bum marketing." Try that now and see what happens.

There are a few exceptions to this rule however. Like list building.

Whenever I see someone showing "proof" of their online income my eyes just glaze over and I assume they are just full of it.

While it is true that people can make very good money using various online methods some people who have not done so are trying to teach you how to do it. Others are legit and enjoy setting up a teaching system to help others (and yes they will make money teaching their "secrets").

There are a lot to consider and you can easily get pulled in many directions. Buyer beware!

I am sorry, that I have some doubt when one say this huge amount earning. It is easy to say but hard to do. There are many ways of earning in the online sector, but it does not mean that one can earn this huge amount within a months. Thanks

I saw one person do a case study. I could believe what he said because he did it right then and there. The thing was, it seemed as though he was using "junk" traffic - but - from it, he was able it put a number of people in the list. Whether or not they were good people/leads was not shown. The focus on the case study was to "drive traffic" though....

For me its pretty simple: I never bought any type of course (except for 1 or 2 on Udemy), and I would NEVER buy something where the person doesn't tell me what the course is about. I buy something because I want to learn about a certain topic, not about some obscure "selling machine" or "ultimate moneymaking method".

For me, my alarm bells start ringing if someone offers an "exceptional" product, but his salespage is only boring blabla. "I am the best", "I know the other courses are bad", "this one is different", "anyone can do it" - the typical crap. If the seller would tell me "I show you how to market your affiliate website in 10 different ways, giving strategies on how to send traffic and how to retarget etc. etc." I feel like there is some substance behind it. But all these "methods" which seem to make money in a magical way sound so fake and artificial that they do not even deserve more than 3 seconds of my time.

In reality - you have no idea how much of that 'case study' was arranged in advance. You realize it was to "drive traffic" but even so you know that doesn't mean that 'traffic' builds a list worth having.

If you learn this one lesson right now, it will save you time and money every single time you are tempted to buy into someone's advertised system:

What someone else does in his online money making strategy or business has absolutely no bearing on what you can or will do in your business.

We are all different and bring a different set of resources, skills, abilities, temperament, and work ethic to our online businesses. You are the thing that will be the difference between success or failure in your venture.

The very best to to you,

Steve

John Chow has a video on Youtube where he says he didn't start making money online until he told people he was making money online, lmao.

About 95% of the claims you read that seem to good to be true generally are. Sure 1 out of 10,000 people may end up getting those results but the average person will not.

Of course, there are people making that kind of money in their business. The issue is that there are several business models to accept. One of the ways that these folks make really good money is selling really pricey Internet marketing packages to those looking for a business opportunity.
I make money selling content to small businesses, teaching online marketing strategies and selling SEO services, selling content to consumers and private consulting. I also have to tell a lot of folks that spending $50 will not get you a viable business. Internet marketing is like losing weight and getting fit; there are a lot of ways to do it, but it actually takes work, money and discipline.

Good luck.

A PM from last year for your consideration:

Apparently, that was the only day...

Many Internet Marketers have made money outside MMO. People give Frank Kern a hard time about selling the "Dream".

But the fact is it is well documented ad verifiable that he made over a million dollars in the Dog Training niche.

Yanik Silver, Kelly Long, Mike Filsaime, John Reese and many many others made extreme money outside MMO.

Now there are plenty who are scam artists. Iam just saying don't put everyone in that boat

Why would a multi billionaire like Mark Cuban who made like $3 billion selling Broadcast.com 20 years ago buy a small little Papa John's Pizza Franchise ??

Because he is smart and wants to diversify his Stream of Income. And he realizes there is no such thing as a sure thing and NOBODY in this is World is infallible !!

Hello Tia

Long time Back I used to ask myself same Questions as you are asking today, Lets look at ecom today well many are making 100k a week, same strategy will be sold to you at 10K, Affiliate Marketing easily can make you 100K a week selling high tickets, but if you were to be taught how to sale and achieve results you will pay 5k to 10k. Price tag is just to make you focus number 1, secondly its for you to appreciate the work and to limit the number of people knowing the strategy to avoid saturation.

If you really want to make the 100k a week a month and so on then change your attitude towards making money and believe you can Make money and it will happen. My students have ended up making more money than me coz I cannot implement 100 Strategies all together.

Hope this helps.

Dont believe everything you see. I know it sounds cliche but it really is easy to be fooled on the internet. I always felt like I was striking gold with all these programs and tools. But guess what. About 5% of people who buy into programs actually utilize the methods and make money. So basically alot of these guys make money off their "systems".

Making money online is a reality. Find a niche, find ways to monetize it, and find ways to get traffic.

ya, but most of them are not easy,, we can do it with ranrahas forex as well, because trading Forex is risky but we can receive free trading signals from it to make profits. So we don't have to worry anymore. :-) you can search the web to learn more about it. good luck.

Just like some other have said below, if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. there is definitely potential to make as much money as they say they make in affiliate marketing but it is never an overnight process and requires the right strategies. You have to remember that what works for others may not always work for you. You need to find a product that you generally see value or merit in and sell that.

Whether you see it as a fiction or reality has to do with your mind.

Not the people around you.

Your mind as in how you see yourself as now and in future, how do you plan and what are you going to do to turn your finances and life around.

I believe to make money with different online sources. But I will never believe to have an instant income of 30K$ in a month.. Even in 6 months.. Sounds unnatural to me.

There are only three people I share what I make with and they are myself, my accountant and the tax man.

I've been in business a long time and there are times when if I showed you a snapshot you'd believe I had the midas touch.

It is quite common to have extraordinary "days" or even "months" but putting successful day after successful day, month after month, year after year, is a whole other thing.

If someone is claiming some high incomes and they haven't got a suitable business structure to minimise their tax liability it is a dead giveaway.

There are plenty of free resources to search out business ownership and company structure information and a few simple searches usually reveals the income claimants as frauds.

The other factor to consider is time.

With very few exceptions it takes time to build success.

Ask yourself

"Why are they showing me this?"

"How long has this person been successful?"

"Where is the real evidence?"

"If I saw real evidence how could I validate it?"

"What company are they directors or stakeholders in?"

"What is their personal credit rating?"

"Who is recommending them?" - are they getting commission?

"Do they have a reputation?"

"How many views have they got on their videos?"

"What hard data can you get by using spy tools to analyse their websites?"

and so on. (this could be as big a list as you like)

Most people are lazy and don't investigate who they are going to give their money to.

best regards,

Ozi

Don't know where some of the new members are coming from - but think FL is fishing in the wrong pond. Don't think I've ever seen a time when so many brand new "members" are spammers/scammers .

I sell software online and I make over $30K a month. I also know many people who make much more than I do (and many that make less but are still over the $10K a month you mentioned) .. so yes I know 100% for sure that there are a lot of people making a lot of money.

Though I dont do training much, sometimes but not often, there is a very valid reason why people doing well dont just 'mentor a select few for free'. Well actually there are two valid reasons, but they are similar. First their knowledge is valuable. Why would anyone give a valuable thing away for free? I mean my lawyer makes $30K a month but I dont expect him to consult me for free and I sure dont expect him to teach me how to be a lawyer for free. This leads to the second reason. Mentoring requires time and people deserve to be paid for their time (as well as their knowledge)

This is very true, there is NO SECRET!. Period!

This is very not true. Be assured when I tell you this that 99.99% of the problem people have is lack of action, dedication and motivation. Period!

If the product you are buying is a valid way to make money and not a get rich scheme then it wont get dated. This is the opinion of someone who is frustrated because they are looking for the 'secret' to getting rich doing nothing over night (which does not exist), and not finding it. (you never will, it does not exist)

What Im trying to get across here is that YES for sure some people make a LOT of money online. No there is no magic secret. No there is no training that will 'make you money' (you need to work). Most people fail because of lack of devotion and commitment (then blame other people), and yes you can make money online as well, anyone can. If you really put in the effort.

IM is a meritocracy, people are rewarded based on the effort they put in. Nothing more, nothing less.

Each offer should be evaluated on it's own merits if it appeals to you. Some are scammers, some are embellishing the truth, others are legit ways to make decent money. Several courses from the WSO section have helped me make decent money. You have to wade through the chaff to get to the wheat.

Devil's advocate... what about a successful freelancer who has plenty of wisdom to offer the world and uses coaching as the next phase of his career? I think it's okay to cash-in on your accomplishments if you can truly provide value to those just starting out. Especially in the non-passive realms because no matter how much money you make, it's not something anyone wants to do forever. I'm all for passing the torch and charging a premium for lessons-learned along the way.

What can I say even selling their successful is making money efforts. If you buying it don't hope you'll get 100k/300k per mo, just find the best point to be your weapon to your successful. Still you must doing and start action to get that xxxk/mo.

Let me give you a simple analogy.

There is this book called "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. It costs around $10 but you can get it for cheaper.

I personally know at least 50 people who consider this $5 book to be the most important one that they've ever read, the book that had set the foundation for their success.

And at the same time, I know that there are millions of people who got nothing out of it.

Now let me give you a second example.

In 2006, I came across Personal Power 2 by Tony Robbins for the first time. I've listened to it and it hardly changed anything in my life. I've found it ten years later and I've started doing the exercises, implementing the lessons and taking it seriously. In one month, it changed so much in my life that it is hard to even quantify.

The moral here?

Products are neutral. It is how you put them to use. Yes, there are some people earning $50.000/month and no, there aren't as many as they claim to be. But you know what? They don't have any advance strategy. They don't have any secret. They are putting to practice fundamentals. You can get the same education as they've got for $100 off Amazon.

What you can't get in a WSO or Amazon book is the actual work. You can get a guide-map but nobody will ...

... put in the effort for you.
... motivate you to continue when it seems that it is not working.
... get off your ass when you'd rather do anything else.
... return to work after you've lost $5000, $10.000 or more.
...or force you to go out there and find mentors when you don't want to.
... or have a serious discussing with your wife / husband / girlfriend / boyfriend about what you want to do.

Nobody.

That's up to you.

It is like in the gym. Some people get the best equipment and the best education and they still fail to lose weight. Others don't even have gym clothes and have bodies of steel.

You think that's a mistake?

The only thing that is preventing anyone from achieving something, be it money or something else is their story. There is enough good information everywhere to achieve anything on this Earth. You can get for free or buy information on anything from how to write a good sales letter to how to build an self-learning AI for a drone.

I know that this will come as a shock to some people but ...

... if something good happens, you've made it happen.
... if something bad happens, you've made it happen.

You are the creator of your own destiny and everything is a set cause in motion.

Those people are making that amount of money and that is completely true. Though It requires a lot of hard work, there's no such thing as overnight success. I made a simple tutorial on how to create a Successful Online Business. Come check the link in my blog posts

If you have a system that is working - and you can share that knowledge with others without harming your own business....why not create another income stream by coaching/teaching?

Yes, it is just that question. Time is valuable - it can only be used once. If I have leisure time I've earned through my own efforts - why would I donate that time to someone who is unwilling to invest in his own future?

The last time I coached someone for "free", I spent hours advising and teaching someone - giving tools and blueprints and tips/tricks. After almost 3 weeks of DONATING my time (and hearing excuses) I insisted the person show me the work he had done so far.

He had done....nothing. All the talk of "what I'm working on" and plans and "what ifs" were TALK. When I pushed to "get started" the person said "isn't there an easier way - that's just too much to do". He said I "needed to understand" that "working several hours a day on this is too much like a job".

He then asked me for "an easier way to make money"....right.

The person had no skin in the game - no investment of money that might encourage him to get off his duff and put in some time and effort.

I wasted my time on an idiot who was all hat and no cattle. Trust me - you don't want to know what I said in reply to that email. Let's just say the "free help" was no longer available.

That said - I've seen so much help given to people on this forum. It's amazing what happens when a new marketer is seriously trying to gain traction - working hard and learning on his own and trying to get it right. That's often when experienced folks step in to give that little bit of help the person not only needs - but deserves due to his own efforts.

Ok, so I've been going at this for a long while now. I've spent so much money and time on internet marketing courses that it's almost impossible for me to calculate.

Sometimes the strategies discussed were totally bogus but, more often than not, the strategies were perfectly sound. The problem was a lack of resources on my part. I simply did not have the money or time (and usually both) to actually implement what I had learned. Granted, I got one hell of an education but I always felt disappointed.

The truth is that there are thousands of ways to make money online and new ones are discovered all of the time. To some extent, this is what is so exciting about trolling through the WSO because some people may have really discovered some new online money making strategy.

However, the truth is that it's going to take a lot of hard work, time, money, and trial and error to be consistently successful at internet marketing. True, you might get lucky and stumble upon a way to make overnight riches and while this has happened many times, it's not very realistic.

Just focus on the fundamentals of selling online, stick to it, and eventually you will succeed!

I was going to look to advertise to a Custom Audience on Facebook. These were "bulls-eye" hits for what I wanted to send them. I only wanted to reach these guys through Facebook since - by their profession - they are in the office sporadically.

I uploaded 5000 items and (when creating a Custom Audience, it (the Facebook program) only took into account 1400).

I played around with the "look-a-like" feature and the program said that there were 2 million other individuals for reach (based on the custom audience).

I thought - that doesn't sound right - maybe the code is broken - I followed the instructions ...

Did some more resarch and found this video:

Which seems to indicate that things are not really on the up-and-up with regards to paying for advertising under Facebook.

I was getting ready to use their services (for my own audience, not the one they (i.e. Facebook) generated). But, now I am not going to do that either since it cannot be guaranteed that they are delivering the advertising to anyone on my customized list.

I only mentioned this case because when looking at a case study where one guy earned "a boatload of money", he cited Facebook as a way of generating traffic. Although that might be true for his case, it does not appear to be true for others.

I'm of the opinion that most people that try to make a lasting income online fail but that most of them could make it work if they made the right adjustments (which vary widely from individual to individual) because some people do make it online.

This is no different than people that succeed with long term weight loss compared to the number trying or thinking of starting to lose weight. Or any number of other things including starting and succeeding in offline businesses. Some make it, most don't, but most have a chance if they do the right things in the right order making the right adjustments as they go along because some do succeed.

As to the question which comes up a lot here: why do people share or sell their system if it's so good, I have a couple questions in return.

1. Is the thinking that those that share information but don't charge for it are somehow more qualified or true experts just because they don't sell the info?

If John is a scamming liar that has never made a dime online but has a product teaching how to do it that's bad. But if John teaches how to do it for free that's just as bad.

The quality of the information doesn't all the sudden get better just because it's free. In fact, John may hurt more people when sharing for free because more people will be able to afford free than those that can afford the product.

If this is true - free vs. paid - then why don't we go to free doctors, free personal trainers, free lawyers, etc.? They are selling their help or their information just like anyone here. What's the difference? Oh yeah - there are very few free doctors or lawyers. People want to get paid for the help they provide to others. And even people sharing this stuff for free online get a benefit of some sort - there are very few doing it out of the love in their heart for their fellow beings.

2. What if your wish was their command and all the sudden no one shared one tidbit about how to make money online. This forum wouldn't be here. Google searches would be empty. Places like HostGator or Aweber would be out of business because they rely on a thriving market and with no one helping anyone there wouldn't be a thriving market.

Even a pure services company like Aweber or HG relies on selling the dream. Look at HG's home page - they give the idea that if you buy hosting then you can sell stuff online.

How would you learn? What would you read? How long would it take you to learn HTML if there were no courses or 100% free (no ads or partnerships, etc.) courses on how to use it? Who would answer all your questions?

In the end, it doesn't matter what anyone else does or has done. It only matters what we do with the information that we have access to.

We can have a mindset of doubt and fear or we can take the good stuff, ignore the bad stuff and go full speed ahead being thankful that there are resources that can help shorten our journey.

I chose the first path for a long time. Then I wised up a little and took the second path. The difference is night and day in every aspect including the results I've gotten.

Mark

I will give simple answer

Yes this is true peoples are making money online and in a very huge amount.
but question is How ?

Simple answer is : through
1. Affiliate marketing - Google, Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and local
2. Online Product Selling, Online Services
3. Page View
4. Ad click
5. You tube - Now times it is trending

and the income is in dollars

We all have fantasies about making money online and getting rich in just a couple of months but in reality, we aren't going anywhere without working our ass off. Start working. Start putting more into your craft. Start building what you want to build. Take Action now. It will take a long time to have results but it will be worth it

I've wondered about that myself, and whether there is any way to verify what they have said. I have also wondered how it is possible to get to those super marketers, if true, in order to offer them products and services to sell, since I'm primarily a writer (over 100 published in areas of self-help, inspiration, popular business, marketing, etc) and write books for others, and rather than sell my own books and services directly, I'd rather link up with one of these successful sellers for myself and for my clients for whom I have written books. Any thoughts on contacting these super sellers and also verifying whether they really are.

Oh, one more thing.

Hard work is not a must. This is a myth.

Doing the right things is a must. Hard work is a validation process where you start, fail, start again until you discover how to actually do it. In practice, 20% of all work produces 80% of results. However, up until the level of mastery, it is a bit hard to know what those 20% is.

Every successful marketer can look back and say "If I did this and this and that when I was just getting started, I could have done all of this in 1 year instead of 5". This is true in all areas of life, not just marketing.

In life, you work hard so you can discover how to work easy. You put in 100 hours just so you discover a way to do it in ten hours. The irony is that most people are so fixed on their idea of "work hard, work hard, work hard" that they forget that there is also a "work smart" mode.

There are some great online teachers who have the track record with their students.

That's what you should be looking for.

There are also some people claiming to have all the answers who clearly don't.

Ultimately you need to lose the "shiny object" syndrome.

Stop thinking of buying the latest thing and just find one teacher who really has the goods who you can relate to, knuckle down and get really great at doing ONE thing.

That works over and over to help people going from zero to making good money online.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

You must be very careful when you buy things online as for sure that people fake numbers only to convince people to buy teir products .I see people telling that thei was making 2000$ per day but i see they was disperated that people to buy their products .When you are making 2000$ per day you are not so disperated to sell a products and buy and loose a lot of time .But thei are also people that they make money and they want to help

This is why I never buy "systems" anymore.. I'll only buy a book or course on a specific skill I need in order to succeed online (i.e. programming, social media, etc.) As for SEO, I stopped doing it altogether.. I just write whatever I want to write and don't bother emailing others or spamming forums to build backlinks except maybe a few very targeted blogs or forums. I just put out great content and then try to bring in as many people who are interested in the content as possible.

Am I making enough from IM to live off of? No, not yet. Am I doing better with less effort than following some guru's "system"? Most definitely.

In 2004, I created an online service that earned me virtually nothing for close to two years and I worked extremely hard, not giving up. It started picking up momentum and then started snowballing in years 3 and onward and it made me a great income for close to 10 years thereafter. I sold it in 2009 and have lived on the royalties from the sale till June of 2016.


Two years ago, I started working on new services online and no income for over a year but again, I continue to work hard at it and slowly, each month now, I see a steady growth in income and I know this venture will also succeed as I continue to work at it and learn what works and doesn't work and continue to work at building awareness of it online.


My bottom line thought... Succeeding online is doable over time but it takes hard work over time to get there. Getting rich fast is rare-you have to get really lucky. Many people don't have it in them to succeed. It takes time to learn how to do things right and you have to really want it to get there.


This work is not for the faint at heart. But if you have it inside to gut it out and keep going, YOU WILL MAKE IT!

Always remember life is not a Race it is a Marathon. There are no get rich quick schemes. If that were true everyone would be rich. You work hard and eventually after you have learned from your failures you harness the tools for success.

Believe me, People do make a lot of money working online. I myself had some big cash back in the day when facebook spams used to work, and I would often find people dishing out these methods. Though, there is no guarantee whether they will work or not.

In many cases, they may be at the right spot, at the right time that led to the success. And to multiply the success they might just publish their methods like this.

And moreover the ones who claims to have earned $30k a month have worked really hard for it. Most people may purchase the method, but as long as they don't devote enough time to work on it. It'll just be a waste of time.

You will never find an exact blueprint you can follow for success. Every person has a different set of skills, networks, experiences, and ambitions. (And sometimes the marketer had a lot of luck on their side.)

Marketers know this. They know that even if they tell you the exact way they made money, you'll never be able to duplicate it.

Just like MLMers hype the "overnight success stories," but fail to mention that the OSS had built a network of people for 20 years prior to joining the MLM.

HOWEVER --

You get to the point where you'll look at a method and you'll be able to take the method that is taught and put your own twist on it (because of your skills, networks, experiences, and ambitions), and then make it work for you.

Unfortunately, that comes with experience, and it won't happen overnight.

I purposely avoid producing "blueprint"-type products. I produce more of the "overall plan"-type of products. I want my methods to make a light bulb go off, like saying, "Oh! Shay did X, but I could do Y!" Not making you feel like you have to follow each little step exactly to be successful.

But I find that for a lot of people, having that initial plan really does help give them a starting point instead of having to come up with an original plan from scratch. (Newbies have no idea where to even start.)

Hope this helps a little bit.

Edited to add: You don't even have to buy a product to get a "blueprint" idea for a business. The WF has a number of posts that lay out step-by-step plans.

Well, all of this was not with the thought of purchasing a system per se - but - just questioning the validity of a claim whereby one says they made $30,000 per month or $10,000 per month and then offering to show you what they did to do so.

From what I saw, the person lured in a student by showing that "the big check" from their efforts. They don't say that the check was gross and not net. They show a check for one time (example May) but seem to be silent when it comes to showing checks for Jun, July, Aug, etc.

As mentioned before, I saw an individual use Google Analytics (real-time) to show that he was getting a huge amount of traffic within minutes and got many conversions. However, it was not shown that the traffic was from India, the Philippines, etc. Depending on the offer being made, it could be a good or bad thing though ...

I know to look out for scams. I remember paying $7 for a WSO that I had fully expected to provide information only to find that 70% was devoted to the advertisement of the seller's services and the other 30% was rubbish I could not use in any way, shape or form. Since then, I no longer buy PDF-based WSO's. This year, I am obtaining information from additional / outside sources. The knowledge makes more sense to me.

I know that one has to work smart and not hard. Within each class or YT Video, there are kernels of truth that one can apply. I suppose it just takes time to understand and apply it effectively.

As far as a mentor goes, I have not seen any focus in this area on the forum. I don't see any mention in threads of something like -"After working with person X for Y months, I went from [low monthly rate] to [ high monthly rate ]". Although - I must admit with my cynicism, I probably would seek out how long the student had actually been a member of the forum, look at old threads to see how he/she struggled to do the work, then how the person helped them to improve significantly.

Again, my thoughts were not to purchase "a system" but to get an idea as to whether or not such claims were realistic - and - if so, under what conditions and for how long.

TIA

Another thing you have to realize is that among the successful there is a growth mindset.

They may see there is money-making opportunity is selling their knowledge. They can then use that extra stream of income to put into other businesses.

They also aren't scared of too many taking advantage of their intial business model because: 1. Most don't take action and 2. If a sudden shift should change they don't have the gumption to pivot

Parts of this discussion remind me of the famous adage about internet marketing: "97% who attempt online marketing fail."

I think the primary reason for failing is that people give up much too soon. And I think a lot of people are attracted to the idea of getting rich quickly with a $20 investment. A few bad and costly experiences and they are scarred for life. Emails related to the subject are ignored or terminated. Cynicism and negativity become the mindset.

I have noted elsewhere that some internet territory can still summon up images of the wild, wild west of yesteryear. Running into highway robbers, snake oil salesmen and gunslingers is not uncommon.

If internet marketing is something you want to do badly enough you'll stick with it and eventually find the right course, mentor and/or community.

Hard work is often required and, to the resentment of many, an investment in the growth of your business is often part of the deal.

Patience and determination are necessary qualities to develop. Something to consider when thinking about resolutions for 2017.

Easy to answer. If I have a established business that has a list of 500,000 people and I have a professional email sending my big list to a professional built website that has many JV's also doing the same for me to make a lot of money the answer is yes BUT Is it possible for someone who has no list and no JV's to help do the same even if i am given the same copy of the website and the exact same copy of the email make the same. Not a hope in hell. But you can take the course and build your list and also use his techniques and over a time period you can build a business that will make you a income. Now saying that a lot of people are now making a living online because of hard work and spending time to learn and put together what others are doing. But I am 100% sure you will not make it if you do not put the work into it.

the problem is, so many people want shiny button instead of investing either their time or their money. I open a thread, where you can build established youtube channel in 1 year, as far as I open it, only 2-3 people interested. Why ? because it need a damn year before people see the result..

the funny thing is, when a year passed, they still in the same place. while other people business grows ..

so many people in the internet are lazy or greedy, that's why sometimes selling the 'shiny-one-click-success-button' is easier than selling guide how to work your ass or investing your money to build passive income online

Dean