I think most that provide courses, coaching, etc... are providing strategies that are not affected by others doing as well because the market is big enough to support it. Otherwise, it would be foolish. Also, you can teach someone A-Z what you are doing that is working, however, there will be steps in the process that the user will have their own inputs.

Look at Facebook for example. You could show someone everything there is to know. But they will have their own offers, ads, audiences, etc... They were taught the correct strategies, they have their own projects and the market is certainly big enough, so there would be no effect on the person doing the teaching.

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I author a book that does extremely well. I am happy to discuss exactly how I created it and encourage others to do the same as I did by writing their own book.

How is my sharing the information about what I did to be successful going to diminish my published book? It's protected by copyright. My knowledge, background, writing style and information in the book are certainly different than anyone else's book is going to be.

Sometimes sharing your own path to success helps to motivate and show others a way to be profitable online.

Your post may be true in some circumstances ... but clearly not in every situation as you seem to imply.

Steve

Looks like your glass with water is not even half empty. Almost unfilled.
Competition is everywhere and that's great because inspire us to be better every day.
There's one of the greatest books describing the above mentioned subject among others:
"Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Solo.
Read it, if you do, you'll be glad you did.

They share their million dollar secret out of the goodness of their hearts, or they want to help humanity, or screw them over for a fast buck?

Yes, l agree, maybe sharing it, would help some, but the risk of someone thrashing it, and leaving you destitute is a real worry.

I would gladly share the steps l took to find it, but share the actual concept, nope.


Yes, $100 a month, and 4 months later when the video and audio is running out of puff, and they still havn't show their members how to do it, it is time to leave.

I can see the OPs point but everything has it's own variables involved.

Sometimes I get ideas I can not possibly carry them all out so I share them freely. And I always get more.

Once I created a post that issued a challenge to Create Domains for any Niche someone suggested.

Some thought I was crazy but for me it was fun like some people love doing crossword puzzles.

I began to get suggestions and would come right back with catchy keyword domain that popped into my head and was available. I really had no ulterior motive the idea just popped in my head to create that post. And a couple of them I know for sure I could have flipped for cash.

But I got thanked by someone who was first very curious and doubtful trying to figure out what I was up to. That was good feeling.

I do have to share that also out of no where I began getting PMs from people asking me to create domains for them and I ended up making $1000 doing that on that side but I gave them alot more value than they paid I am sure of it.

That was just an unplanned result of giving to the universe I think.

Now I do remember a guy once here on the forum that made some money and had some success with some Tactic he was using by going to live Conventions I can not remember the exact details but he was going to conventions and handing out flyers and generating leads and business.

He shared everything in a post and gave good follow up as well.

But weeks went by and I went back to that post and he said the method no longer works and they have banned all flyers from those types of conventions. They had actually made a new policy just aimed at his unique tactic. No more Tactic.

I felt for the guy. Because he was trying to help others. And ended up losing an income stream.

There was a WSO a fellow warrior shared about Adult Coloring Books and it was a hot selling WSO but I think it had its peak but before it did he made a small mint on the topic.

I do not know if he ever actually even made an Adult Coloring Book but he cleverly cashed in on a Trend for offering others a quality resource to learn from and cash in on while it was hot. That is what we all are Marketing Entrepreneurs.

We each have to make a judgment call with each scenario.

It is like the two Samurai. The Student comes back to Fight the Master and the Master says I taught you everything you know but not everything I know.

He saved some, he did not give it all away.

Maybe he would offer that additional expertise in a Premium offer.

IMO the market has a very low chance of getting oversaturated, regardless of the technique, strategy, or method. Not so much by the sheer number of people interested in MMO, OM, or NM, it's more the fact that the number of people that take action on the information is minimal (4%)

You'd have to be a halfwit to buy anything claiming it will make you rich.

You know it's a scam, so what, forget about it. Not your problem.

Look for legit stuff that fills in the blanks on your own projects, example, building a website, css, hosting, etc... Now in order to have your own project you've got to be using your own head which again cancels out all the desperate money claims/hype.

It's sort of like ad blindness (that's a real thing), after a while you'll stop looking at threads with dollar signs in the thread title, well, except when you want a good lol.

It's not just IM. Way before the Internet and IM there's been snake oil salesman - almost anywhere there's easy money to be made.

You're not their target market, they want self-selecting newbies.

And it's not just in the MMO niche of IM... For example, there's a difference between selling an SEO service to a who client understands it's about playing the long-game, and selling the same service under the promise that their website will quickly hit the top of Google for million-dollar keywords.

Most people won't show it. People could have different motivations behind their actions. Some people may just want to do it so they can brag. While others may do it so they can make another business out of it.

The business they succeeded in may have just become too competitive for them, so it is a possibility that they are just teaching "what used to work" instead of teaching an old dog new tricks (in this case, themselves).

Or as Steve said, there are many industries where people who have done well would love to share their stories so they can motivate others. We as humans have needs and getting respect and recognition is a basic need.

Some people may simply do it because they have reached the pinnacle of success and now want to share it with others.

And finally, you can share all you want; but in most businesses, it is the actual execution that matters. There are millions of ideas out there, but only a few come to fruition. Remember, Orkut was doing the same thing Facebook does and became popular before Facebook?

very interesting post. To this point, I would like to ask what you think about business mentors, who tell you how to work and to do your business or how to make it successful.

The tricks, the "Code" and magic formula products are mostly hype. I know lead generation, and I know how to make it work. I share that with people, but the really awesome things I know...I don't even tell my wife.

Good techniques get warn out and abused to the point of becoming useless so I discover things for myself. Share the tip of iceberg and keep the rest for myself.

Very sad to see people making less then $100 per month and create "courses" that teach others how to earn $1,000's per month.

It's like the blind leading the blind and that it why so many people are failing.

I create teams based on a very powerful affiliate offer.

And my job as a start up coach is to help those on my team (who are willing to help themselves).

So I am basically sharing 'energy' all the time.

I share one on one with my personal team and I share on you tube and I share on Facebook.

Hell...I a even share here.

Energy is what you put out to the marketplace.

Some call it 'reciprocal' energy.

Karma if you will!

But it doesn't stop with only the type of energy that you put out online.

The energy that you put out in your personal life matters even more.

Success online is a form of Freedom.

But no one will get success (what ever that means to you) without learning how to conduct ourselves.

How we live and especially how we are being around others on AND off line is a very very important matter indeed.

That would be true if everyone who bought your course had the same drive and determination as you have. Most people will be given the blueprint on how to make money online but when they hit some road blocks or start losing money they give up right away and move on to something else.

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Lets just look at this logically. If you make a decent amount of money, you can do what you want, right? Well after a while, it's human nature to want to keep busy. For some that means sharing knowledge. Also, most people here sell their methods to make fast money. There really aren't many people who claim to make that amount who have $1 wsos. But the point I'm trying to get across is for the uber rich, having everything can get, well, boring. Look at celebrities who give away their time and knowledge.

I think in regards to this place, people want to make fast money. That's why they sell. It doesn't mean their methods aren't valid.

Unless of course, you're NOT making all that money and you try to create a "Cash Cow," product by telling other people that you ARE making it and that you'll show them how to do the same thing if they buy your "product."

The real truth is people get paid for IMPLEMENTATION not information.

I can share with you all the secrets of my business but would you be able to implement?

You have to have the knowledge and be able to use that knowledge practically to solve people's problems.

I get paid for the implementation of my knowledge and the results my business produces.

Best regards,

Ozi

Every business is complex & need right steps in order to succeed. I think IM too, so the IM guru shared their secret, but it might only 0.00001% people could have success and get the result that they invested for.

So by sharing what you know doesnt means that every one could simple copy and succeed, needs lots of factors in order to succeed, Motivation, Integrity, Persistent, etc (you may name it from a-z)

By sharing the IM guru enriched the other's mind about IM (although only small percentage of IM guru is a real guru, you know what i mean) also making them gets more money and i think it is a fair exchange.

Best,

Xen

A lot of the "get in cheap products" are old cash cows that don't work anymore.

So they milk a cash cow, cash cow is not making any more money, so now sell a course on how I crushed it with cash cow.

7 eleven, mcdonalds, subway, ups, anytime fitness, great clips etc etc etc all sell cash cows (some in patty form) and still make money. So whilst I agree that most of what is said is rubbish (especially in IM and MMO) you can't say no one.

This has also been my overall conclusion; however, I will add that there are legitimate course out there which teach (rarely) new strategies and rehashed time tested strategies that do work.

The catch is that how those strategies are implemented varies for each individual and their unique situation... so alas... testing testing and testing!!

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The "Get Rich" niche, which you call IM, and which is just a tiny subsection of it as Internet Marketing is not restricted to teaching, but includes Amazon, eBay, AliExpress, ... is primarily three things.

First, its outright scams where guys using mathematics take variables to be unrealistically high (ie: if only 1 in 5 visitors buy this product, solo ads will send 100,000 visitors for 1 cents each and these are trained buyers, lol) and only complete fools fall for that.

Second, far more common, is "feel good" stuff, which is nonsense to me but seems to have a lot of fans who wish to delude themselves that somehow they will seriously get rich overnight. This is not much different from compulsive gamblers, or people who play lottery. Perhaps they are incredibly optimistic, perhaps they just need some kind of hope to get through lives they dislike.

Third, is type of thing I am interested in, and that is things which might point me in direction of new service I have not heard about. For example I found out about Gumroad and Sellfy here, and both made me a lot of money. Actual WSO's were terrible, something like "Make 100,000 in one day" or whatever, but that part is irrelevant. Part which matters is the process, the steps, the tutorials. Sometimes most unexpected Clickbank garbage product happens to have just few lines worth far more to me than entire product, and those few lines tell me new method to obtain USA verification numbers, or new source for cheap or free proxies, or some new trick on backlink building or quicker way to rank my videos.

However you look at it, at the end of the day, it is 100% up to you what information is worth. If person is complete newbie, literally ANY course explaining funnels will be useful, and while they can go learn that free, perhaps they are new to internet, do not know how, and $7 WSO is best course of action for them.

If you take things at face value instead of read between the lines, well then you will learn the hard way. That is all there is to it.

In certain markets/models, the OP has a valid point.

Methods that work very well when almost no one is using them quit working when many people are using them and the others know about them.

Here's an example.

A couple of decades ago, I used to spend a lot of time hanging around horse tracks. I studied the various methods professional handicappers used, and came up with my own model using a mathematical concept called "curve fitting".

Without getting too technical, I could enter data from the horses' past performances, workouts, etc. and come up with a numeric rating for each horse in a race. I could then take those ratings and compare them in a similar fashion and have a very good idea of which horses had a chance.

I even wrote a computer program to do the number crunching and spit out neat charts for each race on the card.

My best day with this model, I hit on 10/12 winners. Even on a bad day, I'd make enough to pay my gas, parking, entrance and food/beverage tab.

The key was having information other people didn't.

Then two things blew my method out of the water.

First, the folks who publish Daily Racing Form started making the past performances available as a downloadable data file, so the tedious manual data entry that discouraged many from trying to do what I did was no longer an obstacle.

Second, and this was the real killer, was when DRF started printing information similar to my ratings right in the DRF. Now everyone had access to the same information.

Could I still pick winners? Yes.

Were the payoffs large enough to make the method profitable? No.

What would once be a 3-1 or 5-1 payoff was suddenly even money. You had to maintain 50% wins just to break even. I quit going to the track not long after that.

On the other hand, if you have a methodology for making a local pizza place more profitable, you won't kill the golden goose by teaching other pizza makers to run better.

So, should you keep your cards close to your vest? Depends on how showing your hand affects your chances of winning.

I agree. If you have a working system that earns you that kind of money, you would surely not give it away for free, or even share at all. Everyone that claims otherwise sounds like a scam.

If you can share the information without hurting your original income stream then it makes sense to sell the info.

I wouldn't say that sharing your knowledge kills your business. I would say quite the opposite! Of course it depends on the market, but sharing some know-how, giving some tips and tricks, just enough to get people's attention and stimulate their thinking, it might allow the industry to push further the boundaries, it will create this healthy competition where you give something, have someone come up with a modification or another solution, you need to rethink again your ideas, come up with new, better solutions, ideas etc, and so it goes on. The perfect example can be in software developer industry - there are tons of free materials available or courses conducted by software houses. Everybody could do it, if they cared enough to learn. Let's take elPassion case - they organize conferences, share their knowledge through workshops, even do courses for kids. They want the industry to grow and they have a brilliant approach. By sharing the knowledge now, they will grow kis that might come up with maybe even their own programming languages that will revolutionize the world of app creation! I think sharing some knowledge is always beneficial to everybody - the rest is on peoples' side - what they will do with this knowledge.

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Depends. All SUCCESSFUL ventures, new or different, will find competition and it is part of the business, IF you deal with the public and need customers, you can't hide it. Build something unique or Proprietary into it.

I guess it depends on how you define your cash cows. Eh? My 1000 dollar a day business went both ways...my OFF KEY SINGING telegram biz, was knocked off, but so was Western Onion, who tried to scale and franchise it, but, once people saw how lucrative it was, dozens popped up. So, you are right ABOUT competition and keeping some things close to vest.

My ResumesPLUS biz, also a 1000 bux a day deal, couldn't be knocked off, it was dependent on what I could do. So, I didn't mind sharing those details, because it was so localized, I couldn't have scaled it up but was quite happy to build it and sell it off and move on.

GordonJ

I give away my best info for free and premium. If I did not, I'd believe in lack and limitation, and would also be FEARful of competition, and I work for and with, not against. Be abundant; ya make a lot more money that way and never lose sleep either, as those competitive minded, fear-filled entrepreneurs are. When you give away the secrets to the cash cow you show the way for all to get rich and you also get to investigate your fears concerning competition, your terror of loss.....all that good stuff

It's always amusing watching people who have never done
something saying... with a great deal of sincerity and authoritative
tones... that it can't be done.

There is nothing the least bit mysterious or dodgy about a successful
person sharing or selling books and courses that teach others how to
emulate their success.

The trick is be be astute enough to be able to discern the difference
between the legitimate teachers and the one off scammers.

Courses only support basic knowledge, the most common. It is important for the learner to acquire and distill knowledge for himself and draw experiences for himself.
Not going to school is good. It depends on the ability of each other.

depends on the cash cow.

I've seen people's cash cows dry up quickly, selling a course could be just diversifying the income stream. Besides, 99% either won't take action or if they would they give up too soon and quickly

Also, most cash cows nowadays aren't that original

OP, i'm afraid it's never that black and white. This really depends on the person and the industry in question.

The reality is that many people love to read and learn, but very few have the courage to take action.

Back in 2011, a WF member released a report encouraging people to write erotica and romance stories on Kindle. Guess what? It was (and still is) hugely profitable.... even after all these years and the immense saturation that followed.

Point is, he wasn't afraid to disclose the market back then, even when most marketers hadn't yet explored it to the fullest. I read his report, I applied it, and I made money that very same month. And i'm sure my success did not affect his.

Elvis

this is so true...with so many IM ventures all around the Internet, it has got next to impossible to cut through the wave and make your own mark in the hearts of potential customers...nowadays either an extremely unique product could work in your favor, or possibly it is the years of credibility in Internet Marketing that helps you build trustworthiness within no time