Do You Think Internet Marketers Are Honest With You?

I don't know but, when you concentrate on the negative... that's what seems to stand out in your life & business. When you concentrate on the positive.. well, that's what seems to be more prominent in your life.

Not saying be some wishy-washy hippy type flower child who thinks everything is peachy keen... be aware of the negative.. put it in its place... and FOCUS on the positive.

You get back what you put in.

PLP
tecHead

Most people are simply scared of failure, scared of the unknown. But what most fail to realize is that failure actually the best teacher out there.

There is no better way to learn Internet Marketing than to go out there and fail at it a bunch of times. Eventually (if you never give up) you WILL get to where you want to be. Always focus on increasing your education and equipping yourself with the best tools in the market place.

Oh, and don't forget to keep it real. People like other real people online, it's crazy with all the make money now schemes out there how much transparency can make the difference in getting that next sale.

To Keepin' It Really Real,
Matthew Neer

You actually stand out and gain a lot of credibility when you are honest... if you have a following, such as a list.

I know most marketers are not totally honest... most people won't admit faults that's the way it is, I know a bunch of marketers with IM email list yet only a few of them even mentioned the fact that sales are down due to increased launches and more list owners & coincidental those that did have loyal followings

Wow - I'm trying not to judge. However, the marketers who are leaving responses have great advice.........but have you noticed anything? Not ONE of them so far will be honest and tell the forum if they have ZERO sales, increasing sales or decreasing sales. They all have conveniently doged the question and left that part out of their reply.

Happy Trails.

Not everyone.
I have posted many times how my income was inconsistent
and that I do not believe in a set it up once and leave it
type system.
My business cannot be left alone for even a short amount of time.
I can blame changes in eBay, Google etc. but it depends on how hard I work it.
One needs to finally join the War Room Forum and keep seeking professional
advice. I woke up one day and said to myself "this is a business damnit"!

Yes my business swings like a pendulum many times but things are better ever since I decided to get serious.

Maybe that could be part of the problem. You think you know all the tricks.
As with most things in life, once you stop learning, things tend to get stale and plateau. Unless you learn something new or try something different there is only one way off the plateau.

Yes I have a site whose sales have dropped 75% in the last few months, and I am trying hard to rectify that - done split testing, extra marketing, reports and a load of other stuff and it's not making much difference. So I have decided to let it be and work on a new project.

I did not read the replies and I dont know what country you are from, but in the US and many parts of the world, the economy sucks. People have less credit and more people than you can imagine dont have jobs. If you have much less disposable income, then the basics of life become most important (food, shelter, etc).

Therefore, the entire country has seen income drop and many parts of the world. If you can make it through this time, you'll be GRAND in the future beyond your dreams. I was at a small event where Tony Robbins stood up and asked who in the room were feeling the pain from the economy.

The room was full of top marketers and top PD celebrities (Brian Tracy, Les Brown, people from the secret, Robert Allen, etc etc) and very few people raised their hands. Everyone acted like the economy was not effecting them. Want to know what Tony said to that? He said, "Bulls%$#!"

Make sure your offers and everything you do is top notched... and believeable.

Eric

I have admitted my failures a couple of times during my interviews and also some of my blog posts and chapters in newsletters since for me, it's better to look at where you started and then have it reflected over the successes that's experienced in the present time. Honestly, my list have increased when I got more interviews about my life, how I started outsourcing and what my experiences are.

Honesty points out to more advantages after all. But, you don't have to think negatively when you try to recall them -- you just have to admit you've learnt a lot from these failures and thus, you've considered them as challenges worth learning for.

To be honest, I've been earning more this year!

I've been making more sales, growing my list at a faster rate, and
I've been able to hire a part-time VA to work with me from the beginning
of this month.

I wouldn't say I've been working harder than before, but working smarter.
I hope this trend keeps up for me!

Unfortunately, like the OP said, there are quite a few who are feeling the
affects of the bad economy. I guess this is the time when you've got to
'hang in there' and look at some other options to market.

Regards,
Stuart

Internet Marketeers are skilled at selling a dream. A well written sales copy will excite you to buy, and the content you receive will inspire you to push on and do something.

So long as you use it as a starting point, rather than a blueprint to instant riches, then you won’t be let down.

If the “killer systems” all made their creators so much money they would focus using their own system, not on selling it.

I think the ones who spend an insane amount of time selling, "How to get rich in Internet Marketing" Books are the ones I don't always trust

i have often wondered about "how" much money these guru's really make ... and how much is out there and the bs that takes place behind the scenes ...

i was introduced to IM by a friend 3 year ago ... i have been running an experiment for about 2.5 years now

i setup a gmail account and whenever and wherever i see an optin form or free report or any subscription request - i sign up

i have 156034 emails in this box - an i see trends and alot of them

Eg) a product will be advertised by one IM "Guru" and within 2 hours i have exactly the same email from multiple "Guru's" with the same letter and same heading and of course different affiliate link

i have also notice how conventiently paypal and clickbank screenshots are used, perhaps whats most interesing is the convenient way that info is removed / blacked out due to T&C of the respective payment provider ...

just a simple google search and i can find

paypal public display proof payment - Google Search

clickbank public display proof payment - Google Search=

food for thought ... maybe all is not as it seems ...

I'm with tecHead. People come here for advice... but also inspiration. They want to learn how to succeed.

What's the point of passing on news that drags everyone down?

Some parts of my business have suffered - some have done well. When people are struggling, they will still buy something that helps them with the struggle.

Diversification is the key.

Any business based on a single sector is open to the trends of that sector. I'm not advocating jumping from one thing to the next but it's the old "all your eggs in one basket" syndrome. Get into a variety of markets and you stand a good chance of ironing out the highs and lows.

Always be open to new ideas. NOBODY knows ALL the tricks.

I'll forgive MarketingSpy for saying....'we know all the tricks' because
a confidence in ones own ability like that can only happen is you have
invested a lot of of time, $$, focus,....and I'm sure that you continue
to seek methods, skills etc.

The thing is we are doing ok. What I mean is we are not down...we are up a little bit on last year (which was a pretty good year anyway) and I know 'quite a few' tricks too (I'm deliberately understating here ;0))

But d'ya know what the best trick I've learned is????

Give the customers an outstanding and spectacular result.

I want their reaction to their purchase to be f&*^£$g h£&l wow! wow! wow!

We don't manage that all the time but that is what our daily focus is.

In these hard times I'm afraid that 'ordinary' or even 'pretty good' is nowhere near good enough. If your product doesn't make the buyers gasp.....then it ain't good enough.

Affiliate marketer?

Build some great value into whatever you are promoting to make it even better for the buyer. Then you'll see better results.

It's a questions of credibility . . . I will say it depends on what kind person or internet marketers you deal with. . . Internet Marketer that has a quality product, good name in internet marketing world an never fail to a product presented, I would say is a trustwothy people. . .

Failure is part of the business, however if someone is having constant failure, maybe it's time to look at the source and find out why

It seems like many of you are avoiding the question and
reflecting on what the OP said, rather than the question
he's asking. The question wasn't about judging him and
how he feels about his ability as a marketer (giving him
advice he never asked for) or giving wisdom about why
YOU think people don't reveal their failures.

This thread is about YOU.

Here' is is once again in case many of you missed it:

*Do you have ZERO monthly sales?
*Are your monthly sales decreasing?
*Are your monthly sales actually increasing?

Just seems like MOST of you are making the question
more complicated than it seems. Anyways, I'll answer:

Do you have zero monthly sales? No? I don't really
no how to answer this question...kinda funny to answer.

"Yes. I have ZERO monthly sales. Lol".

So, I think the right answer is "No". I have POSITIVE
monthly sales across the board.

*Are your monthly sales decreasing? Not by a long
shot. It grows exponentially. I don't know what all the
fuss is about the economy and it affecting people. I'm
confused because, it doesn't affect me -- at all.

Sales are going up BECAUSE I market, sell, and promote.

It's foolish to stop promoting because sales are going
down. In many cases, that's the reason WHY sales are
down. Not because of the economy. People are going to
spend money regardless, but that's just my opinion.

*Are your monthly sales actually increasing? Yes.
I should be keeping better track of my finances, but I
know from last checking that it's going up pretty fast.

It's going to explode in the next 2 weeks and, I know
this for a fact with my offline marketing projects.

However, I won't lie and say I'm already where I want
to be...although, I've been told many times that people
wish they were where I am. And, at one time I remember
wishing I was where I am now...

funny how that works.

P.S. I guess I should add that I'm far from perfection. 3
weeks ago I had a failed direct mail campaign I was a
little pissed about for 2 days straight. Went on a binge
of ice cream and...came back 3 days after ready to go
at it again.

Only this time, I know what I did wrong and what to do
this time around. Mistakes I could have avoided, I made
anyway and learned from them...but in no way did it
cross my mind to give it up because of failure.

Some of my affiliate sales have dropped while others have risen. I also do Network Marketing as well and the affiliate sales of the tools to those who do network marketing are up quite significantly this year and so is recruitment. I am not sure if it is that people are looking more and more to earn additional income from home or if I am just becoming that much better of a marketer.

I seem to be doing well on the months I put the most effort in, when I slack so do sales, so for me it's still I get what I put in. *shrugs*

Internet marketers are selling a dream and a method. Its up to the individual to adapt that method, make it unique and then scale it.

Copying a blueprint word for word is a fine way of learning, but only by innovating can you make real money from it.

tecHead, I like your take.

I am an opportunity not failure guy. By focusing on each opportunity you extract the benefit and profit from it quickly instead of getting caught up on the "F" word.

As for honesty it's the same as in any walk of life. Some people will lie, others will tell the truth. No different than with IM.

Ryan Biddulph

First, the smartass answer...

I'm not currently promoting any continuity products, so I can say truthfully that I ZERO monthly sales. Which means those monthly sales are neither increasing nor decreasing.

Now that I have that out of my system...

I have sites that have failed. The bursting of the real estate bubble pretty much wiped out one of my sites. I have other sites, or rather I had other sites, that tanked for a variety of reasons. I don't count those as failures, just things I tried that either didn't work or stopped working. I move on.

Show me a warrior with no battle scars, and I'll show you a warrior who won't go into battle...

I believe that some marketers are lying. Not every one, I personally believe in honesty. I haven't used all the products I promote, but I won't say that I've used it if I haven't.

As far as sales go: I've never sold a Clickbank product to date. I had the best sales ever on Zazzle due to one product that I had that is a father's day product. I need to make a matching mother's day product for next year. It was better than my December sales. I also found one niche for selling books that is pretty hot, I sold a lot last month.

I am ever-learning; summer is my big time for promotion, as I homeschool the rest of the year, which reduces the time I can work.

I don't make much yet; that I will admit. I think that I've broken the $75/month mark, and I'm shooting for making $100/month. That may not be much, but my view is, as long as it's increasing, then I'm on the right track. My goal is to increase the rate at which my business grows by working smarter.

I don't know about yall but my business has been expanding.

Last month I broke all of my previous records and generated over 4k in a month.

Now, I do admit however that I created a site and it was a total flop but why should I have to worry about it. I make more money than last month so it doesn't matter if I failed with one website.