ebooks the great scam?

hahaha! Where do I buy it?

Robert

Your OP says a lot more about you than it does about ebooks.

I make a healthy full time income on the Internet and in large part that is due to 'crap' I read in ebooks.

You get out of things about as much as you are prepared to put in.

Martin

There are so many issues here, I don't know which one to address first. But
I am going to do this without dumping on the OP, because believe it or not,
I understand where he is coming from and his frustration assuming that he
is not lazy and is not looking for something to do the work for him.

So having said that, let's begin with the core of the problem.

1. The Plan

Most people who are buying info products, especially the ones first starting
out don't have any kind of a plan. They've heard that they can make money
online and are looking for something to help them, but they don't know what
on many levels including what type of book they need or, for that matter,
what they even want to get into.

In other words, they're walking through a book store looking for a book on
cooking when they don't even know what kinds of foods there are to cook
and haven't eaten anything because they live on water. Yes, I know,
a sci fi example, but it's essentially what newbies do...totally and utterly
clueless.

The lack of a plan to begin with is ultimately going to lead to disaster
because anything they buy, unless they're very lucky, isn't going to give
them what they want. Why? Again, they don't know what they want.

Let's move onto issue number 2.

2. Product Quality

This is actually very subjective. Trust me on this. I can show two people
the same ebook and one will say it's great while the other will say it's crap.

However, having said that, from my own experience, most ebooks do fall
into one of these categories.

A. Excellent - This is an ebook that is very well written and covers the
subject matter in great detail. Not only that, but it's easy to understand
and follow. These books are the minority however.

B. Good - These books are well written and cover the material sufficiently
but there are little problems such as certain things not explained well
enough. Usually these books suffer from trying to do too much. I am
guilty of this quite often. I think the majority of ebooks written by a
good product creator fall into this category.

C. Fair - These books have some useful info but usually there are too many
missing pieces and the books themselves aren't written all that well. In
order to get something out of them, you already have to be pretty
knowledgeable about the subject matter or able to pull out the good
stuff. I'm very good at doing this but it took me years to develop this
skill. Also, these books tend to have a lot of filler that could have been
left out.

D. Poor - These books have almost no redeeming value at all. You will
be lucky to find one of two nuggets in them. Most of these are very short
reports and typically thrown together.

F. Fail - There is no words to describe these books. They are usually
nothing but bullet points that explain nothing and should have never
been created in the first place. Yes, I have seen these. Thank God, not
too many.

Notice I said nothing about whether or not the info in any of these books
is in another book.

Just because something is in a book that you read somewhere else
doesn't mean it's crap. And this is where we get to number 3.

3. Expectations

Imagine your friend says he's fixing you up with a girl. You ask him what
she looks like and he tells you she's pretty and nice. In your mind, you
have this vision of Tyra Banks. Instead she looks more like Debbie Morgan,
who is no ugly chick. But she's no Tyra Banks.

Here you have a perfectly usable product but because it doesn't meet
with your expectations, you slam it.

If you looking for a million dollar miracle out of a $27 ebook, you are
probably going to be disappointed.

Nitro Marketing Blueprint is one of the best products I ever got. It's about
$237. If you expect to get THAT quality and amount of detail out of a $27
ebook then you really have to take an objective look at your expectations.

4. Your Own Ability To Learn

I hate to say this, but I don't care how good a book is. Each person has
their own learning capacity. I know people who would look at Nitro
Marketing Blueprint and get nothing out of it because they don't have
the capacity to learn.

Is that product then worth $237 to them?

Probably not. It's no fault of the product and it's not their fault either.

Not everybody is cut out for this. So when you factor in the ability of
the person reading the book, that plays a big part in how useful the book
itself is.

I've read (supposedly) great technical manuals that were so far over my
head that I just had to put them down.

Does that mean they sucked?

No. It just means I couldn't make use of them. Why?

Brings us to number 5.

5. Experience Level

If you are trying to learn how to do advanced PPC tactics, don't you
think it would be a good idea to FIRST learn how to research keywords?

Some stuff out there is SO advanced that the ONLY way you're going to
get something out of it is IF you have prior training in that area.

Problem is, with info products, unlike text books in school, you rarely will
see titles like:

PPC For Beginners
PPC For Intermediates
PPC For Advanced

There is no freaking regulation in this industry like there is in the school
systems. So you essentially take your chances with ANY book you get
because quite honestly, until you open it, you really don't know what
you're getting and IF it is or ISN'T going to be below, at, or above your
current learning level.

And the above 5 things are just the tip of this iceberg. But I'm stopping
here because I don't want this to turn into a book.

Bottom Line

Have a plan. Have some idea of what it is you want to learn FIRST.

Once you do that, you'll have a better chance of picking something that
is actually going to help you execute that plan.

If you buy a book and it doesn't do for you what you expected it to do,
ask for a refund. The book itself may or may not be good.

What it isn't is good for you.

That's all that matters.

If you have time, leave feedback for the product creator so he can get
some kind of idea of where his book failed.

A product creator who actually cares will look to see if he can improve
his product.

But ultimately, the consumer has the responsibility to hold the product
creator accountable.

Don't like the book? Didn't help you?

Refund it. It's that simple.

Now, to answer the OPs question.

There is good and bad everywhere. I have gotten my share or good ebooks
and bad ones. The key is taking the good that you find and using it and
NOT bitching about the bad. It serves no purpose other than to get
yourself annoyed.

Don't complain. Do something about it. Stop buying.

It's really that simple.

So there might be stuff in them that has been said before.

My guess is that most people complaining about them are the ones that read them and then ..... sit there thinking about it for a day or 2 and then go off to buy another .... at this point they think about it again and still do sod all about it.

Then they complain it doesnt work when in reality they forgot that they might actually have to work and God forbid ... maybe even do a little bit of original thinking for themselves along the way.

Nothing wrong with ebooks/courses or whatever ... its the people who keep buying them and then complaining ... that need to take a step back and look at their OWN work ethic.

Edit: I've been as guilty as anybody for just sitting there staring at the screen, getting nothing done ... its when you wake up and tell yourself nothing aint going to change untill you change... thats when the good stuff starts to happen.

Your two posts cancel each other out.

George Wright

Not true in all markets, although overall authors/writers of eBooks tend to cut more corners as compared to those who publish in print.

I worked with a successful author who published many books through a traditional publishing company for years and always had well polished final products. The moment he went off on his own and came out with his first eBook it was full of typos, odd sentences structures, etc, it was a mess basically. His take on it was that it was good enough for an eBook. Considering that the cost to put together an ebook is next to nothing, and that corrections and revisions cost next to nothing as well. It's far easier to put together a low quality to mediocre ebook, test the market to see if anyone is interested. If so, improve it when complaints start to come in. If not, move on to the next one.

I don't see this changing anytime soon. However, in the ebook world, the author is generally more active in his field, has a blog and checks his emails often so a direct follow up and additional support are never too far away. And for when that's not the case, if they're selling through Clickbank, you can almost always get your money back. Which is true of most traditional media as well.

This sort of thing has happened to me. I, in effect, spent $47 on a WSO that had a LOT of stuff in it that a previous WSO had covered. BUT... it had a real nugget not in the other WSO and that, to me, ended-up being worth several hundred dollars.

Of course not every e-book is a masterpiece of wit, wisdom, and magic formulas for getting rich overnight. But even the poorest of them has hidden within it a useful tip. If you take nothing else away with you, then gain the experience of how not to write an e-book.

If you look for the nuggets, and apply them diligently to your area of interest, you will find the profits you seek. And, as someone said earlier, read the reviews before you buy.

As the mama skunk said, "Just my 2 scents."