Bad News For Newbies?

Martin, If we go with your definitions, then the OP is bad wrong. It would suggest that nothing ever taught was still valid. That's obviously not what he meant. It's not entirely clear that he meant what he said as anything more than a discussion point.

Skills don't expire. They can still be classed as "secrets," in the sense that some of them are non-obvious and extremely effective. I used to do things with sales copy that hadn't been written about, and those things worked well. The ones that don't get talked about a lot still work very well.

There are techniques, which tend to have longer life spans, but they can become less effective in specific markets when they become too familiar. In the IM world, those would be things like pop-ups, big red headlines, countdown timers, etc. They still work, but not the way they once did - in this market.

Then there are exploits. MFA site generators are a classic example. Those tend to be shared among a small group of people first, and then rolled out to larger markets once the systems are refined. Even if they weren't likely to burn out quickly before that, the attention they draw, and the resulting excesses that come with it, get people moving to close them down.

The latter is often what makes it look like the techniques were sold after they'd burned out. The thing that kills exploits is not that people don't do anything with them. It's that folks who believe in the magic button actually do use them. Lots of people. They create pressures on the system that have to be addressed.

This almost always involves automation. In the case of "article marketing," (read: mass posting of nearly illegible garbage for link juice), that automation can be human-powered.

Short form: Most of the time, the act of selling such a technique is what causes it to become less effective. The OP has put the cause after the effect.


Paul