More People Being Priced Out Of Internet Marketing?

People who are incapable of thinking for themselves and of making sound purchasing decisions will most likely not be the most brilliant players when it comes to starting a business.

Don't want too sound harsh, but the reality is that if you're the type of person who chases magic bullets and who believes every word typed on a computer screen, it's likely that you won't have what it takes to start or run a successful business.

I don't condone "taking advantage" of this type of buyer, but if people were smarter about what they buy, this type of product (you know, the products that promise everything -- the types of products that dreamers chase after) wouldn't exist.

I said it on the first page ... all you need is a domain and a host and a GOOD IDEA and/or PRODUCT. But many newbies are looking for the NO WORK method of making cash and wouldn't recognize a GOOD IDEA if it hit them upside the head.

Like Michael suggested, a good idea to them is any shortcut that will put a few bucks into their Paypal accounts, like taking PLR and slapping a new cover on it and calling it a product, or taking public domain or PLR and formatting for Kindle and uploading their "new book" along with the other hundred or so of the same BS info.

I think there are a lot of misconceptions about the costs of doing business with Internet Marketing. Yes, you can spend a LOT of money if you get involved with paid traffic before you understand the basics, but the costs of paid traffic can be a reasonable business cost, IF you understand your market and are paying attention as you go.

This concept is no different from a brick and mortar business. Sure, the costs of starting an online business are considerably less (no building lease, high electric, heating and cooling costs, etc...) but the ongping costs of ANY business are certainly similar. You still have marketing and advertising costs, and somewhere to host your business (online this is REALLY cheap compared to a conventional business location).

One of the keys to any business (physical or online) is evaluating the market and writing a decent business plan, so you can see just what you are getting yourself into. You know, the basics: What are you selling, who is going to buy it, how are you going to differentiate yourself in a potentially crowded market, how much capital do you have, how much start up and ongoing costs will be, how long until you expect to break even, and to turn a profit, and so on. These concepts haven't changed with IM, only ignored as people read or hear how easy they can be come millionaires overnight.

Frankly, if you want to become rich overnight, buy a lottery ticket and be very lucky. At least they only cost a buck a pop (most places) and you can keep trying every week without spending a fortune.

I've done both offline and online businesses, and the only reason I would do another conventional brick and mortar business again was for the daily interaction with the public. I can certainly make at least as much money online as I could with the same amount of personal time spent on a conventional business, but with the additional freedom that I don't really need to observe posted "hours of operation". With some scaling and outsourcing, it isn't all that difficult to take an existing online business and ramp it up to much higher levels. It all depends on what you want to do. However, don't count on making a million if you don't get some basic business education along the way. Online or offline, you still need to pay attention to the same things, making sure you stay in budget and generate more than you spend so you end up with a profit.

Given a lowball starting cost of at least 10 thousand dollars to get a regular physical business started, plus another few thousand a month to keep the doors open, building anything online is an incredible bargain.

Hosting, web site, autoresponder can all be easily had for under $50 a month until you really get a lot of traffic, and your time is your own. And yes, though it isn't my personal choice, you can still bootstrap yourself into business for next to nothing. One way to get yourself going if you are a writer could be to hire yourself out to generate the funds to expand into your own business, or to write titles for Kindle, Nook or other e-readers. If you start in an evergreen niche with some book titles, then use some low cost or free resources to promote the books, you can then build your IM empire using the profits.

Where I think the biggest disservice to the newbie is the proliferation of the high-hype, get rich overnight if you buy my magic bullet, autopilot, software that will do it all for you without any effort (or whatever the flavor of the day is right now). Often these are priced low enough that I consider them "throwaways". That is, when one doesn't meet the hype, you just forget about it and throw it away. Nothing gained, only lost the cost of a few trips to McD's for lunch... On the other hand, there are several "big ticket" programs that aren't much better in relation to delivering more than hope. Even for someone that has done a decent amount of up-front homework, these purchases can add up, and without a clear business plan, can rapidly drain the bank account of even a determined newbie...

IF you can come into the arena and learn the basics before spending a ton of money on poorly crafted and/or over hyped products, it IS possible to get a good IM business off the ground for very little out of pocket cost.

Compared to the costs of having a web site created for you not all that many years back, I really don't think the overall costs have really increased. On the contrary, the lower cost of web site creation, hosting, and such have made it a lot less expensive than entering the market 7 or 10 years ago. There's more competition now, and you need to have a better idea of the niche you want to operate in, but you can still get in for a reasonable price if you are willing to put in the work to get knowledge and experience, and are (somehow) able to avoid the worst of the hype and snake-oil salesmen along the way.