What I Hate About Internet Marketing

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I hate how a lot of marketers try to sell the idea to future customers of how they can be lazy & rich.

"Earn $2000/week working only 2 hours a day"

"Set & Forget Autopilot System Will Have You Earning 5-Figure Incomes Monthly"

"Step-By-Step System Takes All The Guess-Work and Leaves You With A Fat Bank Balance"

I understand it from a marketing stand point that the idea of being lazy and rich attracts both the lazy and the hard-working.

The lazy feel that, finally here's my chance to make money while I don't have to work hard.

The hard working feel that if lazy people can do it, I can do it 2x better!

Internet Marketing is hard work. Not in the physical sense (even though I'm sure typing all day burns a lot of calories :p) but in the sense that you have to research, write, and market. People need to destroy their idea of get-rich-quick, or make money without working hard.

I live by this rule "Don't expect something from nothing" so if you want to make a 5-Figure income, you better be willing to work for it.

Just a small rant
#main internet marketing discussion forum #hate #internet #marketing
  • good post, i agree, it was just the other day i was telling my friend that its nowhere near as easy as "they say"
  • Yeah that's annoying, but I'm sure it sells ebooks for the authors. They usually stress the following 3 things:
    1) Easy or very little work
    2) high pay
    3) Anyone can do it.

    Most of the ebooks or WSO's seem to say something along those lines.
    Steven
  • I totally agree with you but unfortunately the masses do not. Most people want what they want and they want it right this instant.

    I hate to say it but the types of people which are buying these types of products probably won't ever make it. The successful people are the ones who are willing to put in the time and effort required to learn what works and what doesn't.
  • I am with you. I hate it too.

    The promises are fine but the " easy ways...." and the " lazy ways...." puts me off. Perhaps Chris Rempel's Lazy Marketer thing should be an exception here.

    IM is certainly hard work and it might take a long time to make a mark here. That's reality -- take it or leave it...

    Ash
  • I am with you all the way. I was one of those that got drug into IM by the "you can make several thousand dollars a week if you follow these steps."

    I am in no way lazy, and I am willing to put in the time, but the truth is that there is a huge learning curve. Unless you get lucky with a killer project right away, it is going to take a great deal of time and effort to get anywhere.
  • I quit buying internet marketing products about a year ago. Not because the information is re-hased. Not because it's over-priced, and not even because you can find it for free if your willing to educate yourself, but simply because they like to sell to people the idea of easy income, when that's certainly not the case.
  • I agree 100%, but marketing is marketing... those phrases target the lazy people because those people are willing to buy quickly.

    Some people are always going to look for an easy way out... whether or not you market towards this is your prerogative.
  • Craig, it all depends on where you start out.

    If you're a complete newbie, any "Earn $2000/week working only 2 hours a day" system will NOT work for you, because you've got no grounding of experience.

    OTOH, if you're already making $1000 a week in IM, then that system may just work for you.

    If you're completely new you don't know what you don't know. So you end up saying that everything is a con. :-) Just about any money-making system WILL work, if you know enough to implement it effectively.

    For newbies: get a site online, and make ONE sale. Until you do that, NOTHING will work for you.

    Watch this video -- Success In Your Online Business (1 of 4)

    In that video, John Jonas tells it like it is, and truer words were never spoken. :-)

    Cheers

    Angela
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    • Angela - you can say this until you're cross-eyed with repetition, and there are millions who will refuse to hear it. Just check out some of the posts in the WF.

      Posts like "I've set up a blog and put up 3 unchanged PLR articles. It's been 48 hours and I STILL haven't made $100,000,000. This doesn't work! I'm giving up."

      Sadly, it appears that NOTHING trumps "The Magic Instant Bullet of Fame and Wealth".

      On a brighter note: more profits and success for those who are prepared to do the work...
      • [1] reply
  • Marketers write what they think will sell. The truth isn't as important as the sale in many cases, unfortunately.

    The fact remains that a lot of people who buy these kinds of products will never be successful because they just don't have "it" in them to do any kind of marketing or online business.

    Perhaps because they can't write or they aren't organised enough or they are just plain not clever enough.

    But, like the man says in Caddyshack: "The world needs ditch diggers too!"
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  • I agree with you, although I found out the hard way.

    I'm not lazy, just a time restricted single mom who was working a crap job and needed a way out.

    I must have a learning disablility, because it took me about 2 years to stop spending money I didn't have on these products!!

    Now I did my homework, and I learned what I needed to for free.

    Geez, just wish I had figured it out several thousand dollars ago!
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    • Banned
      I like to take the approach that making money on The Internet is relatively easy and fun. I'm not going to work myself into the grave just so I can have a few more digits added to my bank balance. Sure it takes some effort and brain power particularly when you're starting out however if you're not having fun most of the time or if what you're doing isn't something you find rewarding then what's the point? Everyone wants something for nothing. That's just human nature I suppose. Just remember to have fun while you're working. You don't have to keep hammering into people's heads that it's takes lots and lots of work. And that's why I think it's so important to find something that you're passionate about. Rather than going after all the money. Because when you're passionate about what you're doing and you enjoy what you're doing it's often more like play than work.
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    • Yeah, what the OP is talking about isn't restricted to the "make money online" niche.

      Look at all the weight loss programs that promise dramatic weight loss with minimal diet or excercise. Or the dating products that promise guys they can go from being a shy computer nerd who's never kissed a girl to living in James Bond-ian sexual excess overnight.

      People want results without putting in the work, so a lot of product marketers just cater to that desire. Some of the more reputable product owners that I've seen do a pretty good job of balancing telling people what they want to hear with letting them know that they're going to have to put a committed effort in, and results won't come overnight.
  • Like food pyramid.

    Most of beginners in IM are dreamers, until they face the infamous hard cold fact.
    Which is more likely made them just give up, rather than moving to upper level.

    Small fishes eat plankton. Big fishes eat those small fishes.
    Those plankton at the bottom of pyramid were just endless.
    That kind of offers we seen were intended for plankton.
    Supply meet demands.

    It's been years, still we could easily bump into any "get-rich-quick" offers.
    If you don't bite in, congrats you're no longer a plankton

    Thanks Michaels for pointing this out.
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    • Banned
      Yeah I've heard that kind of attitude before and although I've only bought approximately 5 internet marketing books I always learned something valuable from them. For instance I purchased Stephen Duchame's book once-upon-a-time and thought it was worth the asking price for the copywriting advice alone. And I think that's important mindset to have as well as being willing to put in the time and effort to become successful. Although the advertising may suggest that it's easer than it really is I think the vast majority of the gurus are good people that want to help other people succeed.
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  • The worst advice ive read around is to take action inmediately...ive wasted a lot of time taking action on things that dont work. Thats why im looking around here on these forums trying to learn and trying to build a plan from advice of people that know their stuff..than take action.

    I feel if i look around hard enough in here for reliable people and experts at their own field. I can focus on my business, while i have the "experts" do the annoying work (backlinks, generating traffic, automating messages, sales pages, templates, etc)

    Im new by the way. Let me know your advice, maybe im going about my approach the wrong way. Im just trying to get into that "IM mindset".

    Thank You.
    • [1] reply
    • Taking action immediately doesn't mean you slap a few websites together and promote the heck out of it, although it might work.

      Planning too much could lead to " paralysis by analysis" and taking action too quickly might be plain stupid. What is being suggested is to take a long hard look at what you want to accomplish and then do whatever it takes to get there.

      Here's how a typical IM newbie does things( I am a newbie, so please don't argue with me on this one )

      Blog/site 1 --- free traffic? Not impressive. Thinks he/she picked the wrong niche.

      Start blog/site 2 -- Free traffic again? Somewhat better this time. Still no sales made. Gives up.

      Someone mails talking about "the next big thing". Another 3 months spent researching that. Trying. Failing.

      Building Lists? No.

      Where are you? what are you doing? Why not pick one and do everything you can do develop a strategy and system to ensure that whatever you started works out?

      Naah...Building list yet? No.

      That's why most of us fail. lack of focus.
  • Actually, it really ISN'T hard work. It is DIFFERENT work. Digging ditches, door to door selling, technical support, all hard work, some of it quite physical. IMing....not so much. But the "hard" in the work is changing your mental outlook and in learning.
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  • Just to remind, it is MORE competitive too.

    If a person has a local store, he/she will compete 50 other people in that area? or 100 people? But if that person starts an online business, he/se has to face whole worldwise competition.

    One of my friends, she has a business in Canada. She creates beautiful jewellery with white wire and birth stones. She was happy with her local sales. But somebody adviced her to go online and create a web site. Boy ... she had hard time? Newbie things like web site, payment processor set up is onethng, and more stress was marketing. But she managed few set backs and when I asked her how she'd do it, she laughed and told me that she would not do it again.

    .
  • I couldn't agree with you more.

    These sorts of statements were what got me into the whole Internet Marketing scene, and after many unsuccessful months, I found out on my own that hard work is the only real way to make money at anything. Unfortunately here in America, it's those statements that suck the thousands of excited browsers into buying products promising to make them rich only by clicking a few things.
  • Yeh, steve w, this thread does have a familiar ring to it :-)

    anyway, I agree completely with Craig. EVERYTHING in internet marketing is presented too simplistically.

    I just finished watching Jeff Pauls "Shortcuts To Internet Millions" infomercial. Testimonials (with no details of course) of people easily making, $100,000 a day!!) not a week, but a day. Others claiming $10,000 to $50,000 A WEEK!

    It's unexplained mostly hyped-up claims like that that warp peoples expectations in this field.
    ______
    Bruce
  • Online marketers are no different than those who market off line. Look at late night TV ads (infomercials). Check out Business Opportunity Magazines. They all have the same type of ads promising fast income and a proven money making system.

    They're playing on emotion. People don't buy based on logic. "we" buy on emotion. As a matter of fact, I have spent tens of thousands of dollars online trying to get the information that was the "secret". Just like a lot of you reading these posts.

    It's the parade that Dan Kennedy talks about. There is a market of people who at this point in their life are "looking" or searching for something to make money. They are in this parade right now but, in 5 years they may be in the dog grooming parade.

    The folks who are looking right now are not the same ones that where looking 5 years ago. So the message doesn't change just the audience.

    So the "business opportunity", "work from home", "internet marketing" folks continue to use the promises.. the unconditional guarantee... the 72 bonuses to suck as much money out of their visitor before they move on to a different parade.

    Some provide value and some are just cash sucking funnels with no bottom and no information.

    Unfortunately, the unsuspecting visitor wastes their money because even though they say that they want a "business opportunity"...most people have no real idea what a business really requires.

    Most parade attendees leave mad, frustrated, swearing to never do that again and blame the whole process on the peddlers of information when they never wanted a business opportunity they wanted to be spoon fed.

    A few figure it out. They get hooked up with a forum such as this. They develop some business sense through all of the products that they buy and eventually after trial and error and a large educational budget, they figure a system out.

    Just my 2 cents

    Ray S.
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
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    • Ray's final paragraph's the kicker.... for the newcomers who reach this forum, I wonder what % approach the knowledge here as apprentices-to-mastery?

      (The alternatives being as "dabblers", "obsessives" and "hackers" - well described in George Leonard's book, "Mastery". And to be fair, he notes there is some of each trait in all of us. Just that the "success stories" focus on becoming excellent over time, which can be forever...)

      My 10 yen :-)
  • Hi all,
    This is my very first post and I am also new to forums so here goes... I have been looking around the internet and I see almost everywhere how easy it is to make money online, so much info and sounds so easy! I thought somewhere like a forum will certainly be a good place to start my online education... am I in the right place?
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    • Banned
      I think you're definitely in the right place. Like I've said before this is amazing place with some amazing people. Don't be put off by the fact that you have to work to become successful running an online business. The second website I ever created started generating $1000/month completely passive income. That's because I was determined to make money. Compared to the amount of time and effort it used to take people to start a profitable business in the brick and mortar World I think it's amazingly simple.
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      Good point there Matt. When you think about it the quick, easy, and effortless approach to advertising can be applied to many markets. "6-Second Abs." "The Easy Way To Quit Smoking." "I Can Make You Thin." "Think And Grow Rich." The list is endless. Anyway I'll stop thread hogging now and let people discuss the subject.
  • Okay.. now that I'm looking back, maybe my purpose of this thread wasn't to bash Marketers for doing what they do best (market) but to bash the people that make them the money (you guys!)

    Just to put it out there, I'm not a newbie in internet marketing (as my post count may dictate ) in fact, I'd call myself quite the opposite. I have some knowledge of the game.

    It's just so upsetting to see people hopping from one product to another. Products don't earn you money. I can't hate marketers for selling their products, because hey, they're putting bread on the table for themselves but I also won't support the bombardment of crap products.

    My advice for beginners are to get focused and to get started. The only people who make money for the "Get-Rich-Programs" are the marketers themselves
  • Pretty funny...

    Is there a "set it and forget it" program? Yep.

    1) develop an in demand product
    2) design a sales page
    3) design an optin page to get prospects
    4) set up the sales process through blogs/video/emails
    5) Send traffic to the optin page

    Then go to Hawaii and sit on the beach
  • I agree. In life, nothing comes easy. Sure you might win the lottery or have some unknown rich relative pass away and leave you with tons of cash but let's be frank shall we? That ain't gonna happen.

    For most people who are not as exposed or experienced it definitely looks very tempting. I do admit, the first time I saw such a thing I was thinking: "hell yeah I'm in!" and greed took over, but thankfully I got a little practical and started having second thoughts.

    Bottom line, whether you want 10k/month, a 6 figure monthly or even millions, it will never come without hard work or determination.

    BTW, it isn't really a rant I feel. It's more of a misconception that we need to eliminate. IM is a fast growing and very successful industry, and the last thing we need are the black sheeps giving it a bad name.

    Steve.
  • For me, Internet Marketing is all about ideas, creativity and innovation. Hard work doesnt reap that many results as ideations and creativity do.
    At the same time i also agree with you too that publicising ads like these mislead the newbies of internet marketing. Its important to have all facts and figures in place before jumping into the world of Internet marketing.
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  • Thanks for this Thread. I agree.

    Comparatively to other businesses this is the easiest deal going there is,
    ex. setting up a corporation, forex trading, setting up a brick n mortar, etc.

    Definitely the expectation of this gig being easy attracts the 'work averse', hopefully they will learn to embrace the work as just part of what needs to be done.
    • [1] reply
    • Yes but if someone learn forex trading he has the final solution in his hands.

      It needs a lot of work but nothing comes easy in life.

      Cheers

      B
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  • Actually I believe this is true but they don't tell you it takes probably years to get at this level when you start from zero. It's all about leverage and automation. Once you have everything in place and have outsourced the "busy" tasks to your staff then it's easy to things like that. But till then you must work your butt off.

    Gunter
  • This is great information... it looks like you really need to work smart by working on yourself.. your attitude.. your willingness to perservere ... put effort into yourself while you are wading your way through all the IM material out there !!

    Am I right in saying this does'nt look like its for the fence sitters - if you're gonna do it get stuck in...
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    • Whatever you deside to do it will take 3-5 years to become a real master of it.

      Dont quit your daily job if you dont have the means to support your self.

      What you must master:


      XP SERVICE, PC enviroment auxiliary utilities, selfsuficient in all sectors
      Domains........................
      Server management technics:cpanel, file transfers,script installations, backup,sql.......
      Html,dremaweaver,xsitepro.......
      Photoshop, flash.......
      Varius scripts, eg membership sites,wordpress, database sites......(100-200)
      WH SEO, A well seo site needs aprox 200 steps and 300 one way links to rank in the first page
      BH SEO If you need automated traffic to your liason sites leading to your money sites you will need 10.000-20.000 hours to explore the BH,(headover to syndk8 to checkout)yacg,proxies,learning php,xrumer........................................ ..
      Camtasia ....................
      Adwords.....................
      Lost time leading to dead ends.......................
      Product development ,wtiting ebooks outsourcing, jv.........
      Watching seminars,reading books,surfing..................................

      Between 100.000-200.000 hours with conservative estimates.

      The journey will not cost less tha 10k for legitimate licenses.
      IM is super easy make in ebook and become rich in week ,oh yea,lol

      How I know? I have done all of the above and I am sure I have forgot a lot of things to mention.

      Cheers

      B
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