Your Opinion: Is I.M Getting More or ... Less Newbie Friendly?

IM in my opinion has never been and never will be newbie friendly. In order for a newbie to thrive at IM they need the knowledge first. To get the knowledge they have to sift through hundreds or even thousands of information products, and thats not even including all the scammers out there that want to take advantage of them.

Only the people with the desire to succeed and the knowhow to spot a scam at work will make it.

Just my two cents

I agree with the_icon, I also believe that now there is more competition out there however there are also more resources available. A higher quality is required to succeed now but with the right tools it is easier to create and with out the knowledge in the first place its is definitely harder but then again there are more places available now to find quality IM education. So things are now more complicated I guess my answer is yes and no.

Every business takes time to learn and time for you to become EXPERIENCED.

Why do people assume that newbie's should jump into IM and make money from day 1?

If you have something of VALUE - some knowledge or talent, then IM can be very welcoming. If you do not have anything of VALUE to offer, then naturally it is going to be a little harder - not impossible but harder.

That is true of any business. The problem is not that IM is or isn't newbie friendly - the problem is that newbies enter IM with the wrong mindset. IM is being mis-sold...

It was 50/50 it's 50/50 and it will be 50/50. Why?

The competition was very low years ago, but only people who knew how to use the Internet the right way would make it. Now, there is more software and that can do a lot of work for you, however, the competition is higher. I believe that in the future, it will be a lot easier to achieve what many good marketers do with hard work now. But... It won't be enough because everything will change.

I think it's always up to the person. And it doesn't matter if you are a newbie or not.

The final words. I think it's not easier for new ones. Simply because you are supposed to do things differently or more than before.

Hi,

I'm guessing Newbie Friendly means Less Complex, Easier, Quicker, Cheaper and Safer.

IMHO, ... IM is getting more Newbie Friendly.

Why do I say so?

1. More range of quality info-products available
2. More range of quality products at cheaper price
3. More people with experience are helping newbies
4. More tools available at cheaper price and more functions
5. More online reports that helps newbies filter scams
6. More Legal protection & Government monitoring
7. More payment options & security
8. Warrior Forum Community as reference

Now, there are more and more opportunities for newbies to tap.

Less, as the competition increases.

Simple Stan

One thing I have noticed with all the 'push-button' solutions these days is that many people rely on them far too much and don't have a clue how to do even the simplest tasks. Years ago when I got started we just got our hands dirty and learnt things like design, coding basics, etc because we didn't have all the tools to do it for us. Nowadays people don't want to learn anything and want to rely on all this automation.

I would bet there are a crap load of people reading this thread who if I asked them to, could not integrate some simple auto-responder code into a form on a website. No, I'm not talking about inserting your auto-responder code into a webpage, that's easy and that's what everyone does nowadays. I am talking about having a form already on the website and having to put your auto-responder code into that form so it works with your auto-responder.

My point is that is a VERY simple task but people struggle to do basic things like that nowadays. People also don't know how to open up a simple html page and make VERY basic changes. I get asked these questions all the time from people who are actually running web based businesses. It's crazy.

I gotta say I'm glad I picked up things as I went along because having to rely solely on tools and outsourcers for your business would be a major pain in the a**.

I remember watching a report on 60 minutes the other day of some country (I can't remember which one) that has no technology - no computers, no mobile phones, etc. My family were commenting on how behind the times they are and I said yes, but they sure look a lot happier than most of our society. I think on the whole technology just continues to overcomplicate our lives. People always argue that it makes life easier but I reckon that's a load of crap. I bet life was much easier 20 years ago. People weren't contactable wherever they went, people didn't have to remember 50 different passwords, people couldn't get into as much debt, and so on.

I agree a lot with what Will's saying (not that he needs me to say so).

So much of IM is now badged as push button, no effort sit there and watch paypal magic up cash for you. These sales techniques work well both for newbies and repeat product buyers. The problem now is that any sense of application has disappeared as a pre requisite for success from these people.

You can make money. I even think you can make money if you have nothing to start with. It will take application though. You will need to do something. What you know from what you learn of here can make it look push button if you want it to but it does take action.

less friendly, market saturation leads to increased dispersion of wealth. The more mature IM becomes, the more inverse the proportion of wealth becomes in the market.

In the end, one or two market leaders will dominate, and the rest will fight for scraps. This is the point where the market has entered into a state of final maturity. Then either decline or continuation occurs.

As a few become more effecient at generating wealth, the division of prosperity increases inversely. Approximately 20% of successful people will hold 80% of all wealth in IM. The number only increases further as a few individuals become overly effecient at success in the market.

Division between the best and everyone else will continue. Former IM's will become employees and wages will rise, lowering the incentive to business and turning the internet into a similarity to regular markets.

The rising maturity of IM will lower margins but the competition that gets killed off will increase volume - providing incentive for hiring. This combination of lower margins and increased volume will lead to several large dominant players. Then the incentive for increased volume will cause people to snuff out competition - further moving towards a regular market.

The good news is wages online should rise as the market becomes more efficient. Demands for volume will require online customer service, programming, etc. that usually gets handle by the business owner right now.

Its still as friendly as ever- but there is definitely more noise.

When I first started years ago- there were less option in the money making methods that is available online. Now, there is so many ways that a newbies can start- and sometimes, having too many options is also bad as it can overwhelm them.

I think it is newbie friendly for sure...in fact, I have helped my "newbie" friends get into IM through small steps.

Think about it, years ago there were not all the options available for "white labeling" big companies platforms like there are today. You can literally build your own company in a matter of minutes with drag and drop software that has everything you need.

I think there is definitely more good information around today that can teach newcomers how to push things along more quickly but only if that newcomer is willing to work for it. That being said though there is also a lot of junk out there.

If someone comes to the net thinking they are going to find the magic token to easy money then they are prime to be getting ripped off. On the other hand if they come online looking for ways to build up their business and they tread carefully then they can succeed.

There is a lot of good and FREE information out there without chasing the latest shiny objects.

IM industry is complicated in the first glance when you want to figure out everything at once. Technologies are overcomplicated our IM businesses if people are not focus in just tools that facilitate the processes that they want to do.

There are tools that can really do the work for you but the problem is which tools to choice from thousands of softwares.

There are some people that think that IM as heaven that give them Money whenever they want at anytime time they want even they don't know anything about the IM industry because they believe scams that full the internet and cheating people that believe there is a "money push button" softwares.

As any industry expands, it becomes inherently more difficult to enter at a low price point, without some kind of distinguishing competitive advantage..

So... Less newbie friendly.

I think less. Even experienced people have to really work to make profits; there's an inherent suspiciousness of IM among potential customers that didn't really exist before. Thus, you must really prove your knowledge through testimonials.

Stephanie

From my perspective and a person that is just finished their first year of IM. I would say that IM is simple but its not easy to do. I would suggest that anyone that is new to this, just not rely on push button magic that may or may not work. Learn and keep learning from the different aspects that or out there to make money with. There is lot of free info out there to get you started in the right direction, but keep in mind IM is like technology it is constantly changing one method that may have worked, may not work as well as it did before, or it may not work at all.

The Biggest thing that I think is one of the most important of all is that a lot newbies think that you have to market in the IM niche. You sign up to a couple of list and all you see is IM products and software. Then you try and follow with the same thing. What a lot of newbies fell to realize is that a lot these marketers who's list they are on have several other list in different niches outside of internet marketing.

Wow, good to know. If there's every been proof not to trust Warriors based on post count, this is it. Whew.

To actually answer the OP:

I started IM in 2009, and I think that as it stands now IM is getting harder to break into, but easier to learn. On the one hand, when I first started there was still the notion of the scammy "guru", but the "gurus" were themselves preaching against "gurus" in their sales letters, so it was very difficult to discern who was really who.

Plus, it just seems like the products, at least the ones I bought, just weren't that great of quality. No one really knew what they were talking about. That being said, when I finally DID get it right I saw results pretty fast.

Today, however, there's more training available than there has ever been, and it's training of a higher caliber than it's ever been. I feel like more marketers today realize that value = money and so they create high quality products.

However, there are also a TON more IMers today than there were 3 years ago, so just by mathematical statistics there is bound to be at least slightly more competition. Plus, Google and SEO is a lot harder today than it was 3 years ago.

So yea, that's what I would say!

- Stephen

Fixed that for you.

Less.

The average newbie ten years ago was a legitimate business owner looking for a way to run his business over the internet with minimal staff and facilities.

The average newbie today is a working class loser who can't find a job and thinks he'll just make money on the internet like he keeps hearing about.

The problem is not that doing business on the internet isn't getting easier. It's that the people trying to do business on it are getting stupider a lot faster.

I think there are two things happening.

1. The industry is getting more saturated, more marketers, more competition. Not saying that all the competition is good, there are definitely some pretty crappy products being turned out but everyone is "catching on" so to speak.

2. Consumers are more aware of what's out there and they know what to avoid. The "Get rich Quick" sales copy doesn't fly as much as it used to.

I think IM has become more accessible for newbies, but the competition is steeper so you need to have true quality to rise above the rest.

Push button magic is sadly not real. These are just dreams internet marketers sell on their sales pages to get you to buy. If you spend time looking for this magic pill you'll just waste your money and time. Also you'll end up very confused.

What you need is to understand that to make money you need to do something. But do the right thing. You need to find someone who know what they're doing and learn from them.

You need certain essentials and don't let anyone tell you different.

A website of your own.
A product of your own. Information product is the best choice.
Traffic generation methods.
A daily schedule so you keep doing the right things every day.
With these things you can make a lot of money.

A word about creating an information product...

The best place to start when creating information products to sell is make sure there are buyers.

A lot of people make the mistake of creating their information product first and then look for buyers. You need to first see if people are buying. The best way is to creation solution products to problem. One problem one solution. Most people are happy to buy solutions to their problems. Especially if they solve the problem quickly.

If you do things right then you should make money. It's wonderful when you start seeing it come in as well.

Kind regards, Ian Stables

I think the internet marketing scene is getting less newbie friendly because of the amount of ways now available to make money. You have to know what all the concepts and avenues are at least to make an informed decision about what you want to do. You will only last at doing something you enjoy. Just my humble opinion.

I think the reason why IM seems "unfriendly" or intimidating to newbies is because we're bombarded by all this information that we forget the basics. We're so busy looking for ways to make quick buck we forget the important stuff you need to do in order to be successful in IM. You need to do research, you need to pick the right niche, you need to build a good website but most of all, you NEED to understand how IM works. Skipping the basics is what makes IM really confusing if you're a newbie.

Great thread!
I agree with most of you - there is a lot more information revealed how to be a sucessful Internet Marketer, but ofcourse time has changed.
This thread is awesome by the way http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...marketers.html
I also think that the problem in most IM-ers is that they are afraid to take their own path. If you know what I mean - thousands of people digging one and the same gold mine - who wins? Those who find his own gold mine and dig it alone.

It's so fast paced....by the time you buy your WSO or course it's outdated. Imagine some guy revelaing his "secret" traffic source. (Yeah right) Well even if it did once work guess what? By tellnig peopel I'll bet there will then be at least 10,000+ people jumping in. And where the mases flood the profits vanish!

I'd hate to build my whole busienss on ranking on G. Or affiliate stuff now. It's not long term at all.

I find I.M. a a whole very frustrating. It changes too fast. You have to stop chasing fads and get down to basic business.

I fit into this :-( I know I do....I guess I have been lead a merry dance by so many people I trusted I now can't believe anyone. I can now see why so many busiensses will only do busienss with the law to back them up. Without it you wil lbe scamemd sooo many times it wil ldrive you crazy!Any how..back to basics.

A person who works hard and has the right mindset can always get into this business. The Internet is expanding and opportunities are growing continuously. If anything, I'd say it's getting easier!

Allen

First thing is what is I.M to you?

Sellnig get rich re[orts to the gullible?
Or affilaite marketing

Or creating a real biz for the Net?

Or another marketing channel for your business?

Most are stuck in the "get rich sell crap" kind of business. If you create a real busienss with real value I guess it can work.

No i do not believe this. It has matured I.M.H.O. Th easy money was pre 2005. Especailly pre 2000 where you could buy premium domain names and set up new business ideas. The easy money ha sgone now. But yes of course new, multi million.billion $ ideas will come along just not as easy.

As for affiliate marketing/SEO etc....that's only going to get more and more crowded.

Being relatively new myself, I have found it to be difficult. I would say that internet marketing as a whole is more Newbie friendly (because of the simplicity of the process compared to years ago, I read anyway), however the specific niche of IM is becoming extremely hard to break into because there are so many well established authorities in this niche.

I'd say it's harder now then it was several years ago.

There's too many distractions, too many lies and too many goofballs ripping off newbies day and night.

Newbies are sold push button stuff because that's what they want. They don't know that push button does not exist.

They have unrealistic expectations and quit after the first failure.

I think it goes back to some people are just not meant to be self employed.

As far as resources being available now, I agree with Kay. There are resources available now that just weren't there years back. But as far as the people coming online, I'd say it's harder for them because so many really just don't have the understanding of business that you need to be successful. All those "gurus" that you see that have been making a lot of money were actually pretty sharp business people offline, too. You don't see guys that had an intelligence level which made them feel lucky to have a job sweeping floors or flipping burgers becoming successful. That doesn't mean that in a rough economy people are reduced to doing that even though their skills are intact - that means people who don't have the skills to get anything better. The truth is, too many listen to "anyone can do it" crap instead of figuring out what their skill level is and looking for resources to build those skills. They try to build the business first without them. It just doesn't work that way.

So while there are better resources, there is still a vast majority that don't make it. Those with skills already built have it made now.

Newbies need to take the time to learn the fundamentals if they hope to really profit at internet marketing.

They're so anxious to make money they skip the important part, how to do it properly by learning the basics.

If they'd take the time to notice, no expert/guru makes money online without knowing the fundamentals. Why do newbies think they can skip this important step?

This could really be a big debate. On the one hand, publishing has never before been so easy to do. You just slap a theme on your website and you are good to go.
On the other, it starts to get over-saturated. You need to find an untouched niche and develop from there.

I believe it is getting more newbie friendly, people are getting more switched on and aware of the scammers out there and i believe the ratio is starting to turn where there are more genuine people online than there has ever been

Steven

Even the simple act of putting a site up (now very easy thanks to wordpress) has become significantly easier.

Also, the growth in competition isn't as fast as the growth in commerce on the internet as a whole (at least in my opinion). We shouldn't be looking at the internet as a zero sum game (where one person making money means someone else misses out) but as a positive sum game (with more people confident of typing their credit card details over the internet).

I'd say it's what you make of it, people are also getting more tech savvy as well. It's like the computer problem; people say it's getting harder to use a computer, but the people that are quite good with pc's think that the GUI's are getting much easier.

If you can get a newbie to buy your stuff, then you've got a customer for life

If you're starting out there is a lot to learn. IM will always be the same, it's not getting easier and it's not getting harder. Things are constantly changing, just need to keep doing what works.

It's about the mindset of the individual, people of today live in an Instant world, they think they can come into I/M, do very little work and expect to make a mint in a few days, and when they don't, they move on to the next 'big thing'. An online business is like any business with a few primary steps.

1 Choose a popular niche
2 Visit forums and find out what they want
3 Create your own, or promote some else's product
4 Give it to them
5 Rinse and repeat

It's really not rocket science, but it takes work, time and dedication, so stop looking for the instant fix, it does'nt exist.

Rant over.lol


Kevin

In my opinion the best way to market yourself or your product or service now is to do a podcast or webinar. Webinar is the best because of the psychology involved. It's a great way to show results right now... That's important...

The power of following along with someone and seeing the results on the computer

screen as it happens is as the old saying goes " Picture is worth a thousand words " Then a live webinar is worth million...

The internet IMO is the most easy way to get into "business" simply due to the low barrier of entry.

The costs of getting started online are no where near that of an offline business. Also, these days a lot of the techy stuff can be taken care of through tools which years ago you would have to learn things like coding and such yourself which is obviously time consuming.

Obviously there are a lot more people looking to make their fortune online now than ever before however, if you look at the rate the internet is growing and ecommerce in general then there's still lots of room for people to make a living online.

The concept of IM, is easy. It sounds easy and is kinda' easy if you ask me. But the amount of work and dedication you have gotta' put in is insane and most people aren't willing to do that.

I mean the making money bit isn't hard, all the people making money are essentially doing the same thing. Mimic what they do at the best of your ability and the chances are you will make some money.

it all depends on the "newbies" in question here.
some will find the many content available resourceful , some will find it distracting

Having been in this game for quite some time and seeing many things evolve, I believe things are more newbie friendly then when I first started. Just to give you an idea of how long it's been the first e-book I ever bought was from the Rich Jerk. That is "ages" in the IM world. With all the resources, training and tools available to newbies, IM is a dream come true for those willing to take advantage of this opportunity.

Just think of it this way, if a newbie starts TODAY, makes a plan, learns what he/she needs to and implements what he/she has learned, there is no reason for that person not to succeed!

Having said that, I don't think there really IS a push button solution that many may make you want to think there is, and it's certainly not easy to get any business going with out understanding the basics.

It all depends who the newbie listens to for advice. For general internet marketing advice, i think that people have taken the simple and turned it into a complicated process, that makes it hard for a newbie to understand.

You have graphics on squeeze and sales pages, exit chat boxes, exit pop ups, software that claim to get you traffic overnight (every night), and etc. And newbies think that they need all of these things to have their own successful internet business.

In short, IM is definitely getting less newbie friendly.

For newbie going solo IM is not a very friendly place as too many things to learn and not sure of what to do.. this all changes when you do see and follow a few succesful people and join gorups etc..then you have a more user friendly and laid out plan which if followed can make things easier fr you.

Some things are easier, and some are harder:
There are many more tools to make some tasks WAY easier. (Imagine keyword research without the tools available now)
There is more competition and tarnished reputations which makes it more difficult.
IM itself is only a tool for selling whatever product in whatever niche.
With the lower cost of entry, it is easier to be involved in more niches than it used to be.
One need not be anywhere as tech savvy as used to be necessary, but that is also true of computers in general. In the 1980s, you had to know at least some programming just to use a very simple computer. Now you don't even have to have the slightest clue of how to program a computer in order to use a very complex one. IM is following this path. As technology increases, the need to be tech savvy decreases, so it is easier in regards to knowledge of the technical side.
However, there are many more choices available for the newbie, so in that respect it is harder.
Social media sites offer many more potential sources of traffic, which is easier, but the potential customer base is more skeptical of IM than they used to be, which is harder.
I find this topic pretty fascinating. Thanks The Niche Man for bringing it up.

Best regards,
Jim Waller

Making money online is easier than ever.

As a lad we had to print everything by hand. And then profit was only made if 90% of the stock was sold.

Today you can have a business up in a day with an offer made by evening. Money in the pocket soon afterwards and delivery at a later date if it is a course or coaching.

WOW! Ok seeing you asked. I'm most likely going to upset some folks here, but here goes. I believe it is a lot easier for newbies considering the fact that most folks are so overwhelmed with all the crap out their. Now if a newbie begins with the right mentor he has got it made. Must be willing to work.

I don't think this industry is newbie friendly at all. In fact, I think a lot of the people who have been around this industry a little longer take advantage of the newbies. They make sales pages with crazy, unattainable earnings and spend all their time convincing newbies that they can make the exact same thing "by next week" or something crazy. When I was brand new, it took me a while to realize that. I wish there were more marketers out there who were honest and truly helpful to the new people in this industry. I'm not saying they don't exist, but they seem to be harder to find.