Newbies, stop the madness

I come to this topic from an unique perspective. I spend the first half of my career building a financial business, from nothing to $6 million per year, that helped people deal with their financial challenges. I've spend the past year and a half trying to re-invent myself in this internet world.

I have seen tremendous change over the past six months or so. "Gurus" are becoming more aggressive and blatantly over the top in their marketing strategies particularly to newbies and people are eating it up. My in-box is flooded with emails having the same subject line from jv partners of the same product launch.

Who is to blame?

You may not like the answer, but I would say its mostly the gullible newbies. Yes, the "gurus" have often been misleading in their marketing, but if the market wasn't their, they wouldn't continue with such force. Consumers can stop it by putting away their credit cards and taking a deep breath before making a purchase. The 24 hour rule works fine. Haste equals waste.

But more important, use common sense. I've been following a huge number of posts that have bashed a particular CPA product that cost $2,000. Allegedly, 3600 people bought into this product. I can't comment on the product because I opted not to buy it, but a little logic would have gone a long way.

There headline claimed that the product "shows you how to make $50,000 to $100,000 per day...".

Ladies and gents, how could anyone believe that for a second? Do the math, that is $18-$36 million per year. If I had a system that made that kind of money I would certainly not share it with anyone. And if I felt the market could sustain more, I would just hire people to make more. It doesn't make sense.

Sure, if I had to venture a guess, they were deceptive. My guess is they did that once or at best, on an occasion. But even if it were true for them, they certainly couldn't have believed that they could teach many others to do the same. The FTC test for deceptive marketing is that the message has to be true for the majority.

There are a ton of examples in the IM world just like this one. And the claims are getting wilder ever day.

I noticed that up until about 6 months ago, the basic rule was to give free, great content leading up to a launch. I learned a great deal from people that I never bought anything from. But if I did buy, I would have at least felt that they earned my business (dinner before the nightcap). Now, it doesn't seem like many "gurus" are wasting their time delivering good content unless it comes with a catch. It all started with the trend of giving something away for free (kinda) but having it come with a trial subscription to a membership. The burden was on the consumer to opt out.

Of course, the offerers made a bet that the majority of people being what they are, would fail to opt out. They must have been right because since then, that tactic has become the trend.

What can we do about this? How about just saying no. Stop chasing the new latest and greatest thing. I hate to say it but without newbie wanna bees this market would not exist.

Building a business is not that easy. There are no magic formulas or systems. It requires good choices, good fortune, and usually hard work. Don't believe otherwise because the easy buck is the exception not the rule. I built my business to $6 million a year but that was after not earning a cent of income for a year and waffling on the bring for three years.

The internet has made the process somewhat less treacherous, but it should never be thought of as easy.

Want an education? Go to Amazon and buy business books. Read Entrepreneur and Inc. magazine. Learn business. Sound concepts are true whether the business lives online, offline, or both. It will lead to better decisions and that is the key to business. It is all about finding a marketplace and giving them what they want. Don't blame the "gurus" for doing just that. They have found a marketplace of people looking to have sunshine blown up their butts and they have successfully delivered that. Now if you want to really build a business, become business people.