Would you hire a IM coach for $5000?

If cost is not a concern then I would say go ahead to hire that coach, he or she may provide more value than what you've paid for. Don't stop learning even you are already earning thousands of dollars a day.

Its the biggest thing you can do to succed in internet marketing. When you get a good coach you know that they made a lot and can help you make a lot.

Bro, don't do that... You should pay someone at least $100/h it's not worth it man. If you're going to pay that much, then damn well it needs to be a guarantee that you will make money. He's going to be your personal coach, you ask him any questions and he won't let you go until you can set up a campaign on your own that makes you money. He will always be there for you, that money is a lot. Just saying man, hopefully you make the best decision on how you spend your money.

too much money: becareful......there are alot of scammer coaches. i had 6 coaches already and 2 were total scams.
johnmoney was one of them, he teached facebook cpa......he will take yur money and disappear.
tell your coach you will make payments. that way he will keep returning your emails and calls.
alweays keep something hanging over their head.......always be in control......not them

If the money is not a concern to you, meaning you have alot more where that came from and the guy can provide proof and show a guarantee and this is your passion than i would do it.
But i'm a risk taker so that's just me, and i do believe a good coach might be the difference between you succeeding in 6 months and you succeeding in 4 years etc..

A good coach is invaluable. Every one from Dan Kennedy, to Steve Jobs, and a million Frank Kerns have all had coaches and mentors. Good coaches have testimonials great coaches let you talk to current and past clients. Do your homework and go kick a**

If you want to get into paid, 5k is a great budget to jump in with. You don't need to pay a coach, mastermind with your peers, join a skype group...learn from people doing, not teaching.

Escrow might be a good idea too

Just make sure those past students really do exist and that they aren't shills.

For someone to charge $5,000 they must be pretty well known. Take a look at SaltyDroid.info and see if he's on there and what past clients may be saying about him. Unfortunately, most of these high priced coaches have a pretty bad reputation.

I think a coach is useful but not at this time. Why pay for something when you haven't even absorbed all of the free information. At this point I think your business could grow more from you reading / learning and ppc + payments such as seo or theme to improve your business.

Once you've used most of the methods you find and are moderately experienced in the topic with a good amount of knowledge than go ahead and get the coach.

However, if money is not tight (i.e. if you spent 5000 on a coach and 10k on ppc you would be fine) then go ahead because they can definitely teach you something new.

I wish I had the money to invest too. i would love to have a good coatch ...Someone I can truct and I know he is not here just for the 5.000$
Good luck

IM is something that you grow over time and it gets better once you let things age. If you wait later, things will have change and opportunities will be missed in terms of projects that you embark on. However, spending that much money when you are still a newbie means that you won't get the most benefit out of the coaching. You will only ask the basic questions and won't ask the advanced questions that really help propel your knowledge. Since your knowledge base is poor quite now, it's not worth it. It's pretty much guaranteed that you won't get the refund because everything will be so WOW for you. For advanced immediate IMers, if the knowledge from coaching is something that isn't new, you can just request the refund.

No........

Your answer is right there. You don't have any time to invest, you will not accomplish anything by hiring a coach.

He is not your employee, you still have to do the work yourself. Plus don't think that $5000 is all that you will invest. It is just the beginning. New tools, traffic generation everything will cost more money.

But money probably is not an issue for you, which is great. But without any time in your hands, I don't see it working out for you.

Just my .02 cents

Tanvir

If you're planning on doing paid traffic, think how much data and learning you could get for $5k. The coach would have to be VERY good to beat the amount you'd learn from just doing.

With that said, if the coach is truly a master at affiliate marketing AND he's willing to teach you how to do the same (and not just hand you a couple of winning campaigns without teaching HOW he made them) then it'll definitely speed up your learning process.

If you have the money for the coach and a lot of money for testing it might be worth doing. If it's a choice between one or the other than testing is definitely the way to go.

Make a new thread and ask how people will spend 5k instead.

Well, people can claim anything in the thread.. but there are two things that will make people succeed in business... One is mentor and another one is master mind group... Most of the successful business people have had both of them and thats why they are successful.....At some point of time you will be struck especially in internet marketing and thats why you need mentor... However, just having a mentor, without taking action is the BIG SIN!!! .. If you are ready to take the action.. then only go for it.. otherwise dont go for it....
I realised this after spending so many hours of effort and good amont of money!!! .. But once i got the mentor, that really changed the game... So.. go for it..
Karthik

I wouldn't pay anyone $5000. You can learn 95% of what they know right here on this forum. Read every thread and take loads and loads of notes. Use that $5000 to do some testing, outsourcing and build your business. You could also join some Skype / Facebook groups to learn and share with other IM'ers.

no, not now. if you're still newbie. it's wiser to learn by yourself first. you always can learn IM anytime. put your time, effort and money in your education first, while start to learning how to making money online. do it part-time, if you're making more than you can do as professional health care. do it full-time then.

I'm also a health care professional anyway

Beaware !!! You can learn most of the basics free of cost HERE. I suggest you to buy War Room Membership here. Invest your money wisely.

Cheers
Preeti

I was in the same place as you are 3 years back when i started and bought lot of courses and spent tons of time to get more frustrated.
Fortunately i got a mentor who taught me and today i make a living online. He was a awesome coach and had patience to answer all my queries. He generally gives an hour of consultation on skype free. Try your luck, if he agrees to help you...
Skype id is sreeharshasp

I would be wary about paying that much money upfront. Try to pay in installments at least so that you can judge the overall effectiveness of their skills and the value of what they teach you.

personally i think people should do things on their own

Never ever, ever, ever.

I've spent 20K in my time for coaching, worth every penny. And the first thing I did when I was new was spend 5k on my first coach. It's saves research time dramatically and shortcuts the learning curve. You get what you pay for.

As for guarantees that's absurd. What guarantee does a coach have that you're going to commit and do whatever it takes? It's the old adage about leading a horse to water but can't make him drink.

Hey Sakki,

Everything you need to know is available for free online. You just need to expand your horizons (beyond this forum, that is).

If you have $5k to spend, you'd do much better to spend it on actual traffic and optimizing a campaign into profitability. That's the kind of educational process you need right now: getting into the guts of a real campaign, optimizing it and scaling it up. Have you tried a media buy yet? I'm not sure what kinds of traffic you're used to, but with 5k, you can have a nice set of banners designed for your offer and try out SiteScout (a nice place to start with media buys, imo).

Sent you a PM, too. Good luck. You need to be careful in this game. LOTS of scammers out there.

Great question but you are asking the WRONG GROUP OF PEOPLE.
Who you should be asking are the past students of that coach
to find out the value they got from the coaching.

Actually for the vast majority of Warriors $5,000 is a scary
number to pay for anything, so the gut reaction you are
going to get is, "No, you can get everything here for free."

And it is still true that you usually get what you pay for.
Because if "everything" was here on the Warrior Forum
for free then every Warrior should be rich.

-Ray Edwards

good points... the one thing the forum can't give people, is the work ethic, drive, ambition, talent and skill it takes to succeed... that's all highly individual. much of the knowledge is here, though. it's a good starting place. the other 95% is work your a-- off. and no a coach can't do that either. i made it on my own, working 12-18 hour days, like anyone who makes it.

If having access to free information is a key to success, why do most marketers fail?

Having information means nothing. It's the application of the information that is the key. If paying for a coach will teach you (or force you) to apply the information and the application of said information is equal to or greater than the cost - over your lifetime - then you're coming out ahead.

Seems like wasting time and money.

Having a mentor is always a good idea, just make sure he puts his words to action and is not a scammer.

Coaches can be extremely valuable, but make sure you know what field you want to thrive in. You talk about PPV and CPA, but is that what you think you're gonna be passionate about? I made money in those fields but never really had fun until I started dabbling in content creation and web design for example. Passion is where the real money is

What are the time constraints? This can usually be solved by changing priorities and some time management.

While some information is available online, let's take this forum as one example, it would take a ton of time, testing and tracking to find out who is giving good advice and who's leading you astray. So part of finding a good coach is the overall ROI on your investment, which includes how much time you might save.

For those of us who have been fulltime for many years, we see a lot of misinformation given on marketing forums all the time. Which is one of the many reasons why newbies get confused. Autoresponder threads are one good example of this, they very rarely have accurate information.

As you can see from the replies in this thread there a 3 different philosophies. Those who see value in coaching, those who prefer to do it on their own, and those who think you're asking the wrong group of people. And in some ways, they are all right.

Well, I've been on both sides of the fence and really, only you can decide what's best for you. Also bear in mind that any coach worth their salt isn't going to "hand hold" you at all, if anything they will be the complete opposite. They are going to assess your strengths, your weaknesses, help you get clarity on your goals, and then point you to the most efficient way to get your business going. They are NOT going to do it for you.

I don't know you personally, but I have found that many times people think they need coaching but in reality they are not ready for it. You have to bring a lot of self-discipline, focus, maturity, and commitment to the table.

You stated yourself that the money is not an issue, well if that's the case, there are no shortage of coaches out there. Since you are making "decent earnings", you should assess what's working for you and see if you can't do it on a much bigger scale. Have at it for about 6 more months and then if you hit a wall, then think about hiring a coach.

RoD

If this coach does NOT help you, and the money is effectively lost, how fast can you make your $5,000 back?

That's what you're really looking at here: time. Money is just money. Who cares? You can make more money. How much TIME are you losing?

$5,000 is nothing.

I paid half that for one hour.

PS. Caliban you suck.

For me as long as I'm guaranteed to succeed, and I have that kind of money I dont mind doing that investing.knowledge is power!

If you can afford it ....risk is the price you pay for profit

There are three major things to watch out for when hiring a coach.

First, what exactly is this coach going to be helping you do? Whatever it is, he should also have a product about that. If you need time management advice, your prospective coach should have either a squeeze page offering his report on better time management as an opt-in freebie, or a product about better time management that you can buy. Maybe even both. Start there. It will be less than $5,000 and if it doesn't help you at all, chances are his coaching won't either.

Second, does your coach understand what you do? I deal with a lot of coaches in masterminds, where I haven't hired them but they're flexing their coach-muscles in the group so they can inspire members to hire them. I often see coaches effectively telling people to get out of the business they're in and start a different one. Someone will have an affiliate marketing business, want to take it to the next level, and the coach is saying "affiliate marketing is for suckers - you should be making your own products instead." When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Your coach doesn't have to be in the same business as you are, but he should understand and respect the business you're in.

Finally, the coach should understand and respect your goals. This is especially important if your goal is not "lots of money fast," which is what most coaches tend to assume you want. If you're trying to reduce the amount of time it takes to run your business, "let's make you more money" doesn't match your goals. Keep your eyes on your own prize - it doesn't matter if you want what the coach is offering, too (after all, who doesn't want more money faster?), because you are hiring the coach to accomplish your goals... not his. I had a recent coaching session to discuss how I could improve my productivity, and the end result was that I was advised to stop worrying about productivity and start a membership site with exclusive content (which would make me more money faster than what I was doing, which was kind of not the point). Basically, instead of solving my problem, the coach said "actually, you have two problems!" and hey, thanks a lot, jerk.

This should help you waste a lot less money and time on coaching than I have.

Nobody can assure you if this coach will help you or not.
Think and be confident in your judgement.

In my opinion that is a very tricky question. I would pay $5,000 for a good coach. However, for paying that much I would want someone making 100 times that amount. And if they are making 500k a year they wouldn't necessarily want to spend too much time mentoring someone and only making 5k. I would not pay 5k for someone that is barely making what I am already making offline though.

So in reality. I would prefer to work along side of someone in order to learn what they have to offer.I would essentially be making their life easier (much more valuable than 5k in my opinion).

If someone is charging 5k for lessons it seems to me that their ways are not working so they need to turn to teaching for more income. I dont want to learn ways that aren't working ;-)

great point from cdarklock... Always check out how valuable their free/low cost stuff is before buying anything else. For example do they have a product ladder starting with valuable free reports, kindle books, regular books, low-cost stuff, that leads up to more expensive things? Test out anyone's low-cost/free stuff before for how good it is, authentic, works for you, before buying more expensive things. I tell my customers that all the time in my weekly free saturday webinars.

Then and only if their low cost stuff works, then consider spending more. Anyone who only solely has high priced stuff, that's a big red flag. The world's top coaches/experts usually have books to demonstrate credibility and authenticity, that leads into their sales funnel.

I've spent thousands on consulting calls with various experts over the years, a few hundred dollars per hour at a time, and it's been outstanding. But I wouldn't commit to thousands upfront for anyone who's not a recognized world expert, and even then I'd want to book a consulting hour first, to check for fit and suitability.

Is the fee for just the coaching? Remember you'll have overhead too. Sales pages, landing pages, domains, web hosting etc. all costs money. Will a portion of th $5k be going to that as well? Some things to consider.

IMO, just pick up a guide and stick to it non stop for a month. Then determine your ROI.

Or, mix affiliate marketing with direct mail marketing (use postcards). Most businesses still promote offline, so why not use it for affiliate marketing as well.

If then you have some income rolling in, then you can use it toward coaching to refine your efforts.

Sure, I'd pay $5000 for a coach. But they'd better be good-looking, because I'm going to be in their face all the time.

I wouldn't pay that much but having a mentor can certainly be a good thing. There are cheaper options out there I'm sure. It's a lot of money are there any guarantees?

Anyone who says $5k is too much must be looking for a coach who also makes french fries.

$5k is peanuts if the person is good.

Information is free. Insights are not.

My mom says I'm very handsome, thank you.

I have spent that much on a coaching program by a well respected marketer. I did a lot of research before I signed up for his coaching program. You can cut down on a lot of the learning curves. Not all coaches are for you either. You have to find one that fits you the best.

Depending on the market, spending $5K on traffic could take just a couple of days, and you've lost all of your money if you don't really know how to effectively optimise and track your campaign.

You say that cost is not an option, so personally I'd go with a reputable coach, after checking references and looking for some clear proof of success with previous students.

I'd also ask for milestone payments, so that you can pay the coaching in instalments, and at least mitigate your risk a little that way.

A good coach though.. is worth their weight in gold, and IMO much better than re-inventing the wheel for yourself.

Apprenticeships have been around for a long time for a reason, and originally you had to pay to get a master craftsman to take you on, so really you're just walking down a well worn and proven path!

i think 5000$ is higher to spend in the first

I personally would not go near Internet Marketing coaching programs myself to get started, but more looking around and seeing what others are doing and trying to study what has made them successful. Think to yourself, how did the person running the coaching program? Often they learned themselves and slowly became more & more successful, but as with coaching programs often it is teaching you a very specific amount and not everything you need to know to become 100% successful. I could go on but the more I keep trying to explain, the more I slowly forget what I am trying to say.

It cost isn't a concern, and he is proven, and he can be your lifetime mentor, then why not go for it? Esp. if it can improve your life dramatically.

Be careful as $5000 is quite a lot of money to give away on a whim. You are better of learning here.

Lot of these so-called 'coaches' are nothing but scams, and that extends to other similar industries like 'motivational' gurus.

The whole make money online niche is one giant scam, but it works. It works because Americans are gullible who buy into anything. Take away America from the equation, you have no money to make in this industry. The thing in America is that everyone wants to become super rich with little effort and live the 'American dream', so you will always have a market.

Hm, not unless they showed me some info that blew my mind.

I would find a cheaper coach.

I would do it as well, but not at the beginning.
After trying, making mistakes and understanding whats going on - this is a good time for couch.

Be careful with your money. A lot of the "coaches" who have produced "amazing results" are just fakes. Not all of them, but to be honest most of them.

Any mentor with a proven track record can only be a good thing. Make sure you do your research thoroughly.

Something else I want to add is that you said you'll be graduating in health, and my guess is to be able to afford that kind of money you'll probably be going into a high paying field (doctor, dentist, surgeon ect.), unless you have rich parents. So unless you have rich parents who paid for your university, I'm guessing you have some descent size student bills you need to take care of or finish and I recommend paying those first because interest can go up fast.

Also, another thing that means is that your young (like me). Therefore, if it takes you 4 years to learn the hard way compared to six months, that's ok, because you'll still be young, and you actually learn more things that way!

I recommend spending 2-3 years focusing on your career while learning and then maybe save up vacation and take a month off work to start on IM (with a coach) and work up from their. You'll also probably have paid off your loans and have more mone by them.

If cost is not a concern then go for it.

The simple fact that you are asking the question has me wondering whether that is a true statement or not. But then again I don't really care.

In that case I would suggest doing what you would with any other business.

Create a business plan, marketing strategies, do some market research, then enter the market, invest in your site, product etc and run with it.

You don't need a guru and you certainly don't need a coach to succeed - in my own opinion of course.

Most coaches are full of s**t. Just posers that get away with it because of gullible idiots.

If you look into them you will find a small handful are the cream at the top of the crop. In most cases these guys wont charge 5K a month they will charge 30K a month or more.

The posers got to where they were by coaching not doing, usually they got coached by a coach that did the same. Its one of those things where it's like 'would you prefer to learn how to play b-ball from Michael Jordan or would you prefer to learn from Ricky, the kid down the street who loves playing ball and has been to all the conferences and had all the training and is now a qualified b-ball coach'?

I just got off of a webinar and they were talking about how to get into the coaching business. Say you pay 10k to a coach to spend a day with him/her. No matter the outcome you're going to rationalize and come up with excuses why spending 10k was a good investment. Some one debate me on that.

There ain't no way to do that. Plus, everybody assumes that just because a guy is successful at what he does, he has understood why what he's done was successful and broken it down into a form that satisfies every learning style out there.

Nope! Teaching and doing are different skill sets. Everybody doesn't overlap.

The flipside of that "justify your purchase" argument is that "clarity" is not a totally airy-fairy type of concept. You pay a guy 10 grand, you're much less likely to piss around and ignore him. He's also more likely to tell you to spend money on X, Y, and Z, and you'll be able to afford it, which gives you better odds off success than just hoofing it for free.

Here's a suggestion....

Finding an IM coach is like looking for a doctor or a dentist. You have to talk or see 2-3 to find a match.

Pick 3 Coaches out there that are charging $5K or more. Contact them and ask what they could do for you for a couple of hundred dollars but that you're very serious in investing $5K give or take. Explain that you're evaluating on their coaching style, etc. and you're willing to pay a little bit to see how it will go.

The IM coach will respect you a little bit more and may over deliver on the front end (could be anything such as a phone consultation to a couple of their products for example).

I've had the opportunity to meet in person some very well known marketers and I will tell you this. Most of them will work very hard for your success as there are so many talkers out there that will never take action.

Dennis

No, never.

There is a big difference between learning how to do something versus WHAT you should do. You can teach someone how to run, but does a guy with one foot really need that? Mentoring is about giving you direction, not teaching you tiny details of how to write a blog post or create an ad.

A good mentor will take a look at your financial situation, short and long term goals, time availability, existing skills and knowledge, then help you choose the best method of making money for you.

Next, a good mentor will help you create an action plan of how you can achieve those goals, and break it down into easy to follow steps so that you can get there.

If you are considering a mentor, ask about the kinds of people he has successfully mentored to see if they were in similar positions to your own.

Personally I focus on mentoring people with zero money to spend on setup, often stay at home moms, students or people that have just lost their jobs. The methods best for them would not be the ones best for you.

Generally speaking, if you have very little time, but a decent amount of money to invest in setting up, then methods that focus on outsourcing are the way to go.

Contact any potential mentor and ask if they have an example of someone they have previously mentored that was in your position.

Alternately, focus on mentors that specialize in outsourcing.

Hope that helps

Hi Sakki,

Which is more important to you at this point in time?
The health career or IM?
Which is more of a sure thing as far as your needs and resposibilities are concerned?
(The first answers that popped into your head are likely the ones to focus
on at this point in your life.)

As for IM/business opportunities, they will always be there in one form or another.
SO, there is no need to pressure yourself there. Something you can come back to
to pay off loans and meet your other financial needs.

With respect to spending $5000 on coaching, is money really no object?
Aside from the $5000, do you have 6 months of living expenses in your accounts as a cushion for emergencies, or to cover the time to get a great job in your field or steady income from IM?

With respect to coaching, I'd say yes if there are no red or yellow flags about the coach and his ability to coach YOU to the results YOU want in the tactics you are doing, or should be doing in your particular niches. Even one suggestion that makes a significant positive difference would be worth it and is something which could last throughout your IM projects. As a very basic example, one coach I know gives the example of how moving the persons photograph on the website to a higher location made a large difference in conversions as you only have seconds to get a site visitors attention.
Sounds silly, but that one thing probably paid for the course and that was only one little thing.

If you were to decide that $5000 is too much, you might find some less expensive
coaching which is offered on a monthly basis and would be effective to get you to the next level. Mark Hendricks and Perry Marshall and some on this forum may have programs which would be effective for you.

Hope that helps and of course you don't have to answer the questions to anyone but yourself/spouse.

Dan

I agree money is not the concern here. What really matters is what you can actually learn for the amount of money you pay.

It all depends on who it is and his past achievements ! It could be just what you need to pull you up and what you will learn will pay you back 10000 times.
If you have the money and feel that you will benefit from it, "Do it" if you done your research on this person and are confident in his services that he provides.

Hi Sakki!
If you belive the coaching can bring you more than your ivestment why not. And if you can afford it at the time. But because I can not afford it I will not pay that amount.
Thank you,

$20000 bet the mortgage on it but lost... I was impatient

I have an offline business in a profession , and do my own sales ... love cold calling

recenctly tried local sniper invesed loads but got out quickly after...Whew!!

But still believe... just more careful now

To answer your question, OP, no.

5000? thats alot for me I wouldnt pay anyone that kinda money.

however if money is no option and you think its ok and that you need it, then go for it my all means

I pay million dollars for five minutes with the right person you need to look at the value, not the price tag.

It is a tough one.

In my opinion I am not sure if ANY coach can MAKE you successful.

Chances are if you are thinking of hiring a coach for IM you have tried a few different things and are at your wits end.

Well the 'push' that a coach gives you MIGHT make you take the next steps and be successful but remember you are forking out $5000!

So you will need to make that back to make any profit.

My advice is keep the $5,000 and have a look around the forum for plenty of free info that works.

You just have to keep on going - whether it be Amazon sites, article marketing, your own products etc... you need to pick one and keep going until you see results and then tweak and carry on.

Nothing in life is guaranteed but to spend $5000 on a metor is a lot money in anyone's book but a good idea if you rearly want to make it online or cut down the amount of time it takes .I'd learn the basics first. Find out what facet of Internet marketing I like and take it from there.but only if I could show commitment and I check the metors past record out would I move forward with that idea.

Well, it really depends. You point out in your thread that the money isn't the issue. As one who has coached other, I always look at that as a red flag. Money ALWAYS matter. And yes, you could do the whole SHOT GUN blast thing and spread yourself thin across the internet landscape. Or do what I tell my students...Be a Fire hose. Laser-like focus on one thing at a time. Then the next and the next and...Etc. Etc. BTW, on the 'Hand holds' I needed a hand to hold some years back...and still do. That's why I have coach to this day. Mostly his job is to help me stay focused on the fundementals of my business. We've become more like peers. I been a little long winded but your question is great one.

depends on how the "coach" makes his money.


if he makes it primarily in the IM niche, run. if he makes it in real-world niches, go for it if you're willing to take the risk.

$5k is peanuts if the person is good.

It really depends on how good the coach is. You can find some pretty good coaching deals here on warrior forum for a lot cheaper than 5000.

Don't do it. It's not worth it. 99 out of 100 so called coaches can't make money themselves. That's why they are coaches in the first place.

If you're that dedicated to learning and will TAKE ACTION, then yes, spend the $5000. That investment will pay off 100 times over.

Remember, TIME is your most valuable asset. Money comes and goes, but you'll never get back your time. You don't wanna tell yourself 5 years later, "I wish I did that coaching when I had the chance..".

It sounds like you already know how to make money online, but need help taking it to the next level in the limited amount of time you have to devote to it. I agree with others that your time constraints present a big risk of wasting the money spent on a coach who tells you to do things you have no time to do; better save the money until you have time to take advantage of it.

One thing you could do now is start looking for a good done-for-you sales funnel, and throw some of that $5k into paid traffic, like PPV and/or solo ads. That wouldn't require you to spend a lot of time; in fact you could even get a VA to manage things for you.

Or you could look into doing a JV with someone who has more time and skills than money, and bankroll a new business which you could both profit from. The great thing about JVs is you can combine forces with someone whose weaknesses correspond to your strengths, and vice verse.

Who is this you speak of? Some are better than others, and some have better ideas than others.

If he's proven, the $5k is worth it. You should listen to him outright and do everything he says and not question. Then after you've absorbed everything from him, feel free to learn other stuff.

But if you're still digging around without confidence and going on WarriorForum, I don't think you're ready to make a $5k commitment to learning.