This is a great guest post by Deborah, she talks about how “gurus” sell you shitty products. Its very true, its sad to see so many shitty products being promoted by affiliates just to make some cash. Remember that no product will ever make you rich, you will make yourself rich, its 1% inspiration and 99% perseverance (Thomas Edison). And trust me, all of the methods people are selling these days are out dated and are worn out methods, the “gurus” are making money off of you, most of them dont make money themselves 
– Jon Waraas
It was only 5 years ago that I began to take a serious look at the online world. A friend recommended
I look at a website that paid writers to submit articles and after a brief period of time I found myself
wondering if I could write for a living. I subscribed to Elance, landed a couple of gigs, and turned one
into a regular job that lasted for more than 2 ½ years. Eventually, I was able to quit my day-job in the
corporate world and write full-time.
Then it happened. The economy went totally sour. I found myself working twice as hard to find work
and, when I did find it, I was working twice as hard to chase payments for the jobs I was finishing.
I became acutely aware of the number of hours in each day and realized I was going to have to do
something other than writing in order to get by.
I began exploring the world of internet marketing and decided to turn some of my personal side projects
into serious ventures. I started taking a closer look at the emails being sent by the online writers,
bloggers, and marketers I had been following for years.
I trusted them. And then things got worse.
In my efforts to build a successful website I scrambled to scrape up the cash to try every new product
that promised incredible sales. I became ill with a disease many have labeled “shiny new object
syndrome.” I bought – I started to test – and I abandoned each product when the next “better” product
came along.
I not only failed at making money with my websites but soon found myself broke as well. Before long,
I was spending every dime I was making and had absolutely no savings or safety net. To make matters
worse, I started eyeballing my credit cards every time another new “great” offer rolled in.
Truth? I’m not alone and I know it. Hundreds of new internet entrepreneurs fall into the same trap every
single day. They don’t know where to start and they trust everyone who claims to be a guru. Here are a
couple of things to keep in mind as you get started:
• Stop Trusting People. Sounds terrible, doesn’t it? The truth is that even the most successful
marketers make mistakes. I recently considered purchasing a product that everyone was
promoting. I did some research and found that the product was just shy of a total scam. Why
were the people I trusted so much trying to convince me to buy a program that might not
work? They likely had never tried it and – if you read their sales letters carefully – never claimed
that they had. They’d probably never even seen the product in question. It was part of an
affiliate program and they simply wanted to earn the commissions. Go figure.
• Stop Buying New Products. I once purchased a series of products, all within about a month.
One I studied and implemented over the course of a week, and still refer to. One I looked at
and bookmarked, promising myself I’d go back to it. Two I returned for refunds (and thankfully
received) – one because it had too many bugs and one because it was not as advertised. The
reality of the situation is that I did not need four products that month. All I needed was the one
that was working well for me and I could have easily gone back to any of the other later on.
There is no one sure-fire way to make it big on the internet. There are tons of good ideas and you will
need to take the time to determine which ones seem like a fit for your personality and work ethics. But,
please – take the time to do some research before you click the “Pay Now” button.
If you don’t, you’ll be the only one to blame when you aren’t making any money, have no savings, and
find yourself facing the harassing calls of creditors and bill collectors. Tread carefully and you will, in
time, be able to create a profitable online business!
Deborah Dera is a professional freelance writer specializing in topics relating to personal finance, bad
credit loans, bankruptcy, health, wellness, blogging and search engine optimization.
Follow me on my journey of success and failures, it should be a fun ride.... Again, here is the link for the RSS feed.
Comments are Dofollow! My thanks to you for contributing to the discussion
82 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
This is so true! In my 2 years of IM, I’ve seen a lot of people going crazy every time a new product was launched (and I must admit, I’ve been like that too).
Then I realised that there is no magic formula: if you want to make it on the internet, you must consider it like a real business and be ready to do some hard work to succeed.
Hopefully your post will bring some newcomers back to the reality of this business.
Yep, your right. buying products from “gurus” is worthless. its all about testing, failing, and learning.
Yeh your damn right, it was quite frustrating for too, spent lots of time and parted with a bit of cash and guess wot? no results.
It’s a problem of too much “gaining knowledge” and not enough implementation.
It’s one thing if you’re an absolute beginner in internet business.
It’s another if you’ve already read some books and have your head wrapped around online business.
Implement, test, if it works, repeat, if it doesn’t, try something else.
Bottom-line, you need to be learning maybe 10% of the time and implementing what you just learned 90% of the time.
It’s like some people are just hooked on feeling that initial rush of buying information products, like if their life is going to change from just buying it.
Yeah right!!
I wouldn’t say that all the products are bad; it’s just that sometimes we don’t have enough energy to really put them to the test. On the other hand, it’s clear that making money online has become harder and harder; I think that this is one of the reasons why many top internet marketers sell their systems now.
Yep, your right. buying products from “gurus” is worthless. its all about testing, failing, and learning.
I don’t mind trying new products , only when they’re cheap though
Trial and error is the best way to learn i think. Just make sure you don’t try any backhat methods!
Trial and error is the best way to learn. But you can use some grey hat methods. Sometimes blackhat can help but only if you use it for a short period of time.
Nice thoughts, though I’ve made too many mistakes of buying products from guru’s now completely avoid them altogether.
Yes it very true, to really succeed you must make a real business, there is no such thing as get rich quick. Avoid guru’s! Its all about working hard trying stuff for yourself.
This information is pretty obvious. There will always be people looking to take advantage of any new source of profit. That’s the way this game works. My advice: follow the examples of these “gurus” and take your own piece.
The trick is not let yourself get overloaded with info. If you’re going to buy a program, buy it, read/watch 100% of the info, implement for a month, and only then maybe buy something else, maybe!