Internet Marketing Sucks!
Warning: This isn’t a warm and fuzzy post. There won’t be ‘high ways’ and ‘way to go’s’ in this thread. In fact, I may lose a few friends because of it but you know what, I have always spoken my mind and well, today is no different. If I tick you off because of it, maybe, just maybe there is some truth to what I’m about to write.
Here goes…
Internet marketing sucks! The entire industry, the entire thing is set up to get the little guys to always be ‘donating’ to the big guys lifestyle…Let me say that again…The industry is set up like this;
Big guy gets his buddies to help launch a new product. The product is nothing new. Rarely has anything been done in the internet marketing world that actually helps and trains new marketers, it’s usually re-hashed advice that you can find in any marketing or business book at Amazon.com.
His ‘buddies’ hype it up and send emails to you, where it’s promised to be a revolutionary service, it’s a must have product, and you would be silly not to take action on it.
The big guy makes thousands upon thousands of dollars, and him and his buddies usually meet up at an offline event and laugh about how stupid people are to buy their products….And they are going to do the same thing in a few months again.
Am I just talking out of my rear end?
Nope, I have been there. I have been to those events, I have heard the conversations, I know how these people think. Heck, I was in that little circle of friends a few years ago. I might have even been one of those scum bags in the conversation. Sad really…I was caught up in the glamor and glitz I suppose and wanted to be ‘one of the guys’.
But here’s the worst part, this will never change. Whenever someone says ‘you can make money easily online doing this….’ people will flock to it. It’s not just internet marketing too, it’s in the traffic exchanges, it’s in the paid to click world, it’s in the MLM game…It’s everywhere.
How do you avoid these schemes? I can only think of one way…Educate yourself! Go to Amazon.com and buy a few books on ‘making money online’ or marketing in general. Read for yourself, learn the techniques from people that actually walk the walk.
I mean the big guys will be the first people to pitch you a product on ‘social media’ but then don’t even have a Twitter account. Seriously, they are about selling you stuff, not about educating you to fend for yourself in the marketing world.
Again, my advice, avoid the schemes like the plague and EDUCATE YOURSELF! Amazon.com is the best thing to ever happen to my business and it can be for you as well. The more you learn about how this game works, the better off you will be. Arm yourself with ‘marketing knowledge’ the right way….Read a book or two!
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Hi Jon
Great post, especially in the current climate where clickbank are allowing really poor / downright illegal products to be sold to the millions of people desparate to live the internet dream.
When you actually read copywriting books you can see straight through the BS and with video it’s even more obvious that the “newbie” has just rented a luxury house for the day to film the video, and other such dirty tactics.
Also why on earth is the information so expensive? I mean if a printed book is < $20 why should we have to pay $47 online – is so that the affiliate can get 50%?
Anyway I could type all day about this BS world we live in, but I need to go bath the kids.
Keep up the good content.
Andrew
Mmmm thinking the fact that you like to an affiliate based site answers the question
The fact that your book page is affiliated means the same as your post… or am i missing something
Amen to that Andrew. And that’s a really good point. I mean these books are a fraction of the cost that some of these ‘marketing products’ are and well…You get so much more from them anyways.
Brian – that’s my recommendations for books. Trust me, I MIGHT get 10 cents if you buy from my links. That is placed there more for recommendations but you have a point. Maybe I’ll get rid of the aff. links to show you I’m not going after your ten cents…
All I can say is HERE HERE! It shouldn’t piss anyone off… because it’s just some truth talkin. No need to be alarmed or angry, it just is what it is. Products are setup to make money, not help you. I’m actually working on a small little book right now that will probably make some people even angrier…. but I can live with that.
Teaser, it includes many of the things I’ve fallen for in my time in the IM industry (sure I’m not alone there), tactics I’ve learned from being behind the scenes as a designer and host of these products/websites, and a few little extras. Not groundbreaking, but hopefully helpful.
Great post, I hope that people are paying attention while reading. It’s so easy to get caught up in the hype, but all you really gain from it is a jaded view of the IM world, and quite a few less dollars in the old pocket.
regardless… you are kicking off about peeps pimping links but your whole post is full of the “big guy” earning
Hi Jon.
I love your new post! It made me think of something else, too. I was always doing new launches (jv’s, etc.) until I realized that most of them (admins) are pretty much just dangling a carrot at me to get me to help them build their lists and income (I know — I should have seen that). lol Well, needless to say, I’m a “lot” more selective now about what I help launch. I don’t like feeling used anymore than anyone else does.
I still do an occasional JV, but I sure do look at them in a new way now. I would much prefer just joining something new (and paying) when it comes out and advertising it on my own — because I WANT to.
Anyway, thanks for the post. I think it needed to be said!
Paula
Big Guy earning?
You know how much money I have made from Amazon in the 5 years of using their affiliate links?
$2.25
But ya, you got it…I’m ‘pimping’ those links.
And I stand by those links though.
I’m telling people to buy books. I’m not trying to get them to dish out 47 bucks on an eBook.
I HIGHLY recommend those books on my list and if I get 10 cents for recommending one of them, so be it…I’m a pimp I guess lolol
More that most… but i really liked this post then i seen links to amazon then i thought???
Jon, don’t remove your Amazon affiliate links, that would just be silly and if you’re going to do that you might as well sell I Love Hits and SWAT and you’re not going to do those either.
I just have to say, there’s nothing wrong with earning Affiliate Commissions. It seems like they’re viewed as “hype” or “cashing in on the little guy.”
There’s a huge difference between recommending a product you know will help a lot, including your affiliate link to that product, and recommending every crap product on the web because you think it will earn you some cash. I’ve sent my affiliate link for things to my mom, my in-laws etc. I don’t feel bad about it because I’m recommending highly useful tools. If I make a couple of bucks in the process, where’s the leeching in that? Makes no sense to me.
Brian, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Jon having affiliate links (or selling his own products and membership sites) on his blog. Jon isn’t trying to do anyone wrong. If selling things is “wrong” then why are any of us even trying to make money online?
Just a thought.
Anyway, not trying to start a debate here. It just really bothers me that you are picking on Jon when he’s doing nothing wrong.
Paula
Winter – yes, absolutely.
I will always send products I feel are useful to my list. Always. Because I stand by what I say, even if I’m wrong.
This is about the fact people will pitch you products, like I said a ‘get rich with social media’ book, and then not even have a Twitter account.
That’s scummy.
It’s like me sending people to an SEO product. I have no business talking about SEO, because I don’t use SEO. Now if you see me recommend something on traffic exchanges, social media, blogs, etc….Well…
1000% i misread this whole topic… JON please accept my apologies as I read this as something 100% diff…
Think he feels my thoughts a little
but please accept my apologies as this is for another rant lol
I agree Jon, its a Big Dog Industry now days. Seems to me it doesn’t matter if you actually have a quality product at a reasonable price, that can actually help newbies get going correctly or even help more experienced marketers learn more. It all boils down to who’s butt you can kiss the most.
I have run our TE for 2 years now and done my best to help out the little guy when one comes to my attention. Yet myself and others like me get told “What are you doing?” by the Big Dogs after they ignore us for years when we do help out the Little Guys.
So I just keep plugging along and I do my best to help out All the Little Guys that ask me. And no I don’t charge a Dime for it. I just do my best to answer their questions and offer them FREE Advice with out blowing them off and insulting them.
I also try to look over every product I do tell my members about. And I refuse to keep throwing the same old sites at them over and over and over.
Like all these new downline builders aka traffic builders. They are all just alike only different graphics. I have one or 2 I promote and all the new ones since them I refuse to JV on and bug my members about. No sense having them join 25 sites that all do the exact same thing. Yet I see so many of the so many launching them.
Anyway I am happy just being who and what I am. A TE Owner, list builder, marketer, who still talks to and listens to the Little Guys.
Krazy Kaye
Big Jon!
SORRY, if we lit your fuse at the TE Town Hall the other night… now, thar she blows! lol
BUT, of course, you are dead-on.
IT SEEMS that, outlandish promises of BIG, FAST MONEY (from people who don’t even work our trenches beside us)… still SUCK most of the money out of our relatively small TE world.
ACTUALLY, it disturbs me even more, because there are so many very good promotional tools and marketing materials… available from our ‘fellow internet peons’ in TE Land.
YET, the average newbie or program-hopper would rather spend a small fortune, lining the pockets of Gurus, than to spend (and get more) right here in our own little internet neighborhood!
The internet has gotten too big to say ‘Buy American’ or ‘Buy Canadian’… but at least buy local, BUY TE.
Two cents,
Carl Bailey
As for the topic, well, we’ve talked about this stuff quite a bit in TE Live. I agree with a lot of it and not sure about some, but to me, within the traffic exchange industry – JUST the TE industry – few of us are really and truly “big guys” in the grand scheme of things in Internet marketing. A large portion of the TE-related e-books and programs really are helpful, even if it’s been said before and rewritten from a different view – and most of the TE-related products and services are reasonably priced. Obviously people could still use these products and this information because we still see people doing things that will not help them in traffic exchanges every day!
What bothers me a lot is – and this would be mostly coming from the “truly big guys” – when I hear that someone has dropped $497 on the latest greatest money scheme that will “fill your wallet and make you rich”, and things like that. One’s being promoted heavily now that I just about died when I heard how much they were asking people to shell out.
Most of those “big guys” themselves wouldn’t have a thing to do with traffic exchanges and I think that’s the point I’m getting at. For the most part, I think most of the traffic exchange-related products and programs out there are quite useful and helpful and most are not priced at some ridiculous amount, so I think maybe a little more distinction between the traffic exchange world vs the “more general Internet marketing world” might be in order. Some people reading this will think “big guys” are the “traffic exchange big guys” when in the grand scheme of things most TE people are not making two million dollars a year and up like some of the REALLY “big guys”, if you follow.
Those truly “big guys” are a whole different kettle of fish than TE people and wouldn’t set foot near a TE for the most part. Granted, there are folks in TEs that promote some of their overpriced products – but I don’t think a lot of the TE-related products and programs that are in circulation and are useful should be painted with the same brush as, say, Max whatshisname’s brand new cash machine.
I know that’s not what you’re getting at for the most part because we talk about it often, but I don’t know that everyone who reads this will get that. To most TE users you’re a “big guy” and really there’s hardly anyone in the traffic exchange industry and related industries who is truly “big” compared to those in more general Internet marketing who are REALLY big.
I don’t know if that made sense but I know what I meant lol.
Ooooh yeah, I like what Carl just said about “buying local, buy TE”. That’s very good and more or less what I meant.
Granted, TE promoters are not on the whole perfect and I know there’s still stuff that gets promoted that you don’t necessarily agree with. But I think we all know the real problem areas are more about the more general Internet marketing industry itself and THEIR “big guys”, who are REALLY big. I’m just not sure the average non-owner TE person would know that, is what I meant.
I get those promo e-mails all the time, and they usually come in sets. 3 or 4 IM buddies send the exact same e-mail hyping the latest, greatest POS product that will earn you $114,234 dollars in 12 days. Gimme a break. Like you said, they promote products and programs that they would never use themselves, they just make their cash on the Product Launch circuit.
As far as the Amazon links, I’d be upset if you didn’t add them to your post. There’s no over-exaggerated hype or BS tactics involved with that, and most of us promote many different affiliate links, whether it’s Amazon, or HostGator, or any one of a million other ways to earn a couple bucks here and there.
Great comments everyone, Carl, Lynn, Paula, Kaye, Mark, thank you all. I may be a big guy in TE Land, but trust me on this…I’m not sitting pretty LOL
This is a job, I wouldn’t trade it for the world and love what I do. Passion is key in this business, because traffic exchanges aren’t going to make you rich.
because traffic exchanges aren’t going to make you rich. Tony wish to comment..?
“The entire industry, the entire thing is set up to get the little guys to always be ‘donating’ to the big guys lifestyle…
The product is nothing new. Rarely has anything been done in the internet marketing world that actually helps and trains new marketers, it’s usually re-hashed advice that you can find in any marketing or business book at Amazon.com.”
Why Stop at at the Internet Industry? … This goes for the Whole world. Offline – Online.
Hey, how many Cooking Books do you have?
How many do you need? How many are you using?
How many of the new one are better then the ones written
1950, 60, 2000 and how many actually teach you
how to cook? lol
Just an example… This goes for most things…
You can Borrow Books free on Libraries in many countries
and learn many things, most things…
Maybe Not Always the latest, hottest stuff… but anyway.
Then we have all Newspapers, magazines… You can read most
of it free online Or wait 1 day or 2 and you can get them free.
We don’t need most of the stuff people are selling and make millions with. But that will not change the Fact… News sell,
new products will sell more 2011 then 2010 Online – Offline.
There will be more, bigger, better Launches… More people will spend more money and A few more will make millions lol …
Yeah, many people sell stuff they are not using them self, just to make money. Not to mention all meaningless matrix, cycler things with tons of useless e-books as cover up for the biz…
My Advice… Sell Stuff you are using yourself and are helping your business grow, moving forward. If it’s of teaching, coaching nature. Offer some personal hand out, help.
That is how I work anyway… I’m using skype. ANd I’m doing Instructional Videos Published On YouTube etc…
Take Care /Stefan Berg
Stefan – amen man. Great stuff.
Brian – I’m willing to bet he’s doing good, just like I do good with this stuff. But rich? Maybe you can define rich.
maybe YOU should… I’m sure he does fine but he is an example of someone who takes advantage of…
(going to get slammed for this)
you spend too much time worrying about others and now you are get overtaken….
You were my first upgrade and (dispite cards running out) i have been upgraded fore a million years
*sorry i’m watching footie*
Kind of glad I was out shopping when this blog post hit so I could read the comments
I LOVE the post and the comments.
I agree, the key is education. I believe there is a learning curve for people in the IM or TE niche.
There are different learning curves:
There is the learning curve for the TE surfer who learns some of the tricks, learn what to promote, what programs not to join, etc. (They learn or they give up.)
There is the learning curve of the people who have their own products and sell their own stuff. They might start with a knock off product but eventually if they continue to do launches they will probably begin to develop more originality.
There is a learning curve to affiliate stuff. Do you promote every affiliate program that comes around? Do you stagger it? Do you promote the program more than once? Do you buy the product so you can test it yourself first?
There is also a learning curve with JVs. JVs being a special partnership not just a standard affiliate partnership. You get onto your first JV and get all excited. You promote it 3 or 4 times to your list and you probably never even bought the product. You probably have no idea if it is even any good yet you’re so excited you’re on a JV you’re out there blindly promoting it. Maybe you make enough money that you think this is the way to go and you keep going until you burn out your list.
Or perhaps you wise up. You realize that if you’re going to JV something you better believe in the product. You better know the person making the offer. You better try the product or web site to see if it is really any good. You get more exclusive in what you promote.
A couple other comments… You’re right it is interesting that we can get $47 for a digital product that we’d be lucky to sell for $10-$20 in a retail store. I would agree that a large portion of that is do to paying affiliate commissions. I would also say that it is a result of the market. The market is used to paying a certain price for digital products. Especially if we’re in the making money niche. You pick up one thing from a book and it probably pays for itself.
A lot of sites are not designed to actually help someone. They’re simply a way to get paid to build a list. The product or web site offers very little value. Most of the value is in the form of bonuses which are actually JVs and other partnerships to make the site owner even more money.
HECK an entire series of books and web sites revolves around that business model. $7 secrets. People will pay less than $10, for a product without thinking twice about it. It will be so cheap that they won’t even think about asking for a refund or opening a support ticket even if they are unhappy about it.
A great book on Jon’s list is called “Free: The future of a radical price”. It talks about several new online business models based around offering stuff for free. Ranging from Google to Facebook to Flickr. Lots of businesses online use this business model. (Next week I’m turning one ebook product I have sold for as much as $47 into a free product.)
And yes I made a lot of these mistakes in the past that’s how come I know about the learning curve.
When I launched Instant Buzz Mastery I burned my list pretty bad. I was promoting some of the guru launches and even made a top 5 or 8 or so affiliates in a big launch. That opened me up to other gurus wanting me in on their launch. I played that game for awhile and burned my list. Probably offended a lot of people. Over 2/3rds of my list unsubscribed. The other thing was I discovered that the gurus were never going to help me promote my launches! They only wanted me to promote theirs. If I went to a big guru and asked them to promote my launch they’d tell me that i needed to help promote another launch of theirs. It didn’t matter if I had promoted 5 of their launches to every one email they sent out for me. They always wanted more, more, more from me.
So I wised up. Sounds like you’ve wised up to Jon!
Anyway… sorry for the rant. I love the thought provoking topic!
Thanks Jon
I came a little late to take part in the discussion of marketing sucks. Marketing is a knowledge and a skill and when you are intelligent you will be a winner. I do not think today any little people are going to be taken out by the big people, as I do not believe in any classification, among any people. We are all equal, no matter what we do, if garbage man picking up garbage or certain marketers delivering garbage. There is for me no difference, all are looking for the silver lining in life, that means being rich. My definition of being rich in part had the carpetbagger report from Steve Benen, he says: “Some of the richest people I’ve ever known in my life are the most unhappy. I think that rich is — should be defined by a home, a good job and education and the ability to hand to our children a more prosperous and safer world than the one that we inherited. I don’t want to take any money from the rich. I want everybody to get rich. I don’t believe in class warfare or redistribution of the wealth.
I agree with him fully. I hope the next discussion here, I will be on time. Why was I not here for this discussion, why sure, I was marketing on to make a sale.
Thanks
Jay Dee
Thanks Ben, thanks Jay Dee….Much appreciated, love the input.
Brian – no sure why you think you are going to get slammed for anything, you are entitled to your opinion and when you disagree with me it adds to the thread. It is appreciated and respected.
But I do disagree with one thing you said for sure…No one is ‘overtaking me’. We are all different and everyone in this business is ‘read’ or ‘followed’ for different reasons.
I open my trap and will ALWAYS concern myself with traffic exchange issues. Thus the entire purpose of this blog.
I will never shut up LOL
Case in point…I did the warm and fuzzy threads two weeks in a row, got like 10 comments in two weeks.
I do ‘Internet Marketing Sucks’ and I am approaching 30 comments in two hours.
Being a chatter box helps when you write a blog.
*hugs* lol
I’m proud of you Jon. If you’d have made this post 3 years ago, I’d have thought you’d fallen and hit your head. I have however watched and listened to you over the last few years and seen the changes in you. I believe you have come full circle in your internet marketing from being concerned with only yourself to becoming a true compassionate marketer interested in the well being of your members and followers.
Kudos to you for putting it out here in the open for all to see. You have gained respect from me and I appreciate all you do as a leader in the traffic exchange industry. Don’t ever stop being passionate about the things you do… I believe we would all lose a little something if you did.
DA
Great post Jon, I have also been in those circles, seen/heard what is said. I almost considered leaving and sort of did fall off track as far as my marketing was concerned as I couldn’t personally be associated with that. Or rather, that wasn’t how I wanted to make my money if I was going to make any at all.
@DA I have known Jon for a very long time and never once seen a change in his passion or caring of others. It’s still the same old Jon that I remember.
But feel free to correct me if I’m wrong Jon.
Good post Jon. While I haven’t been part of those circles I have noticed the same thing. There are a few good products around, but there are also a lot that are just the same old stuff repackaged.
There are also a lot of products that claim to be fully ‘fully automated’ or ‘set and forget’ but not many of them actually are.
I think one of the important things to remember is not to get sucked into the ‘buy now or the opportunity will pass you by’ hype. If the product isn’t good enough to still be worth buying next week, then its probably not worth buying now either.
Jon, the first step in making a change, is educating the people, and often that starts by taking the blanket off to reveal what is really there. That is what you have done. I commend you, in your position, for making the statements you have.
I liken the “Big Guys” as the politicians of the internet. Same crap, different package.
Just like the federal government of the US, the people have been pushed and drained so much that the people are finally starting to wake and put their foot down.
In the internet marketing industry, the old adage, “sucker born every minute” still holds true as new people still come to internet marketing as completely naive newbies. They are initially drawn to the fantastic imagery of the guru websites, due in part to the programming of their minds from watching television.
Beat a dog, and it still comes back to you. Applies to politicians and the “big guys” on the internet. Beat that dog enough, and you will see it cower when someone just raises a hand. Internet marketing gurus have done the same for over 10 years now. People cower when they see a box that asks for an email address. Couple that with the 9/11 terrorist propaganda, and the absolute instilled fear of identity theft, and you have a market that has nearly bled dry, compared to 10 years ago, out of pure fear.
That is not an overstatement. I have built fan pages on Facebook with 1000′s of people, and it was beyond my comprehension that people would post things like “Don’t join this! Dont share this to your friends. They are only trying to get your personal info!” Many had eluded to identity theft. Ignorance, hurts my brain.
Internet marketing is just not what it used to be 10 years ago. Can barely give away something now that is truly 100% free, just because people are scared to give up their email address. The fear of the internet has been deeply embedded and the “big guys” are like piranhas waiting for someone to fall in.
So, my bottom line… internet marketing is not the same as it used to be years ago. Some things never change like politicians and self proclaimed internet gurus, and they both have given the internet a bad name making it a “bad and fearful place.”
In my opinion, the gurus have raped a market so many times that it makes it very hard for somebody with a legitimate online business startup to get off the ground on a shoestring budget, because people have been raped so often that anyone with a web page becomes another potential rapist in their eyes, and they click to another site, that they also won’t join, gaining credits to promote something that a guru told them would allow them to retire off of.
I have nothing new to add.
I just want to add to the number of comments so you will continue to write more controversial posts.
Cheers!
Of course, great post. I don’t feel there is anything wrong with your affiliate links. But I was laughing when you said go to Amazon and buy a few books on making money online. What about just reading the oodles of stuff that is sitting on my hard drive??? LOL
Take care Jon and everyone else!!
Donna
Well what more can a girl say, everyone has said it above.
I agree with the statement to be spare with the signing up
to the ‘next good thing’ I am very selective in TE,s SafeLists
and programs to run with, otherwise everything gets lost in the pile
onn the desktop.
Small can be beautiful…
Peta K.
No aff. links guys, so i am squeaky clean.
This is in the best three posts I’ve read this year and they’ve all had the same theme.
You haven’t upset me.
I’ll be recommending that all my subscribers read this.
I keep saying this is a people business and posts like this from people like you Jon only reinforce that fact.
Keep up the good work -and keep promoting your affiliate link.
Wow.. You guys hit a few nails there!!
I got a point to add about the big guys…
There’s only so many times the big boys can resell revamped hash before they loose their credibility and their mailing list starts to shrink.
I would much rather take solid advice from a “trusted source” like Jon Olson and know that the aff link will take me to a resource that can “actually help” my business
Some very big named marketers have lost my trust over the last few years online for doing exactly what this post is about. I know Jon wont lead me astray, or send me to a website just to line his own pockets!
Oh.. and if he makes some cash for the referral.. well done!!
I have a P.S.. for Winter
Dont feel bad for adding similar stuff in your new project, as I am sure there will be a good solid reason to share it. Any information you can share with me about the rights and wrongs on your jouney, I would be happy to hear about!
Right on! I am also tired of all the hype. I find that when I tell affiliates what is really required, they don’t want to do it. The work, study, leaning how to use a web building program and a smattering of html and php, Gimp, WordPress, hosting-cpanel and all the other related programs – are just beyond what most people want to learn. They would rather buy “pie in the sky” from the “carnival barkers”.
No one wants to work hard. I blame the hucksters for continually telling people that it only takes a few hours a week or day to earn income and very little money. Horse P…
Great post Jon. I’m amazed at all the new launches every week hyping this or that get rich scheme. And of course the person at the top makes the money, and all to often launches a similar scheme in 6 months or so.
I have followed you for years now and have life-time upgrades in both of your exchanges. I can honestly say from personal experience that you care about what you do and often go the extra mile to provide great customer service.
I should go to your amazon links so you can make a few cents toward your becoming an internet millionaire, lol
This has been one of your better posts and is followed bu some excellent comments. Keep up the good work.
Roger Rothove
Thank You Jon for speaking up as you have with the truth of the way things are.
It’s all too often we see ads that a retired whatever made 15,,000 in 7 days while not having a lot of experience on the Internet. While that may be true, what they don’t tell you is, he was in marketing for 3 years the first 18 months he lost $10,000 before he took the right path and for the next 18 months worked his tail to the bone in order to understand, find the contacts and build a big list himself. His internet experience may still need building on after only 18 months real Study.
Everyone flocks this site like you say. This really bothers me.
We have started a website aimed at the Newer or inexperienced ones to assist them with online marketing. We offer assistance where we can and what is even a larger surprise is very few actually respond to our offer. To me it’s sad that people now have internet trust issues because of the unscrupulous who ran ahead of us. I am not sure which saddens me more.
Thanks again Jon for that powerful Message and with the amount of people who know you on the Net I hope your message really sinks in.
Keep The Faith
Ray
Donna ha ha ha ha ha Ya, that’s a great point. I’m sure I have quite a few ‘exclusive downloads’ that I have collected over the years as well.
Thanks all for the comments. Great stuff.=)
And thanks Roger, I really try sometimes I may look like an arse and open my mouth too much, but it’s all because I love these programs so much and I know, in the bottom of my soul, that we can all do very good things in this business.
We don’t need no stinking internet marketing LOL We got traffic exchanges! LOL
Successful Affiliate Marketers buy Products while Unsuccessful Affiliate Marketers buy Opportunities.
Jon you almost won me over.
Jon, it was so good to hear you stating what I have been saying for a mighty long time. And that you too were both naive and culpable hit another good spot – accountability.
Then comes this line to Roger’s post: “We don’t need no stinking internet marketing LOL We got traffic exchanges! LOL”
In case you didn’t notice, our 2% of a huge Internet Market is starving to death. What do you feel Te advertising should do, advertise only other TEs coming on the market -share the bodies and all drown in the same bathtub?
Some very thought provoking comments to your post. You did a marvellous job with the intent. Could not let it end with such an inane statement.
Hi Jon,
Lol! True Confessions! Gotta love it. Now,I gave you a url that you will be,or should be, familiar with. I keep his testimony on my domain so I never forget and get caught up in all the hype.
See, I make pizza too. It certainly has been an enjoyable learning experience so far. I also appreciate the posts made following your statements.
The left turn at Albuquerque (did I spell that right?–lol). Even
Bugs knew the difference!
Oh–just in case–http://granshananigans.com/quest.html
The road home was always there. Ya just gotta stay on it. LOL
Sharon
Fran – I think you misread what I mean by internet marketing. I’m not talking about affiliate marketing, MLM products, services. I’m talking about the back room deals that take place in IM. The shady dealings, the useless product launches and the 9.
This has nothing to do with not promoting your favorite business opportunity in the traffic exchanges, I’m talking about the ‘next best revolutionary product’ that is sure to come out in the internet marketing circle down the road.
“Successful Affiliate Marketers buy Products while Unsuccessful Affiliate Marketers buy Opportunities” – John Bell
Quote of the week!
ROFL I love this post, Jon! And so many comments! Most seem to agree with you also. Usually when there are this many comments, its because they don’t agree with you. LOL I haven’t personnally fallen for many of these schemes. I’m cheap…errr…thrifty. hehehe If it costs me money just for the priviledge of being able to advertise it and hopefully make money myself, well… it ain’t gonna happen! I firmly believe there are many more important things than money in this world.
Sally lol ya, usually I get this many comments when I say something no one likes.
I guess everyone is fed up LOL
LOL @JerryIannucci. I think we should officially crown Jerry Court Jester of TE Land, he’s the king of the fall-out-of-your-chair-laughing one-liner!
24 hours later and after reading the remainder of the comments, a couple more thoughts occur to me.
There’s always going to be the odd exception here and there that looks a little shady, but I think in Traffic Exchange Land we really are more fortunate because, for the most part and overall, most of the products that are produced by those heavily involved in TEs *are* really useful and helpful to those trying to market in TEs.
Granted, a lot of it’s the same stuff over and over – but that’s simply because anyone regularly promoting in TEs know what works best because eventually everyone has not only heard it from others but learns mostly the same things for themselves. But all those products and programs are generally still useful because one or two “voices” that appeal to some people may not appeal to others and vice versa. I’ll read anyone but even I have a preference for some writers’ styles above others. That doesn’t really make for oversaturation or make any of those e-books any less useful and helpful. I can think of a few TE marketing e-books that basically say the same thing, but a couple definitely would appeal more to non-techy Internet newbies while another would probably appeal a lot more to those with a little more online and techy experience.
And granted too, the same stuff that’s almost always repeated in those products could also easily be mostly absorbed by anyone attending things like AF and Jerry & Mike’s List Building Conferences regularly and the occasional TE Live. But then again not everyone’s going to make the effort to do that consistently and diligently, and those folks would be a lot better served by signing up for and upgrading in a couple of e-books by those in the know RE traffic exchanges.
Bottom line, I think we’re fortunate that most “TE people” put out stuff that’s useful and helpful. I personally am pretty committed to my name not being on anything that hasn’t helped me personally and/or gotten valuable knowledge out of.
And in a lot of cases, when you buy/upgrade in one of those programs, you’re more or less buying a downline builder for the most part and/or buying into the potential higher affiliate commissions, i.e. laying “affiliate goldmines”. And that’s okay!! Heck, I’d be happy if more of my downlines joined some TEs in some downline builders that don’t even pay commissions to their members and just used them and banked me credits. In some cases that would be well worth the price of that one-time $17/27/47 upgrade in an e-book to me, I spend more money than that monthly to get those kind of credits some places.
The more broad, more “general” world of Internet marketing though and all that “quit your job next month” and “make X thousand dollars by next week” and some of the MLM-type garbage out there that six months from now will probably disappear or suddenly be “sorry, we can’t pay you” – in the hundreds of pages in TEs and safelists/viral list builders I’ve looked at just since the beginning of this week, that’s practically all I’ve seen advertised and it just makes me sick to my stomach.
But almost everybody’s out there looking for that big red easy button, or at least whatever button they can find that won’t require them to stick with hard work on something for six months to a year or more. I think it’s hard to compete with that if you are seriously thinking about producing a product with a price tag attached to it.
If you produce something that tells the truth and give people a road map of exactly what they should be doing to make money online – but you tell them the truth that they have to do SOME work, or a lot of work – most people don’t want to pay for that, not even ten bucks. But those same people will pay nearly 200 bucks – or more – for the next big thing that’s going to allow them to “quit their job next month” or bring in “thousands every day on autopilot” and without them having to do anything but promote the generic affiliate sales page they’re given.
Thank goodness for TE people and I’m thankful every day that I fell into and found a home within “TE Land” rather than trying to make my fortune in Clickbank or through some MLM with big promises. I have yet to attend a single conference or meeting or gathering, or read an e-book by a truly TE-involved person, that has told me I would never have to do any work to get where I want to go.
Hey Jon,
Great rant! I used this handle so you would recognize me from NMF. You know I agree with you. I have been saying the same thing for years. People laughed at me and told me I was ignorant but now that the warm market is burning out it is starting to hit home.
Let’s hope that the TE industry can now get past the days where they cater to the top 10% and try to focus on the whole group. Sure, maybe the bottom 25% are never going to do anything productive. It actually could be closer to 50% but there are some real people with dreams in that crowd too. Just because they don’t have the big dollars to spend like the top 10% do who will give you the quick buck doesn’t mean they aren’t willing to put in the effort even if it takes them longer (like years in some cases).
Just remember that walmart makes billions from the ones with dollars. How much does Porsche make from the ones with millions?
Time to start making and selling products that have the end user/buyer in mind and not just what you and 5% of the people at the top can make. That is highly immoral and no one will show up at your funeral when you treat people like that (except maybe the devil heh, heh!).
This is a great step Jon. Let’s hope the whole industry can move with you. For too long people have been letting ‘win’ be the bottom line but when winning means scoring after you have broken the other guy’s kneecap where is the sportsmanship?
As for TEs, and this is constructive criticism for TE owners, I’m still not ready to come back to them yet. I would love to but I can spend my money in a PTC(Paid to click for the uninitiated) pay a LOT less than TEs are charging and still expose my products to BASICALLY the same market (that is often better motivated).
If you guys want some advice on moving forward, competing and growing here it is: It is time you crunched all the numbers of your operations and discovered the true cost of delivering a page view to people. If it is a penny a thenth of a penny or one thousandnth of a penny you should figure that out. Once you have done that you can set your prices above that in order to make your profit margin. I’ll bet if TE’s did that and even gained a 100% profit margin their prices would go through the floor. If they did that then their sales would skyrocket and so would activity and they then would discover the true value of their exchanges.
The reason I’m saying this is because people aren’t stupid. They will go along with something for a while but at some point they will beging to realize they are putting out a dollar in effort and getting 25 cents in reward. The amazing thing is that they know this instinctively but on the conscious level they will just become ‘bored’ of what they are doing and moved on.
So as I said, if you guys focus on providing the best value you can without going broke I think people will sense that and reward you richly
Peace Jon,
You come a long way,
David
UGH! Pardon all the spelling errors in that. I’m at the end of a long day!
I agree with Jon 100%, he is spot on! Most of the stuff the big guys put out and peoples buy into can be found with a simple search on google for free.
Brian, there’s nothing wrong with anyone using an affiliate link, if they think what they are recommending is helpful and benefical to others. There’s a big difference in recommending a good helping product to others and earning a commission, than just recommending a scheme or some sorry product for a commission. We are in this business to make money and so is Jon.
Ed Tyner
Recruiting Redneck
I would say after around three years online for the newbie to start with a low cost instant paying site and just work that for a while since there will be too much to learn to do a monthly MLM when your just learning.
Things like Click Bank have hoops to jump through, I made over $100 in sales but could not get paid because 5 people needed to use 5 different credit cards first.
Instant pay sites have paid me more than I paid in and are only one time fees.
But after a good while of promoting and when you get good and fast at it, Moving into something that pays regularly will get more appealing especially when you realize that there are slow periods online.
Yes a lot of info can be found online but a BOOK is a great idea, More info in one easy spot PLUS you wont get distracted by other things..
Another thing newbies will need to learn is avoiding being distracted too much and that’a a tough one.
Stay focused and stay with things LONGER than you thought you would need to. Things usually take longer than we would want (or) they appear they should by looking at the sites.
“Marketing is still a JOB no matter what the sites claim or anyone says”.. Once you understand that fact it actually makes it easier not harder.
I wish more sites would state that fact right on the front then there wouldn’t be so many tire kickers, LOL!
@weeklymoneyflows, some good points. In another word, what may be good or works in the short term may not always work or be good for the long term.
One major bullet point of an offer people should check out is the proof/evidence of others who have been legitimately using the products as advertised. If the promoters can’t provide solid proof and evidence that the product is as effective as the claims make them out to be, that should draw red flags and raise suspicion.
Usually, it turns out to be ‘too good to be true’. People can make anything sound great with some good copywriting.
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