Click to subscribe in a readerDon’t Get Caught by Internet Marketing Hype
Lots of people are looking for ways to make money online. It’s been that way for a long time, and during the economic downturn the desire for lots of cash has been intensified.
Enter Internet marketers promising that you can makes thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars a day if you follow their systems. I have no doubt that they are making that kind of money selling the fantasy of easy money. It doesn’t mean that you will make tons of money too.
I’ve been doing business online for a long time and know what it really takes to earn a decent living whle coming from a place of high integrity. For the most part, what I’m hearing from this tight-knit group of marketers is BS.
It’s hard to resist their pitch–they really know how to write compelling copy. But the sizzle they offer is often a dud–and sometimes they take clear advantage of their customers.
I do respond to some of their free offers so I can see what they are doing. Recently, I sent for a CD offered by Matt Bacak (for $7.77), which put me on his mailing list, both email and snail mail. Some of his advice was very solid, although in order to follow all of it, I’d have to work 24 hours a day or have a stable of assistants.
Recently, I responded to an offer for a great list of resources for $1. Ok, I went for it and the list had a lot of good information. At a workshop I gave recently, I even recommended that people pay the $1 for the information.
Today, I was looking for something online when I came across some posts on www.RipOffReport.comstating that people had paid Matt their $1 and were then charged $29.95 a month. I checked my AmEx charges, and sure enough, there was one for $$29.95. I immediately called AmEx to have the charge reversed and to stop all future charges.
I suggest that you avoid any pitch that promises lots of money, site traffic or affiliate sales quickly an easily. There is no quick and easy way. I’ll have more to say in the future about specific offers.
That happened to me, too, with someone whose work I’d been following for many years – Joe Vitale.
When I called to ask about it, they said, “You agreed to this when you signed up.” So I went back and looked and – sure enough – there was the thing that said, “Hey we’re going to keep sending you stuff and charge your credit card every month.”
My issue about it was – it wasn’t in large enough type to catch my eye first time around – and that’s a little dodgy, to my way of thinking. And the material they sent was not first class stuff, either. All of this lowered my trust levels around the guy and his company.
I’m finding myself unsubscribing to many marketers who are supposed experts in their field because of such nonsense.
As we raise our vibration, many of the old marketing methods become increasingly intolerable. We can do a lot better than this.
Barbara. I don’t understand how people like Joe and Matt can think they are going to sustain their reputation with such tactics. I guess they figure there’s an unending pool of potential customers.
As someone who writes long sales letters, I know that anyone who does this kind of writing does not expect people to read every word. Some might say it’s the customers responsibility to do so, but I think that’s unrealistic when some of the sales letters are 4,000 to 5,000 words long.
I hope these methods to fade from the picture.
I’ve had similiar experience with both Matt and Joe. I now avoid anything with either of their names associated.
I fell for it once and never again. A newsnetwork that requested new freelance writers that could take benefits out of google adsense and other advertising. Pity I cannot mention any names but your story is definitely a good warning for people. Thank you.