Woeful Tales From the Next Generation of Internet Marketers

I just walked out of another Internet seminar this weekend and am a bit flustered. Why is it that so many, “Millionaire Makers” have never scratched up nickel one in the field? I just find this so disheartening but I am trying to also be brave about it and keep a straight face. I am not going to bother mentioning specific names this time because this problem is actually wider than just a few culprits. We are gathering near epidemic proportions here.

There is a lot of information out there that can radically change your beliefs and your pocket book. But most of the experts that I meet that dispense this advice have jobs. That means that they don’t even follow their own advice when it comes to making money. I find this very troubling.

Anyone with $500 bucks can be an expert now on just about anything. Even more disturbing is that you can take this paltry amount and actually become a published author of all things. And yes, you can even take this small investment and transform it into a book that the public can actually buy in a major book store. You can do this of course if you know what you are doing. There are many steps you need to take before you can be taken seriously in this arena. But achieving this high level of status is not nearly as hard as it used to be.

So much for credibility.

It is seriously hard these days to take anyone seriously. I have met many, “Millionaires” since this whole entrepreneur wave began a few short years ago. Many of these millionaires have done some pretty outrageous stunts to get their money. Most of these people are not true millionaires or even half as great as they claim. Some of simply taken large amounts of money from clients home equity to pay for their, “coaching” and mentoring. For these folks it is a matter of time before an investigation springs up and all hell breaks loose. I predict I will see a lot of people march into jail as we continue down this downward spiral – just like during the Dot Com era.

WHERES THE NEW EXPERTS?

I dropped out of a lot of coaching programs this fall because I just could not take the BS factor. My lunch curdled in my stomach as I heard about great advice on how to build the perfect web site. How much of this stuff can you take? The advice I received centered around building a squeeze page. If this is the SOLE device of this web site then we as clients need to reconsider our options.

The whole idea of lead capture off of a squeeze page sort of went out of style in the most recent years. Don’t get me wrong I still get an occasional lead from them from time to time. But it is getting to be a bit of a thing of the past. So for me to sit there and take in this outdated advice from experts who haven’t really scored significantly in their businesses is a bit difficult.

There needs to be a more powerful way to attract customers online. I developed a prospect funnel that filters out the unqualified and the qualified without too much headache. The results have been phenomenal. This is the type of stuff I would rather have read about in Millionaire Maker, Dan Kennedys, “The Phenomenon” instead of all the meaningless rah rah hoopla. I spent $90 bucks on this cheerleading session and was very disappointed. Not that ninety bucks is a fortune by anyone’s standards but I definitely felt inconvenienced.

I learned my lessons early on too when it comes to Ebay. I occasionally run across a lot of online marketing material on there that is best left alone. Most of the material I have acquired required me to subscribe to multiple online marketing tools to sustain my visibility online. This makes life a lot more confusing and this can become very hard to manage in a short period.

A recent article in, “Entrepreneur” magazine stated that business coaching was the next wave of the future. As many full time employees want to ditch the cube and become their own boss these people seek leadership and results. This opens up the door to a much bigger problem. We have a new crop of professional idiots out there all stressing their importance.

You cannot go where you cannot lead. And this is why this whole. Expert-mania, nonsense scares the mortal crap out of me. How did America get so smart in customer acquisition all of a sudden? Who started this wave of tomfoolery? How real is it and who is really making any money doing it?

I am not kidding. It really is getting that bad out there.

When I cut all of my mentors loose I felt 80% lighter. There were a lot of them who did not want to leave. Some of them still owe me reimbursement checks. I am quite confident I will hear from these guys eventually. But there is a creeping suspicion in my bones that I will have to get more aggressive with them and take some sort of …. Action? I had to put a halt on my bank debt card from quite a few of these services.

When I quit some web continuity programs that offered coaching month to month something horrible happened. The phone numbers that were projected as Technical support turned out to be phonies. The email addresses turned out to be duds too. The information bounced back to me which not only added to the frustration but this also alarmed me. My hair stood up on the back of my neck as I realized I was about to be swindled. It was happening and it was very real.

If I would have let these pontificating leeches run their course I would have never have got them of my books. I wanted them out of my bank accounts. These guys do not take rejection well. In fact getting out of some of their programs is damn near impossible.

The sins of continuity programs are rampant. Greed is alive and well and the quality of the information you are receiving is questionable. You can get a lot of this material from trade journals and some very academic business resources. You have to have somewhat of a backbone and be able to roll back your sleeves to put yourself in front of this information. It is also in the dark corners of your library and you will have to scrap a few Saturdays to get this precious info.

But will you really do it? Is it in you?

To get this type of money making information takes dedication and a hard head. You have to be willing to go all the way and get what you want out of your business life. Simply paying for this information can be troubling. One thing I am always on the lookout for now centers around two basic things.

1.Are you really getting results? (Monetarily speaking or otherwise…)
2.Do you do what you do full time? Or do you still have a job… Mister Expert?

That is really all I look for in this new age of money making experts. It is amazing to me how many of them do not fit this criteria. I also look for ways to effectively quit their programs and get my money back if at all possible.

I also look for the following:

1. Get a working phone number and a customer service rep
2. Make sure the emails work
3. Make sure you have a working ticket service
4. Get access to your account page so you can quit or update your info
5. Make sure that quitting is no problem

1&1 Web hosting company did a dumb thing to me recently. When I tried to quit they kept billing me. I found quitting them to be next to impossible. When I complained they hit me up with a nasty collection agency even though the account was recently cancelled. The nature of my complaint centered around my inability to understand their foreign telephone help. I simply could not understand the East Indian women who handled my account.

Another hosting company did something similar to me by not making their phone numbers or account people available. I had to yank the card out from under them and close my bank account. Things got this severe and it is unfortunate.

I had another problem with the Tellman group. Sometimes being nice and pleasant just doesn’t get the job done like it is supposed to. You will need to go a bit further.

In this age of experts you have to really guard your wallet and your wits.