I think it’s time for me to lower my consumption of marketing newsletters. I’m becoming way too jaded. Realistically, I can’t be the only person who has noticed that all the Internet marketing “gurus” go to the same conferences, write the same testimonials for each other, and have the exact same sales pages and web site. All they do is change the text a little.
I’m at the point where I just hit the close button when I see a sales letter web site with the same old white box on a blue background with red “important” text. If you scroll down to the bottom, you see that the amazing product that will change your life is “only” $997 and it includes 150 hours of bonus footage of the same group of gurus telling each other how great they are. The used-car salesman element these guys have going really gets me down.
These online marketing “techniques” all started with a couple of guys who could write great direct mail copy and transferred their knowledge to the Internet. Now they sell their “secrets” in these massive thousand dollar kits. Yet realistically, you can get much of the same information from an $11 book from Amazon.com or your public library. For example, if you go to Amazon and do a search on Dan Kennedy (one of the earliest marketing big wigs), you’ll find his book, minus the hyped-up sales letter. Yes it’s a good book. No, it doesn’t cost $997.
So here’s an Internet consumer tip from a non-guru. The next time you are falling for one of those sales letters with the same old white box on a blue background with red “important” text, just close the window. Go to Amazon and do a search. Save $987 and line your own pockets with it instead of someone else’s. Use it to take a cruise or buy an entire library’s worth of business books.
In mildly more nerdy and administrative news, a few people had questions on registering for our forum. You need to follow two steps. First you click the register link in the forum. It sends you an email with a link you need to click to confirm you are a real person. Then you use our contact form to email me to let you in. This two-step process is for your benefit to keep the undesirable elements out.