Keeping Up With The Wrong Joneses Could Be Hazardous To Your Wealth
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This has been bothering the Wacky Gang for some time now, but even more-so now
due to some more recent events in the marketplace…
We’ve been online for many years and during this time, we’ve seen numerous
new marketers pop up. Some make money and some don’t. Some keep trying until
they do and others simply give up after a time. Some are trustworthy, and
some aren’t.
Unfortunately, that’s the nature of Internet marketing, and most businesses
in general, for that matter. Afterall, not everybody knocks a homerun every
time they step up to bat.
But what bothers us these past few months is the number of marketers, especially
in recent months, who are being led and “coached” by other NEW marketers! That
pretty much equates to “the blind leading the blind” in our wacky estimation.
Now, being “new” really has nothing to do with it, IF the marketer actually
knows what he or she is talking about, maybe even acquired a specialty of sorts.
But there are some marketers (even some well known ones) that have NEVER done
what they say they have, and worse, can barely rub two nickels together.
However, we’re seeing more and more marketers offering high priced coaching or
mentoring programs, where some of these “coaches”/”mentors” haven’t made all that
much money online themselves… at least, not until some sucker(s) paid them
thousands of dollars for training (or worse, for someone else’s video training).
We’ll admit we didn’t actually sign up and take all the classes to see exactly
what was being taught in every instance, but here are our observations based on
what we’ve seen some of the “graduates” putting into action…
There seems to be a little “clique,” if you will, among the trainers and the
trainees. Naturally, it’s always good to have someone help you out and answer
your questions, but it appears that many of these so-called “coaches” or self
proclaimed “gurus” have almost “black-balled” other marketers in the eyes of
their students.
They appear to have taught their students that if things aren’t done THEIR
way, then other marketers are “doing it all wrong” and their way is the only
acceptable way.
Well, we beg to differ.
There are various and sundry ways to do just about anything and everything
online, and it’s best to keep an open mind and try new things to see what works
best for YOU.
Many of these students/graduates also seem to be severely lacking in the
“netiquette” department. We don’t mind being approached by newer marketers for
joint ventures, but we do mind when they don’t seem to understand that WE will
be the ones to choose what and when we promote something, and that we will not
let them tell us how to run OUR business.
At the risk of sounding too “snobby” (or old) – we’ve been doing this a long
time and we have a pretty good idea what we’re doing …And certainly don’t
need some “snot-nosed bully” giving us pointers, thank you, when most of them
are barely able to pay their basic living expenses until they get some more
“sucker money” from some poor unsuspecting sap.
This whole situation makes us wonder if there’s going to be a new video series
released soon – “The Pied Piper Meets The Stepford Wives.” And if there is,
PLEASE don’t buy it …more than likely it will woo you in the wrong direction
anyway. 
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with hiring a coach to train you, following
a mentor that’s been around for awhile, or in buying good, reasonably priced
products to learn from… there’s a lot to know to get your online business off
the ground.
But we ask – no, we BEG you – please be careful of WHO you “follow” on YOUR
path to online success.
Do some checking around OUTSIDE of the Internet Marketing arena. You may find
that not only do they not have the credibility, they may not even be the person
they tell you they are! (This is more common than you think)
Some marketers are only out to take your money, whether in the name of personal
coaching, mentoring or “new” digital products. They could care less if you
actually succeed, as long as they pay their own bills with YOUR hard-earned cash…
By the same token, other marketers will take your money by having you sell their
products online or forward all your subscribers to them and then leave you
penniless when it comes time to pay affiliate commissions.
As long as they can sweet talk you out of your money, then they can honestly say
that they have “made money online.” They just can’t say that they’ve made money
online necessarily doing what they purport to teach you to do.
Oh, and those “social proof” screenshots? Most of them have been doctored, OR
if you look closely, they reflect what was going on more than a year or two
ago when the market was much different than today.
Be careful, look both ways before crossing the street or you may find yourself
just another casualty of some over hyped marketer that just came on the scene
and thinks “my way is the only way.”
Wasn’t there once a dynamic “pied piper” of Guyana who was able to lead hundreds
to their death when they believed his bunk and drank his delicious kool-aid?
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Well said. There are many pretend gurus. What gos around comes around. Internet marketing is a very competitive business and is ever changing. They say that people fail, but systems do not. Even systems have to be tweaked.
The Pied Piper Meets The Stepford Wives – LOL you cracked me up but on a more serious note you are right in what you say.
OK some of these marketers doing the coaching have actually made money but they have a team of foot soldiers to do it all for them when they come up with ideas. Corner them and some of them really haven’t got a clue about how they are really making the money. Just love the ones who when asked how to do something try to sell you an overpriced product instead so it’s ask big G time instead as I like other people just hate being sold to.
Regarding ““social proof” screenshots” and all those zeros in their sales results but being a bean counter I’m only seeing one side of the ledger. Where are the expenses? I think I could make a few hundred thousand in sales myself if I spent a million too.
Keep your great posts coming…
Keries
Hi There Wackly Gang . . .glad to see this blog. WOW, the ‘youn-uns’ won’t get your reference to the Stepford Wives, the Pied Piper and the reference/pun in your title “Keeping Up with the Wrong JONESES” (as in Jim!).
I have been on your list for a bit over a year and have bought as often as I could and what I thought I could understand. I can FULLY concur with what you speak of here as I have been trying to figure this IM stuff for years (exactly 6 years ago when I became interested), the interest grew. I had no money (Life ran me over for about 7 years straight – won’t do the BooHoo thing). But I signed up for every list I could, took every free offer, and when I could afford it took webinars, etc online with some of the marketers whose list I was on.
In that 6 plus years, I watch many of them grow and become experts. Guess I am not so smart, but it also takes a mind set, a clearing away of ‘ties that bind’ (mental and emotional if not more)and Courage to keep at it.
So, it is only NOW that I am ready to really give it a GO. I am still very much a Newbie, but I understand much more than I did. And I WAS one of those “suckers”, because I truly didn’t know any better. Since Internet Marketing is not regulated, and you don’t know until you try/buy . . . how can you tell?
But, I hit a “homer” with the Wacky Gals. Thank you so much.
You guys are pretty good at what you do, almost unbelievable at first. It’s funny you should bring up exactly what I’ve been thinking about for the past couple of weeks.
Many of those PLR packages, PLR courses, PLR videos you can buy include downright dangerous rights depending on the original content and how much the newbie buyer changes it.
Now we can ALL go into business trolling for newer newbies and rake in some $7 to $37 dollar bills. There’s no telling WHAT the finished product might say and without experience, people believe most of what they read and especially big promises with proof.
Anyone read those disclaimers in light grey print, size 7 pt. lately. You would be shocked! Every newbie should be required to read Sylvie Fortins 3-part video-book called Internet Marketing Sins. OR, the Wacky Gals should write their own true stories of IM horror. Looks like that could be on the way too!!
Internet Marketing is potentially a wonderful,liberating concept … providing we are able and willing to bring some valued part of ourselves to offer. The moment we buy into the the myth of IM as some kind of lazy man’s Utopia where you can receive without giving, we join the infestation of parasites who only want to encourage us to feed on each other.
Keep up the good work Kathe
Gals…
Wacky or not… you’re straight to the point.
Indeed, many newcomers came up and are trying to picture themselves as having ‘outstanding’ results on one marketing arena or another.
But they fail to properly add the proverbial 2 and 2 in the IM world, if you get a closer look. How is that possible?
It is not different online than is offline – I believe it’s even easier.
So, while savvy marketers not only have a good knowledge of the market and the marketers in it, but also have the means and knowledge how to check someone… the newbies are helpless.
The art of copywriting and persuasion may conduct them with their eyes closed on the path to clear out their accounts and max up their CC’s.
And when someone may buy a well written PLR, plaster their name on it and pose as the author, how could the rookie newb know and act better?
I guess they’re simply doomed to find the way by trial and error as we all did back in out times (when we started online, remember that?)
I am surely guilty of having been naive myself some years ago
Nowadays there are many other dangers lurking in the darks of IM.
For instance, take a look at your Inbox. I reckon I signup to as many newsletters I can, to keep an eye on what happens and what’s new… BUT I have to delete more than 99% of the emails daily.
You can’t even imagine (unless you get 500+ emails per day like me) how many emails are copied from ‘affiliate tools’ pages without the slightest change in text not to mention at least the subject line!
But… that is just the sign of laziness…some would argue (and aren’t we the very ones dreaming of that ‘lazy life’ of IM – Ho, Ho, Ho…)
Sadly, many of these emails are not crowding my Inbox coming from newbies, but rather many known ‘gurus’…eh!
Another thing I noticed (been guilty myself) is the recent wave of giveaways and email ad swaps and similar freebie offers that indeed help build a list on afterburners… BUT to be honest not a very worthy type of list – mostly freebie seekers or tire kickers that would convert into buyers very late if anytime at all and maybe costing us marketers more than it is worth to pay for it.
The reason it lost the edge is again, the copycat system used all around. When something works (and the method worked very well I suspect until a couple years ago) everybody jumps IN, leaving the market dry.
I have recently came to the conclusion that the situation is aggravated by some well known established marketers who are encouraging new people on this road, but only use stale old lists w/o much value, their own freebie seekers list, etc… thus moving them around from one newbie marketer to another, while they keep, of course their valuable assets (buyers lists) away from these tactics.
I decided to switch (even if slowly, but still) to other methods of getting traffic: good old SEO!
As an SEO expert, I will focus on building as many list building pages I’ll be able to, dreaming of the moment I could rely upon these exclusively!
Steve Lorenzo SEOVirtuoso
Helping YOU To Get Found
.-= Steve Lorenzo SEOVirtuoso´s last undefined ..Response cached until Sun 21 @ 17:37 GMT (Refreshes in 6.86 Hours) =-.
BTW,
Just bookmarked your post to a ‘ton’ of web 2.0 sites…
(SEO tricks, ya know…) to help you get some more traffic and exposure.
Glad to be of ‘service’ as a friend (bow) – I truly appreciate your friendship!
Steve Lorenzo SEOVirtuoso
Helping YOU To Get Found!
.-= Steve Lorenzo SEOVirtuoso´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.
You’re a PEACH Steve…thanks so much for coming by.
Yes it is about time to hear someone speak out about the internet marketing sins, I think someone should start a blog for newbies that warns them about who to stay away from and give a boost to the good guy marketers and maybe weed out some of them bad guys.I just happen to have a Newbie blog up but I havent loaded it yet,,,because Im new! If someone is interested in helping out on this get intouch. Thaks wackygals
Right to the point you have hit a home run with this subject matter.
Nothing piss’s me off more then to buy into some quote un quote MARKETERS Bs
to find that the content is yrs. old or the same content someone was selling last week.
I have stop buying information products, period!!!! with the exception of a few most of the stuff for sell is nothing but a bunch of crap and not worth a dime.
I made a purchase of a Video course a while back and before I even finished watching it I was hitting the refund button, I believe there is good content out there it is just getting harder to find.
If everyone that buys into a program and finds that it sucks would request a refund then and only then will the junk peddlers go out of business.
It is no different then if you buy something at Walmart and it breaks or doesn’t do what you bought it to do you are going to take it back, and if enough get returned then they will stop carrying that product, lets run all of the snake oil salesmen out to town
Thanks To the Johns…
OKAY…HERE’S THE UPDATE…
Yes, he has changed his sales page, I’m sure as a result of the stir (I saved the original for that very reason).
Frankly, I don’t want to send everybody to his site and give him traffic. His “reputation” and “attitude” comes thru loud and clear…
‘Nuff said? (again…lol)
Thanks for the “Heads Up” girls.
I’ll be sure to avoid anything but
the Real Deal – “The Wacky Wednesday Gang”
Hey there! Thanks thriftgirl6 for the mention of the Sins report. Much appreciated.
What you Wacky folks are talking about is what I called “Me Too Marketers” who get starry eyed over the claims of wealth and stardom and make a gigantic leap of assumption, thinking “Hey, if he got rich selling IM products, then that’s what I should sell too!”.
Ugghh.
Great post!
Poor Kid has an ugly site…
if you’re gonna copy something
do it right, LOL!
Hey Gals… It really bugs Ya
don’t it?
Roy
Copyright your logo with the names of your various entities. Use the logo on top of all your sites so us true believers can recognize you. Deal with the copycats.
Not a guru. Not a newbie. Seeing about 300 emails a day. And I doubt that more than two or three actually “give” me usable information, just lots of “copy and paste” hype. In a couple of cases, I’m tempted to send them a bill for wasting my time!
Stepping off my soapbox…
I’ve been with you two in one way or another for quite a while. Reckon I’ll keep seeing what you have to say and learning from you.
Linda