Have the “Gurus” lost touch with the joe-average internet marketer?
Not all of them, but MOST of them…
Do they realise how much work it takes to actually start an internet business anymore?
Sometimes I wonder about this when I read about the latest “Get Rich Quick” software they’ve developed, and wonder how it could possibly deliver any legitimate value to any start-up internet business owner.
I wonder whether most of the gurus remember what it took to start their business, or have an appreciation of how the market has changed since their business hit critical mass.
Let’s face it - they don’t need to know these things.
Once you have a big list, and a rapport with that list, it’s all-over-red-rover!
You can sell other people’s products on affiliate commissions, and still make a killing.
You can live off the “Launch Spikes”…
(In fact, at a certain point you don’t even need to do that. Like Mark Joyner, you can simply drift off and enjoy retirement… which makes you wonder why the big “gurus” are still in the market?)
But for the rest of us - we need to carve out an internet business that is designed for today’s internet market - by ourselves…
And as I’ve said over and over again, building a business is hard work.
The good news is there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Eventually you hit “critical mass”.
You literally end up with a money-making machine.
It’s just building that machine that’s the hard part.
When I was still a young pup (er, younger pup… starting 6 years ago…), I worked in a small team to build an online business from practically nothing into one of these “lean, mean money-making machines”.
It took 2 people 2 years part-time work to get it to the “critical mass” stage.
It was part-time work because half the time was spent building the business, half the time was spent generating the cash using another business so that we could afford to pay ourselves (peanuts) to work on the website. (At the time I was taking home around $8.50 per hour… I had to work for an hour to earn my bus ticket to work - I couldn’t afford to drive.)
It was damn hard work too.
Not all of it was rewarding either…
We promised to send subscribers a monthly newsletter…
When you have a 60,000 person database, a monthly newsletter becomes a licence to make money. (3 years later when we’d built the business to this size, we would joke that the “Send Newsletter” button was the “Make Money” button.)
But when you’re sending a newsletter to 150 people, and still have a 1% conversion rate, it hardly seems worth it.
I wonder - if most of the gurus had to start again, without their databases, finances or contacts - could they do it?
Could they break into a new market?
Do they really understand what it takes to become a success, today?
Or have they lost touch, and they’re peddling concepts that used to work yesterday?
Personally, I’m more inclined to trust a guru who is actively out there, building online businesses that have yet to reach maturity… Or if they’re truly on the cutting-edge of their marketspace.
There are a few I do trust that I can think of off the top of my head - James Brausch is one (a “guru” who is building his own business before your eyes), John Reese is another (the hardest working internet marketer in the business), Ed Dale (because his “Lab” researchers are constantly trialling new concepts in new markets).
That’s not to say I don’t believe other “gurus” have nothing to offer - just I often wonder if they’re genuinely wanting to help, or if they’re just out for the quick buck from product launches…
What are your thoughts?
Who do you trust to help YOU in the marketplace, not just make a quick buck on launch commissions?
Brent
Popularity: 20%
StumbleUpon
Digg
del.icio.us
Technorati
RSS
Email This
9 responses so far ↓
1 M. Kennedy // May 7, 2008 at 9:56 am
Yeah, James Brausch has completely lost touch. While we all respect the “bear” of Internet marketing, he has no customer support. Recently, when his Product of the Month club shipment only included three discs (in duplicate) rather than the nine products introduced that month, there was no one to complain to. There is no contact or ticket system on his site(s). I emailed his Paypal address twice (as well as another address). Nothing. I even emailed his fulfillment house (kunaki). Nothing. I finally opened arbitration/resolution in Paypal. He just booted me from the club and gave Paypal my shipping confirmaiton (which doesn’t deal with my customer support issue). Strange as I’ve spent several hundred dollars and likely would have spent thousands more … but this customer support black hole has me wondering how much money Brausch is leaving on the table from others (I know of two others who left the House of Brausch).
2 Gavin Allinson - Outsource Success // May 7, 2008 at 10:34 am
I do lose some respect for some of the guru’s when i see them promoting some people products.
Nearly all of them are doing it, you don’t know whether to trust them that the next product is good or its just got a good kick back for them.
not wishing to single anyone out but I will..
Rich Schefren launched his web 2.0 marketing maven course just before xmas and then a month or so later was all over stompernets SMARTS program, promoting that. SMARTS seemed pretty similar to what he’d just put together.
so is SMARTS better or was he hoping to pick up some extra cheques?
3 John Sadler // May 7, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Yes Brent it is a confusing world out there, but I am pleased to read the names of Ed Dale and John Reese on your list. I have good things to say about Ed and the way he works. He always responds to my emails and I am sure is just the way he promotes himself through his video clips. He has also joined up on my Facebook Marketing & NLP Group :o)
4 Your page is now on StumbleUpon! // May 7, 2008 at 11:42 pm
5 Brent Crouch // May 10, 2008 at 11:28 am
Great post Brent. This has been a recent issue covered in some of the blogging circles I visit. You’ve got John Chow actively working on a ranking for “Make Money Online” yet most of his content is really worthless for this purpose. It’s great if you want to see some cool food he is eating or watch him talk about taking a “_hit” in his want to be viral video.
Thanks for sharing your own experiences. It’s really inspirational.
6 Deep Jive Interests » Mashable vs. John Reese: The Bigger Issue In Internet Marketing // Jun 21, 2008 at 2:18 am
[...] (but if you’re looking for a rare post, look over here) [...]
7 Brent Hodgson // Jun 21, 2008 at 2:49 am
Was mentioned in a blog post on Deep Jive Interests (http://www.deepjiveinterests.com/2008/06/20/mashable-vs-john-reese-the-bigger-issue-in-internet-marketing) - Just wanted to clarify a few points.
=========
Thanks for the mention
I actually came out in support of John Reese in this flame-war (you’ll find my comments on the page in question on Mashable).
John Reese is one of the good guys - he’s right on the cutting edge of marketing, he walks his talk, and is by far the hardest working guy in the industry. The thing I like most about him is that he doesn’t make all his money just from spruiking.
There’s a bit of a blow-back at the moment that the “guru community” is doing a lot of cross promotion of each other’s products (so if you’re subscribed to 5 lists, you’ll get 5 times the emails about the same products).
While I appreciate that these guys need to make a living, and they’re acting in their own best interests to do reciprocal promotional arrangements with other marketers, people need to ask whether the product is right for them before buying - that they shouldn’t blindly buy everything that’s promoted, simply because they trust the guru.
Because the products are being promoted based on the benefits the guru receives, rather than the quality of the product, or even the benefits that the customer might receive from the product, people need to be skeptical about the promotions.
Just to be clear (to avoid any confusion among your readers who might just skim the post) - this was the purpose of my original post, rather than to call into question the integrity of the gurus themselves.
Brent
8 Paul Stone // Aug 30, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Brent,
Good post, it seems that there are a few points you covered here.
I really liked your story about reaching ‘critical mass’ stage and how it took 2 years.. it reminds me of this excellent post by seth godin:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/08/the-secret-of-t.html
your other thought seems to be about gurus loosing touch with their followers and yeah, selling things that worked yesterday.. which brings up another thought, I sometimes wonder about techniques such as article marketing for building traffic and followers.. and things like that.. it seems that it works for a while, but is there a point when the internet gets flooded with people making up and sending out articles, so much that it all gets a bit lost and the effectiveness wears off? or will it continue to work, like newspapers, where new and fresh articles keep people reading.. I wonder if it is possible that on the internet there are many articles about the same thing, because there is no police or filtering method like there is in printed newspapers where every letter has a cost.. or perhaps thats just my own brain looking for reasons why something wont work.. (which is a whole other topic on its own - I was at an internet conference recently and was amazed at the questions the gurus were being asked.. its as if our brain will try to find any little reason why something wont work… instead of naturally trying to figure out how it can)..
Paul
9 Rich Russell // Nov 30, 2008 at 7:17 pm
I have been unsubscribing from a lot of lists this year. Most of them start well but they soon come down to pushing one launch after another. There are few of them who offer any value.
The number of marketers I have any time for is getting very small. Ed Dale is one of them. His 30DC is some of the best training that is available and it is free.
In contrast, there are too many gurus who think that if they are talking, you should be willing to pay to listen. Most of the time, they are rehashing the same old stuff or just boosting their egos.
It is very hard to do this entirely on your own. Some of the best advice I heard was to choose your gurus wisely. Pick 2 or 3 that you relate to and disregard the rest.
Cheers
Rich
Leave a Comment