Are you a newbie thinking about starting the next great ‘make-a-million-online-overnight-at-home-while-you-sleep.com' blog to rake in big bucks from the Internet marketing business opportunities niche?
Think again!!
PLEASE think again.
I've had numerous discussions with my colleagues throughout the many years I've been involved in the Internet marketing space — and we've all talked about ditching the niche entirely.
Seriously, the IM niche is NOT a fun place to be unless you have a LOTS of experience and unlimited grit. Even then it's not really fun.
The only reason I and my friends remain in this market is NOT about love or money. We stay because we feel that there have to be at least a few of us who represent value, honesty and integrity in the space.
In a nutshell, we hate to see the many ways in which hopeful netpreneurs / online entrepeneurs get ripped off and totally disillusioned.
Here are just a few.
- The products sold are mostly crap. In too many cases, products purported to be the ‘latest and greatest way' to get a site to the top of Google's listings, or build a list of ten million subscribers or make $17,398 (all overnight) is a rehash of a product that was first introduced in 2002, didn't work at that time and has been relaunched every year since.
Another con job is when info marketers take someone else's work (such as my Super Affiliate Handbook), outsource it for a rewrite and then try pass it off as their own product.
Experienced Internet marketing niche researchers pick up on and report these thieves quickly.
However, unless you've been in the IM niche for a long time, you won't recognize either the players or their bad (or stolen) products.
That leads to the next problem…
- Selling crap will ruin your reputation. Many IM marketers in the last decade have gone down in a ball of fire after buyers publicly complained about the shoddiness of their products or total lack of customer support.
Affiliate marketers who enthusiastically promote those products without doing proper reviews lost respect with their audiences and suffered a similar fate.
- List mining. Too many newbies who learn enough about the Internet Marketing niche to successfully build a huge list of subscribers – completely dessimate their lists on the possibility of winning an XBOX or iPad during a big IM launch.
Trading your list for an iPad will never replace what you will lose in terms of future sales… for a couple of reasons.
Most marketers in the IM niche don't pay for the leads you send them.
Many others don't pay on upsells.
Their primary interest is NOT in how many sales you generate.
Oh sure, you make commissions on the initial sale, they make money and that seems to be a good thing.
In reality, however, it's ALL about the qualified leads that you send that they capitalize on for years to come and are lost to you forever.
They continue to sell directly to them over and over again — and you'll never make another dime on the leads you took time to capture and cultivate.
These factors have become SO much more prevalent since the U.S. economic downturn began and the scam artists jumped on the opportunity to take advantage of those who'd lost their homes and/or jobs and were now looking for online business opportunities to shore up their incomes or avoid bankruptcy.
The situation has now gotten so bad that it almost makes me sick.
I learned my lessons in this industry the hard way — trusting my valued subscribers to those who turned out to be (or into) into scam artists. I finally refused to promote all but one or two — but you can avoid those issues right from the start.
Either stay out of the internet marketing “make money online” niche completely — or, spend gobs of time doing your homework to make sure that the business opportunities and products that you promote in the internet marketing niche are HIGHLY valuable to your subscribers.
The key point to remember is that you need to place your hightest value on the trust you build with your readers – don't squander it.
Don't get me wrong.
There's plenty of money to be made online in SO many different niche markets — but opting for the Internet marketing niche is a big mistake for 99% of newbies for the reasons discussed above.
So many buy those ebooks hoping to “get rich quick”. Those one page sales pages are so cheesy sometimes, reminds me of old infomercials.
Thanks for this great post Rosalind. I agree affiliate marketing is becoming popularized by many shady people. It’s just too easy to “sign-up-now and . . ” and then as Mark describes it, end up with your email box so choked up, you can’t think straight.
Maybe what we need is to first search for their disclaimer and legal notices section, and look for a “commitment” on their part on behalf of their affiliates. And to avoid confusion get an interpretation from our own lawyer. They don’t usually charge much if anything for this, and it’ll save us headaches along the line. This world is becoming more complicated, and we need to deal with it.
This is such a straight-talking and honest post. Thank you for telling it like it is. Very few do.
Rosalind:
You are right… it is happening in other niches too. Like alternative energy. Most Clickbank products there are scams and outright fraudulent. I tried like hell to get Clickbank to remove a few scam products, but they absolutely refused. We need to take our good products from Clickbank and go elsewhere. Maybe if we did that, Clickbank would get the picture. Have any good ideas as to an alternative?
Bill
This post is one of your best yet. I have had my online marketing site up for over three years with very little income from it.
I review your Super Affiliate Handbook and two other good books I can honestly recommend.
I am going to keep this site up because people need good books to get them started. I am also going to keep being honest with my visitors.
I will probably start another site in a different niche.
Thanks Rosalind
That is true, i agree with you Ros 🙂
Yes, totally agree! I spent tons of countless late nights, working over weekend just to set up a blog and not to mention content creation, link strategy and maintenance of the blog is a continuous effort. It took me at least 2-3 years to start seeing some results. But once ur blog starts to age like 3-5 yrs later, receiving traffic and staying on top in search engine is almost easy and permanent, and only by then can you afford to ‘hands off’ and see what it means by ‘earn money while you sleep’.
Hi Rosalind,
I agree with what you say, but the difficulty for a newbie is knowing who are the internet marketing good guys and who are the bad ones.
This has been made even worse now by the plethora of internet marketers telling us how sick they are of the ‘gurus’, and then proceeding to act in the same manner themselves.
I’m tempted to steer clear of the IM market myself, although a lot of people seem to say that it it such a big market that it is worth putting up with the hassle of people cloning your product and passing it off, or bypassing your affiliate links. Although I suppose eventually this will start to happen in non IM niches.
Kind regards,
Steve.
I agree with you 100% Ros. There’s always been the occasional scam artist around, but these days its so much worse. Things are much nastier than when you and I got started.
In the year I’ve been sidelined through illness, and not publishing my newsletter, I’ve still been reading and watching and keeping an eye on what’s going on. And in that time the push button income claims have become more inflated, the hype in the sales pitches has increased in volume, and even marketers I once respected have joined in by doing things like claiming “only 200 copies will ever be sold” and then keeping on selling nd selling.
And you’re right that scammers always appear, or become more prevalent, in times of economic downturn. I remember getting a couple of emails from scam victims in England 7 or 8 years ago when a couple of big car factories closed down and thousands of people were thrown out of work. One woman wrote to me saying she’d followed one of the many “make money” adverts that suddenly appeared in the local newspapers ( aimed at luring people into parting with their redundancy payouts ) and she’d paid 13,000 pounds for a ‘franchised’ web site, and after 6 months had not made a cent from it because the small print of the contract she had to sign said that she could only sell products from the site to people in her neighborhood. Hundreds of people in her neighborhood had been made redundant at the same time as her, the unemployment queues were long, and the low quality site she’d paid all that money for was promoting very highly priced luxury lingerie.
You could say she was foolish to buy, but it was sold as ‘an investment in your future” to someone desperate for a new career.
A bit off topic I guess, but it’s something I’ve never forgotten. And I hate to see people being scammed in our online marketing arena. Thank goodness there’s still quite a few good guys like you around. And I hope to be back at work myself quite soon, doing my own bit to help keep it real.
Phil
Hi Ros,
As usual you are right, there is so much crap being pedled out there. This year I reworked my “Guru” list into two sections – Good and Crap.
On the good list are yourself, Geoff Shaw, Ed Dale and Chris Rempel and the balance are on the crap list.
The interesting thing is the peple on the good list send me an email about once a fortnight and it generally passes the Gary Halpern “HMMMMMM” test.
Looking into my Crap box this morning I have 5 emails promoting the same product all with bigger and bigger offers that will earn me more while I sleep longer.
If you are trying to build a business you need to get the basics right and not grab a new shiny piece of crap when you end up getting your hands dirty and it costing you money.
Keep up the sanity checks Ros.
Best regards
Nick Johnson
BTW Just received another two emails promoting the same product
Is Network Marketing a good niche?
Speaking as a newbie and a member of Affiliate Blogger Pro, I am very confused about what you are saying. Are you saying that I am wasting my money each month on membership, but you don’t mind taking my money? I feel as if I’ve been punched in the stomach! It’s hard enough trying to be successful in this kind of business, and then to read you saying that I’ll most likely fail anyway. I have grown to trust you and purchase products that you say will help me be successful, now I have to reconsider how smart it is to believe this.
Hear! Hear! There are so many scams out there that is hard to know who to trust in the internet marketing world. Thanks for highlighting the issues.
I’ve been online since 2004 and know exactly what you are talking about Ros. It’s very hard to distinguish between the good and the bad because of clever marketing. Even harder to recognize the good that have turned bad due to desperation.
Bit like politicians really…….
Wendy
Hi Ros. I got that feeling a few years ago. And it is only getting worse. There are a few like you that I get content from. Most is a old rerolled cigarette full of smoke. Since my entry into internet niches, I have had the virtual and online plan of diversity. So I never try to stay in one niche. I also try trends. Thanks again.
Only problem is that newbies don’t know who is real and who isn’t. They haven’t yet learned to read between the excellent copywriters lies, I mean lines.
Another thoughtful post Rosalind. Thank you!
It’s time once again for me to go after my
email subscriptions with a “slash and burn”
attitude. Thanks to your posts I’ve developed
somewhat of an ability to spot the junk peddling
jerks out there, but alas, a few of the crafty
ones still get through. I’ll get em!
All the best,
Jon
Just as confusing is the ‘niche’ of social media experts. Seems that every other person online is now a social media guru pitching a program or product or seminar.
Yep. That’s what got me started but not with IM blog. I bought a complete set of “get rich quick” from an infomercial and knew it was worthless as soon as I read it. I spend too much time on the internet, I knew his ideas were gobbledygook quick.
But it sent me searching– once I knew what the term “affiliate” meant. I found your site, pro-blogger and few other greats! Then I bought the right books and started working…and working…and still working.
Thanks Ros
I totally agree with what you are saying.
My email inboxes are loaded every morning with products and offers that are going to, as you say, make-a-million-online-overnight-at-home-while-you-sleep”.
When I started out several years ago, I fell for a lot of these scam offers and purchased them. Needless to say, since I’m not a millionaire yet, none of them worked. Perhaps the individuals selling the “crap” may be millionaires by peddling the junk I bought, but none of it made any money for me, and probably not for anyone else who purchased it.
I am still working at affiliate marketing and honing my skills, but as you advise, I am very very careful about what I promote, and very very careful about what I buy and who I buy it from.
Keep up the good fight, I always enjoy reading your advice and thoughts.
Lewis Poteet
I really appreciate you telling it like it is, Rosalind.
I am sure that you and the other ethical Internet Marketers have had a long hard road, and I certainly appreciate that there are still you and others who tell the truth and help warn newbies about the pitfalls and how it is even worse now with the economic situation.
Thanks!
Daina
Rosalind Gardner,
I hear you loud and clear, I know these things about the shoddy marketers and their techniques only they don’t know the laws of karma … what goes around comes around and only if they knew better they wouldn’t be so greedy trying to get as much sold like crap, yes there are way too many rehashed programs and or systems that are floating the internet that is because there seems to be a market for hungry newbies…
I too was a newbie 18 months ago, though I no longer consider myself a newbie anymore as I understand better as well as after reading Permission Marketing by Seth Godin what makes sense without even getting another email from another marketer just by going to my local library I learned more about IM really learned a lot more than all these e-books put together.
I do not have faith nor any belief in any of these get rich by night schemes nor do I want to learn from these marketers as I want clarity and want to give out the best of me out there, something I can help others in some way.
I like you as you are a great marketer also especially that you are married to a Mountie and I know that you have Chinook all year round woof woof;)
Many years ago, Rosalind, you were my first “mentor,” through your SAH…the first manual on I.M. I ever bought. If I’d stayed sane, it would have served me well to have been the last one, as nothing I’ve bought since has added any great thundering new insight.
I agree with you on the I.M. niche. You have to shovel more mud all the time to find a diamond. Meanwhile, the other two big evergreen mega-niches (oxymoron?) besides Money (Health and Relationships) still have plenty of room to bring reward through offering what people need.
Rosalind,
Amen. Well said and good advice. One only has to cruise through the Warrior WSO to see the latest and greatest questionable products being schlepped by anybody and everybody.
Best,
Neal
Hello Roz, well that is a downer but when you think about it it’s to be expected in the faceless domain of the internet.
Recently the horrenduos flooding here in Queensland brought out such a lump in the throat side to Australian people as volunteers created a traffic jam on their way to help people clean up the even worse aftermath from the flood the dirty brown sludge that ruined the inside and contents of thousands of the flood victims homes.
It really was something to see lines and lines of them carrying shovels ect.Aussies you gotta love em. But even so there were reports of looters and scammers thankfully not too many.But when caught they will face 5-10 years in jail.
I think their faces should be made public infact paraded through the steets in old fashioned stocks would be too good for them. So too should those on the Internet be made public. Cheers Roz.