I've been around online for a while now, and I've seen my share of "Make Money Online" schemes. You know the ones... they promise things like....
- $753 in your e-mail every day!
- Make thousands a week with NO list and NO website!
- Start making money in just 3 days with this easy to follow plan... no experience needed!
- Make money processing e-mails. Up to $500 a day!
- Make $1,357 a day with NO products of your own, NO website, NO list, NO internet experience, and heck... NO computer (yes I actually saw this once)
- Quit your day job and rake in thousands a month working just 2 hours a day from the comfort of your home!
- Sit back and collect the cash while your business runs on complete auto-pilot!
I could go on but I'm sure you get the idea. While the offer varies, the bottom line is that they all want you to invest some "tiny" amount of money into their course, system, or membership site with the promise that you'll get EVERYTHING you need to get you started and have these amazing results in no time flat!
Sorry to burst your bubble, but in my experience it just isn't that easy :(
When I was new to the world of online business (though not new to the internet), I bought more than my fair share of these systems, followed them to the letter, then scratched my head in disbelief when I didn't get any results. I went over and over the technical aspects, making sure I'd followed everything to the letter. I had. Nothing. In fact with thousands of dollars spent I think I made a total of $173 promoting affiliate products through Clickbank, and by the way they never paid me because they said I hadn't had enough transactions.... then started charging me $5 a month for having an "inactive account." So I got nothing!
Then I went on to building my own sites, either recommending affiliate products or selling my own info. products. I don't know where anyone ever got this idea about "2 hours a day" because I can tell you I was putting MEGA hours into it...well over full time in fact, and I was still getting minimal sales. One info product I developed sold a total of 15 copies in 2 years... barely enough to cover the web hosting cost. Another never sold even one. And these were not obscure products in industries no one cares about. These were well established industries where the gurus were making multi-millions!
So what happened? I surely wasn't a complete internet novice. I'd been building websites for years and had a good working knowledge of many of the strategies and tactics I was studying. So I should have been ahead of the curve. I'm not stupid. In fact I'm very intelligent and have owned several of my own businesses. But despite all that I never got anywhere near the results that were promised me.
I believe that there were core reasons why I didn't have much success, and while I can't say for sure that you won't be successful, I believe that the deck is stacked against you if you buy into these "Make Money Online" schemes. Let's look at some of the promises of these schemes and figure out why they don't work in practice:
Can you really make mega-money online working just a couple hours a day? I believe that the people who are selling these Make Money Online systems and courses probably do only work a couple hours a day. But that's because they already paid their dues, spending hours, days, weeks, months, and possibly years learning the ins and outs of making money online. This is a business like any other and there is a learning curve if you want to be successful. So being realistic, if you're a complete beginner you can't expect to put in little time and effort and yield the same results as a pro who's dedicated his or her life to this.
Can you really make mega-money online by making this small, one-time investment of $19.95 for this "tell-all" information? I think this is very misleading and innacurate. Most free and low priced stuff available is actually an introduction to very larger and more complex systems that take a lot of time and effort to understand and implement successfully. These are called "lead-ins" or "front-end" products and their sole purpose is to get you hooked so that you buy their higher priced "back-end" more comprehsive product. Smart sales tactic and I suggest you use it as part of your own online strategy someday. But don't sucked in by believing that this ONE thing will be the end-all, be-all of online success.
Can you really make mega-money online with little or no investment on your part? Once I paid $7 for a report that was supposed to tell me how to start making money online in 3 days flat with NO investment on my part (other than the $7 and a few hours of my time). I dutifully followed all the instructions got things up and running, and sat back and waited for the cash to roll in. That was 4 years ago and guess what... I'm still waiting. I guess they were on Pluto time... how long is a day there?
The truth is that everyone who is a successful online entrepreneur is investing money in their business. Those guru's who brag about their "Million Dollar Launches" have teams of top notch people working for them and I suspect they're paying thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of dollars to put those launches together. They never talk about that though do they?
Even if it's your very first product and it's just you, there are still some costs involved if you want to do it right. At the bare minimum there are domain name fees and for most people there are also web design and hosting, e-mail services, marketing tools, and other services and tools which can help you become successful much more quickly than trying to do everything yourself. Not to say you can't do it cheaply. When I got started I was on a very tight budget and did everything to keep costs down but even I shelled out some cash for a domain name and basic hosting. I also subscribed to an e-mail service and over time I've paid for more tools and services that have proven to save me a lot of time and effort (remember, your time is money too).
Can you really make THOUSANDS of dollars a week (or even a day) online? Yes, I believe you can. I know that some people are. I also know though that those "commission statements" you see on the sales pages of these popular "Make Money Online" websites could very well be photoshopped fakes. There's really no way of telling, is there?
A very smart man told me once that when you decide to do business online your goal isn't to make a million dollars. Your goal is to get ONE sale. That's right.... just ONE. Because once you get that ONE you'll have proven to yourself that you CAN do it! And once you get the first you can get the second and the third and so on. And in time as you become more experienced and learn what does and doesn't work for you then YES, you CAN make THOUSANDS of dollars a week! Just don't expect it the very first week :)
So there you have it in a nutshell.... why I stay away from "Make Money Online" schemes. Before I go though I want to leave you with this last thought:
Just because these schemes rarely live up to their promises, that doesn't mean there isn't any value in them. In fact getting your hands on some of these types of info. products and courses CAN help you in your own online business endeavors. Want to know how? Read the next article: How You Can Benefit From "Make Money Online" Schemes.
And remember, you CAN be a successful online entrepreneur! I KNOW you CAN!
