This past week has been an especially difficult one for those of us who subscribe to many of the largest Internet Marketing mailing lists.
Some of you can relate, I'm sure.
It seems that every would-be guru trying to hawk his wares decided to flood the niche this particular week with junk product launches and phony money-making products that are designed for just one thing: sales to unsuspecting and eager consumers that have the misfortune of having their names on someone's email list.
I feel sorry for the masses that are trying to carve out a spot for business online.
Yea, yea, I know that most of us gave up our virginity (innocence) without being forced and we offered our email addresses in exchange for a delectable freebie in a moment of weakness.
Sure, no one is forcing anybody to make a purchase or even read a 30-page direct sales letter.
We subscribe to mailing lists to learn how the big boys build their relationships with prospects, right? We subscribe because we want to keep our finger on the pulse of the IM online world. We are all waiting for that easy, automatic, and fool-proof system that floods our bank account with non-stop Franklins.
The problem, as I see it, is that the crafters and hawkers of these packages understand - oh so well - that they are selling a dream and a very very long shot of a solution to someone that is desperate and struggling to believe that they too can share in the limitless wealth of the Internet.
These product pushers are handing out lethal (eventually) drugs to the very folks that they rely on for their own personal support and gain. They are killing the hand that feeds them . . . making addicts out of the believers that are fueling their pipeline.
Yes, the phrase "buyer beware" does apply to Internet Marketing just as it does to every other financial offer or "business opportunity" out there.
But what makes this crime so heinous to me is the fact that there are very few ways for the consumer to check or verify that such and such a product actually works - or that the author or creator of the product is being honest and up-front about exactly what it will do and the performance history it has.
I have no doubt that if IM business opportunity or product developers were required to disclose exactly what percentage of buyers found an offer profitable (let alone a good money-maker), there would be far far fewer product launches and automatic wealth creators.
Think about it . . . most marketers throw around numbers like "your typical sales conversion online should be roughly 1.0%
I have heard honest and reputable marketers say that the average sales conversion for purchases online is probably closer to .1%
If you believe those numbers, what they tell us is that only one person in a thousand will actually commit to buying a product.
Now, how many product buyers does it take in order to find those few lucky ones that actually made money as a result of their purchase? One in 10? One in 100? One in 1,000?
I don' know . . . no one does . . . certainly it depends upon the work and skill of the buyer in his implementation AS WELL AS the effectiveness of the product or money making system.
My point is this: Internet Marketing product developers know that very, very few of their customers are going to actually realize the generous claims of the sales letters they craft. They understand that they are slinging mud against a wall and that only a tiny portion of it will ever stick.
It's a good thing that new wealth seekers are coming online all the time because those of us that have been here for years are getting pretty sick and tired of the passing parade of easy guaranteed wealth systems that have no chance of making anyone any money.
Certainly the case could be made that if the majority of folks would get off their duffs and actually do something with these systems, they would eventually see some results.
Yes, that is true. The challenge with this view point, though, is that the worthless systems I'm talking about rarely ever mention any kind of implementation or "caution - heavy lifting" . . . they are being sold for their easy, simple, instant, push button, automatic, guaranteed, can't help but be a millionaire product claims.
If the truth be known, if we saw the honest past performance stats in the sales letter, we might think twice about opening our wallets on the probability that we could defy 10,000 to 1 odds with our purchase.
Of course, it would be an unfair exaggeration to say that all wealth making products and services are useless. Or that all Internet Marketers are scam artists. Or that all money making systems don't work. A few will vouch that something they purchased helped them make money online.
But that's the heart of this whole debate . . . how does anyone know what will help them succeed, especially when you fork over the money before you get to inspect the contents?
What's been your experience?
