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How to Wade Through the Gurus | by Dave Cottrell |
Well friends, most of these marketing "gurus" are self-proclaimed. Tell me why, for instance, these "marketing experts" that claim to be making millions of dollars online are using free followup autoresponders advertising someone else's business? It's just not that expensive to buy your own.
Furthermore, many of these "gurus" try to sell you one overpriced program guaranteed to make you successful one week and another program with the same guarantee another week! Which one works?
Most of these programs are overpriced and worn out. The bonuses are worthless, which is why they're given away. It is easy to say something like, "This program is regularly worth $1500.00, but right now we're letting you have it for the unbelievably low price of $49.95! Plus we'll throw in these bonus reports worth over $3000.00 if you act quickly!" Who says these programs and reports are worth this much? These self-proclaimed gurus do!
Friends, I'm not trying to discourage you here; I'm just trying to save you from the hype and the heartache of phony programs. There is an answer to online knowledge. It's called experience. Someone once said that experience is when something is happening to you that you wish was happening to someone else. It's often not pleasant. However, without experience, you're going to have to trust your success to someone else. The problem with that is that success comes from hard work and it is just as possible to work hard using the wrong approach as it is to work hard using the right approach.
The other way to gain knowledge is to study someone else's experience. This is where true gurus come in. However, true gurus are not going to give their knowledge away. They did not become successful by giving away their secrets. They became successful by SELLING . They learned how to sell online by EXPERIENCE . Now, some of them are SELLING their knowledge.
So, how do YOU wade through the "gurus"?
First of all, find someone online who has been marketing online for some time, and study them. Get to know them. Phone them. Email them. REAL online marketing professionals will NEVER accuse you of spamming them. They WANT to hear from you. If you find a program that looks good being marketed by a "guru", email them, and join their mailing list. You can find out a lot about someone by the email they send to you. If their program is any good, you DON'T have to take advantage of it immediately. Good programs will stand the test of time.
Secondly, phone them! If you really want to get to know someone and find out how serious they are about the people who are filling their bank accounts, give them a call and see if they're REALLY interested in working with you. If they really are successful in Network Marketing, they got that way by helping others succeed. Otherwise, they're no more than quick buck artists with a lot of resources and great ad copy, which won't help the average person a bit.
If a program gives you nothing but pages and pages of hype without ever telling you what it's about, beware!! Hype with no substance sure isn't worth much. It's like an old hunter once told me when I spotted some deer tracks. He said, "They won't fill your belly and they taste like dirt!" At most, only ask for more information. Don't buy right away. Again, if the program is any good, it will stand the test of time.
Lastly (at least in this article), stay away from programs advertised heavily as "ground floor opportunities". If a program truly is any good, it will be at least as good a year from now as today, and probably better. A case in point in the real world is AMWAY (whether you love them or hate them!) :-). They are the most successful marketing story in the world, and they're still growing. That's pretty good for a company that has been around since 1949. Many companies have come out since then advertising a "better" program with a "ground-floor" opportunity. Where are they now? We're not sure......
Dave Cottrell is opinionated, compassionate, and passionate about people, marketing and online business. He does a lot of digging, experimenting and research, and writes like crazy about a wide variety
of topics and subjects. He is the owner of many websites and blogs; you can read his rants and find out more about him at http://davecottrell.com/blog.html
This article can be shared freely as long as this box remains intact.
Copyright © 2006 David H. Cottrell. All rights reserved.
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