Those who have decided to try online marketing training will certainly hear the stories of scams, shady survey sites, and claims of quick money from marketers who vanish extremely fast once they have run off with your money.
Sadly, for the most part, this is true.
The online marketing space is overloaded with thieves and confidence men (AKA con artists). BUT do not allow that to stop or discourage you.
It is paramount to view the situation as it is, but not see it worse than it is. There are many honest vendors and incredibly good products and courses to be found.
You just need to be careful when purchasing online marketing training.
Here are the 10 things to ask below that will help you to make the right buying decision about purchasing online marketing training.
Do You Really Need This Online Marketing Training?
This is probably the most important thing to ask yourself prior to you pushing the buy button.
When starting out in online marketing, it is important to choose a proven business model that is working and making other people some income.
Choose just a single model and concentrate on it until you are successful. Only when you have the will to finish what you have begun; will you respect yourself.
Prior to buying any marketing course or software, you will need to decide if it is a fit with what you are doing. If it’s not, close the sales page and move on.
Too many novices lose focus and get tugged in several different directions because they get drawn in by claims of ‘fast and easy money’.
They want the ‘push button wealth’ and ‘cash avalanches’ which do not exist.
Their emotions get the better of them and they purchase all info products that promise them overnight wealth.
There is a term that has been said to describe this issue – it is called ‘The Shiny Object Syndrome’.
The truth is that one requires to be completely methodical in their approach to an online business. Do not let emotion overwhelm and dictate the buying decision.
Who Created the product?
It is especially important that you do your homework on the product vendor.
The sad reality is that there are thousands out there who will lie and cheat and take Immoral detours just to make a fast dollar – and many of them do this at the expense of the blinded masses.
You must be more intelligent than them.
Verify if the seller is walking the talk.
E.g. If they are selling an e-commerce course, do your research and verify if they have their own e-commerce store that is making sales.
If they are teaching Pinterest marketing, verify if they have thousands of visitors to their Pinterest boards.
Many sketchy sellers just revamp info-products and churn out unverified theories that do not work in the real world.
They earn their money from serial launches of shoddy and empty products about marketing models that they have not tested themselves.
This funny dichotomous situation is extremely obvious if you do your homework.
Verify what products they have released and if they have many courses on several different marketing models, you can be quite sure that they are a master of none.
Close their sales page and move on.
Do the Boasts in the Sales Copy Appear Too Good to Be True?
If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
- Software products that make claims of being capable to drive millions of visitors to your sites…
- Or special loopholes and hacks that will rank your website at the top of Google in 15 seconds or less while you do nothing…
- Or how you can earn $5,342.87 in 25 minutes as you are sipping martinis by the pool….
You have probably heard it all – bold and unrealistic claims designed to hook you and reel you into the sales copy which is all glitz and no substance.
These claims are as fake as a $2 bill. Do not get fooled by them. Close the sales page.
Does the Seller Have ‘Older Versions’ of the Same Product?
If you do your homework, you may find that some vendors repeatedly sell several products that look to be identical to each other…
And the one thing that is different is the updated sales page and the new name of the product.
This practice is used a lot in the ‘make money online’ market.
Why would someone release a new autoresponder which is self-hosted when he already released a few similar autoresponders over the past several years?
Why wouldn’t he just improve and support his existing products through updated releases?
Well, the answer is quite simple – the profits are in the launching of products.
These vendors earn their money when they emerge on the scene with a new product and the mindless masses eat it up…
Only then the sucked in buyers discover that the product is complete garbage, and the vendor is not responding to support tickets and he is laughing all the way to the bank with their money.
You may notice that a vendor has many products that resemble each other, then you know what you must do. Close the page
Where Do the Income Numbers Come From?
Commonly you will see income statistics and screenshots on most sales pages. Quite often, you have no clue which black hole these statistics are being pulled out of.
The whole idea of showing you these numbers is to increase your attraction for the product and make you numb and believing that the product can make these sums of money for you.
You need to know that most income statistics are usually bogus and should be taken with a big dose of salt. The larger the dose, the better.
It is possible to make large sums of money online, but it will take some time, some effort, some sweat, and a lot of learning and trial and error on your part. This is NOT a simple process, but it can be achieved.
The only income statistics that are meaningful are yours. Do not get fooled by the ones that fill their sales pages with boasts like misleading ads with to good to be true claims.
Are these Testimonials Real?
This is a difficult question. You will need to be very diligent.
A good product will have testimonials from real customers who are glad about their purchases and have gotten good results from using the information in the product.
Quite often, these will be displayed on Facebook as comments, video testimonials, photo evidence, and so on. While all of these can be fakes or were bought, usually, you can feel if the testimonial is trustworthy. Be careful.
On the other hand, there are sales pages with testimonials by individuals who are marketers also.
Quite often, these ‘nice people’ are affiliates for the product and friends of the vendor and by brown-nosing the vendor, they are assuring that their own back gets scratched later.
They look after each other and never thought is given to the buyer who is just another entry in their profit statistics.
So, where does that leave you? Simple! Close the page.
Is There a Money-Back Guarantee?
You must never abuse a money-back guarantee just so you can get a free deal. But It does not hurt to see if the product has a money-back guarantee.
At times, products are sold with a bold sales copy and what you get may not be what you want. In these cases, having a guarantee will help to make you a risk-free offer.
Did You Look at Reviews?
Always look for reviews. Just Google “product name + reviews”. Usually, you will find several videos with people ecstatic about the product and praising it highly.
Remember your grains of salt from earlier?
Take some more grains of salt when reading or watching these reviews. In many cases, the review videos are made by affiliates who are attempting to make a sale.
However, it does not matter if you watch some of these videos to comprehend more about the product. A few reviews may be unbiased and will talk about the negatives of these products.
In a few cases, you may find written reviews and videos made by people who completely hate the product or vendor.
These reviewers usually sense a deep-seated responsibility to teach others to make a better buying decision and they may also sense a need to choke off the deluge of deceitful products flooding the market.
It is a no-win battle, but their reviews can be an enlightening experience for you and assist in your purchasing decision.
Who Is Number One, You, or The Seller?
It is quite usual to see marketers spewing ethics and claiming to want to ‘help people’ by ‘giving value’. But what they say and do are planets apart.
Hold on! Where is that bucket of salt?
The truth is that way too many marketers have dubious ethics, and the only people they want to help are themselves… and the value they wish to maximize is their bank balance.
Therefore, the market is clogged with online marketing courses and products that are horrible, misleading, and disappointing.
Do your homework and verify how many upsells and downsells a product has, if possible.
All you need to do is Google “product name + affiliate” and you may come across affiliate join up pages where you can see the product’s full sales funnel.
If there are 10 or more products in a funnel, you can be quite sure that the vendor cannot give a pinch of snuff about your buying experience.
Very often, they use McDonald’s tactic of ‘Would you like to upsize that?’. This is an example of the paradigm of upselling.
This is also an example of false equivalence.
Marketers warp a simple and effective technique until it is adulterated beyond recognition and gets replaced as a bizarre ‘marketing hack’ that becomes the standard in the field.
If the online marketing approach of ‘upsells & downsells’ was applied in the real world, by the time you left McDonald’s, you’d have bought everything from a Big Mac to the neon sign and even Ronald McDonald’s right boot!
Consider the vendor’s approach to business and ethics. How they make their money is far more important than how much they make.
Can You Afford the Product?
Lastly, do NOT spend money that you do not have on any course based on promises of quick and easy riches – especially if you are desperate to make money fast.
It is NEVER fast, and it is NEVER easy.
Many thousands have accumulated debt on their credit cards by falling into the hype of ‘instant wealth’ only to struggle with the bills later and not make a dollar in return.
Be conservative in your spending when you’re trying to build your online business.
You can begin your way to a booming business. It is possible. I know. I did it that way.
Always remember that almost all purchasing decisions are emotional. This explains why people can spend a lot on products that do not deliver.
This is a consequence and not a coincidence.
But once you stop and start asking the questions listed above, logic will take over your emotions.
No longer will the persuasive and hypnotic sales page lead you by the nose like a hog being led to the slaughterhouse.
You are in control now. You and your trusty grains of salt.
Final Thoughts
Since the online marketing niche is full of scams and dubious antics, the good news is that are many incredibly good online marketing training programs and courses available that can greatly help you.
You can find diamonds in the rough.
Use this list as a guide and you will find the training you need to build a solid foundation upon which your business will rest.
[avatar user=”mike” size=”thumbnail” align=”” link=”file”]Mike Gaudreau is the owner of The Wealthy Boomers, a site devoted to helping seniors make money online. Mike resides in Montreal Canada.[/avatar]
You should assume the owner of this website has an affiliate relationship and/or another material connection, to any suppliers of goods and services that may be discussed here and may be compensated for showing advertisements or recommending products or services or linking to the supplier’s website.
