Many of you are new to internet marketing and are just learning how to create web pages, write content and get a website up and going. You sign up for newsletters to learn everything you can. In the process, you are getting emails from some of these folks hawking the latest “get rich scheme” that happens to be a so called internet “guru” as proclaimed by your newsletter emailer and their colleagues and friends that have given this guru such a status.
Your are on the right path trying to get your hands on all of the free information you can that will train you to be successful. There are many great programs out there that will teach you how to make a profit and generate a constant stream of revenue. But you have to be careful how you spend your money in the beginning. There is a multitude of worthless material out on the internet that is marketed with slick sales copy at extremely high prices. It’s better to spend less on a few programs from a few different people to get different view points and tips.
The following are guru type products/programs you should avoid.
1. A “guru” who is selling you a program that costs more than $100 a month to join.
2. A “guru” marketing a one time charge of $500 or more for training that lasts less than 6 months.
3. A “guru” with tons of testimonials from other internet “gurus” who are selling the other “guru’s” product/program.
4. A “guru” with compelling sales copy claiming they made over $100,000 a year and doesn’t give the details on the niche or products sold.
5. A guru with a long sales letter type, slick sales page.
6. A guru who has a photo of a sports car in front of a beach house.
7. Anyone who uses the word “guru” in their sales copy, whether it is the guru or someone promoting the supposed gurus’s copy.
8. Overvaluation of a guru’s product/program. If there are thousands of people buying the same product, they will be your competition.
9. Guru’s who don’t offer a minimum 30 day free trial with a refund.
10. Outdated materials. If the training program has not been updated in a year, it’s already out of date. Look at the copyright at the bottom of the webpage. Look at the graphic of the box or book to see if it is a newer version updated for this year. If the date says, 2005, 2006, 2007 hit the “x” on your browser and run.
11. A guru who doesn’t provide their contact information and only responds to questions through a forum. Look at the forum for activity. If the guru leaves questions unanswered for more than 2 days, you have to question whether you will get help or get a refund if the program is not for you.
12. A guru who doesn’t have a secure way to collect payment. If you use your Mastercard or Visa, make sure that it is https secure in the top of your browser or better yet, pay with paypal.
13. A guru who has testimonials from folks that have sites that no longer exist. Copy and paste the site names from some of the testimonials. If they don’t exist or look amateurish, figure that the testimonial is from a guru junkie and is worthless.
14. Gurus who hawk general information on “working from home”, “building internet riches”, etc. Serious consideration should only be given to “gurus” who are focusing on something you need to learn whether it is a search engine expert teaching you pay per click advertising or a blog expert that can teach you how to set up a blog with WordPress and how to run it.
15. Adsense gurus. Adsense is so 2003. That’s not to say that people don’t make money from it but learning how to make money from sponsored ads should be on the bottom of your list.
16. Gurus who focus on poker, online gambling or adult sites. These types of sites are difficult for a newbie. Google slaps them and all of the pay per click is high priced.
17. Gurus who suggest affiliate programs that have low payouts. Look on Commission Junction and other networks to see if what they suggest pays out. You may be following outdated information and the niche that was making “monster profits” last year has dried up.
18. Gurus don’t tell you the entire truth about how they make so much money whether it is through affiliate marketing or selling their own products. The truth is most of these “gurus” are full-time Internet marketing heavyweights with an established business several years old. Some of them have venture capital funding. Most gurus have dozens of high-traffic websites and an a staff of folks that work for them, many of them outsourcing a lot of the labor to India.
19. Gurus who don’t list in detail what they are offering. If a guru has a long sales letter with testimonials and doesn’t give you details “module” by “module” or a chapter list with topics covered then it isn’t worth the money you’ll spend.
Buying an expensive internet guru’s program is not a formula for instant success. Learning from several sources, conserving your cash for advertising, low cost training and spending long hard hours working on your site/s is what will produce results. Most sites can take 6-12 months to start seeing serious income. There are many successful folks that have programs that will teach you how to make a profit for a small amount of money and are available to answer questions. We’ll be talking about them on RevenueDiva.com regularly. Just be mindful that there are many gurus that will suck a money from a newbie.