Sad fact, but the world is full of sharks and charlatans.
For a long time now, many so-called Internet marketing gurus or experts have been making the bulk of their money selling marketing advice in the form of books, CDs, and tapes. In recent years the trend has moved to online publishing and paid membership website advice.
These tricksters (the nicest word that we can use for them) often don’t have any real experience in developing and marketing genuine products, other than the ones they are trying to sell to us. Their Internet marketing experience is limited to selling their own Internet marketing advice.
Most have never invested any time or money to try any of the ideas they sell to others. And while what they offer may seem to be sound advice, in many cases the ideas have no relevance to the real world.
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How to tell who is genuine and who is faking it? Here are the criteria:
- Does he follow his own Internet marketing advice? Can he point to proven examples?
- Is she a respected professional in the Internet marketing field? Do her professional peers endorse her products?
- How long has he been in the Internet marketing business? How much experience does he really have?
- Who are her existing clients or customers? How long have they been satisfied customers?
- Is he selling a business opportunity (BizOp) or a multi-level marketing (MLM) product? Does he supply references who are actually using the product? Not just those people reselling his product, or members of his “down line”, or affiliates!
- Does she promise an outcome (profit) that’s too good to be true? It probably is!
How to protect yourself:
- Do an online search of the seller to find discussion forums about his product and reputation.
- Try to obtain a physical address rather than merely a post office box and a phone number. Call the seller to see if the number is correct and working. Ask about their satisfaction guaranteed refund policy, if they have one.
- Send them email to see if they have an active email address and be wary of those that utilize free email services where a credit card wasn’t required to open the account.
