Internet Marketing has become a dirty word.
Don’t get me wrong – it’s not that Internet marketing itself is bad.
In fact, anything that is promoted or sold over the Internet can be claimed to have been marketed over the Internet, thus been sold through “Internet Marketing” or “IM.”
But since anyone can anonymously run a business from the Internet, many scams and shady dealings have been run under the guise of ‘Internet marketing.’ Add the fact that the majority of products having to do with IM are “what is the laziest possible way to make money online,” then it’s pretty easy to see how IM earned such a bad rep.
Don’t let that put you off. Legitimate marketing on the Internet is a fantastic way to make money. You can work from home, get clients from anywhere around the world, and often reduce marketing costs… but you have to know what you’re doing.
So to save you (and your bank account) from heartbreak, here’s:
The 10 Worst Lies in Internet Marketing – along with the truth:
1) “I’ll show you how I earned $XX,XXX in just 3 hours!”
You’ll commonly see claims like these on sales pages. Sales pages are those long, endless web pages that take about 2 minutes of scrolling till you reach the bottom (annoying – but they do sell). The problem with these claims is they’re half truths.
Often, the marketer will show you how to create, implement, and execute some sort of product launch. After all, good product launches can actually earn marketers 6 figures on the first day alone. What they don’t tell you is that it took them a good 6 months, a few thousand dollars, and endless hours of headaches to set everything up for that payoff.
That’s not to say the money isn’t worth the time – but trust me. Short of prostitution, there is little you can do to earn that kind of dough for only a couple hours of work.
2) “Everyone else is making money online doing practically nothing!”
In ‘the real world’, 95% of all small businesses fail within the first 5 years. In the internet, it’s closer to 99%. There’s a huge amount of people all competing for the big bucks. And while there are people who are making thousands of dollars online, I can assure you they had to do a lot of work to get there.
3) “Product X will give you ‘push button riches.’”
A lot of newbies fall for this lie. It’s a commonly used lie because peddlers want to sell their junk. The truth is, there is no product in the world that will make money for you on its own.
And if there were, internet marketers wouldn’t sell it online for $49 a pop. However, there are useful products that can give you information that will help you work smarter. But you’ll still have to do the work.
4) “Internet marketing is easier than normal marketing.”
The complete opposite is true. Like I stated in #2, the internet is highly competitive. You have to have a good angle or USP in order to stand out and make a name (and moolah) for yourself. It also takes a lot of time to build up your reputation… and often you have to be willing to step out of your comfort zone in order to see results.
You also have to keep productive and resist the urge to look at cute cat pictures, surf youtube, or stumble across any of the other thousands of time-wasters online.
5) “Anyone can get rich on the Internet.”
To become a millionaire, you need to be dedicated. I mean, you really need to be willing to adapt, sacrifice, and constantly challenge the status quo. You have to learn from failures and build on the successes.
Most people give up after a few weeks. They don’t realize they have to put in months – sometimes years – of effort before they see the fruits of their labor.
And frankly, there’s people who would be much happier letting others worry about blazing the trails so they can walk down the path and enjoy the view. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Not everyone WANTS to deal with all the headache that goes into running a business, nor can they.
6) “All you need is traffic.”
If that was true, you’d find thousands of sites with no content on them. People search for websites to solve a problem. If they land on your site and all they find is garbled fluff and ads, they’ll leave. And never come back.
If you want to truly make money, fill your site with useful content, pictures, interesting facts and information. You will gain readers, and they will want to buy the things you sell.
7) “Good writing/content/articles can be bought for a couple bucks.”
Good articles – really good articles – take hours to write. This article took me about 5 1/2 hours to research, write, edit, format, and publish.
Don’t believe me? Go ahead and write up a well-thought-out article. Not rehash— put thought, experience, and value into that article. Then make it interesting.
Internet marketers might tell you that you can buy good content for $5. But trust me – I’ve seen $5 articles. From bad grammar, garbled content, to poorly hidden spinning – you’d have better results if you shredded up your money and threw it out.
When you find an incredible content writer, make sure you pay them well – they’ll make your business look awesome.
8 ) “Fake it till you make it.”
This is one of the most destructive lies in IM.
Basically, it’s a philosophy that tells people to “Pretend you know what you’re doing untill you’re actually sucessful.” There is a ‘white hat’ method to this lie – have confidence, work hard, and you’ll get there.
Unfortunately, what ends up happening is most newbies lie through their teeth about their qualifications for things like SEO services and writing skills. Then these newbies offer those services to businesses and fail to deliver – because the newbies have no idea what they’re doing in the first place. Which leaves the businesses burned.
It’s like going to a surgeon, laying down on the operating table, only to find out he’s never actually operated before – but he did read a book on it!
Speaking of books…
9) “You should rehash old material and resell it as an ebook.”
There’s this false perception that you can slap together an ebook or product, then watch the riches roll in. Don’t try it. Once people see that you’re just in it for the money, you’ve lost potentially loyal customers – forever.
If you have something valuable to share, put thought and time into it, and make your product. You’ll sell a lot more, and you’ll have many loyal customers.
10) “The most important part of Internet Marketing is to make money.”
Never buy from anyone who tells you this. Why? Because it’s the worst lie of all.
If your whole goal in life is to just ‘make money’ then you need to reevaluate yourself.
That’s not to say it shouldn’t be one of your goals, but the moment you make it the priority is the moment you start engaging in shady dealings.
Your goal should be to bring value to others through your product or service. If you work hard to help others, success will never be too far off.
When I do copywriting work, my biggest goal is to see my clients’ projects succeed. I get a rush from it – no joke.
Now, imagine a writer who didn’t care if your project succeeded or failed – they only wanted your money.
Who would you rather work with?
What’s the worst Internet Marketing lie you’ve ever heard?
Tell us in the comments!
Talk to you soon,
Danielle
agree with you that these are the common mistakes that mostly do. great informative post.
Hey there Reeha,
Hopefully someone will avoid making some of these mistakes now that they’ve read the article!
most of the readers will not left this strategy and keep on going like that and earn my providing fake and wrong information about their products.
Things is there is no easy way to make money online. You will have to work, maybe even more compared with lots of real-life jobs. IM is not a game or a way to get rich quickly. Its pretty brutal and most people are kicked hard right from the start.
Hi Christian,
That’s absolutely true. In fact, I’d sooner recommend that a person gets a brick and motar business before they try out internet marketing. If they still enjoy running that business after the novelty wore off, then maybe, just maybe they can try their hand at internet marketing
Hi Danielle,
I, like you, am sick of seeing all these idiotic claims about IM. As far as #9, I completely agree, but what are your thoughts on packaging a number of posts (or guest posts) into a free eBook that is used for opt-in purposes.
The reason I ask is that my free Ebook is not really on target to my readers and I am thinking about putting together one that includes my top 20 guest posts (success stories) and giving that away instead. Good idea or bad idea in your mind?
Ideally, I’d like to write a whole new eBook, but time is soooo short right now.
Hi Steve,
I think that packaging guest posts – or even top-rated articles into an ebook is a fantastic idea. It would certainly be a hard sell if it were a paid book, but for opt-ins I think it’d work just fine. There’s many awesome articles I read out there that I save on word docs so I can read them when I want… but it ruins the nice formatting and pictures.
However, you’d have to have a good angle for the book so that new people coming to your site see it as a worthwhile incentive to sign up for. Since they’re success stories, maybe you could position it as “Learn 20 Secrets from 20 Successful Grind-Breakers.” Then you could add some footnotes or comments to bring up the value even more!
And I completely hear you about not having enough time…. I’ve been trying to write and release my clear copywriting ebook for … oh… over a year now lol.
If you have more questions or thoughts on ebook creation, just let me know anytime,
Danielle
these points are the most common which i commonly read in my mails and also during anything search the first one and that product will give you that profit are the most common these days.
Thank you Reeha, I appreciate your input!
I share your thoughts completely. In fact, I feel almost as if you read my mind.
The 10th point is particularly important; I have never been a good marketer in my life (I’m much more of a technical person), but one thing I learned is that there’s no worse transaction than the one whose only target is the exchange of money.
If you take an employment just for money, you’ll quit soon (done that several times already); if you just want to get rich quick with your shop, you can sell a cup of coffee for $10. Some customers will pay and never return, some will refuse to pay, and all of them will recommend their friends NOT to come to you. Focus on making customers happy and they will be glad to pay you!
Hi there Diego,
Absolutely. That’s a perfect example where putting ‘money first’ actually results in making less money. And while it might seem like a simple concept to you and I, there’s a lot of people out there who would kick their dog for a buck.
I appreciate your insight — I hope to hear more from you soon.
Danielle
These points must be considered as spam. some of the bloggers which are new are still using such names but they are not spams however they are new to this field and i am sure after reading this post they will avoid using such names in their posts and sales.