The Expert Affiliate Racket

The normal psychology behind making money online in the affiliate marketing business is to offer good products and services to the potential buyers you can reach.  That goes without saying…even though I just said it.

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But, what is going on when an affiliate is being touted as an expert? It attracts a lot of attention. It gets people hyped up about a seminar or course.  But, it's not the normal psychology.

When I first started writing online, I was connected to a few of these affiliate experts. I wrote their seminars and courses. Immediately, I realized the game and I want to spell it out for you because I want you to succeed.  I want your online business experience to be enjoyable and rewarding.  So, let's take a look at what goes on behind closed doors.

I've said it about a thousand times and I'll probably say it a million times more, but most of these marketing seminars or courses are actually marketing marketing to marketers.  It's a bunch of nothingness that goes around in circles.  It's like selling air and water.

Of course, you're saying, "They do sell air and water."  That's the point.  Online marketers are getting away with marketing marketing to marketers.

What is that?  Let's break it down.  Marketing is about putting products in the public eye, getting the message out there about a product or service.  So, marketing marketing is about getting the message out about how to market and to who…marketers.  Now, do you see how it's a bunch of nothingness?  It certainly isn't about getting a pair of shoes in the hands of a runner or getting a book in the hands of a reader.

When I teach marketing, I teach about actually selling products and services.  My first book about online business, Making Money: The Techniques of the Gurus, details how you can sell anything from t-shirts to bonzai trees.  Those are tangible products people can enjoy.  I teach beginning online entrepreneurs how to do that.  Download it now For Free!

So, having said that, those marketing courses don't teach you how to sell watches, computers or furniture. They are selling you, and I mean selling you, their marketing courses about marketing marketing.  For one, the niche is already saturated so tapping into it is highly competitive and trying to stand out in it is nearly impossible.  But, who would really want to anyway?

Marketing courses can go for as little as $200 and climb to $2,000, $5,000 and even $10,000.  I know one affiliate marketer who rehashes his old courses and sells them over every six months.  He calls them something different, but you're not getting anything any different.

I had this conversation with one of my clients a few years ago.  He bought two courses thinking he was going to get a more advanced version of what he had already bought.  Disappointed, he discovered it was the same course…different package.

Also, after he showed me what was in the course, I sent him my book that I allow people to download for free.  He was amazed to find everything in there.  He had bought one course for $695 and the other for $2000 to find out that the same information was in my book that he could have downloaded for free.

But, the real crime comes when we look at the seminars in Hawaii and Cancun.  Even Los Angeles and down where I live in Florida, these "Expert" affiliates love having seminars in places where most people take vacations.  Guess who's paying for their vacation?  That's right.  You!

A handful of affiliates get together in what they call a Joint Venture.  They throw their material together that doesn't amount to anything more than what I teach for free in several of my books and in my business articles.  They market the seminar to you, who thinks you're getting a major weekend training session.  So, you purchase the seminar and you make arrangements for a local hotel as well as travel.

What do you find when you get there? 

(Let's assume that you have read all of my articles at the Blast and you've downloaded both my Making Money ebook and the Supplement from my Tutorials page.)

At the seminar, you will get:
A motivational speech to get you hyped about marketing.
Another motivational speech to get you hyped about the seminar that you already purchased.
Break for dinner.  That's a Friday.  Oh by the way, don't forget to purchase the book or DVD that is at the stand on your way out to dinner.
Saturday begins with a motivational speech to get you hyped about your day.
You attend one session before lunch, which to your surprise you find that you already know the stuff…because of the stipulation I made earlier about already having read my tutorials and articles.  Break for lunch.
You're thinking, "It's just beginning.  I'll definitely learn something after lunch."
After lunch, you attend another session that is just a step above what you learned in the morning.  And again, you already know what they are teaching you.  By the way, each "session" comes with a book or CD.  Make sure you purchase those!
Saturday wraps with another motivational speech that is designed to keep you there, coming back for more on Sunday.
I can't say that you won't learn one or two things on Sunday.  But, is what you learned equal to what you paid?
By the way, these so called "experts" are staying in nice hotels, eating great food and enjoying their evenings…at your expense.

For what you paid, you should be getting a crash course on marketing that should be equal to college credits at an accredited institution.  That's not what you get!

Can you imagine paying for the vacation of someone who doesn't know any more than you about online marketing?  They downloaded all their material and rehashed it as their own, they're being treated like an expert because of the hype and they're being handed vacations because you didn't know that it was all crap?

Here's the secret!  There is no secret!

There is no button you can push that will amass a fortune for you.  There is no software that can do everything for you in "just three simple clicks" or "five minutes."

To build a business online takes a little work.  You can set some things in motion that will work automatically for you while you do other things.  But, you'll have to put that together.

To make my point, my No Limit Cash Machine is a completely automated system that you can put together in a few hours.  It is a set and let system.  But, you'll have to build it first.  Then, you'll want to keep building because the more you build, the more you make.  The point is that you still have to work.  Nothing online is as simple as they make it out to be, even though making money online is fairly easy when compared to anything else.

Anyone who has ever made money online will agree with me that it takes a little work.  Even the scammers who are trying to scam you, if they could ever be honest about it, they would tell you that putting their scams together takes work.

So, don't fall for the hype!  That's all I am trying to say.  Look at everything that "sells you" and figure out why it is "selling you."

A few tips:

If you are making a purchase of an online business course or tutorial, look for contact information.  How do you contact them?  Do they have a refund policy?

If you can't contact them, don't make the purchase.

If they do have contact information, use it.  They should at least have an email.  Send them one with a question. Any question!  If they don't answer, don't make the purchase.

Also, do you know what you are getting?  If you went to the store, you would be able to look at the product.  If you buy online, can you at least get a preview of the things that you will learn?  Make sure you pay attention to this tip.  Affiliate marketers are great at selling you on hype alone.  Look at the hype objectively and see if they tell you anywhere on their webpage what you will get when you make the purchase.  Scam artists won't tell you.  Legitimate affiliate marketers will be more than happy to spell it out for you.

 

Read my Tutorials and look at the list of Tools that I suggest for building an online business.  Stay up to date on current business practices at the Blast!

Also, check out A Danger to Society, my novel that got me into online marketing in the first place…