Do you consider the source you learn from?

[Rob Whisonant]

This question may need a little explaining. Let's say you want to learn affiliate marketing. You look for courses and information on the subject. You find tons of information about affiliate marketing.

Now the question. What source do you use to learn? 99% of the information is put out by people that make very little or no money actually doing affiliate marketing. Basically buying from them is buying theory.

Do you actually take the time to investigate and find a source that has actually been successful doing affiliate marketing?

So you can learn theory, or you can learn from someone that actually makes big money from what you want to learn.

Something to think about, the next time you go looking to "learn" something new.

Anyone want to add some thoughts to this?

 

[Mike001]

Great point Rob, and one that should be considered. I am new to the marketing aspect of the web and that was one of the reasons I joined this site. I really wanted to learn more about marketing online and how the people here were being successful at doing that.

I have taken quite a few college classes on marketing, but like you stated, most all of that is theory, written by people that have probably never actually marketed anything in the real world. And to be honest a lot of it was repetitive and boring....

I also noticed that most of the material I was reading was geared more towards a brick and mortar business and through there are similarities, there are also major differences in how to approach building a business.

I have learned a lot reading through the posts on this site. Your posts and Ron's post have really been good. They tend to give good information that just needs to be researched.

I think this could be a great conversation and I will follow how the members respond because it will be interesting and helpful picking up new concepts.

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Rob Whisonant

First thank you for the compliment. I do hope others will add their thoughts to this thread. It could become a very good learning experience for everyone.

 

[Muzzamil]

This question may need a little explaining. Let's say you want to learn affiliate marketing. You look for courses and information on the subject. You find tons of information about affiliate marketing.

Now the question. What source do you use to learn? 99% of the information is put out by people that make very little or no money actually doing affiliate marketing. Basically buying from them is buying theory.

Do you actually take the time to investigate and find a source that has actually been successful doing affiliate marketing?

So you can learn theory, or you can learn from someone that actually makes big money from what you want to learn.

Something to think about, the next time you go looking to "learn" something new.

Anyone want to add some thoughts to this?

I always take the time to investigate who to learn from. I don't know buy courses now because I believe I know marketing myself. But when I was new to marketing, I only bought courses from people that I personally knew were experts and were making money from Internet Marketing. I always prefer the paid method because free methods are most of the time confusing and complex.

 

[Ron Killian]

Yes a good question...

But you've already stated the big flaw, there are way too many "fake it till you make it" marketers peddling something that doesn't work, it's just theory or it's plain junk.

And it goes back to, how do you know who to trust? Getting harder these days.

Not to mention, you hear all the stories of fake reviews and testimonials. WF ring a bell? argh.

For me personally, if I am going to spend $100 or more, oh yes I will go with some one that has proven themselves, some one like a Dan Kennedy, a Perry Marshall, or the likes.

But many times, for those products, say a few bucks, I do some times take a chance with some one I don't know that well. Usually pick up something. Rare to be a total loss. Gotta invest in your education.

Course, we all know the reality, few people do the research. Then they complain they got took. Really?

They get sucked in by the sales copy, the promise of the email button, and game over, they buy.

 

[EpicGlobalWeb]

I get a ton of offers from Warrior Plus ever since I bought some software there. The videos and promos are always the same. Sometimes I talk to them and ask questions about what they offer because sometimes I'm interested and I like to buy stuff as it is. But to be frank, like you guys already said, I am truly amazed at how little people make on the average on the internet. I remember struggling but not for long and I never stayed there. I can tell you how to make a sale and if I was going to write a course it would probably be in sales or business but probably not SEO (haha). Why? Because there are others better than me at SEO. There are way better programmers than me. So why would I pollute the market with crap that doesn't add value for people?

That's my problem / rant with internet "gurus" selling information that is probably free somewhere.

Here is the simple solution, Rob, always always buy financial advice from a Chase banker rather than a Citizens banker. Always buy SEO training from the person WHO IS RANKING #1 FOR SEO TRAINING (lol... c'mon) and always buy security software from FBI most-wanted hackers. Know what I mean?

 

[Rob Whisonant]

One thing I have noticed way to many times is a self proclaimed guru comes out with a product and hypes up the launch. Sells a ton of the ebook, course or what ever...

The problem is that the self proclaimed guru has not made any money with the method he is teaching. He makes his money by deceiving newbies.

Then the buyers try to follow the plan and make money but fail. What they don't realize is that the recipe in the program they purchased is missing many key ingredients or has the wrong ingredients.

Let me give a real world example. Let's say you buy a chocolate cake recipe that is missing a few ingredients or has a wrong ingredient. Many will follow the recipe exactly and end up with a really bad tasting something that may or may not resemble a chocolate cake.

Others may modify the recipe a little and still end up with a crappy tasting blob.

A very small number may modify the recipe and actually STUMBLE by pure LUCK on what the recipe really should be and make money.

If you only learn from someone that is successful at what you want to learn, you will be way ahead of the game and have a much better chance at success.

 

[ulterios]

ulterios

OMG, yes I see that all the time. It's too bad that people need to prey on the weak just to make money.

I really get a kick out of seeing the screenshots of their earnings that have obviously been through a PhotoShop session upon close review.



Pretty much every time I see someone say or post anything saying they are a "Guru" I take it as they are full of it and a joke.

 

[matteomatt]

I definitely do take my time and investigate, but to be honest for right now I mostly rely on my own experience and the free knowledge out there. I am kind of a cynic, so sometimes I am hard to please. I do believe in spending money when it is necessary, and it has worked out for me buying eBooks occasionally.

Most of the time I look for the usual sales tactics, massive self made valuations on video bonuses, the usual bs. Most of the time marketers are fluffing up something that isn't that good, at least in the make money online niche. Still there are some legit people out there, so I just try my best to make a judgement.

 

[Rob Whisonant]

Rob Whisonant

That brings up a point. Just like paid information, you still need to consider who wrote and is providing the free information. It still could easily be someone that has never made a penny using the information they are giving away. A lot of bad free information is also out on the net.

This is why you really always need to only learn from someone that is a success at what you are learning. Hmmm... That sentence reads a little strange but I hope it gets the thought across to everyone.

 

[matteomatt]

Nope it makes alot of sense, to be honest I could sit here and say I am a CPA guru and maybe even make some fake earning stats. The truth is I am still getting some of my stuff going, but just as easily as I tell you that, I could tell you I made 100 bucks yesterday. Some people think they know what they are doing, but the best measure of success is, success.

 

[Rob Whisonant]

I had someone ask me a question that I feel I should also answer here for everyone's benefit. Here is the question that was asked.

What if the person you "should" be learning from is way to expensive or does not want to teach anyone?

Here is my answer minus all the rambling.

You can learn a lot by just observing someone that is very successful doing what you want to learn. You can study their sites, how they do things, study their campaigns etc. You can learn a lot more than you realize by dissecting what they do and reverse engineering what they do.

If they keep doing something particular you have a pretty good idea it is working for them. If they keep changing what they are doing, you know they are fine tuning it. If they only do something for a short time, you know it did not work for them.

Hope that helps.

 

[FreebieBoy34]

Good question. Of course I need to make sure all the sources I'm learning from a reliable and up to date. Aside from that, I also have to know that the ideas I'm learning are applicable to my current situation in terms of doing affiliate marketing... After all, I'm going to apply all these knowledge to help my career grow. Therefore I investigate first on the source and absorb their teachings if found reliable...