Who in Internet Marketing Can You Really Believe?

When I first started learning Internet marketing, I subscribed to as many newsletters as I could, read everything I could find on the topic and marveled at the riches that others were achieving so quickly.

In an effort to be successful like they were, I bought almost every eBook they promoted, bought nearly every product they claimed was used to build their online empire and joined their affiliate programs so that I too could promote their wonderful products.

Who are they? People I never met in person, rarely ever spoke with, yet was drawn into the sales letters because those letters were written to be so believable. They are people with names that many now know as Internet marketing gurus or geniuses.

Maybe some of them were living a good life with a fat bank account when I first started following their teaching. The others were, or had, good writers that made them appear to be on top of the market. Still others were nobody until a big name found out about the new product or course that they worked out a joint venture with and promoted it to their huge mailing lists to the point that the nobody became somebody almost overnight.

What raised my suspicions though was when suddenly a new breed came forward claiming that they were the ghost writers that made the others popular, successful and rich. For some reason those writers decided that they no longer wanted to be the unknown. They wanted the spotlight. The strange thing about that is their marketing letters were nearly identical to the ones I had been reading all along, sent by the so-called gurus.

So who really are the brains behind all of this? Did the ghost writers hire ghost writers to write their sales letters? Or are they really writing their own? If they are writing their own, then they are still working harder than the people who they wrote for, because now they have added another project to their list. Oh and the first 1/3 of the eBook you just bought from them probably contains little more than bragging about what they have done, who they helped get rich and why now, after years of silence, you should suddenly believe everything they say.

What I think is really hard to believe, are the photos of checks and account balances with certain identifying items blanked out, supposedly to avoid breaking any rules by the payment processors. Come on now, I have seen a lot online and the one thing I know that can be used in practically any situation is an anonymous photo.

But maybe that is just me, because apparently it works well enough to bring in sales. People want to buy from those who appear to be successful, even if the resulting eBook is so full of fluff that it tells the reader basically noting about how the riches are made. If you want to know that, then look at the emails and sales letters. They tell basically the same story over and over, with just the characters and situations changing. They used to be poor, some nearly homeless, until they created this life-changing product.

I looked at some of the sites that were claimed to make a lot of sales. They were 40+ pages long. Give me a break! Do YOU ever read that much before buying anything? Most often you will read the first few paragraphs to see what the product is about, then skip down towards the bottom to see the price tag and bonuses, that usually cost the seller little to nothing anyway. Many times those bonuses are teasers like trial products that get you to buy them too. One of the so-called gurus shocked me when he promoted a furnace sale. Yes, you read that right. He needed a new furnace but did not have enough to pay for it. I thought being a successful marketer meant you COULD pay for things you wanted or needed. I spoke with him personally, had him as a guest speaker on one of my live training calls and respect what he does. I never expected that sale though.

The remaining question in all of this is: Who can you truly believe?

To learn the answer, do some basic research. Search Google, Yahoo! or your favorite search engine. If that person is truly popular, they should have several hundred or thousands of sites linking to them. Go to affiliate discussion forums and search for the product or author name. Read what others are saying about the author.

In the end, when you have followed the teachings of someone you can connect with and feel comfortable learning from, stay with them and tell others about them. That way, when that person tells you of a product or service that could truly help you, then you will feel much more comfortable taking their advice and buying that product.

I hope this article has helped you, if even in a small way. Just remember to continue researching and learning about how to build your business online.

Jim Hutchinson is the Project Manager for Website Managers, LLC. He has studied Internet Marketing from some of the most influential leaders. Many of those resources are available on Affiliate Referral Sources.