Friday 4 May 2007

Sitesell

I've pretty much decided on the products I want to promote in my online business. As this is at present a part-time situation (I'm also a commercial mortgage broker) it's been important for me to find products and companies that I feel comfortable with.

Finding Sitesell has been something of a revelation and I will be posting my experiences as the weeks go by. Meanwhile if you've got a couple of minutes to spare have a look at this video.


Wednesday 2 May 2007

You can get fleeced offline too!

Food critic Jay Rayner in the Observer Magazine Sunday 29th. April reviewed Suka, "a new hipper-than-thou joint in London's Sandersons Hotel". His review was damning.

The cost of the meal for two that he bought was £175 including wine. But it was his criticism of the food that really struck me. Here's one memorable quote "Worst of the lot was a curried crab laska, which was a bastardisation of a fantastic dish. The broth was a one-note battering ram of chilli oil, with no layers of flavour, not improved by a quickly soggy fried crab cake boasting the texture of a sponge". As I haven't visited this restaurant I can't vouch for Jay Rayner's experience and it is possible that the chef just had an off day, but reading the review struck a chord with me.

Why do we so readily accept the rubbish which is sold online as information products? Why do we believe that a 30 page eBook can hold the secret of instant online wealth and success while carrying a price tag typically of $97?

As some people will be seduced by the chic surroundings of a restaurant into paying more than the food is worth we seem unable to resist the latest Get Rich Quick scheme offered online.

Two things strike me. Firstly if any of these ebooks or programs genuinely contained the secret of success why would the authors want to share them? Surely they could make more money by spending their time repeating whatever secret process they have discovered. Secondly is there really anything in these information products that we can't get in a conventional book at a fraction of the price? The truth is that they make money out of selling us hope and not by using their own "secrets".

To prove my point how about "The Copywriter's Handbook" by Robert W Bly or Mark Joyner's "The Irresistible Offer", both available from Amazon at approximately 10% of the price of the typical online information product. You could build a huge marketing library for the cost of two or three online information products.

Sunday 29 April 2007

The First Post

After two years of experimenting with Affiliate and Network Marketing Products I now feel that I have something worthwhile to say on the subject.

I've collected a lot of experience, mainly as a result of mistakes - all costly but all learned from. I now work with the principle "Get Rich Quick is a Fraud" firmly fixed in my mind. The thing that really makes me angry is that many famous and, at least on the face of it, respected "Gurus" peddle Get Rich Quick on a daily basis. Rich Schefren rightly tells us to stop being opportunists and to become real businesses, but many of his "disciples" deliberately target the opportunist in us with their overpriced eBooks and training courses.

If I was starting today with the benefit of the knowledge and experience I now have I would begin by reading the following people before I even put a website up;

Rich Schefren
Gary Bencivenga
Clayton Makepeace

You will find more knowledge and wisdom on these sites without spending a penny, than you'd find in hundreds of dollars worth of eBooks.