It looks like the big name marketers have a new toy and intend to play with it and intend to abuse it until it breaks. Yet another launch this week following in the steps of Video boss, List control, Mainstreet marketing.

Now we have Outsource Force from John Reese. Let me guess it will be $1997 course spread over 8 weeks showing you how to outsource. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz Same Old Same Old, here comes the bandwagon jump on board.

The thing that made me laugh out loud is that as well as being promoted by the usual suspects John Jonas who has his own course on outsourcing is promoting it.

Yes you read that right, a marketer with his own outsourcing course is promoting someone else’s course about outsourcing. Oh the Irony! Of course he also manages to damn the course with faint praise in his first email…

“A couple months ago I helped John Reese get started outsourcing to the Philippines.”

I am sure John Reese has been outsourcing for years but the comment above makes it look as if you’ll be paying $2000 to someone who has 2 months experience at outsourcing.

Now you don’t think a marketer would build a course around something he knows very little about would you? <==== More irony!!

So John Jonas If you read this tell us… Is John Reeses course better than yours or are you just promoting a course you haven’t seen for the $1000 commission? You have a good product so why act like a $10 Hooker.

Every Time I see this crap happening I get an Image of a nature program I saw about Vultures fighting over the carcass of an antelope trying to get the juiciest bits, the only problem is to these guys we are the carcass.

(There’s 5 more marketers that won’t promote WordPress Goldmine! )

Now it’s you money so you can spend it as you want. If you want to spend $1997 learning to outsource then that’s fine by me but there are much cheaper options (there is even a free step by step to outsourcing in the WordPress Goldmine Forum). But whatever you do make sure you learn from people who are actually doing this stuff day after day and sharing what they learn.

Despite What some marketers seem to think Internet Marketing Is not just about trying to screw ever cent out of peoples pockets. In the right environment it can be about testing and sharing and helping people.

One of our members Chris wrote the Crossroads Methodology which is a guide about marketing to main street businesses. Another Member took what he learned from that made a few minor tweaks and last month won $34,000 worth of contracts. He then shared his methods.

You can and will make money from Internet marketing but please don’t feel you have to buy every product that comes out especially If there are much better cheaper options available!

Be careful out there and sorry for the mixed metaphors! I would really welcome your Comments on this…Am I right or just over reacting?

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I wrote the following post for a project I was working on. However earlier today I read a comment by a marketer and thought it was a good time to publish it. He said:

So with my friend watching I took a few minutes to write up a promotion and sent it to one of my lists. Within THIRTY MINUTES I had enough money to buy my friend a $2,000 set of golf clubs.

Now it’s not the fact that he generated the income, I actually respect his ability to do it , but the fact that  he uses his subscribers like a cash machine and boasts about it. It just makes me mad that some marketers have absolutely no respect for their subscribers. I can imagine him boasting at the bar about the suckers who paid for the golf clubs…suckers like you and me!

Now don’t get me wrong not all marketers are like this I personally know 2 or 3 who really care about their subscribers and would never send out a promotion just to show off. On the other hand one of the reasons why you rarely see anyone promoting my stuff is that I never do reciprocal promotions. (i.e. You promote me and I’ll promote you)

I’ve spent a long time over the past month or two looking closely at various Internet Marketers and their business models in microscopic detail and I find they generally fall in to one of 3 styles.

The Long Term Strategy

The Short Term Strategy

The Misguided Short Term Strategy. (The only none rude term I could think of!)

Marketers with a long term strategy are guys who rarely promote any product that isn’t their own. They are in this for the long term and see the big picture, they build lists  by providing good quality information. This is the hardest method to follow especially when you see all the short termers displaying their income for all to see like a cheap $5 hooker on payday.

The people with this strategy are generally the ones who are making the seriously big bucks and whose income is constantly growing. It takes a lot of time and effort to get to this position but the rewards are generally worth it if you stick with it.

Marketers with a short term strategy generally promote everything that comes along, I call it the IM circle Jerk. You promote mine and I’ll promote yours. These guys just want a regular cash injection and this is how they do it. You’ll see them releasing new products every 6 months or so and doing a promotion of someone else’s product every month. They very rarely provide value on a long term basis. I know one marketer in this group who is on his 3rd product this year.

It is possible to make consistent money using this model but you never build a real relationship with your subscribers. Several of the Superstar internet marketers started off this way but later changed their business model. Some never get past it

From looking around at who is promoting what at the moment it’s obvious that this is the chosen strategy for the majority of marketers, it doesn’t mean that it’s the best method although it is obviously effective in the short run.

The Misguided Short Term Marketers are almost the same as the Short Term Marketers. The one big difference is that they are not above using non ethical methods to promote their generally low quality products.

A classic ploy that is often used is to have your product promoted by a whole host of marketers, you do this by charging a high amount and give the JV partners a very high commission.

The next step is to release a second product which reveals how you made $10,000 a day with 5 minutes work. Completely failing to mention that the real method you used was to offer high commission to JV partners. And most of that $10,000 went out in either commission payments, refunds or PPC costs.

The more screen shots you can use showing the first launch the better! I really doesn’t matter if the figures are not related to the product you are now selling.

The Misguided Short Term Marketers don’t think anyone will notice what they are doing luckily they tend to be around for a few short years then disappear, as they quickly lose respect and email subscribers. A good indicator of this type of marketer is that they are usually seen with Ferrari’s and Yachts in their promo videos and sales letters and love to brag.

Sorry for being such a grouch !!  Be careful out there there are sharks in the water.

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I’ve just finished uploading a new podcast to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wordpress-goldmine

This was recorded a couple of hours ago and it features Paul Forcey and myself talking about why Mindset is so important, we cover 5 basic points

Belief

Why do you want to be an Internet Marketer?

Short term Goals Vs Long Term Goals

Why Failure is Not BAD!

Working at what you want to work at.

You can listen online or download it , we also hope to have it in iTunes in a week or two.

The next call will probably talk about setting up simple processes and how to work smarter and we will soon hope to have a live interactive show

Tell us what you would like to hear…and tell us what you think of this latest show by leaving a comment below.

Finally as this show is about mindset you really should check out Mark Lyfords Millionaire Challenge blog Mark is an example someone who has the right mindset and is working every hour he can to build a business.  I find his work ethic inspirational and I am quite surprised that a TV channel hasn’t picked up on his story and created a reality TV show around it!

One of my favorite speeches from any film is Jack Nicholson’s from A Few Good Men

Kaffee: I want the truth
Col Jessop: You Can’t Handle The truth

So as a warning I am going to brutally honest in this post and if you don’t want the truth or can’t handle the truth then please go and watch some funny clips on You Tube and continue dreaming about your bright future in Internet marketing, because that is what it will be a dream.

Truth #1

You can’t go straight from $0 to $10,000 a month.

Despite what many people will have you believe it’s just not going to happen. You can however go from $0 to $1 then $1 to $10 then $10 to $100 then $100 to …. etc

Truth #2

You have to learn the basics, actually not just learn them you need to master them. It doesn’t matter what you are doing to earn your money online there are a few skills you need to master

You need to be able to pick a good niche

You need to be able to get traffic

You need to be able to connect with people through your words or videos.

Or you need to be able to pay people who can do it for you.

Truth #3

You need to stop being big on thoughts and empty on deeds. In the words of Nike: Just Do IT. Put aside a certain amount of time a day and spend that time developing your business it doesn’t matter if you work full time you can still find time to work at IM. If you can’t then admit defeat and walk away IM is not for you. I’ve talked to several friends who make money full time doing internet marketing and it seems we all have one thing in common we don’t watch that much TV. Personally I watch less than 5 hours a week. Turn off your TV and Take action.

Truth #4

Internet Marketing is fun. It really is, learn it, master it and you’ll go to work with a smile on your face and look forward to what the day will bring. Internet Marketing is a new business with so many possibilities that if you are open to new opportunities you can generate income from out of no where at least thats what it seems to outsiders

Truth #5

This stuff is easy so long as you take action.

Take Action – Find a Niche
Take Action – Build a site
Take Action – Promote the site
Take Action – Pay the money you earned into your bank
Take Action – Rinse and Repeat

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This time every year I sit down and put together a list of things I want to achieve the following year. The at the end of the year I look back and see how much i actually achieved. Looking back now at last years list it looks like I managed to achieve most of them.

Some I surpassed , some I didn’t quite achieve and some I never really started. But none of that matters what matters is that I have a plan to work to. This give me structure and stops me wandering aimlessly in circles darting from one project to another.

The key is to try to think longterm, I get constantly reminded that it doesn’t really matter what happens next month as long as the results are achieved in the long term. Recently sites I have built 3 or 4 months ago have started to earn some good income with very little input from me.

How many times have you started a hobby or an exercise program but given up after a few weeks because you aren’t seeing results? Think what position you’d be in now if you’d continued. It’s the same with Making money online , how many sites or projects have you started but not finished. If you’d started building just 1 site a week 2 years ago you’d have over 100 now and would potentially making a few hundred dollars a day?

Plan Ahead -Think Longterm

Here are a few practical things that might help you get your plan together.

1. Believe in Yourself and Think Longterm

2. Get yourself a white board if you don’t already have one.

3. Change the wallpaper on your PC to something you really want.

4. Remove email and IM tools from autostart. And set your default setting for IM to Busy or off line.

5. Have realistic monthly targets If you are earning $100 a month now don’t aim for $100,000 by march. When I first started I tried to double my income for the first 3 or 4 months then grow it 10-20% per month. Some of the members of Wpgoldmine find it good to bring forward the date that they make their targets every month so that they have to achieve it one day earlier each month.

6. Focus on income streams that use your strengths. Try to develop new strengths

7. Use as many free tools as you can.

8. Set a monthly budget for tools and reports. Don’t exceed it. You don’t need every tool that comes out.

9. Every Dollar you don’t spend means that profit is a dollar closer. So concentrate on value for money.

10. Cancel mailing list subscriptions if they aren’t giving you valuable information. if all you ever get is sales letters leave.

Some of the guys in the WordPress Goldmine forum are going to try to build 100 sites in 100 days, thats a very ambitious goal but I have no doubt that with the mutual support they are providing some of them will do it. Personally my goals for the next year are simpler.

100 new adsense sites

20 new clickbank sites

4 new products in clickbank

Continue to strive to make WordPress Goldmine the BEST value membership site in the world!

Happy New year Here to taking Action in 2010