The amount of crap informational products that are being sold online is truly phenomenal. Perhaps the greatest absurdity of it all is that people are actually buying this crap.
The Warrior Forum special offers room is probably the most well-known place for infocrap, however there are other places online that sell these products. Earlier today I was checking the special offers room at Forum Special Offers.
You should see the crap that is being sold there. Seriously, it has to be seen to be believed. The claims of some of the sellers are hilarious.
I appreciate that most companies exaggerate the benefits and features of their products in order to make a sale, but the claims are insane.
Here are two claims from the first few listings that jumped out at me:
- Zero To $59,147 In 8 Days
- $151,440.91 in ONLY 28 Days
Common sense should prevail and remind you that anyone who was making around $60,000 a week using a so-called “System” is not going to sell the secret of their success to the world for only $9.95. Would you? Of course you would not.
The truth is that the main source of income for most of these sellers comes from the information product they sell (which states that they make money using other techniques).
What baffles is me is that there are so many of these informational products making these absurd claims. There are few guides that cut the crap and give practical information. I’d rather buy a guide that said “Learn How I Earned $100 Per Month Using This Simple Affiliate Technique” than “Learn How to Earn $50,000 in Seven Days” (although both these products sound like crap!).
Unfortunately, too many people are looking for shortcuts. They are looking for the quickest and easiest way to success. They are looking for a “System”. This blinds them into thinking that such a thing exists in the first place. Before they know it, they have spent $9.95 on a crap info product with regurgitated marketing nonsense that does nothing but teach bad ideas.
Thankfully, I started working online at a time where poor information products were not prevalent; however, I appreciate the lure of these products to those who are just starting out and do not know who to trust and what to buy.
What was the worst information product you have ever purchased? Get your scare stories out in the open and tell us what the product promised and how much you paid for it.
:)
Kevin
I too have waded through thousands of pages of crap.
Here are two that got my attention that seem to be legitimate:
Example 1: chandoo.org sells Excel Tutorials. Chandoo himself talks about his business on his other blog startupdesi.com.
Example 2: Copyblogger. They give aways truly good info (thus not selling their own system) but offer services that can be purchased along the way.
I think in each case it is done as a marketing gimmick to attract customers –> if they are making money the product must be good = social proof. In each case there is a ton of work behind what they do.
In reality, 99.99% of the people who are making good money online are not sharing their business model with others. Would you tell your competitors and potential competitors exactly you are making money online?
I raise my hand as I have been one of them .. however, there are gems here and there, but you really have to look. My complain about WSOs is that the vague descriptions given of what the system is. Once purchased, you realize it was a load of crap mostly, and immediately demand a refund. Harry has a point. People making money online, most of them are selling MMOs, so it is a vicious cycle :/
Most people who are making money online are doing it through content websites, services, directories etc. You hear about the “Making Money” guys more because they need to promote themselves as fantastic sellers. And they are….however what they are experts in selling is “how to make money online” info products. You can definitely see parallels between this and pyramid schemes. It is like everyone has believed the lie.
If someone makes their money from selling making money online products, all they can teach you is how to sell making money online products. Which is why there are so many people selling similar products.
I think there’s a lot of value in building websites with a solid business model. One that has a stable income every month.
Hey Man
Wise words!!
I was learning internet marketing for around a year, it took me about that long to realize that all these gurus like Frank kern, Jeff Walker etc where making the big/real money from selling how to make money online.
Although i see them as genuine and honest people they are no different from the thousands of the others selling “0 to 60K in 6 days”.
My question to you is that do you believe there are people making good money in non MMO products or life coaching?
I want to get back into it but lost hope with witnessing the only people making money were in MMO. I have never heard or seen real, concrete evidence of someone achieving this.