Dodged a shiny object tonight...
I was sitting on facebook tonight, which is something I don't do a whole lot, and a friend who I hadn't spoken to in a while hit me up.
At first I thought he was trying to catch up, but then it became very apparent that he was trying to get me to sign up for something. It started out with the innocent question:
"You still doing internet marketing?"
Cue The Shiny Object
To which I replied that I was. Then he told me I should check out this website. The domain contained a "fake" word that I know he uses a lot so I figured he owned the domain. I decided to whois the domain just for fun, and sure it enough it belonged to him ;)
On the domain was a squeeze page. After you opted in it redirected you via an affiliate link to another domain where you watch a sales video. The video was 30 minutes until you hit the buy button, and then went on for another 15 minutes, before it ended.
A Bunch Of Hype
It was one of those sales video saying you could make tens of thousands of dollars within the next month. These people did it so can you. We're so confident you'll make this much money if you do the work, that we're not afraid to show you the typical results that people earn.(a nice reframe of the requirement of the FTC that if you use income claims that you must disclose the amount of money the average person makes. In this case only 15% of the people that have signed up make more than $400/month.)
An Exaggeration
Anyways the video contained the typical hype, testimonials, income screenshots, and emotional stories for 25 minutes without a hint of how you're going to make all that money. However, be rest assured that if you wanted to do something on your own without their system you should know that they are currently paying:
- $20,000/month for quality hosting
- $60,000/month in legal fees
- $30,000/month in designer/programmer fees.
If I was new to the whole make money online thing I might have believed those statements. I'm not even saying that they don't pay those amounts for those services each month.
What I am saying, is that they grew to need to pay those amounts for those services. And those services are providing them enough of a ROI to justify spending those amounts. Otherwise they wouldn't be spending those amounts on them and they would quickly go out of business. Even those guys with all their success didn't start out spending that much money on those types of services. I bet they even started out on "crappy shared hosting". lol
It wasn't until 25 minutes in that you find out their systems is some "Viral Blogging" thing. Doesn't really sound too revolutionary, does it? But if you're new to the scene, it might sound ground-breaking.
I Politely Decline
After watching the video, I politely told him "No, thank you. However, thank you for taking the time for sharing it with me."
To which he replied: "I guess you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink."
That kind of made me giggle a little bit. I think that they need put a corollary to that statement:
"If a horse is constantly led to the latest and greatest watering hole, he never has time to drink and eventually dies of thirst!"
It was interesting to see that I didn't have any desire to buy it whatsoever. I knew it would only take my attention away from what I'm currently doing. What they are teaching is probably not much different than from what I can learn here at WA. Plus, the extra subscription would just drain extra money from my checking account that could be used to purchase advertising, hire out article writing, and design work on my website.
The biggest drain would not be the money though, it would be the distraction.
Whenever you see a shiny object, HOLD STRONG! DO NOT BUY IT!!!!!
P.S. - I'm not saying never buy anything else, but make sure you know exactly what you are buying and how it is going to benefit your business before you buy.
- Don't buy it, if it's going to take your business in another direction than you are already going or divides your focus. Unless of course you had already planned on going a new direction well before watching the sales video. In this case you would already know you want to buy it. You don't need a sales letter to convince you.
- Don't let the sales video or sales copy convince you that this is the newest and greatest thing you have to do.Don't buy stuff solely based on income claims.
- Also, you might want to take a look at if you have a history of buying a lot of stuff previously that you never implemented. Are you really going to implement this new thing? Probably not....
Recent Comments
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Very similar to your situation, I nearly lost a 30 year friendship because my friend would try to hard sell me to join his pyramid network every time I talked to him, even though I declined every time. Showing a friend something is one thing. Badgering and nagging is another. Hope he didn't ruin your friendship.
That's a shame. Over the years I've had several people try to get me to join network marketing companies. I usually politely listen to their presentation, watch their video, and decline. After saying no I've never had anyone badger me over and over.
The friendship is still intact on my side. Whether he wants to continue to have contact with me since I didn't buy is dependent on him.
If the friendship is contingent on me buying things from him, then that's the type of friendship I don't be a part of.
I always try to treat people the way I like to be treated. A few years ago I might have been upset, now it's just a fact of life. People are going to try to sell me things. I can say no. If they persist then I can choose not to talk to him.
I actually do admire him that he's able to reach out and contact people and ask them to sign up. I know he used to be an insurance salesman, and I have the utmost respect for people who can go out and ask people face to face to buy something, and be able to handle all the "No's" that come along with it.
I love the horse quote... "and eventually dies of thirst". So true when it comes to the web.... and the many self proclaimed "Gurus". Thanks,.. enjoyed it. Julie
Hi Julie. Thanks for your comment. I was pretty amused by the horse quote. I'm glad someone else liked it too. :)
Good points! Found this interesting "if you use shared hosting your not going to make any money lol" that is too funny... Did you introduce him to WA?? It would be interesting to see if your friend is using this program himself, no shared hosting.... and are making a bunch of money??
I asked him what market he was in and he didn't reply. Then I realized "Oh you're in the make money online market if you're trying to get me to sign up for this..." No, I didn't tell him about WA. That seemed like it might lead to a pissing contest...."My IM training is better than your IM training...."
He mentioned that he's made $400 so far and "expects to make $10,000 or so" in the next month. If I had to venture a guess I would say the money he's made so far is through direct selling(contacting people on facebook and getting them to sign up) and not through their "viral blogging system".
As far as the hosting goes the squeeze page he sent me to was hosted on hostgator, lol. Whether he's on shared hosting or not, I don't know. I would put my money on the shared hosting. ;)
haha he sure is in the "make money" niche. I see what you are saying about, "check my product out it is better than yours..." the thing is though that he is waisting his time and energy on this "scam product" when he could be building his biz... Will be interesting to see how far a head you are say a year from now then he will probably beg you to reveal your "learning source" :)
hosted on hostgator... shared hosting... made me laugh
Although, they have a sales video that I have some objections to, I don't really think it's a scam, just another opportunity. I've come across them before. I think they have their own version of blogs hosted on the main domain. The blog you post to gets the benefit of the main domain just like WA blogs are ranking in the search engine.
The main reason I didn't sign up is I already have training available to me. It would be more of a distraction. I know from past personal experiences it's best for me to stay focused on what I am doing.
I think he will do pretty good with it. I truly believe a major part of internet marketing is just doing the work. He had a social media marketing business before where he had clients paying him to manage their social media campaigns. He said that he decided not to do it anymore because "it was like having 10 different bosses" lol. He's the type of guy that is motivated enough to make it work. He's just using a different tool to reach his goals, I'm not going to knock him for it.
Really well said, especially the last three points, brings it home! Fact is there is nothing new under the sun, and if you keep buying each and every "Newest, Latest Thing" you are just going to keep going round on the merry-go-round, which is not a very merry {sorry} experience!!
Exactly! It took me awhile of buying a couple of courses to realize that a lot of them were teaching very similar methods.
Thanks for this. Glad you had the power to say "NO". This blog will help a lot of innocent new comers to the IM world to stay away from shiny objects and also remind us all of these dangers. Thank You! Hannah
Hi Hannah. I have a cousin named Hannah. I've found that the power to say "NO" is like a muscle. It get's stronger every time you use it. I wish I could have all the money back that I spent on courses and never used.
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I have a couple of friends who are doing fairly well with network marketing and it definitely does put a strain on your friendship when they are pressuring you to buy into their "system". Kudos to you for sticking to your guns and not buying in.
Yeah, I guess you just got to love them. I do find it a bit entertaining though. Right now he's saying use their system to generate sales without having to prospect your friends and family. However, all his sales are coming from prospecting friends and family. Sounds like the classic bait and switch. I should probably talk with him about being congruent with his message.