Internet Scams
I’m sure you’ve seen and heard the promises.
“Earn $538,000 In Your First Year Online”
Or:
“Make $39,463 Each Month Working Only 1 Hour a Week”
I could continue on for pages with the types of promises made about internet businesses.
In some cases, those statements are true about the authors. They really did accomplish that or they really do earn that much with little work now.
The problem is those numbers are nowhere close to the truth for the average beginner. And it puts unrealistic expectations in their head.
One of the first things I ask any of my coaching clients is about their goals.
Most of my clients have really good goals I get behind them on and help them work towards. But once in a while, I run into that brand new business owner who tells me their goal is to make $100,000 in the next month. Woah! They’ve been listening to the scams, and we’re in trouble before we even started.
Is that possible? Yes, it’s possible. Is it likely? Not for a brand new beginner. They don’t have the experience, the contacts, or the lists to make it happen that quickly.
A much better goal is to replace your work income the first year (that has been done many times). This gives us enough time to get a campaign rolling, test, and possibly even fix problems that may occur.
Don’t believe the hype of fast money with no work.
Take a look at this site my friend Fred Gleeck recently put up about making billions in minutes:
http://www.billionsinminutes.com
It’s a parody by the way in case someone doesn’t get it.
Here are a few characteristics to know you about to be scammed…
1. Big Promises of Specific Amounts of Money Quickly
Yes, you can earn quite a bit online. In some cases they have even earned that much money. Although income claims like that always make me a little suspicious anymore after seeing how many of them simply tell you their gross sales numbers (so what if you sold $200,000 in your 3 month product launch when you spent $190,000 on fulfillment, affiliates, etc.).
They’ve made money online, and you can do it too.
How long did it really take them to get to the point where they could make that kind of money quickly? How many hours did they invest first? How much did it cost?
Here’s the thing about overnight successes. They often take years to grow in the background. It’s kind of like planting a seed. You plant the seed and may not see anything for weeks or months. Then all of sudden it seems to grow up overnight.
Those overnight success stories often have the same foundation.
2. Tons of Pictures of Their Wealth
These are often shown just to get your “greed” worked up. Look at all these awesome things I own that you could have to if you buy my product.
On some sales pieces I’ve seen, almost the entire thing is about all the items they own. It’s not about what they’re offering you at all.
Sure, part of copywriting is showing the dream. In business opportunities though, it’s often taken to extreme excess.
Here are the yachts, mansions, etc.
Where’s the substance?
3. No Work Required
That’s a funny one…lots of money with no work.
Here’s the fact. If you don’t create value for others, they’re not going to give you their money. It takes work to get the ball rolling in your internet business. Yes, you can live an Internet Lifestyle where you work when you want. You can even automate or outsource large portions of your business, but it takes time to put those systems in place.
It’s kind of like the space shuttle. Notice how much power it has to put out during liftoff. The boosters are required to get the space shuttle up, but they’re dropped off.
It’s a lot of work getting your internet business going (you need those boosters starting out). But then as you eventually start plugging in all the systems in place the work required begins dropping off.
Here’s some of the text from my Internet Lifestyle Retirement System…
You’ll notice I don’t shy away from the word, “work.” Business opportunity sellers will tell you how you don’t have to do any work. They say, “All you have to do is push this button, and money comes out…”
Come on. If someone tells you that you never have to do any work, they’re scamming you. I had to work to get my business started. You’ll have to work as well. You’re just not paid for the hours you work. It’s not about trading hours for dollars.
You’re paid for the value you create for others. Create that value. Put business systems in place to spread your message automatically. Follow the system again to build additional income streams and grow your business.
Related Entries:- Internet Marketing With Integrity
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31 Responses to “Internet Scams”
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Terry,
Thanks for all the no hype, no BS straight talk about making money on the internet. I have never been more interested in doing something on-line that right now. I have been so hard-working and conscientious over the years in regards to my work and I feel that I could do well with an internet business, if I understood the WHAT and HOW of it all. I continuously hear about making truckloads of cash with just working an hour a day. I can’t even imagine that anyone would only want to work one hour a day when there would be so much more to be gained by just continuing a few more hours. I think about the opportunity it would present to help others who are less fortunate and I really get fired up about the whole possibility.
What program / plan would you suggest for someone who has absolutely no idea of how to start down this path of “Internet Enlightenment”?
Terry….
you guys are too funny…..I know some guys from Miami who are the spitting image of Havi….LOL!!!
toh….
sad…true….and funny too
I’ve always been amazed that if these people are making so much money in such short amounts of time why do they take the time out to brag about it and try to sell a $47 ebook? Doesn’t all that time to make a procedure and sales letter etc. take away from all the money they’re losing all the while?
Lol
Terry the sales letter by Mr. HavMore (Havi) Gold is classic !
My guess why these type of sales letter sell — They promise something which people want to hear.
Kind Regards
Tejinder
Great post! I know when I first got started I had the glaze, the “Man I cant wait to quit my job next week” glaze….then you read these $47 piece of #$%^ and sooner or later you realize, you actually have to front load your time to to get to that point. Its not like the books say, in the beginning….
That sales letter is some funny stuff, quite enjoyable…Should go to a big IM forum and post it for all the newbies to see, that ought to cause a ruckus….
Great stuff, take care…
Chris
Hey Terry,
Two people that taught me a lot about writing copy, John Angel and Ryan Healy, showed me how to stimulate the “greed glands” in ethical ways. So did you, with your copywriting book.
Yeah, it’s great to get someone excited and motivated about the potential of limitless money to be made online, because in many respects, that’s true.
But to promise X amount overnight is an outright scam. Especially with “no effort.” Not only should the marketer be taken to the woodshed, so should the copywriter.
If I may respond to “Jim” above, I would suggest to begin your journey at http://www.internetlifestylesystem.com/
I think this article is great. I have searched the web as a project to see how many work at home and make tons of cash articles you can find and I got to tell you there are so many. I know there are legit jobs that you can do at home but it should not cost you anything. Even some websites like monsterjobs and yahoo jobs have fake posting about stuff like that. My favorite is the one where they want your bank account information to process transactions. Are you kidding me who does that. I personally like your article about it.
- Lots of familiar faces in testimonials.
- The marketers just released a new product two weeks ago.
- All for $7 or any insane price.
Any of those appear independently may not necessarily be bad though.
As always, you hit the nail on the head.
Internet Scams by Terry Dean…
Image via WikipediaTerry Dean, over at Internet Business Coaching, gives his list how to detect an business internet scam: 1. Big Promises of Specific Amounts……
Thank you for article submission to the 4th Edition of the “Adsense Tips and Tricks” Blog Carnival.
The Edition was published today:
http://webfreebies4u.blogspot.com/2008/06/adsense-tips-and-tricks-june-27-2008.html
Have a good weekend!
[...] dean presents Internet Scams posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry [...]
[...] dean presents Internet Scams posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry [...]
[...] dean presents Internet Scams posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry [...]
carnival of struggling bumbling newbies – June 28, 2008…
Welcome to the June 28, 2008 edition of carnival of struggling bumbling newbies.
James Lee presents The Profitable Power of the Zeigarnik Effect posted at Online Business Freedom.
Josh Lien presents Free Rosetta Stone – Learn a Foreign La…
LOL.That havi is hysterical. Good stuff!
Carnival of the Entrepreneur – June 30th, 2008…
Welcome to the June 30th 2008 edition of the Carnival of the Entrepreneur. At the Carnival of the Entrepreneur you will find articles submitted by authors from all over the internet relating to anything associated with being an entrepreneur. Topics ran…
I dove into the internet superhighway head first with gleeful eyes wide open more than two years ago hoping to find the magic bullet I had been hearing about from so many marketers, some good but a lot of scam buckets. Instead of making money I was spending money (in the thousands) that should have been spent on paying bills. Well now that I got that off of my chest, with s__t all over my face and hands… I’m starting over again from scratch, and boy am I glad I found Terry Dean.
Ken
P.S. If you go to my website nothing is there, because I disabled it. I couldn’t get the nerve to merge onto the web onramp. But watch for it soon because after finish interning with Terry Dean I’ll be swerving in and out of traffic with the best.
[...] dean presents Internet Scams posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry [...]
Great points, Terry… and on top of the fact that all the hype creates a “scammy vibe”, the hype also loses sales from some of your most serious potential customers…
Who buys the hypey ads? Newbies chasing a dream… and they (in general) aren’t likely to follow through to become a future success story (and if your product doesn’t live up to the hype, they won’t buy from you again).
Who ignores the hypey ads? Potential customers who are seasoned and have some measure of success already… the actual customers who have the potential to succeed the most doing what you’re selling, possibly give you a great testimonial, and possibly pay you big bucks for consulting in the future.
The hype, in addition to feeling scammy, is short-sighted:
I wrote a sales letter a few years back for a client for a method of theirs on how to make money in your spare time… They had huge-money testimonials I could have leveraged into outrageous claims for the sales letter, but I went with this:
“How to make an extra $800/month in your spare time”
Not $800 in a weekend. Not $10,000 a month. In addition to being non-hypey and true, it was a credible number. That sales letter has made 20,000+ sales so far. Who says non-hype doesn’t sell?
[...] dean presents Internet Scams posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry [...]
[...] dean presents Internet Scams posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry [...]
[...] dean presents Internet Scams posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry [...]
Carnival of the Entrepreneur – July 7th, 2008…
Welcome to the July 7th 2008 edition of the Carnival of the Entrepreneur. At the Carnival of the Entrepreneur you will find articles submitted by authors from all over the internet relating to anything associated with being an entrepreneur. Topics rang…
[...] dean presents Internet Scams posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry [...]
It’s true there are plenty of empty hyped promises of get rich quick schemes out there – always have been – hey generally attract the lazy suckers anyways who still need to learn lifes lessons of energy exchange. There are some excellent strategies to follow and mentor from so one doesn’t have as many pitfalls and thus can get good results quicker – but not without some work. I do like the addage – work smart not hard though – knowledge is powerful leverage in meeting goals and succeeding online.
david
websiteproperties.com
Terry,
It is so unbelievable how many scams there are online. I have been online and making money for the past 5 and a half years and can say that the number of online scams have increased.
Not only are there online work at home scams out there but there are also affiliate programs scams. You join a program to promote and when it comes to them paying you, they ignore you and run away.
They basically rip off both parties.
1. The person who brought the program
2. And the person who is the affiliate
Tal
[...] Dean presents Internet Scams posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry [...]
It’s all about hard work and relationship-building that makes one successful that is without a doubt. Get-rich schemes are a no-no in my opinion. Good post. Terry!
Daniel
http://articlesonthego.blogspot.com
[...] submissions. Look at how many of the “comments” are actually from blog carnivals on the Internet Scams [...]
Making real money takes dedication and time and should be enjoyable. Money is the by product of your product or service you offer. You should not go after the money first. Money follows when you have a passion for what you do.
There is no such thing as an overnight success. You hear of them; but you don’t see the hard work leading up to the “overnight success.” But the overnight success sure sounds good doesn’t it? Too many of us get caught up in the moment and purchase products when our emotions are at an all time high. Don’t be sold on the dream.
Thank you Terry for this great article.
[...] Palat presents Internet Scams posted at Integrity Business Blog by Terry [...]