Reader Rick Henderson had an interesting comment to my how not to make money with your blog post.
What I can’t understand is how it appears that they really are making money from it. It is the basics of making money online (at least one way): gather a list of prospects and if you send them enough product options that they might be open to, they will eventually bite. They say it builds trust, and with the users who don’t possibly think as much as they should be, its an easy sale and can lead to the 6 figure income these guys seem to be making.
Personally I’m fed up with sites that use the same format (that came from some Make Money program I’m sure) with pages and pages of “testimonials”, the free offer, the upsell, the “added bonus” and the “buy now because I’ll raise the price in 2 hours” no matter what time you visit the site.
But… it does seem to work….
Selling the blogging dream
…or so they want you to think. What they are trying to do is sell you the dream of a life as a full-time blogger. They show you how fabulous it is to have an online business and tell you how you can have the lifestyle you want, live where you want, automatize your work, and earn a lot of money.
But what they do is they basically support themselves by selling you the dream. They sell you the image in a product that will show you how to make money online, and by buying the product you give your hard-earned money in hope of achieving this dream. By paying you are supporting their lifestyle, the exact lifestyle that they are trying to sell the idea of to you.
Consumer of the blogging dream
But you personally never get far with all these products. You become a passive consumer of dreams, you do not take actions towards producing something that will get you closer to realizing that dream.
We all have been sold the dream already. What it comes down to now is that we must take action into our hands. It is not enough to buy and read all the “become a pro-blogger” products – you must start creating something. You must put in the consistent hard-work, create something great, and you must find and connect with your audience.
And you must do this daily for a long time, before you slowly start getting the results, and start being able to live the blogging dream. It will only come from your personal effort and not from some membership site or some system that is selling you the idea of how to get rich online and live the sweet dream.
Image by Pink Sherbet
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
You are describing the same thing that discourages me from coaching blogs, coaching websites, etc. What I began to see is coaches designing many products to sell to other coaches, or coaches that coach coaches. It always seems like an endless loops.
I see a lot of the blogs or sites your other reader mentions as well. I sometimes check out websites or blogs of followers on Twitter. When I click on one and it brings me directly to a landing page like those described, I am very disappointed.
Mike
Thanks for all the great comments!
@Mike Kirkeberg @Miguel Wickert – Yeah, I don’t like these sales letter pages either. They are just trying to build some fake hype usually.
@MJ Doyle – You can just look at products they try to sell you. If they sell you “how to make money” products, that usually means that is how they make money. See for example the comment from @Allan Ward above.
@Charles Bohannan – John Chow is actually very honest about it. He has the famous tagline “I am making money online by telling people how I make money online”.
@Allan Ward – Great story! I appreciate you sharing it. It was exactly those guys that I had in mind when writing this post.
@Kai Lo – Thanks for sharing the link.
Marko,
I know I’m still a new reader and haven’t yet read all your blogs posts. Which I will do, because I think what you have to say is that damn useful. My aim is to offer that same at SB. All of that to say: this is my favorite topic thus far. I’m sick of this crap and those landing pages are a major turn off, they push me around, not draw me in. It’s disappointing and disgusting because people are buying in to these so called “experts.” What a joke. What people fail to realize is that those full-time bloggers are exactly that, they have tons of times on their hands to perform actions that most simply cannot put forth because they live in the real world and maybe must work an 8-5, not to mention school or family life, in some cases both! I’m not saying it can’t be done with hard work and consistency like you’ve noted. But I think you got my point.
People are distracted and consumed by others that are living the “dream.” Instead, they should be focusing on making the dream (which isn’t going to happen for everyone- Just the way it is) a reality by creating meaning, value, a product, or service and by helping people solve their problems. We have to address, know and understand the questions others are asking instead of only answering our own. We won’t get there is were constantly being consumed with living the blogging dream.
I enjoy this topic, really get me pumped! As you can see.
-Mig
My question is, how do you tell which marketers are actually making money from doing what they tell you to do and which are making money just by selling the marketing products?
Should we as consumers assume that everyone in the internet marketing niche is doing the same thing?
Finally someone came out and said this — I appreciate hearing the truth, so thanks!
I really feel like this so-called MMO niche is going to really evaporate soon. Except for John Chow. He’s got that niche covered.
Finally the people who are really working hard and being innovate and adding actual value to the web will shine.
I remember hearing the analogy of the gold rush in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The people who made a lot of money were those who sold the tools to the miners – picks, shovels etc. Very few miners made a lot of money.
In the internet world there are a number of bloggers who have large email lists who make a good living selling courses on how to make money from blogging. These are the guys who sell the blogging equivalent of picks and shovels. I’ve been amazed at the impersonal nature of a lot of their marketing.
I think a lot of people miss the point. A blog is just a vehicle, not a licence to print money. If you have a good product – either information, knowledge or a tangible product – you can distribute it through a number of channels, and a blog or web site is just one of those channel options.
Great article. Well done for sharing your opinion.
Allan
I mean, there was a launch recently and it was over $1000 to sign up! What kind of crap is that? I’m sorry, I lost respect for those big names that just jumped on the bandwagon and send me emails about it. During these times, who can afford something like that? Honestly, if you can afford to pay that amount of money and it’s likely you don’t need what kind of goofy so called training their offering. I forgot the guy’s name? Who the hell deemed these people as experts? Look up a post at Skelliewag dot com about there’s no real “social media experts.” I also wrote a post titled online friend or real world sales person. If interested, check it out at simply blog (dot net).
I’m with Charles, I love when folks tell the truth.
Also, @ MJ, great questions as I’m sure, many online are asking themselves the same questions.
-Mig
I’m also sick of seeing those “pro-bloggers” making money from bloggers who are naive. Their programs tell you that you will earn over $10,000 in less than a week. Some of them even show videos of their fake earnings. With a little bit of coding, they can modify their earnings to look real.
As one whose target audience is primarily other bloggers, I was glad to see this post. It confirms what I’ve thought about this topic for some time.
And the phenomenon of ’selling to your competition’ isn’t just limited to bloggers. As Mike Kirkeberg says above, coaching sites are also an example. In fact, some years back I used to run a coaching site for copywriters having come from that bizarre world. Teaching your competition is one way of establishing and perpetuating expertise in your field — of course, you have to earn it as Marko says.
Here’s one way to soften the blow that some of the blogs we come across can make: We need these guys. They serve two purposes:
1. They (some) show us what’s possible. For instance, I think Darren Rowse, Chris Garrett and Yaro Starak all tell it like it is. No hype, no false claims.
2. They (the others) remind us how not to behave, how not to approach our own readers, how not to define success. Useful for those who want to build a real business and lasting relationships with clients/customers and not just a one-way ATM.
Thanks for addressing the topic, Marko.
This article may sound discouraging,but at the same time it is an inspiration to actually get something done,not just being some sort of spectator in life
I wasn’t sure if it would be successful to start a blog in my native language but I knew that I have to try.
I’m still searching for new ways to improve my ‘dream blog’,however I don’t let any site to misguide myself.
My target group of readers are younger teen girls,so that makes it more dificult.
Still,I believe there is a way to make it happen.
I will continue reading your blog.
I would suggest you write even more statistics,like how much is enough visits or something.
All the best
Dragana,
Well I’m glad I’m not the only one who felt that way!
Thanks for commenting on this Marko.
Thanks very much for this honest post. I’ve been blogging for a few years, and I’ve yet to make a living at it.
Penelope Trunk says it’s unrealistic to think you’re going to make a living as a blogger. She recommends blogging as a means of putting yourself ‘out there’ for other opportunities.
I totally agree with you… we start chasing the dream – never catch it – they return with a new product (same dream), and we are in this cycle forever. The best way to learn is by starting. You learn to fix and do things better by making mistakes and then fixing them.
Dragana: as for starting a blog in your native language… you should have thought of the idea of becoming a celebrity blogger in your country using that language. Being the first on something is always better, right?
@Fatos
Believe me,I had that in mind when I was trying to realize what I want to do.However,there are few blogs that simply take out all the daily gossip from the tabloids.They usualy write about our celebrities but I want to help young girls who are still not that competent in english,to read about their favourite stars.
Also,when I look at Perez Hilton,it is obvious that his personality helped him to become this popular.And since I am older than my audience,I can’t really show my personality as a plus.
Traffic that I make these days is a result of redirecting from my site,from which the idea has started.I don’t want to think how bad would it be if I had started from the begining,without help of my site.
First time reader here – I found you via the thesis site – and yes I may well buy the theme – but this post caught my eye! The so-called “a-list” dream is just the same as the hollywood dream and (as someone above already mentioned) the gold rush dream. Its not the people chasing the gold who made the fortune – it was the people selling the picks.
Unfortunately even while agreeing with you some of your commentators are still confused as to who is giving out good information and who is not. The reality is that you can make money online but it is incredibly difficult to do it by selling to other bloggers – you have to go out and develop sites for “real people” to buy “real products” from – you know stuff like books, games, clothing, vacations. Most of us aren’t gifted writers, we aren’t going to get a huge following we don’t have the first mover advantage of someone like Darren Rowse had – the trick is to find the untapped markets – and most of them outside of technical stuff and blogging are all untapped !
@Lis Sowerbutts – Thanks for the nice words! It is a great point, look outside the blog about blogging niche and you will find a lot of niches where the competition is not so strong and where there is a possibility to grow.
Marko,
I am a big fan of this post. I totally agree that too many bloggers are trying the same things and getting no where. I do blog about blogging but I’m in the process of content redesign to really provide content in a way that NO ONE has ever done. I am getting some custom plug-ins and workbooks to do things differently.
To be successful you need to carve out your own niche and not try to copy someone else. Thanks for the great post
@Seth – I am glad this post inspired you. Your projects seems interesting. Let me know when it’s up and running and I’ll stop by and check it out.
I’m actually one of those whose 1st blog is about niche blogging for money.
I am new so it’s a real learning experience for me. All the research I do teaches me how to blog correctly. I have learned a great amount about blogging from just working on my own blog.
I am still looking for some great niches that I can create a successful blog on. I love writing/designing & researching.Hopefully I will create a successful online business someday soon!
It’s a very exciting business to be in!
Great post! I could not agree with you more! Typically, the MLM people seek individuals who are so fed up with their job that they will do just about anything to get out and start afresh. It is easy to manipulate people in this state of mind. And now the bloggers who are selling the dream are doing the same thing, except online. I also find these “bloggers” have a million other websites that make make a ton of money, but they don't tell you about these websites. Instead, they give the illusion that they are making a 6-figure income with one website. Also, did you notice that they create affiliate websites to promote to? It looks like they are promoting someone else's work, but they are really promoting their own website! It's a different medium, but the same result. If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it's a duck.