There Are No Gurus In Internet Marketing

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   BIG Mikeposted 16 years ago

   NOTE: This post is one I made on another forum in response to a thread about how blindly people tend to follow IM Gurus. I thought might be interesting (and fun) to discuss here...
   
   There are no Gurus in Internet Marketing from what I've seen. There are people earning good livings, some more successful than others, but none I'd readily follow day and night - I trust my own business instincts too much. Yes, we’ve seen some people pull off some pretty good sized events, but show me anyone actively working in IM earning consistently on the scale of McDonalds and I’ll hang up my hat for good.
   
   While there are clearly many savvy business people out there in IM, myself included, they’re babes in the woods compared to the offline successes you should be studying. I’m not suggesting that you can’t obtain good information in specific areas from these folks, but you’re kidding yourselves if you think they’re the end all to business online (and I do include myself in that statement).
   
   You should also be researching and studying the business models of successful offline organizations. And you should be setting your long-term goals a hell of a lot higher than earning what this week’s guru is promoting. There are far more resources and models out there to learn from and follow than you would believe! And none of them are just one day wonders either – they consistently earn big.
   
   McDonalds is a study unto itself as a textbook example of the natural evolution of a successful company. Stop and consider why they might raise their own beef and poultry; grow their own produce; produce their own paper supplies and invent the equipment and systems needed to squeeze every possible penny out of each restaurant’s production.
   
   McDonalds is a leader in the fast food industry for good reason – now consider why so many other copycats like Carrols (Burger King), Wendy’s, etc., really can’t seem to get over the top like McDonalds did. McDonalds is far more than just a Ray Kroc – there were and are thousands of people involved in the continual growth and evolution of McDonalds. Many of them “Gurus” in specific areas, but nonetheless employees of something much bigger than they are.

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   shailiniposted 16 years ago

   True.

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   Lifebydesignposted 16 years ago

   sure, but the platforms are completely different online and offline and even the approaches and strategies are being redefined so I think it fair to say that gurus - one who is an acknowledged leader or chief proponent or a person with knowledge or expertise (yep, dictionary for this one) - do exist on the internet.

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   pkmcrposted 16 years ago

   The major problem with the concept of "Gurus" in Internet Marketing is that many of those that attract that title to themselves revel in the cult of self.  Whereas true teachers of knowledge are focused on the learning and the learner.
   
   It was interesting to see the BBC change one of their headlines the other day when they were talking about some of the true leaders of the development of the internet.  In the morning they were referring to them as Gurus and by late morning they had become Luminaries - and they really were people who had made a difference.
   
   Take care
   
   Paul

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   askweb20posted 16 years ago

   My take is that the internet, like other business areas has its own rules. Since the internet is dynamic and always changing, the rules of its operation are always changing as well. Like any area of marketing, people need to realize that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Many of those in the internet marketing guru slot appeal to those looking for free lunches. Real marketing takes time and effort to make it work. Developing a reputation, name recognition, customer service and other essentials of good marketing are often ignored by many of the guru types. Many of them are selling advertising rather than selling products outright. As internet marketing develops, I suspect that there will be some differentiation between product marketing experts, advertising marketing experts, traffic experts, search engine experts, international commerce experts etc. At this juncture anyone who has managed to obtain a large mailing list or large traffic is often labeled as a 'guru'.
   
   In may ways, we will just have to wait and see what develops.

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   POTPOLITICSposted 16 years ago

   If you have to send out millions of emails to people you dont know and get people to sign up for anything to do with downline MLM ponzi scheme pay to work etc You are participating in shady behavior and I was wondering when you goto bed can you sleep.
   If you sell e-books that you haven't written or dvd's with YOU telling other people how to make money and all that your a loser and get a real JOB.No one wants to buy your crap for REAL

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   cphdomainsposted 15 years ago

   I agree with "askweb20" in regards to the fact that in the internet marketing community anyone who has a large mailing list tend to call themselves "gurus". To be fair though many of these gurus, like Eben Pagan, John Carlton, Rich Schefren to name a few actually do do real marketing rather than just advertising on a larger scale.

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      earnestshubposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      There are many others too, who make big money from affiliate marketing, they share one trait. They know their market and how to appeal to it.

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   Julie-Ann Amosposted 15 years ago

   Just my 2 cents worth - we write a lot of books for these people.  Some of them are SO wonderful and make SO MUCH money on the internet they have trouble paying their invoices for the work we do.  Hmmm.
   
   We write for some fairly heavyweight players too.  One leading wealth creation expert can't pay as his crdeit card is maxed out... good job we only work after an advance has been received!
   
   Most of them can't even tell us what they want in their book or their program - we have to propose the entire contents.  They don't need to be creative geniuses I know, but some of them seem to not even know what they're talking about... No, that can't be right - it must be me misunderstanding them. Wash my mouth out...
   
   Don't get me wrong we have a lot of GREAT clients and they are truly great at what they do - but there are an awful lot of "others" out there that are clearly very far from the gurus they declare themselves to be.

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      Kidgasposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      I don't doubt that one bit.  Instead of "guru", snake-oil salesman comes to mind.

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   Marketing Sucessoposted 15 years ago

   Hello Julie-Ann, i really agree with what you said.

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    Nelle Hoxieposted 15 years ago

    Julie-Ann that was a very interesting post and validated a long-held beliefs about affiliate marketing experts and online money making experts.
    
    It seems that there are people who make money online and that there are people who make money writing about making money.
    
    When many (not all) of the latter speak or write, much of it is out of date and completely inconsistent with my own personal marketing experience.

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       earnestshubposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       I agree, the market is full of wide-boys, but there are a few good ones who make real money too.

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    Dale Mazurekposted 15 years ago

    Wow this is a great topic.  I think about the gurus that are so nice, promise you everything and actually behave at first and then a month later you are getting 3 emails a day from them trying to get you to buy something.  Well that's why I love the unsubscribe link on the bottom.
    
    I have my own style which I will be slowly writing about, I am not a guru but I do make pretty decent money and very little of it comes in the internet marketing field.

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    yoshi97posted 15 years ago

    While the internet has been around for some time, I think it's ever-changing landscape makes it difficult for anyone to be a 'guru' on how it works.
    
    Let's not forget that the offline marketers have had years to perfect their models and it will take just as many for the online world to create engines that evolve and keep running.
    
    One of the biggest changes is from a standard market of dialup customers to a standard market of high-speed customers. This allows the vendors to deliver their message using multimedia, which helps hype sales.
    
    Another issue with online marketing is that anyone can pitch a tent, but as in real life, the money tends to go to the first person to plop it down on an oil field.
    
    By that I mean, Mr. X can find a way to market a high volume of merchandise by using a certain online presentatation method that gets noticed, but on the internet this method is soon discovered and cloned by the masses and diluted to a negligible profit, leaving the originator as the only one who profits highly.
    
    Creating wealth in any market is all about recognizing niche markets and working them until they become flooded. From there, it's a matter of finding another niche ... which leaves those who are good at finding them to continue profiting, while the ones who follow always seem to arrive as the stream is drying up.
    
    As such, following 'gurus' is often a frustrating practice. It's far better to take a stab at paving your own road.

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    anime_nanetposted 15 years ago

    BIG MIKE - go post a hub, will you?

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