What are the best known Make Money Online products?

[Andy]

Andy, coincidentally I've been talking with someone by PM over the last few days who wants to set up a podcast of interviews with some of our members.

Cool!

[Kay]

That's one myth I'd like to bust. I consider several of those professional "I'll tell you how to make money" bloggers as the biggest confidence tricksters. But some detailed and independent reviews should disclose if my hunch is right.

Hear, hear! That's how I was thinking. I'm not a big fan of the "I'll tell you how to make money" crowd either.

However, it's important to be open to the possibility of finding some nuggets amongst the dirt. As some of you may know, I was given (yes, given!) a product that totally changed our business. I'm not being evangelical about it and trying to convert you. I don't think it's for sale any more anyway. Maybe it's in one of these graveyards that Theodore mentioned earlier. I don't want to discuss that specific thing, all I'm saying is that I'm very sceptical about most MMOs but there are those very rare occasions where you can strike gold.

Even if you do find gold, it matters a great deal what you do with it. It will do you no good if you lose it out of your pocket or put it in a drawer for safekeeping. You have to take that gold and use it wisely.

[crabfoot]

Back to the subject -

I remember reading about an eBay character and how he made it selling Economics textbooks, it's probably the same person. I don't believe I paid anything for the material though. What would you have needed to see in a review to have saved you that £497?

I don't think a review would have saved me the money, unless I had written it myself. It is quite a comprehensive course, and it tells no lies. For an absolute beginner it is worthwhile viewing, even in today's crowded eBay market.

The "vague bit" in the plan is in the sourcing of products - he recommends Ali Baba etc. to find things - and that was the area where I needed the most help. There are better ways to get over the "employee jump", but you need to put a few things in place.

Oliver's original strategy to get over the "employee jump" was to sell "health products" he was sourcing from US eBay sellers, or their suppliers. When eBay forced him to stop selling them, he had sourced other products in other fields (eg. golf) and it merely curtailed his expansion plans. He admits freely in the course that he did not and still cannot understand why eBay stopped him from listing things that he considered legal to sell - he uses the products as examples of how to source from other eBay sellers.
Knowing that he should have been licensed as a pharmaceutical Wholesale Dealer, and that he probably needed to get Marketing Authorisations for some of the products, I just looked at what he had done and muttered "ignorance is bliss". If I tried that path at the present time, unable to plead ignorance (I have been registered as a wholesale dealer), I know that I would get an 18 month stay in one of HM Secure Boarding Houses.

When you are marketing a course like this, you would examine the market place and set your price point accordingly. While £497 was steep, it was enough for me to be assured that Oliver Goehler was a genuine eBay seller who actually made a comfortable living from eBay sales, and that the price point was set to deter a lot of people from buying, ie. that there was a degree of exclusivity in the product. I don't think I would have bought it if it had been pitched at a price lower than £200, I do think I would have been more comfortable paying £350 for what I thought I was getting.

I didn't learn much from it, but it did bring together a lot of aspects that were half-remembered thoughts and make them into a coherent whole. I will be doing more eBay sales later in the year, and I will use the course as a "refresher" when I start into those activities, just to jog my memory.

[Kay]

Back to the subject -

Ooh, that's a bit cheeky. I thought that we were on topic and having a discussion about MMOs in general and pretty much anything anyone wanted to say about them. If you want a thread specifically about Oliver Goehler, then you can start one.

I've never heard of him. I like the way his product cost £497, though. I've been told that having your price end in a seven is a good marketing technique.

Back to the subject:

What sort of products have other people tried? Is there anything you would like to try but the price is putting you off?

[TheodoreK]

I think the best, useful and long term products would the ones created/endorsed by very popular and well accomplished internet marketers. E.g. shoemoney.

I would like to say something on that.
I have an email address just to subscribe to every IM guru's newsletter. Johnchow, shoemoney etc. Once a month I check that mail and see what they've sent me.

More than half of the emails I receive there from many different "top IM sites" actually promote the same "hot" products each month, usually from clickbank, with only some small variations in the pitch letter and of course their own aff code.

I don't want to go into any detail as to how and why most (if not all) of these products are virtually useless (especially since this is a public discussion) but I will say this.
Those products usually feature sales pages with videos where actors show some fake income proof, ridiculously pompous titles and phrasing such as "sniper", "renegade", "perpetual profits", "personal ATM" etc.


I cannot take such products seriously.

[Clinton]

II don't want to go into any detail as to how and why most (if not all) of these products are virtually useless (especially since this is a public discussion)

Why don't you tell us in the VIP Lounge?

[KenW3]

Make Money Online, as it is perceived by many people searching is usually either Get Rick Quick or Work From Home. Rank any of those keywords on the first page, and it will be hard to not make money online Ranked by CB affiliate programs, MMO beats dieting by 3 to 1 and SEO by 6 to 1.

A lot of these products follow a formula, such as How To Make Money (and the Niche). These would be things like How To Make Money (HTMM) With Websites, HTMM Blogging, HTMM on eBay, with Craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, Affiliate Marketing, Trading Forex, Writing Articles, Writing Reviews, Flipping Websites, with Google AdSense.

The ones that seem to be able to charge the most money are the ones that market themselves as blueprints or proven formulae, and a team of 'experts' is rolled out to cover every question a buyer might have. Then the more expensive programs have huge JV-driven launches.

I would love to know specific ones members have tried and which ones work or don't, along with the cost. The advantage to posting information about the program here: It is likely that other EP members can add knowledge or advice that can make the product(s) work better. Maybe the private area is a better place to name names?

None of the manuals or programs can provide specifics, because the specifics would invalidate the program and make the information useless. This is what people want to buy, but it cannot be provided in the way expected. People have to learn to think for themselves.

For example, one course I purchased (from a WF WSO) was actually a very useful package on doing product review sites. It had ideas that were useful, and provided examples. Within a week, the example site was duplicated across the net on 9 other domains. Other than URL, you were on the same site. The niche provided as an example became the primary focus of questions. Purchasers didn't correlate the instruction to other niche areas.

Perfect step-by-step instructions for making money online, that covered every microscopic detail, would make those instructions useless by the second user to apply the education. It is hard to teach the process when all a buyer wants is an exact recipe.

[Kay]

Yes, a lot of users want the exact recipe, then they want you to make it for them while they watch (or not), and then they want you to feed it to them with a spoon. I see this every day.

It's the "Help!!! Where do I start?" syndrome.

People will not make money online until they get out of that mindset.

[DomainMagnate]

That's one myth I'd like to bust. I consider several of those professional "I'll tell you how to make money" bloggers as the biggest confidence tricksters. But some detailed and independent reviews should disclose if my hunch is right.

Personally I've never bought any MMO products that were useful and dont really have any sites on the topic, so admittedly my experience with those is quite limited, but my thinking is people who have a good reputation online (not just bloggers famous for blogging about other bloggers), would try to make a better product in order to maintain that reputation.

[Clinton]

I believe there's a difference between reputation and presence. I see bloggers who have fantastic presence from all the coverage they get, blog posts about them etc., but when I read the first thing they've written I can't help thinking Charlatan, Crook, Conman! Their main skill is in the publicity; in marketing themselves.

Unfortunately, some opportunity seekers confuse presence with reputation. Thousands and thousands of them. So the charlatans end up doing very well financially.