Helping Hands or Hands in your pocket?

Over the past year, I have sat through countless sales pitches, webinars, and lectures from those who have “made it,” so to speak.

Affiliate Marketing is a beautiful way to earn money. The problem is, over 96% of those who try never make any money or at least not enough to make a difference. Many are left wondering what they did wrong. Fear not. I give you the master of marketing. Or what I refer to as a hand in your pockets.

The average person is the growing majority of Americans living paycheck to paycheck with little to no savings or assets.

Many of these are looking online to earn extra income or be out of work and cannot find a job.

In Affiliate Marketing, only the top 3% make any real money at all. So how come so many people get sucked into the cat and mouse games, these slick salesmen are playing?

While some laws are supposed to keep these sharks from making false claims about their get-rich programs, you have to wonder if they ever plan on enforcing them.

They all have been taught how to run these webinars by the same people because they sound like puppets and follow the exact narrative and format like clockwork.

First, let me say that I cannot assume that every wealthy person is greedy or has obtained their wealth by trampling over old ladies and young children. (I think some have) But what I will say is that the ability to make money, be lucky, time something just right, be blessed, or even work your way to the top (it is not the same for all) does not make the person who achieves it more valuable than someone who doesn`t.

While people may assign greater respect and value in these areas, they often overlook major issues in character and integrity. We may not realize that many of these professionals are not “teachers” who want to help their students find their pot of gold. They study how they can get your money and use the most effective tactics to do it. Their ultimate goal is to have everything automated while they vacation in the Bahamas.

Just because something is profitable does not make it right.

Nor does making money suddenly mean that they are now the expert in all areas of life and knowledge. 

For some, they have started from nothing and have worked their way up to high levels of success, and that is commendable.  But to suggest that all who achieve success should be looked up to as role models or the authority on life is unwise at best and sets people up to be scammed. Granted, someone who has great wealth can and does have the means to do much good in the world. However, many of those who promote their way to money and success are not rich but looking to get rich from those they can lure into their bottomless pit of automatic sales funnels.

If someone finds a clear path to wealth, you probably will not hear much from them because they will be busy earning it. 

People can become obsessed with the fear of losing what they have acquired.

Especially in this business, things can change on a dime and leave you high and dry, having done months or even years of hard work. (one small change in Google can cause you to lose your traffic)

Still, having completely forgotten where they came from, what they started with, and where they will return one day, they go about thinking themselves a bit more than they should, and it shows.

For Charity or Not For Charity? That is the Question!

I need to continue beating this topic for a moment to get this off of my mind to feel better.

So bear with me because if you are new to Affiliate Marketing, you need to hear this. I find it quite disturbing that even though it is a well-known fact in America today that the average person is living paycheck to paycheck along with a growing population of the unemployed, these facts blow right by the minds of the gurus. Of all the stats and charts they study and rattle off in their webinars, this one important, yet constant fact seems to be something they have forgotten. Most people who start in Affiliate Marketing do not have money to invest.

Every webinar I have watched was filled with self-righteous claims that they were doing us all a big favor.

Those who claim they want to give back to others out of the goodness of their hearts and help the poor wretched souls who are stuck in the muck and mire of debt and frustration financially need to listen up. To talk for an hour out of the kindness of your heart because you want to help others so badly, and fifteen minutes later, say you want people to give you thousands of dollars means you are lying.

Have you lost your mind? But you do not stop there. Oh no. Next, you remind everyone watching just how grateful they should be to you because of the amazing deal they will be getting when they give you thousands of dollars. It would be like inviting a homeless person out to eat because you told him he needed some nutrition, and you knew of the perfect restaurant.

Then, as you finish your meal, you casually inform him that he will have to pay the bill. And, he should be thankful that you took time out of your busy schedule to take him out to eat.

Let another man’s lips praise you and not your own.

The idea that you are helping someone out of the goodness of your heart should, first off, never be something you say or try to convince people of. That alone is a huge red flag.

And secondly, your motives are so obvious no matter how you dance around, sugar coat it, or tell people some absurd self-assessed value of what you are giving them. The fact that your entire sales pitch is misleading at best. You claim to be Santa Clause, and after 30 minutes of self-glorification and highlighting the two out of 2,000 who made money with your program (who happen to be your brother and cousin), you hit them up for thousands of dollars.

$Show me the money$

So in a group of several hundred people, I imagine there will always be those who can whip out the ole checkbook ( for the younger folks, a check is… never mind) and pay several thousand dollars.

However…

Most who attend these webinars are left with anxiety, disappointment, and discontentment. As I said earlier, I have personally sat through many of these and felt I needed to speak up and bring some balance to the lopsided version of reality being spewed out of their pie-holes.

May the force be with you.

Just like the news, they all say the same words as though reading it from a script. Just know that we are not all dumb and stupid. The last time I gave to or performed any act of charity, I am almost 100% positive that I did not get PAID for it. And I am also reasonably confident that the very nature of charity involves giving without getting something in return.

If you are doing what you say you are doing, then do it and charge nothing

If you are charging for what you are doing, quit acting like a non-profit charitable organization when you make tens of thousands of dollars. 

Please understand me. I believe in capitalism and the fair exchange of value. I see nothing wrong with people charging a fair price for their goods and services. But do not charge someone thousands of dollars and think you are Mother Teresa for doing so. Especially when you know most people do not have that kind of money and will not be making any using your system.

I do not want to discourage anyone out there who wants to get into Affiliate Marketing.

But, take my advice and do something else if you can.

If you are a fast learner, have a lot of free time, and love computers and writing, then maybe you can make this work. Unfortunately, many people desperately want to earn money, and we want to earn money RIGHT NOW! The sharks can smell the blood in the water, and they begin to circle while wide-eyed innocent people desperately hold on to their floaties.

My advice is that unless you have money to spare and understand the basics, stay away from the webinars. Thinking back on one, in particular, this guy worked himself up into a frenzy of stupid leading into the live event. He was excited because he knew he was dealing with people he lured to his free webinar who struggled to make money and needed help. And he knew his chances of a big payday were about to happen.

Here are just a few things I have learned along the way that can save you time and money. Ready?

If it sounds too good to be true, that`s because it is.

When people are putting on these webinars, it is how they earn money.

You have already signed up and have become part of their sales funnel, so get ready for a never-ending stream of offers. 

You never quite have what you need to succeed. To have that, you must hurry to take advantage of the next offer in the funnel. 

They will make you feel like garbage by the end of their little play if you do not sign up right then and there.

Worse tactics than car sales associates, and that is saying something. (not all car sales assoc. are bad)

If you want to make money online, you have to do the work.

No one is going to give you anything online without a catch.

You can get the same training for free that these so-called experts lure you into paying for.

What they say during their advertisements changes once you are signed up.

Use words to play on your greed and impatience (we all have some degree of it)

Appeal to your emotions, not your brain.

They always claim that they will tell you how to make money and be successful if you come to the webinar. That is a lie 100% of the time. They offer you another carrot, but this time they will keep their word, right? Just click here and enter your card info. 

What they will end up doing is keep dangling the carrot in front of you to get you into their system, where no matter if you fail or not, they have your money.

In anything we do, we reap, and we sow. So start sowing, and eventually, you will reap, but there is no easy button or quick path to riches, or everyone would already be on it.

There is a great deal of calculated and deceptive practices in marketing that I believe are wrong. And here is the test. Would you want someone to do that to you? No? Then you should not do it to others.

My number one piece of advice is…Do something you enjoy and are passionate about. Life is far too short to spend it chasing the wind. If you do something you are good at and enjoy, your chances of making good money are much better. But, even if you never make much, you can enjoy the journey.