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The 3 Biggest Myths About Internet Marketing

May 24th, 2009 by Bob Bly

Myth #1: It’s easy.

Reality: It’s a lot easier and more fun than most of the careers and businesses you can do. But it isn’t really easy. To paraphrase Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own, if it was THAT easy, EVERYBODY would be doing it.

Myth #2: It’s the lazy man’s way to riches — no work.

Reality: Because online marketing generates passive income, it is much less work than many other businesses ONCE IT GETS GOING.

But it takes an enormous amount of work to get it set up and started at the beginning.

Myth #3: You’ll make a million dollars within 12 months.

Reality: Maybe you will. Most of us don’t.

“But Bob, what about all those Internet marketing promoters whose online ads SAY they are making a zillion dollars a week?”

To quote my friend Fred Gleeck: “The only numbers you can really know and trust are your own.”

Am I saying that perhaps some of these promoters exaggerate their success?

I don’t really know HOW much money they make. And neither do you. So I follow Fred’s dictum and you should too.

Now, do you agree with the above?

What has been your experience and degree of satisfaction with the “Get rich on the Internet” programs you’ve purchased and conferences you’ve attended?

Any other Internet marketing myths or lies you’d like to puncture here?

Be my guest!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 24th, 2009 at 7:46 am and is filed under Online Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

65 responses about “The 3 Biggest Myths About Internet Marketing”

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  3. Fiona Fell - websitePROFITS said:

    There is a golden nugget of information here in this post that I will always hold on to.

    “Trust only YOUR OWN numbers.”

    I am yet to read a marketing piece claiming to teach me how to make millions of dollars in my sleep without being dubious as to whether the writer/publisher/presenter was trying to pull the wool over my eyes.

    I know so far, that I am NOT earning millions of dollars, let alone doing while sleeping.

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  5. internet marketing tools for MLM said:

    Nice post – you hit it directly on the head. There are way too many misleading promotions out there for internet marketing as well as network marketing. Both of them are hard work at the beginning.

  6. Dianna Huff said:

    Bob,

    Dan Kennedy said, “Be the wizard but don’t trust the wizard.”

    BTW, I found this post via Michael Fortin on Twitter – ha! 🙂

  7. ‘The 3 Biggest Myths About Internet Marketing’ by Bob Bly said:

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  8. Susanna K. Hutcheson said:

    Great post, Bob. I’ve got nothing to add as far as other myths. I think you’ve covered them quite well.

    I’d only add that so much of what we see online is so outlandish, so full of hype and so far from reality, that it’s little wonder many buyers of these products later think they’ve been “taken” because, in truth, they have.

    In my copywriting practice, I make an effort to explain to my clients that I don’t want to write hype. Many don’t like that. They want someone who will gladly write it.

    I tell them that people are much wiser now. They see through the hype and look down on marketers who use it.

    As you’ve so brilliantly pointed out, these lies prevail in online marketing.

    Unfortunately, they all too often work even though more people are better educated to advertising and its often dishonest attributes.

    I think the problem is that people “want” to believe they can get money without working. They “want” to believe they can get rich in three months or a year. Consequently, they’ll keep that small thread of hope that here’s the deal that will end all deals and get them around that corner. But, it won’t.

    We all know it takes decades in most cases to become even comfortable — much less rich. I know it can happen almost overnight in a few cases. But, that’s not the norm. I’ll even concede that today, with the Internet as a tool, a person can often cut the time in half that people of my generation had to work decades for.

    I am, however, sorry that people believe these myths. I’m more sorry that marketers believe they have to use these lies to sell their products and services.

    Susanna K. Hutcheson, copywriter
    http://www.powerwriting.com
    http://www.susannahutcheson.com

  9. John Soares said:

    Most of the Internet marketers I’ve come across seem like they are piling on the B.S. about how successful they are. I saw one sales page yesterday with screen shots of sales from 2007. Do those techniques still work in 2009? And did the guy pay Google more for PPC than he made in the sales he showed?

    Bob mentions Fred Gleeck. I attended his information products seminar in Las Vegas in March. I was very, very impressed with Fred. No B.S., no hype, just solid instruction. I strongly encourage anyone involved with selling anything on the Internet to at least subscribe to Fred’s newsletter.

  10. Bob Bly said:

    John: I took Fred’s one-day info marketing seminar at the Learning Annex 3 years ago. Within 6 months of implementing his system, I was making $4,000 a week online working on the business only a few hours a week. His system works. See: http://www.theinternetmarketingretirementplan.com

  11. Mele Williams said:

    Susanna you make some great points! People WANT to believe the hype!!! Then that get angry when they find out there is work involved!

    But is that the fault of the promoter? I think not.

    Let’s not confuse the message that says, “You CAN make a lot of money” with that which states: “You WILL make a lot of money”.

    In this “add water and mix”-instant-gratification world, some folks just DON’T WANT TO WORK!

    These are the folks, who spend countless hours on Scam Alert screaming “poor me” because they had to get off the couch and actually do something. And they may have bashed a reputable company or professional in the process.

  12. Sheri said:

    Susanna and Mele I agree with you that many people want to believe it’s possible to have streams of money pouring in from a little Internet keyboarding or something when in reality it takes a good marketing plan hard work and some years to make a substational amount of money. The good thing is that a decent residual income from the web is possible with a reasonable plan and a lot of perseverance.

  13. Bob Bly said:

    Sheri: I think you need to define decent, reasonable plan, and perseverance. I tell people you can be making $4,000 a week in online passive income within 12 to 18 months.

  14. Morgan said:

    Terrific post, Bob. Another prevalent Internet marketing myth out there is search engine optimization. Some people believe that the free listings in Google are free of cost but not really. If you want to achieve top search engine rankings (that generate Web site traffic) and keep them there, you have to work at it on an almost daily basis.

  15. Sean said:

    John’s comment reminded me of a conversation I recently had about Robert Kiyosaki. Not sure if it’s true, but RK apparently had moderate success at best – and a bankruptcy – before Rich Dad Poor Dad.

    If a track record of success matters little in book publishing, it must be something near “unnecessary” in the world of internet marketing.

    Great post. I love myth talk.

  16. Ash said:

    Boy, this post certainly attracted a lot of spammers and get-rich-quick schemers in which this post was warning about. I guess I should not have expected any less. Bob makes an excellent point and something I deal with on a constant basis as a website producer and online marketer. My clients think they can slap up a website, and the calls, the leads and the money will just come flowing in. Not so, I tell them. Not by a long shot. I write about this topic a lot on my blog.

    Unfortunately, it is so easy to slap up a website and write a lot of hype and hope that a few suckers will come by. It is usually not the case. And no on has made $4000/week using any kind of “system” except the person who made up this “system.” I personally worked with an individual who applied some of the principles that are espoused these “systems” and he has spent a mid-five figures getting a website off the ground, selling a book and making barely a few hundred dollars for his efforts. Granted he strayed a bit from the “system” and is a total idiot, but he still invested a lot to make money online. It’s not as easy as everyone makes it sound.

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  21. Anders blogger in marketing said:

    Thank you for reminding me of the basics for the Online Marketing needed to ensure the investments to be profitable. One good reminder is of course to understand the importance of producing the websites focused on the target group, not for the benefit of the Search Engines or in order to impress your colleges in this business. One problem is however to make clients understand that the job is not finished when the website is launched on the Internet, a lot of maintenance services are needed in order to ensure a good ranking. So hard work is waiting that includes a close follow up on the fast development in the Online Marketing Business.

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