Economic Downturn Reveals The Truth About "Make Easy Money" Internet Marketing

by Bonnie Boots

If you subscribe to many internet marketing newsletters, you've undoubtedly heard that the economic downturn has not had an impact on the web. Out there, it's still all milk and honey. At least, so say the purveyors of "making money on the internet is easy" material.

Their drumbeat is in contrast to the tune played by the trade publications I subscribe to on topics ranging from direct marketing to digital video production. In the trades, reality-based info on how to survive the economic downturn has been a primary topic for at least the last year.

Those trades have provided me with pertinent information that's helped me tighten up my business and plan for survival in a continuing down economy.

Newsletters from internet marketers, meanwhile, still command that I ignore the economy. Like a hypnotist swinging a pocket watch, they swing images of sport cars and mansions before my eyes as they chant, "Buy my program, buy my program."

But in the last two months, the truth has started to come out. So far three marketers, among the grab bag I've been watching, have pulled the plug. Each has sent an email admitting the continued bad economy has forced them to quit internet marketing and take a job.

Yes, a job! And this from the crowd that's always bragged jobs are for the poor suckers that don't know how to spin gold from the web.

The one I found most laugh-out-loudable came in the form of a strong-arm sales pitch to buy a collection of moneymaking programs. Paragraph after paragraph bragged of the sellers experience and knowledge in this area, all of which could be passed on to me for a few hundred dollars.

It ended with a P.S. explaining that this would be my last chance to buy this valuable package, as the seller was forced by the bad economy to give up his business and take a job.

Now that's what I call a Unique Selling Proposition!
Ineffective, but certainly unique, and revealing.

These job seekers reveal what's really going on in the world of the "make easy money" hucksters. It's hard times, just as it is in the brick-and-mortar world, and in hard times, it takes hard work to start or build a business and keep it profitable.

That's one thing the "easy money" crowd can't say on a sales page, so for the weakest of them, it's exit, stage left.

What's the take-away lesson here? It's what your gut has been telling you all along. More than half of what you read about internet marketing is hype and hoopla. How do you tell which half? It's the half promising easy money for all.
 

 
About the Author

Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine and the companion The Internet Wizards Blog to teach self-employed people and small businesses owners how to leverage the internet for advertising, marketing and promoting their business. To stay in touch with her, type your name and email into the subscriber box in the left column of this page. You'll be glad you did!

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