Regardless of what you personally think of all the guys who are trying to sell their newest program about how to make money on the internet, there is something to be said for those people who believe that it has nothing to do with affiliate marketing. Yes, some of their blogs are extremely popular, but then against so is Scientology and I wouldn’t recommend anyone join that unless they want to be scanned and probed anally by aliens. And honestly, I think many of the make money guys might do the same thing to you if it made them money. Come on guys, Affiliate and Performance marketing has nothing to do with “get rich” schemes.
I’ve probably with that statement pissed off 10 of the most popular bloggers on the internet. Yeah, some of them probably have something to do with affiliate marketing, but most of them are just trying to get as many people to sign up to their newsletter so they can promote their or some other guys DVD that claims that for $5,000 you can buy all the secrets to Affiliate Marketing. While more than a few of them have made money in the industry, most of them are just guys who made a few thousand dollars here and there and figure that they could make more money convincing idiots that they learned the secret to affiliate marketing and how to make money.
As a friend of mine Jon (the owner of wickedfire, and hopeful DWTS contestant) pointed out to me, most of these guys are just selling DVDs that teach basic thing that you can find on the internet. Honestly, I give them credit in being able to market these products, but I’m curious how ethical it is to charge someone $5k to teach them how to login to Google and add keywords. Many of the people who read these blogs are honestly desperate to learn about interactive marketing, and will believe anyone who tells them that a DVD will teach them the secret. Selling them this crap is really preying on them, especially in this economy.
There are some people who are real superstars in our industry and really know how to make money in the industry. These guys aren’t selling DVDs on how they made money, because they are often too busy to make money. I’ve personally made millions in this industry, owned a major display network, ran one of the largest affiliate networks in the world – because I’ve been doing it for ever. Frankly, I don’t have time right now to create a program and sell people my “secrets.” I’m too busy trying to figure out the next secret for myself.
