In this post, I explain a big problem I see with “Make Money Online” guides and what I want to change on RQR because of this. Also, in case you’re wondering why I didn’t post for a long time, I’ll briefly explain at the end of this post.

All Marketing and No Content a.k.a. The Newbie Trap

As I said, I had been looking to review several products lately, but ended up not reviewing them. Why? Basically, because I was disappointed in them. I was so disappointed, that I couldn’t even be bothered to go through all of the material and if I don’t do that, then I can’t write a proper review.

Now, on the one side, I feel almost obliged to write about bad products, so that some people might be saved from buying them. On the other hand, however, I have more important things to do with my time than going through sub-par training courses just to write a review.

The problem with many of the products I looked at is the same that Banner Ad Blueprint has: They are made by pure marketers – people who know everything about creating a great offer and nothing about teaching.

This type of product is usually set up as a “Newbie Trap”: Make huge promises to an audience that doesn’t really know much about marketing and then feed them some rehashed crap once they bought the product (and fought past half a dozen upsells).

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Real Marketing Products

Instead of writing a ton of negative reviews about products like these, I want to make one general recommendation: Always think twice about a “how to make money online” guide. Most of them seem to be lacking in quality. There is a separate category of products that are much more often worth an investment and these are what I call “real” marketing products.

Real marketing products are tools and services that can leverage what you’re already doing to make money. For example, the recently reviewed WP Split Test plugin for WordPress is quite such a program. It’s quite simple and it serves to split-test your WordPress posts. It doesn’t claim to make you tons of money overnight, but it actually has more money-making potential than most of the guides I’ve read lately.

Further examples of “real” marketing products include keyword research tools, automation tools and services, programs like The Best Spinner, which helps leverage article marketing, programs like Web2Mayhem to help spread content around the web and things like rank tracking and analysis software.

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No Love For Guides?

I won’t be seeking out guides and ebooks to review from now on. That doesn’t mean I’ll never review them again, just that I will be concentrating more on the “real” products mentioned above.

The question is, of course: What is a beginner to do? You have to learn the basics of Internet marketing somehow, after all. Well, for this purpose, I’ll be building a library of ebooks to cover all of the essentials. WordPress Websites Made Easy is the first in this series of guides and just like it, all of the following ones will be free.

I hope to be able to provide you with everything you need to know to make your first steps in online marketing and I want to provide all this for free. My motives aren’t entirely altruistic, either. I’ve been getting more and more questions in my inbox and I want to be able to point you to guides I’ve already written, so that I don’t have to type out long responses. ;)

Also: Pretty soon you’ll have to sign up to my list in order to download the free stuff. Then, I’ll spam you with pre-written mails for every big Internet marketing product launch that comes along. And if you believe that last sentence, you must be new here. Welcome to RQR!

Anyway, that’s all for now and I’d love to get some feedback from you. Do you think this is a good plan? What kinds of products do you want to see reviewed the most? Let me know in the comments!

Cheers,

P.S.: About my hiatus: I took some time off to clean out my life. Cleaned out my apartment, sold a lot of junk I had lying around and cleaned up my mind in the process. That was really good, believe me. Then, I also caught some bloody virus and my camera stopped working, which also delayed further production of blog-posts. I hope you all missed me! (Yeah, I know, you didn’t even notice my absence, did you?)

Certainly the greatest myth about making money online is that it’s “easy”. Actually, calling it a myth is a bit misleading. In certain ways, online marketing really is easy, but not the “effortless” kind of easy, more the “simple” kind. Much like losing weight and getting in shape is easy, but still really hard, somehow.

Simply Difficult

How many people do you know who want to get in shape? Maybe lose a few pounds? Or put on some muscle? Better stamina and overall fitness, anyone? How about that six-pack? Almost everyone would like to be a bit fitter and a bit better looking than they are. Millions of people are overweight or obese and would love to be slim. Somehow, most of them never reach their goals.

Getting in shape is easy. Don’t believe me? While there are countless books and studies and courses and programs all concerned with losing weight and getting in shape, everything you need to know about this subject can be said in just a few words. Here’s the ultimate secret of how to lose weight and become really fit:

• Eat mainly vegetables and fruit and no junk-food.
• Exercise every day.
• Repeat.

That’s it. Follow these three steps and I guarantee you that you will become slim and trim. See, it’s really not complex or complicated. Sure, the process can be optimized, but I doesn’t need to be. It hardly matters what exercise you do, so long as you do it often and consistently. As for eating: Forget about counting calories and tallying up proteins, carbohydrates and fat. Eat when you’re hungry and eat healthy foods only. Period.

Getting in shape is easy. Understanding the system behind it is easy. But actually sticking to it is hard.

It’s the same with making money online. The basic principles behind it are fairly simple. You can dig deeper and uncover layers upon layers of details about SEO, link-building, optimal landing page design, the psychology of buying and selling and any number of other related subjects. But you don’t have to. Following just a few basic rules you can monetize a very simple website.

• Make a simple website and add an affiliate-link to it.
• Write many relevant articles with links pointing to that site every day.
• Repeat.

This works. I’m not saying there isn’t more to making money online than those three steps. I’m not saying that this (simple article marketing) is the best or the only way to earn money online. What I’m saying is that you don’t need to know more to get started. As you go along, you’ll pick up more info and you’ll refine your techniques, but you have to get going with what you’ve got. What’s missing isn’t the perfect method, the secret technique, the magic keyword. What’s missing is more likely a concentrated and consistent effort.

Before you fall for the seductive promise of “easy money”, remember: It’s simple, but it requires hard work and dedication.