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Boo Hoo, Guru
Isn’t it funny how some things inspire a knowing nod of the head from some people, but from others a bewildered SMDH?
Warmth
The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money.
~Thomas Jefferson
Well, it seems as if Spring is finally here in all it’s blooming glory. The forecast for the weekend is a sunny, warm spell followed by a week of temperatures not nearly as warm but still nowhere in the neighborhood of being able to produce any more snow.
Another thing that’s warm and soothing to the soul is having good people to help you along the way. As always, I am deeply indebted to and enraptured by my beautiful bride of 25 years. I have 4 lovely children who are each special in their own way. I’m blessed with an enormous extended family full of loving and comical characters. I even have a worldwide assortment of social media friends who help bring a smile my way.
I don’t necessarily agree with them about everything and certainly they don’t agree with all of my maniacal ramblings. Nevertheless, we are all pretty congenial. Thank goodness for the Block option. I’ve had to turn my back on a number of people for a number of reasons. I don’t mind agreeing to disagree about things. I don’t mind having a passionate exchange about things that matter to me. I don’t even mind people grousing about random crap, for the most part.
All the same, as an INTP, I can’t help analyzing. It’s just the way I’m made. When I see something’s askew, I usually feel compelled to point it out.
Where There’s A Will, There’s A Way
Impossibilities are merely things of which we have not learned, or which we do not wish to happen.
~Charles W. Chesnutt
Lately, a Facebook acquaintance of mine began the Guru’s Lament:
If I had a nickel for every time somebody asked me if I could teach them {…make money online topic…} and they could pay me from the profits…
As I said above, SMDH. Of course, not everybody has disposable income. When you spend so much time bragging about how you can teach anyone to be a six-figure internet genius and having your professional copywriters take you to the hazy grey edge of FTC regulations on earnings statements, it’s natural that you’re going to attract people who want the quick fix, the dream, the magic button, whatever it is you’re hawking this week.
In fairness, if somebody wants the solution that badly, they’ll find a way to scrape up the fee he’s asking. It’s not unheard of. People bootstrap themselves from poverty and obscurity all the time. Just check the testimonials on various sales pages. Some of it’s even real.
Now, as for it being unheard of to pay somebody from the profits that they’d make using your product… Not so quick. Frankly, isn’t that the very definition of affiliate traffic?
An affiliate uses his/her efforts and skills to drive traffic to somebody else’s sales page with the understanding that for each sale generated from said traffic, a commission will be paid. From the measly 4-10% available from Amazon to the 50-200% available from various online digital product vendors, the point remains:
You’re paying them that commission on sales they generated.
If nobody in the crowd they sent you buys,
you don’t pay them a cent for their efforts.
Sooooo, if it’s possible for a guru-genius-sales-mogul to pay upwards of 200% (yeah, that’s actually a thing) commission on a product then it stands to reason that the same model can be applied to coaching or teaching. I can understand that it would be frustrating to offer this. It’s a time suck. It’s frustrating. Is it more frustrating than driving 1000 clicks to a sales page and getting no conversions? Hard to say. Probably less arduous, but every bit as unrewarding.
Well, Rob, you’re so $#@)$#@ smart, what do you suggest? There are a couple of approaches.
Jeremy Schoemaker (a.k.a Shoemoney) has an offer where he pays you a buck every time you complete a task on his checklist. He teaches the basic skills to buy a domain, acquire hosting, set up a site, etc. He has a mechanism that allows him to confirm that you’ve completed the steps. He’s putting his money where his mouth is. Literally. He actually pays newbies a buck for each step on his checklist in order to provide incentive for continuing with the course. One of the big problems with make money online programs is the intersection of overwhelm and lack of return on investment. That is frustrating as hell. Shoemoney takes care of this by keeping the steps quick, simple and paying you a buck for getting it done. Granted, it’s not the same as paying you out of their potential profits it’s still a situation where HE is paying the newb to follow his course rather than the beginner paying for something that they can only hope will be the thing that gets them earning online.
That’s all well and good but what about paying the teacher from the profits?
Well, another approach is banking clicks. This is an oldie but a goodie. The concept is that a fledgling email marketer approaches somebody with an enormous list and asks them to promote. The big list guy says, here’s my list of prices for solo ads. The newb says, ‘I have no money to spend.‘. Normally, that’s a deal killer. However, an alternative is actually available. The idea of banking clicks is that rather than paying the big list guy for 100 clicks directly, our beginner makes an ad swap arrangement with the big list guy. Small fry goes to work sending traffic to the big guy’s offers. Once the desired number of clicks has been delivered, the big list guy sends an equal amount back in exchange. Ideally, if the big list guy sees that the beginner is sending him crappy traffic, he’s got two options. He can cancel the arrangement and tell the new guy to go pound sand ~OR~ he can get in touch with the guy and teach him how to send better traffic. The latter is certainly a kinder approach and ultimately it’s better to spend a little time teaching somebody how to send you decent traffic than it is to risk that the guy will run around telling everybody what a backstabbing jerk you are.
That’s alright, but it’s still not paying the guru from the promised internet riches available if only you’d follow their exalted steps.
While specificity necessitates a price tag, it’s not unheard of to make a project of someone. If you consider them a decent risk, you can do Miyagi Marketing. Wax on. Wax off. Paint the fence. Crane Kick. “If do right, no can defense.” What does that mean? Well, if you ever saw The Karate Kid, you know that Daniel-san wasn’t particularly welcome in the Cobra Kai Dojo and that Mr. Miyagi’s way of teaching the basics of karate were quixotic to say the least. The important bit was that Daniel-san had to WORK to learn the required skills.
That’s the important piece that the griping gurus are missing here.
Not everybody has money. Often, those without money have a surplus of time. Sadly, there are way too many people who have neither but even these people can squeeze an hour or so out of their day to learn the basics of an information marketing business from an experienced hand.
It’s easy to write these people off as “freebie seekers” and “tire kickers“. Granted, there are plenty of these. It’s a common phase. People get bewildered by all the hypey promises and want the quick fix.
Mr. Miyagi didn’t give the quick fix. He made Daniel-san work his teenaged tail off. Mr. Miyagi didn’t open a dojo. Mr. Miyagi didn’t need Daniel-san to pay him for lessons. He was already retired and self-sufficient because he had worked hard all his life and could afford to be a friend to a fatherless kid and pay it forward.
The point is, if you want to, you’ll find a way.
If you don’t want to, then just don’t. There’s no need to sit around and bitch about it.
Either you can help or you can’t. Either you’re willing to help or you aren’t. Some people who are willing to help, can’t. It’s the blind leading the blind. Some people who are able to help, won’t. It’s their time and they can spend it however they choose. Some people are willing and able to help. They find a way to make it work.
Honestly, how hard is it to teach someone who is willing to do the work the basics. Get them set up with a domain, hosting, autoresponder, a squeeze page, a lead magnet, a simple front-end offer? Have that person assign you 100% commissions on the product and drive a truckload of traffic to their page. You make your money back almost instantly from the affiliate commissions and they get a list of certified buyers to whom they can offer more of your products that you’re paying 50% commissions on. They get paid. You get paid. Everybody’s happy. The same money is earned as if they had paid up front for your product or coaching offer. Maybe it takes a little longer, but the same amount of money + a happy customer/trainee is better than no money and another person telling people not to bother with you.
Jus’ sayin’…
Progress
Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.
~Kahlil Gibran
Progress has been a bit slow of late. My laptop died and took a lot of important files with it. In theory, they’re still happily nestled on the hard drive. When I borrowed a USB to SATA gizmo from my techy neighbor, my Windows Vista desktop PC couldn’t read it. The same computer also can’t sync with my Android tablet. I need to upgrade the desktop computer at some point, but it’s not a priority.
Physically, I’ve been to the podiatrist to have my aching feet and ankles looked at. Seems to be a wicked case of plantar fasciitis and tibial tendonitis. A couple weeks of physical therapy coupled with a quality orthotic should alleviate the problem.
I was able to draft a new board game for my Christmas site. I figured out all the pieces and rules necessary. I haven’t settled on a board design yet. I’m going to have my kids play-test it for me using a Clue board to see how the dynamic of the game matches my intent. It should be pretty fun once I get all the little details hammered out. Once the rules are sorted out, I can use The Game Crafter to design and market the game.
The Pioneer Skill Set channel was nearly done, but since the remaining articles lay dormant on my late laptop I must see how it plays out with 85 videos on it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the files off of my laptop’s hard drive at some point so I can do some of the follow-up traffic generation I had intended to enact.
In fairness, the full-steam trudge on the prepper content was getting a bit tedious for me. Even though it is a complete PITA to have my laptop die, it has given me a needed reprieve from one-track activity. I need to crank out some stuff for my other sites at this point. Unlike the Easter Bunny, I can’t afford to have all my eggs in one basket.
I’ve got things to attend to, but I wanted to share this little rant with you before too much time slipped by. I hope that you can find time to bring a little help to those in need. As one such, I appreciate it immensely when people take their precious time to give me a hand up and a kind word.