Free business resource
I used to buy eBooks from Clickbank and e-Junkie. I have spent hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on resources to learn about online business, internet marketing and make money online. I have to say, what a waste of money.
Not that the eBooks are useless; I was just like all the other newbies – I crave for “secret” or “insider” information offered by the Internet marketing experts and gurus. Some of the eBooks I’ve bought are good, but not stellar. To say the least, I feel that what’s pitched in the sales letters are a bit too much compared to the reality.
I’m not saying the gurus are lying – I myself follow closely some top gurus; all I can say is that the gurus are making money because they have a network of JV (joint venture) / partners, which could very well also consisting of some gurus. The gurus are good in what they are doing and they are great in selling what they know.
Let’s take Clickbank for example – there are plenty of eBooks that have high gravity – a Clickbank way to measure the resources’ popularity. Let’s be logical here: If you have a network of partners that includes other gurus, wouldn’t it make sense that the products sell like candies? Getting endorsed by well-known people in your industry can only boost your business.
Now, I came to a conclusion that the gurus, somehow, are having a knack in distilling information from information sources and their own experience, add value to it, and package it into great products. This could only mean one thing for us: We can learn from the same free source – the key is knowing where to find such information.
If you are thinking about buying eBooks, let’s stop for a moment – don’t buy any eBooks just yet. Instead of spending your hard-earned cash on what seemingly stellar resources, you must first find ways to get the resources for free – the legitimate way. And believe it or not, most of the resources are, indeed, free. Just Google them!
To get you started, here are some resources I recommend you that are available for free:
1. Forums threads
DigitalPoint Forums and Warrior Forum are two of all forums I recommend if you want to learn about online business, internet marketing and make money online.
Search the threads carefully – there are forum members who generously share what they know. Just beware, there are also those who lie about what they know (some do lie – for some reasons I can’t understand…)
But, no worries – it’s easy to spot lies – just find threads that have plenty of replies, and read the replies thoroughly – you’ll see that when the thread seems fishy, other members can spot it and inform other members to take a great caution regarding the writer. This is the power of forums you don’t get in any eBooks.
2. Gurus’ free eBooks
Believe it or not, I often find some gurus’ free eBooks to be more useful than the eBooks I buy for $50 or more. The gurus release their eBooks for some purposes, mainly for building list (you are required to enter your name and email address to access the eBook) and cross-promotional purposes. Nevertheless, the quality of the free eBooks is top notch – just make sure you follow the right gurus.
Here are some to recommend, especially if you are into blogging:
- Yaro Starak’s Blog Profits Blueprint: How to make money from your blog.
- Make Money Online with John Chow: How John went from zero to $40,000 a month via blogging.
- John Cow’s Building a Business, Not a Blog: How to build a real business, instead of just a blog and blogging (highly recommended.)
3. Blog posts and articles
Bloggers are known to share useful insights without asking something in return. I personally learn a lot from Yaro Starak’s Entrepreneurs-Journey.com regarding how to build make money online and build a sustainable online business.
I also often visit About.com for inspiration, because About.com’s Expert Guides are often answering readers questions based on their experience – this is valuable.
If you really need to spend your money on any resources…
When you couldn’t find what you want, then you might want to buy eBooks. But before you decide to do so, please consider one more resource – membership programs.
In my opinion, membership programs are better than eBooks because they usually have forums in which the mentors and members can share ideas on what’s working and what’s not.
Any thoughts? Please share yours by commenting to this article.
Ivan Widjaya
Free resources are everywhere – find them!
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Quite a controversial article, but one which is fact true. Obviously people will always buy e-books, because the people we are trying to learn of advertise them, so that they earn money and are successful, and because they are successful, we will follow what they say to try and mimic that success. Its a vicious circle really, the more they help us, the more we help them.
You’ve struck gold with the above though, if people see this they are more likely to try and find websites about this subject which not only teach them, but do so for free. You’ve always presented an idea that if we want to learn about online business, we should be in a state where we won’t want to be spending money. Making an online business, at the start, is all about the low overheads, but when people get into it they think they have to spend to learn, something which you have illustrated it not the case.
Thanks,
Simon Duck
Hi Simon,
Thanks – I know this is controversial but it’s from my own observation as an ebook buyer and resource seeker.
Indeed, it’s a vicious circle, but I don’t mind they are getting millions of dollars doing what they do. They do help people and they are good at what they are doing – hard work pays off.
It’s not my business to question how much the gurus earn from Internet marketing (including ebook sales) – what matters most is that for the rest of us to be sensible in our purchase decision making, even for useful resources, as long as there are substitutes available. Like I mentioned in the article, if you and I can’t find what we are looking for, then the eBooks could be the best resources to learn from.
Thanks for your valuable comment :)
I attended a gathering of affiliate marketers earlier this year (in the UK) and one of the presenters gave a talk entitled “The reason why you are not making money online”.
He Outlined the exact same things Ivan has raised in his article.
Once you get into that situation you are done! – Paralysis by analysis
Information overload, – It sounds cliche but that is what happens, I guess programmers will call that “an endless loop”, going from eBook to eBook and from one opportunity to another.
Joe,
Exactly – an endless loop, indeed. And the end result is you know a lot of things but don’t really have something significant to put what you’ve learned into practice – what’s good in knowledge if you can’t make something out of it – financially or non-financially?
Thanks for your comment :)
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