Yann de Champlain

Rant coming…major rant. So if you’re not in the mood for a tirade, I suggest you hide in your bunker and come out when the smoke clears. I’m going to cover a few areas that really tick me off when it comes to pride in your work. These items really get my goat. If you’re doing any of this stuff, cut it out…now!

Let’s start with product creation. I don’t even know where to begin here. I’m not saying you have to make your ebook look like something out of Grand Hotel, but for crying out loud…no page numbers, no chapters, paragraphs that go on forever, no table of contents, links that don’t work, and information that is so outdated and awful that you have to wonder how old the darn thing is. I won’t even go into how bad some of the English is on these things. It’s disgraceful. Bottom line is this, if you don’t create a product with pride, the person who bought it, won’t buy your next one.

Next I want to go to sales pages. This is almost as bad though not quite. Looks like most people know that you need a decent sales page to make the sale, but still, I have seen some sales pages that are just downright awful…no graphics at all, weak headlines, no bullet points, horrible fonts, no guarantee mentioned, a call to action that is so weak you have to practically search for the buy now link. Some sales pages are so bad, I’d almost bet that they make no sales at all. Bottom line is this, if you want to sell your crappy product that you have no pride in, you at least need a good sales page.

Then there’s article writing, especially people who ghost write. You know, somebody asks you to write five articles for them on a certain topic and the articles you send back are so bad that a five year old could do better. The English is horrible, the material isn’t accurate, or worse, you stole it word for word from another source. And THAT source was just as bad. I can’t believe some of the junk I’ve seen pawned off as articles these days.

These few things are just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on about all the crap that I see online. So please, if you want to run a profitable business, please take some pride in your work.

You only get one shot to make a good first impression.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
Want your own business right out of the box and cut your startup time down to zero? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/biab/ and get your own business in a box for literally pennies.

There has been a lot of talk around the forums lately about guru bashing and how they just rip us poor innocent dumb suckers off. Well, I thought it was about time that I put all of this nonsense in perspective. I’m not saying that there aren’t bad people in the world, because there are. But just because somebody is a guru doesn’t make them a bad person or a con artist.

I understand that there are all kinds of people out there, as far as intelligence level goes. Some people are really bright and can spot a snake oil salesman a mile away. And then there are those of us who will believe anything that we’re told. So it’s not fair to put all the blame on the consumer. The merchant has to take some responsibility. However, and I’m going to use college as an example, there has to come a point where even if we’re as dumb as pet rocks, we have to take some responsibility as well.

Why do I bring up college? Well, when I was about 17 years old, I graduated high school and was all prepared to go to college. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do. The only thing left to do was pay my tuition, which was a hell of a lot more than a guru seminar, take my classes and graduate…hopefully to get a job afterwards.

I spent one year out of college looking for work. I couldn’t get one person to hire me. Now, did I go back to my college and tell them that they ripped me off because I couldn’t get a job? Of course not. I wouldn’t have thought of it. Nobody would have. Truth is, when you went to college, no promises were made. You were going in the hopes that you’d have a better chance TO find a job once you got out. But ultimately, there were no guarantees.

And yet, when we buy a $97 ebook or a $997 seminar, we expect to come out of it with enough ammunition to make 6 figures in a month. I don’t know where this entitlement mentality comes from, but it’s certainly isn’t the guru’s fault. Do they put up sales pages that make us think that all we have to do is buy their product and we’ll be rich? Maybe, but no more so than the college recruiter who comes to your high school and tells you how 85% of their students start out at $35,000 a year. What they don’t tell you is that the other 15% don’t get any jobs at all.

Before we start pointing fingers at the gurus, maybe it’s time we took a look at ourselves. Are we putting in the effort we should be putting in? Are we spending the money we need to on advertising? Do we have the skills necessary to write a compelling ad? If not, are we willing to learn?

Until we can answer those questions honestly, we might want to hold off on blaming the gurus for our failures.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
If you want to discover the REAL truth about Internet marketing and get some solid tips to take your business to the next level…get my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/realtruth.html and subscribe to my REAL Truth newsletter where you’ll discover more than from all those high priced ebooks combined.

I get a kick out of a lot of home business owners. They tell me that the reason why they want to run their own home business is because they don’t want to work for a boss and they want to be able to make their own hours and have the freedom to do as they please. Hey, that’s what a home business is all about. I had no choice. I started my own business because I lost my job. But trust me, I wish I had quit my job long before I lost it, because this is the life. But what about you? Are you running a business or are you working another job?

The bigger question is, how can you tell? Well, the best way to tell is by looking at what you do on a daily basis and see if you’re a slave to it. If you didn’t do what you did today, would you still make money? This is a problem with people who freelance. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking freelancing, as it pays very well, but unless you work, you don’t get paid. That’s why, as well as copywriting pays, I wouldn’t want to be a slave to that business model, which is why I don’t take on copywriting clients regularly. I’ll do one from time to time, more to help out somebody who can’t afford the outrageous prices of some of these guys, but I’ll never make it a steady income.

If you want to earn a good living online and not become a slave to it, you need to think long term. In other words, you want to set up a business model that will pay you in the future for the work you do today. The best way to do this is with some kind of membership site. The reasoning behind it is that you make the sale once and get paid a residual income for months or even years to come. Think I’m kidding? I belong to some membership sites (they’re really good ones) for over 5 years now. Think they’re not happy to have my business for that long?

So take a look at what you’re doing today and see if it’s something that you’ll want to be doing years from now. If the answer is no, maybe you want to rethink your business model. It’s never too late to make changes that will bring you a greater income with a lot less work.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
Looking for a solid 4 step plan to building your own business…FREE? Pick up my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/4steps.html and get started TODAY!