Monthly Archives: July 2006

Is Rich Schefren For Real?

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The Hype Meter (TM) is pegged. The “Manifesto” and “Missing Chapter” have been sent and the marketing campaign is in full swing. It’s being billed as Rich’s last foray into personal business coaching and you better not miss it. . . or should you? (Rich’s Site)

For me, red flags of danger start waving when:

  1. You get semi-useful, common sense “free” ebooks released
  2. You get all the “gurus” plugging it to their lists
  3. You get a sudden E-mail from Rich saying “WARNING: There are 36,832 people receiving this email and there are only 1,500 passes available. If I were you, I would STOP READING this email and go DIRECTLY to my site to get your “front-of-the-line” pass that I told you about yesterday.”
  4. You get testimonials posted detailing outstanding successes (and they include fellow ebiz gurus)
  5. You read glowing and non-criticial testimonials on multiple ebiz websites
  6. You find candid comments saying “Several months ago, a fast-talking Web marketer named Rich Schefren tracked me down… and we began a long damn conversation about something near and dear to both our hearts: Creating a killer “money funnel” online that automatically attracted, captured and vitually hypnotized vast mobs of prospects… and flipped them, fast and easy, into becoming eager, loyal paying customers.”
  7. You find a website with Rich’s name and registered to his company asking you to “authorize the $697 monthly membership to be billed to my credit card.”

To point 5 above, when I read other sites saying things like “Just Realeased June 27th. Written by Rich Schefren, one of THE most sought after business consultants (even the gurus have him on their speed dial list)”, you should take notice.

I think flags are waving everywhere on this one. Anyone want to guess about how much this course will cost? 1000 dollars? 5000 dollars?

I can’t say if Rich will help you or your business. What I can say is that Rich is about to get a whole lot richer.

Beware The Hype Machine

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I subscribe to lots of E-mail lists and I read the forums. I get the stuff from the big guys and please take this as some friendly advice: Beware the Hype Machine.

The same techniques that they want to train you on they are using on YOU to sell their products, their seminars, and their coaching sessions. You are always one “secret” away from being successful. There is always one more “amazing discovery” that will blow the doors off your earnings.

The sales copy is personal and friendly, but remember it is a “sales” letter written specifically to tap psychological “triggers” to get you to buy.

I liken this to religious scammers who prey on people desperate for a touch from God. Note well: if you are desperate for anything (love, money, success, etc.) you are vulnerable to being taken advantage of.

Ebiz Update

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How’s the ebiz going? It’s been some months now and I can say I’ve had meager success. I’ve learned a lot by reading boards and experimenting, but I can tell you that I haven’t had any major financial success at it yet.

I’ve started some websites and they have virtually zero traffic. It’s funny when I read others say that have 1000 uniques a day in two weeks. I just scratch my head and wonder. I suppose they buy traffic with large adwords spending or perhaps they have a few paid links on large sites.

I was happy with my meager success with Amazon.com. I ran one product (portable DVD player) and ended up squeaking out a minor gain. What killed that campaign was a lot of non-converting clicks with continuously more expensive keywords.

Another thing that fights for your time is real life (TM). If you are doing ebiz part time, you’ll face the eventual challenge of finding time to put in your best effort. For me, I just recently got engaged. The ebiz time definitely goes down as the personal time to nurture a relationship goes up.

There are lots of books on ebiz topics, but most that I read at the bookstore lack key strategies. For example, the hardest part about Ebay isn’t going to be setting up your listing and learning what “BIN” is. It’s going to be finding a niche product with high margin and low weight. Do you think any of the books help you there? Nope.

There are some wildly successful people doing this stuff. There is lots of trial and error. I know that perserverance is a key to finally making it “big”.