Who is Real and Who Isn’t?

It wasn’t long ago that I had no clue about anything that pertained to Internet Marketing. I was completely enamored of working from home and spent hours reading garbage websites or tied to the never ending list of emails that were dumped in my email box.

Today is different. Today I find it easier to differentiate between the wanna be’s and the actual Be’s.

But it wasn’t always that way.

So how do you determine who is telling it like it is and who is blowing smoke out their proverbial smoke stack?

I use a couple criteria.

1. Longevity. This doesn’t necessarily mean that if someone is new to the market they don’t know what they’re talking about but you can tell from their marketing, blogs and conversations whether they are intent on building a business or just passing through skimming whatever money they can. People who are intent on being around give good information and don’t have shady business practices.

2. Reputation. I know that a reputation can be sullied rather quickly with the immediate communication on the Internet BUT there are ways of figuring out what part of the information is from one disgruntled customer or if the information rings true for many. I look for forum reviews or posts where the individual isn’t selling a product. NOT a blog post that says – Don’t Buy Anything From Russell Brunson Until You Read THIS!  Those are just product reviews. No one who wants to stay in the Internet Marketing field will intentionally bad mouth another marketer – they may bad mouth a technique or tactic but not a marketer.

3. Reputation. Did I already say this? Well, there’s just one more point here. Before I take information from a marketer and incorporate it into my own business I also check out the reviews of their products on forums. I look for problems with returns, customer service issues or comments that the product was over priced.

4. Content. Is the content they send out in their ezines have any validity?  When I was new to the field that was hard to determine. But, today, even if I was new I could use a filter system I developed to determine if the content was accurate and valuable. Basically the filter goes like this: “If sounds too good to be true it is.”   NOT “it probably is” – it just is.  Also, I love to hear from marketers who do two things – send actual information that is helpful – free – and share information about themselves so I can get to know them as a person. I don’t read people who send out two or three promotions a week without any content or tips – even if they are only one or two lines of tips.

4a. Content. (I’m doing it again) When someone is interested in only selling to me then I have to question what they are selling. Because NO ONE can produce one or two products a week for themselves, they must be promoting other products. LET ME CLARIFY: There is nothing wrong with promoting products which deliver quality information or software of teach something of value that the marketer has reviewed (honestly) and can give his/her recommendation. I find it hard to believe that there are actually that many products produced each week that meet this criteria. But that’s just me.

5. Business. And the final criteria I use doesn’t really have to do with whether the marketer is trustworthy, but rather has to do with whether or not the products, services and information will keep me focused or get me distracted. If my basic business model is producing affiliate sites for Adsense, Amazon and Clickbank then someone who specializes in offline marketing isn’t someone I want to read. There are only so many hours/minutes in the day and I just don’t have enough of them to be distracted.

Hope that helps you weed out the marketers who are only after your money and those who really want to lend you a hand to learn a business model you work successfully.