This is a multiple part article attempting to point out all of the worst aspects of internet marketing in an attempt to improve the industry as a whole. (Part 1)

So the first post was a little broad and pretty much took a stab at everyone who has ever used a shady method to market their products or services online. I’d like to get a little more specific, however, and talk about a few groups of people who are really giving internet marketing a bad name and are the main contributors to the poor public opinion surrounding it.

2) Gurus or “Get Rich Quickers”

Gurus are the guys you see pushing their infinite knowledge products that will take the reader from a life of mundane boredom and mediocure income to one filled with wealth. They’re full of shit. We know it, they know it, but for the most part John Doe Browser does *not* know it.

People are familiar with the “make millions doing real estate” scams because it’s something they understand. Many people even today, however, are still so unsure about the money-making potential of the internet that they actually believe these gurus when they tell them that they have the secret to absolute internet wealth. Half of the blame lies on the consumer. After all, there is no program that can ever promise you wealth. But the bulk of it is still with the guru, the sleazy internet marketer.

Most gurus spend their time pushing their Adsense E-Books using buzz words that the public doesn’t understand in order to confuse them into thinking that they have the kind of knowledge that one can only get their hands on after purchasing a $99.99 book. After the first two or three purchases, however, John Doe Browser catches on. The word of mouth hatred of internet marketers begins.

Now not every person who sells an E-Book is a bad guy. Some E-Books provide quality information, and it is understandable that when someone dedicates a large amount of time and energy into writing something that they ask for compensation in return for distribution of that material. But most of them are crap.

After 10+ years of fraud the public is finally starting to catch on. People are starting to see through these asshole E-Book pushers and internet marketing “gurus”. Hell just look at Clickbank’s 3-5 year chart at Alexa (yes I know it’s not totally accurate but it still shows a trend, so shut up).

As I said in the last article, the public tends to lump all internet marketers in together just as they do for any other industry. We have to separate ourselves from these “gurus”.

I’m sure a lot of people have read this article thinking “All of this is common sense. We know gurus suck so shut the hell up about it.” I know, however, that there is at least one person reading this blog (and probably a whole hell of a lot more than that) that has pushed a shitty Clickbank E-Book promising internet millions. So this is for you – stop it. Sure you can make some easy money promising some poor sap a million dollars, but why rip someone off like that with a product that you know won’t deliver? There is so much money to be made on the internet. Yea the other revenue streams might take more work, but at least you’re not screwing anybody over.

Ready for the next one? Look out e-mail “marketers”!