Some while ago I wrote an article called “Why I don’t want to be known as an Internet Marketing Guru” If you missed it, here’s the link.

For some time now I’ve been watching the sales process of a whole range of self-proclaimed gurus and thought it was time to make some comments about some observations. So here goes…

My concern is around the notion of ‘Get Rich Quick’ or as a friend recently called it, the ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ syndrome.

This is the process:

It starts with a campaign focused on having you subscribe to a series of emails designed to encourage to you get their ‘insider secret’ to instant success. The aim is to get you to an online webinar or to a public seminar. Once there, you’re given some clues about their process and encouraged to sign up for either a longer seminar which seems enticing, especially when it’s free or very low in price.

Now it starts with a process intended to have you believe your life is in the toilet. That working for someone else is a tragedy and that you can fulfil your dreams IF you follow their plan… That plan is to attend yet another course (this time very expensive) at which they encourage you to set goals for an impossible dream lifestyle. Just like the one they’re living. You’re convinced that it’s possible and that to achieve it, you must do what they do.

So you go home and tell your significant other that you’re on your way, yet you probably forget to tell them that you’ve put $10,000 on the credit card and have to go to another seminar, this time in Fiji. Their eyes glaze and the questions start.
•    Are you crazy?
•    How can we afford this?
•    What were you thinking?

And in a huff, you retire to the blue corner and sulk, wondering if you’re ever going to achieve the promised result.

What you also haven’t told them is that you’re going to quit your day job to create a wonderful new business based on your life’s dream.

Invigorated by last night’s teleseminar where your guru gives you your homework, you call a graphic artist friend and get a logo and business card done and suddenly, your new business entity is off and running.

“Hmmm, I need some customers” so you join a business networking group with the idea that your new friends will queue to buy your new service. Yet they don’t. They pay you lipservice and after six meetings, you ask the convenor for your money back. “Networking doesn’t work for me” you claim. Sadly for you, they reveal you have subscribed for 12 months and no, there are no refunds.

Now you’re desperate so you find someone to build you a website. Another $3,000 spent. Nobody visits the site, nobody subscribes to your newsletter.

You’ve fallen for another trap – the myth that if you build it, they will come; when the truth is that if you build it, they won’t come.
Until you promote it.

So now you’re looking for an SEO expert – someone who can help you get your site up the rankings on your favourite search engine. They tell you that you need professional copy, keyword research, backlinks, articles posted on numerous other sites, a social media campaign and that it’s going to cost you $4,000 plus. And your card is maxed…

Off to the search engine to find an SEO course and the whole roundabout of guru selection starts again. Who to believe, which seminars should I attend, should I buy this ‘proven method’ DVD set for $1,500? You settle for a $97 eBook and get to work.

Six weeks later, there’s almost no cash coming in. You’ve jagged four or five sales at a very low price to establish credibility and to get a couple of testimonials but there’s no real money and the card needs paying.

Your next step is to research sponsored link advertising (that’s those little four line ads on your search engine’s results page) and of course, you need help as it isn’t as easy as it looks. Another research project, another decision: DVDs or an eBook. The book’s cheaper so off you go again

After ten days of advertising with no result, you’ve spend another $500 on adverts and it’s getting serious.

You book a private consultation with your first guru and come to the crashing realisation that you’ve probably been conned.

Career destroyed, reputation damaged, thousands of dollars owed on your cards and an angry significant other. So now you do what you should have done to start with; research the guru.

What you find is that they went through a very blank stage in life where everything went pear-shaped. Maybe they were broke, lost their home and their relationship. Maybe they went to live on a mountain top or on an island; maybe they lived in a caravan for two years while they sorted themselves out.

Now you see their game for what it is.

It’s easy to be a prophet when there are no financial or family demands on your time. They researched their topic (known as selling hope) and worked out how to use hypnotic language patterns to convince others they can show them how to get to the Promised Land. And how to get your money along the way.

Hiding behind a website with no real address, taking your calls on a mobile and only ever meeting you in a coffee shop, they have no indemnity insurance and their business is a $2 company of which they are the sole director. And the Company name changes regularly. Your money has been spent on their lifestyle, flashy cars and overseas trips.

Disheartened and disillusioned after reading all the forum threads and negatives about your once-trusted mentor, you head dips and you again retire to the blue corner to admit to your loved ones that they were right.

What’s the address of that jobs site again?

While you may be laughing at the irony of this message, secretly you know you’ve been a victim somewhere, sometime.

Know that you’re not alone. I personally know of several ‘gurus’ pushing the Get Out Of Jail Free program. Unethical operators who despite their apparent sincerity don’t give a cuss about you.

Legal restrictions prevent me from revealing them but I want them to know that slowly but surely, they will be revealed and shamed. We’re watching…