Is anyone else tired of all the "Gurus" and their "Make Big Money Fast" ebooks that run anywhere from $49 to $197 for a bunch of rehashed or should I say regurgitated garbage? I'm not saying that it's not possible to make money online. I am saying that the Gurus are using the desire that people have to work for themselves and achieve their financial goals by selling them one piece of crap ebook after another -- all with the same Big Red Letters promising "Wealth and Riches Beyond Their Wildest Imaginations" and cool cars, yachts and other stuff and "You Can Do All This in Your Pajamas."

These Guru ebooks mostly teach you how to sell more stupid ebooks. Some even give you a cookie cutter website that millions of people have already to sell even more stupid ebooks. Some might even teach you how to write stupid ebooks to sell. Some might offer a high priced membership site and once you get in, you can download videos and ebooks that show you how to sell even more videos and ebooks. I have seen first hand much of the material being sold by these so-called "Gurus" and I am telling you that most of the Guru products fall very short of the promises made on their sales pages and contain a lot of fluff. I have yet to run across the amazing, life changing SECRET that they all profess to contain. Listen to this one ... this is real:

"Discover How a Suicidal Recovering Drug-Addict

Simultaneously Builds a

Million Dollar Valued Business and

Changed the Personal Development

Industry at the Same Time"

Basically, they all have the same spin. They all profess to have the one and only BIG secret to instant wealth on the Internet and all highlighted by huge "proof" photos (most likely of their earnings as a vendor rather than as an affiliate or just completely Photoshopped and not real), and fake testimonials or "real" testimonials from people who were bribed into giving a testimonial so they could get the product for free. One of my favorite sites highlighting these GET RICH QUICK schemes is a hilarious spoof on Internet sales letters at BuyMyStupidEbook.

There are five components that almost all of these sales letters have. The first one is that they offer hope ... a dream, a dream of instant wealth without working very much, the hope of working for yourself, a dream of hot cars, hot women and yachts or the desire to be thin and beautiful. 99% of the people who purchase them will not put the information into action. They are looking for information that will magically change their life, with little effort on their part. After they read it, they set it aside instead of implementing it. Soon, they're buying the next ebook that offers a magical solution to their problems or dreams.

Here is a quote from one of the ebooks I've read. I won't tell you which one.

"So invoking HOPE is the first of 5 aspects I always use to make a killer website that sells. And you can give people hope in many ways, with many different products, but I find it most effective with informational products, because somehow you can get away with practically promising the world, and then underdelivering. You are basically telling people what they want to hear. However, hope can also apply to physical products, such as credit cards. Get your xyz credit card today and rebuild your credit quicker. Or how about order the Pentium xyz computer today and do things on a computer you never dreamed of. Of course, those sentences aren't convincing enough to make you get the credit card or computers, but hope itself doesn't sell things. There are three more things to add to the puzzle."

The second thing is to cause of sense of urgency.

Time is Running Out!

Today is the Last Day to Get This

Ebook for a Mere $29.95

Tomorrow it is Going Back to It's

Original Price of $250,000

Of course, when you go back the next day, you may notice that it still says the same thing. Or they use an urgency plea like ... "Only 50 people will be accepted", or "Price will go up after the first 50 customers". None of it is true, of course. It is just a scare tactic that is used often to create a sense of urgency.

The third step is to come across as an unbiased authority on the subject, an expert that has nothing to gain from a sale ... someone who is merely trying to help. Actually, they are trying to help -- help themselves to your money.

Fourth is to appear unbiased -- a third party reviewing the product so that you may make an informed decision. How nice of them to go out of their way to do that for you.

The final component of the sales letters is to instill fear. This can be done by implying that the visitor will run into problems if they buy someone else's product or if they don't buy yours NOW. You can use something like this (and how many times have you seen this? Thousands, I'll bet) .. Get Rich Quick Scams Revealed!!! Then they write their shocking expose article on all the scams and fraud going around but miraculously, they did run across a couple of really good deals while doing their research.

Another way to suck you into buying their useless information is to offer a bunch of worthless bonuses to make it look like a really good deal. The ebooks and other crap they offer are normally even more worthless than the ebook they're trying to sell. There are literally thousands of them all over the Net, free for the taking.

So people fall for it time and time again and are disappointed each time. Once they have the latest MAKE BIG MONEY FAST ebook in hand, they more often than not find that they've been duped out of their hard earned cash once again with false promises and regurgitated copy that they could have easily found on the Internet for free.

Friends, There are No Big Secrets

When it comes to Gurus and their secrets, I'll tell you a secret. When they're on to a real money making secret, they keep it a secret. They exploit it until it begins to run dry. Then they make an ebook to bilk even more money from the technique. They sell this secret when it's effectiveness has run it's course. By the time hundreds of people start to use the technique, it becomes even less effective, and that is pretty much the life cycle of Internet Make Money Schemes in a nutshell.

You can make a living online, but it is rarely overnight wealth and riches. It takes work like anything else and some basic knowledge that you can find in many Internet Marketing forums and blogs. I got most of my knowledge from the Rich Jerk Forum. I bought his stupid ebook like many have. I didn't find any real great advice in the ebook, but it's only $9.99 and the ebook comes with free membership to the Rich Jerk forum where there is a pretty lively bunch of Internet Marketers who are successful and give their advice freely to anyone who asks. If you do happen to buy his ebook so you can join the forum, don't get sucked into his FREE Website deal. It is a cookie cutter site that a million other people have. The website is free but the hosting is not and will cost you over $100 paid up front for a year hosting account for the site. There's also The Warrior Forum and Digital Point Forum as well as many others. Just Google Internet Marketing forums for additional forums.

What I recommend for new Internet Marketers is not to fall into the trap of marketing Make Money Online ebooks and products. Everyone seems to jump right into that niche and it is highly saturated. Your chances of real success are not nearly as great as they would be in a smaller, less saturated niche. I've found that if you choose something that you honestly enjoy or have a passion for and research the possibilities in that niche, you have a much better chance of succeeding. Nothing sells better than passion, and people can tell when you are writing a fake review just to make a buck or when you are writing about something that excites you.