Ever since the internet was started there have been people out there ripping people off and today it is no different. Sadly, because of this when I tell people I make a living online they think I am doing some type of shady marketing or something like that. The truth is I am living proof that you can make a living online without doing anything shady, ripping people off, etc. Hell most of the money I earn online is made via advertising, I don’t really sell anything. Over the years many of my friends have been duped into buying these “make money online” programs ultimately have lost money and more importantly did not really learn much on how to actually make money online. These fake internet “guru’s” have ways of making the ordinary person think that they are legit. Here are some tips to help you spot fake internet gurus so you don’t get duped yourself.
They want you to purchase something right away
Many of the real internet guru’s that I do know or follow have blog out there where they provide free content. Every once in awhile they will have a course or product that they want you to buy. The fake gurus out there will only have paid content. This is mainly because one they are not a real guru that realizes that free content will lead to people buying the paid content and two they rely on this paid content or products too much as their main business. See these fake gurus will try and say something like “buy my course and I’ll show you how to make money online”, but they actually make most of their money online selling you the course! So if someone does not have free content out there it is likely they are a fake!
Extraordinary claims & overnight success
You see this all of the time! You see people saying they made a million dollars in just a few months, in their first week they are making thousands, screenshots of insane paydays, pictures of them next to exoctic cars etc. If it was that easy for them and they are showing you how to do it wouldn’t everyone be doing it? It is likely that that screenshot of the payment is fake, those cars are not even theirs and their claims are false. 99% of the time it takes YEARS to build a successful online business. It is very easy to call bullshit on many of these overnight success stories. I think that Gary Vaynerchuk’s Overnight Success video really explains what I mean.
Most people who I know that are successful online or in any business really are not overnight successes. You have to realize that those stories are the 1% and when you hear an internet marketer saying you could have success like this by just buying their program it is total bullshit and just a sensational story to grab your attention. Again as I’ve always said with this business is if it was so easy why isn’t everyone doing it? Do they like their 9-5 that much? If you are hearing this outrageous claims and they are not backing them up or proving it can be replicated, then you are dealing with another fake internet guru who just wants you to buy their program.
No dates on or comments on blog posts
This is one of the most common things I see when it comes to fake gurus. Some of these fake gurus might actually have a blog with some posts, but for some odd reason there are no dates on these posts. You know why? Because they are not actually actively blogging! They create their “make money online” program and need a few blog posts to promote it and make them look legit. So they either write these posts or likely pay someone to write them and they put them up in the form of a blog. With no dates they can make people think that their content is still relevant (just written) and that they are actively blogging. Meanwhile it could have been written years ago. I also see that a lot of these fake gurus will have comments disabled on their blog posts. Wouldn’t you want feedback from your readers? Have an active community? The reason many of them disable comments is one they don’t want live criticism to be displayed on these posts. You don’t want someone saying your program taught them nothing. Also comments will have the date on them revealing when the posts was actually put online, something these fake gurus don’t want people to know.
They don’t practice what they preach
This is something I see quite a lot when it comes to social media. Someone claims to be a social media guru yet they don’t use it! How are you supposed to advise me on Instagram marketing when you don’t use it at all? Or they say they are an SEO expert but if you take a look at their blog it does not use any of the SEO tactics that they say you should use. If a marketer is trying to sell you a course or program that they say they are an expert on are they actually using that technique or service? If not it is likely you are dealing with a fake guru!
Hopefully these tips will help you weed out the fake internet gurus out there so you don’t end up wasting your money on program or service that really isn’t going to do much for you. If you have an experience about a fake internet guru let me know in the comments!