I have seen a lot of people on here railing on how stupid and silly it is to buy information/training/educational products about how to make money from home or how to make money online. The overall consensus with this train of thought is that there is all the free information out there, why would you buy info? I understand this train of thought because it used to be mine. I spent years wishing I could work from home while searching for free information online about how to work from home. It wasn't until I actually started investing that I was able to go from lousy job to 6 figure income from home. Over the past two years I have spent about $20,000 on training, education, etc. and I am so glad I did. Otherwise I would still be working in a dead end job. I wonder this, though. Maybe I'm just a big dummy and that is why I had to buy information but are there people on this board who have never invested in informational products yet are making real, serious money from home? I'd love to hear your stories and how you did it. And if you did do it, you should be making your own informational products by the way I'm just so confused, though, that people see it normal to pay for a college "education you could got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library" as Will Hunting said, but they won't invest in products to help them make money from home based on the guise that 'all the information you want out there is free'. I believe that there may be free information out there but easy come, easy go. When you invest in info you make a mental shift about how serious you are and more things happen for you. Just my thoughts, though, so I'm curious to see what others think.
Hi Ty, Free information is great and it's the right place to start. While it's possible to do well without spending money on premium information and/or training, it's unlikely for most. It's very helpful to get insider views, case studies, and in-depth instruction that you can only get from paid info products and instruction. I purchase info products because the information has a practical value and because I enjoy reading it. Just as college classes and ongoing private music lessons are useful to a musician, so too are online marketing eBooks and membership sites. How much to spend varies with the individual. I think that ongoing education - in various forms - is critical to the serious student. It's wise to spend several hundred or even several thousand on a an online marketing education. It's equally important to act on the information. Sitting on it is simply a waste of time and money. If the $20,000 was put to good use and you feel that it's paid off, then it's definitely worth it. My philosophy is simple - do what ever it takes. ~Newbie Shield~
Great post. I have spent oodoo bucks on training and although I am way more careful now what I spend it on, I agree with NS - I ALWAYS learn from whatever I purchase. Since the OWM and SBI I haven't bought much of anything because I am still putting into practice what I have learnt / and am still learning from those programs - however we all know when we get to a wall in our progress - and that is when we need to consider getting another tool to help us up and over the wall or hurdle. Or that's how it works for me anyways....
There are some great free resources out there, and there are some crappy programs out there that people pay money for. In my experience, however, the best ones are those that I've paid for, and when I compare the amount that I've invested to learn internet marketing, I've gotten a much better ROI on my investment to learn IM than I ever did with my college education...I'm not saying that you shouldn't get a college, but an education in internet marketing can be very valuable if you apply what you have learned and are able to profit from it.
I have invested $49.00 and have made it back over and over. Like you said, to me at the time that was a lot of money, still is really, but if you invest in it, you do tend to put more value on it. I just needed a guide to get me up and running and out of the confused cycle. Worked for me and if I think something else will help me down the road, I would do it again. Opps I forgot I also spent money on SBI, but its still sitting in my favorites intimidating me at the moment. My goal is to tackle that in September. Right now, is to get to the point where I can afford to take the time to start learning something new.
Great stories above! Here is mine. I never knew a thing about internet marketing, so when I decided to learn, there was so much out there, I was totally confused. Where to start? Sure, I could have tried affiliate programs or MLM, but I wanted the complete picture. It cost me ??2 500 to attend a live seminar. This opened up a whole new world to me. Had I done this in my own time, with my own research, looking for free products, I think I would have taken years to learn. So, having made my investment has certainly paid, and I have my product too.
It's a good question, but in the niche of online marketing, free information has a purpose. It's usually a teaser to something else you do have to pay and, well, quite frankly it's a business. Businesses never do something for nothing. They just don't. In the United States, anyway, universities are treated like a business, not just an institution of learning. It's been that way for years. Not even as long ago as the 70s, you could graduate from high school, go work for a factory for 30 years, get a pension and that would be it. Times have changed. Universities and getting an education seems it's required for a job that is secure and well-paying. In this economy, that's not even guaranteed anymore. So now people are turning to other alternatives such as internet marketing. And yeah, it does kind of frustrate you that it's not cheap, and it also kind of frustrates you that when you do become successful, you really didn't have to spend as much money as a college degree. That's the breaks in a business both online and offline. You're going to have to invest some kind of money. If you're not investing money, then you're going to have to spend it up in your time searching, and trying and searching and trying. Hence the term: "Time is money."
Based on my experience, an offline business is more likely to spend money online for business information.
In the beginning, I purchased e books, and did learn things from all of them. There can be little nuggets of information, however, there are limits. You could read until the cows come home..and never publishing anything. So, there is a point to just get something out there, and it will become easier every time you write content, or any other task for that matter. Victoria
I believe that all the information one requires to start making money from home is available somewhere for free. But going that route could present several problems. 1. The info is scattered all over the place, so knowing where to look is the first challenge. 2. The second challenge is knowing what to look for. 3. The next hurdle is being able to determine which information is accurate and current. 4. Following that is figuring out the correct sequence for implementing much of the content. 5. The process could take months before it begins to make any sense to the novice. Paying for information products shortcuts this process by delivering the essentials on a platter for your consumption. It's quick, easy and convenient, and you get to develop your knowledgebase in a significantly shorter timeframe. Even though investing money to educate oneself may imply a degree of commitment, that fact alone doesn't diminish the intention of the individual who is equally committed but has to go the free route because she can't afford to pay for the stuff. Hermas
If you can learn from an online millionaire why not? Some of these courses offer some great tips you won't find elsewhere. Although i do agree there's a lot of good free information out there. But if you want to sped up your learning process substantially you might want to buy an online course.
Hi all, I'm new to this forum but not business (online or off). I'm going to weigh in as an educator. A little relevant background: I earned a masters in guitar performance. I'm a professional, performing musician and I "discovered" my talent for teaching which I have been doing successfully since '93 (college and private commercial studio). A lot of good points have been made already but the ones that ring truest to me are the ones A8ch outlined and I see a LOT of similarities with "new" music students and online business folks. We (meaning the instructors at my studio - including me) have a steady stream of students and a lot of them are made up of people that tried "free" methods to learn to play an instrument. Now, don't get me wrong, there ARE some people that are gifted enough to become very good doing it themselves and find information here and there, but they are few and far between. Most of us (self included) excell best and fastest when we have the right tools, resources and a good person to guide us now and again. If I had a dime for every student that's said "I sure wished I'd started out this way a long time ago..." I would have bought my miata free and clear long ago The amount I have invested to fast-track and develop my skills, knowledge and worth as a network marketer and business coach have been worth every dollar because I have gotten a great ROI. Consequentially I have taken that same tact with my offline business too with great success. I guess each person needs to asses how much time they're willing to spend to reach their goals. cheers, Michelle (ZM)
One thing I've noticed from buying ebooks and info is that you really get 90% of the info free in their free report that you down load and then the rest of the 10% when you purchase the product. Sometimes the last 10% is valuable -sometimes you feel ripped off..
I think it's really important to get the fundamentals down however you can. You can do it for free or you can pay to learn them. Neither one will do you any good though if you don't put them into action and learn from them. Once you have a solid base though, it's all about being able to think outside the box.
If You allow - this is newbie opinion. As it was stated above - there is much of free information, may be even all information you can find free. But it will take long time to find it and after that even longer to sort out all that info, evaluate what is true and what is fault. And this is just beginning - you have to put all information in some kind of sequence, make plans of learning and actions. On other hand, if you just follow to the letter what they teach you in the paid course - you also cannot reach something good. How you can run business without initiative ? So I suupose it should be combination of both - free and paid information, where the paid course is the core and additonal free info wrapped around it.
I agree that there is a lot of free information out there. I do however think that you are wise to buy a good program. You don't have to spend a lot of money. There are some good ones for less than $50. The problem with trying to do it with free information is that there is so much out there you can become sidetracked and overwealmed. A good program will give you only what you need in the beginning, and grow with you. In addition, many of the good money making systems out there have customer support and will help you get started. There is also several systems that I know of that will give you a website to help you get started. Bottom line- you can do it on your own for free, but I think the time you save by buying a product is well worth the investment.
I purchased several courses in the beginning. I'm probably at the $5,000 mark in my investment. I too thought of it as on-the-job training, or job specific training. It's worked out great, I learned a lot and it got me motivated to start. But there comes a point where you have to stop reading and start doing and that is the hardest part for newbies. I know, I was there but finally got over the hump!
Readers are Leaders. Personally i wouldnt waste my time searching for free content. You get what you pay for. Spend your time on activities that get you paid !! Searching for free resources in the HOPE one will have the "answer" is quite frankly....stupid! Spend money on your MARKETING education , then align that knowledge with a product ...know your market and your competition. Once you know how to market you can sell anything. Also note that giving away free content is part of a MARKETING strategy. Its to guide you to a mailing list to build a relationship with you. Its not valuable content in and of itself !! All I can say is find a community of "Number One Networkers" and MArketers who can show you, mentor you & teach you how to market and save you from your own inevitable failure. Get Educated and Get in PROFIT....sorry but you'll have to accept that this costs money.....because its a BUSINESS! If you cant accept this fact then online marketing probably isnt for you !!
Like some of you here, I spent about 1k on training and ebooks. Looking back, I did not regret to do so because it helps me to build a solid foundation on how to make money online.
I am very leary about buying stuff about marketing, but I did give this one a shot. Honestly speaking , I was floored at the training that this site has on CPA Marketing. This isn't that usuall re-hashed out-dated garbage. It was well worth it.
