How To Make Money Online? The Secret Is Revealed Without Selling You Anything

Make tons of money online with my internet marketing secret formula! At one time or another you have probably already landed on a sales page claiming to be able to make you become another Internet millionaire only by reading and applying a few simple tactics, "anyone" can use. Haven't you? And ever since you have been wondering if there is really a secret to be discovered to make fast money online.

Photo credit: Aspen Country

The answer to that question is: yes, there is a secret to most of the apparently successful internet marketing offers you increasingly see online.

It may not be the secret you expect to hear about, but it is nonetheless a quite well kept secret. The unique thing is that the secret is in front of everyone and yet many can't see it.

In this article, Enrico Madrigrano, a true internet marketing expert explains in a simple and direct way why internet marketers are so effective in selling you their secrets and why you may be deeply disappointed with the results you are going to get.

Make Money Online or Doing Web Marketing?

I believe that whoever consciously mixes "making money online" with "Internet marketing", does it more to increase her revenue than to help others better understand how things really are.

As a matter of fact, the phrase "make money online" helps catching many more fishes and it's not strange that the keyphrase "money online" is often among those most searched on internet marketing blogs.
One of the basic marketing principles is: "give people what they want." The trick works simply because the phrase "to make money" triggers desires and impulsive attraction much more than the word "internet marketing" does.

The new "internet marketing" gurus have well understood this and they also know that mixing the idea of "internet marketing" with "making money online" creates the perfect mixture. It has worked for a long time in the US and it also works well in Italy.

Can we say it's their fault? I don't think so: just like you, they want to make money. Can we scold them? Absolutely yes: if those two concepts are not clearly and distinctly explained, then you are playing a cheating game.

Creating Value

Doing "internet marketing" means creating value that is built around the needs and desires of the customer or the market. And this value must be discovered by doing extensive analysis, tests, and experiments.

"Making money" only means selling something to someone who is willing to buy, even in a short time, and even if no additional value is created.

To provide an example, I could make money going to a crowded beach and selling ice-creams with a cart at the hottest hours, when the sun is high in the sky. I have a product that sells itself automatically, no matter how good or bad it really is (my customers can only find out after they buy it).

But if I want to transform my ice cream cart into a multinational ice-cream corporation, then things change drastically. Now I really need marketing to take my business to the next level, otherwise, in one year I will still be at the same beach, selling ice-creams to the beach-goers.

A Gambling Card Game

The cheating card game of these "internet marketing" gurus is built specifically around the idea that marketing is actually that ice-cream cart.

Here is how they do it:

1. They make the whole thing look as simple as possible and accessible to anybody out there. Do you need an astrophysics degree to sell ice creams on the beach? Anyone can do it, you too!

   Just think of this: While you are reading this page, thousands of entrepreneurs are already out there making billions of money by selling ice-creams on the beach, while you...





2. If I write a 500-page ebook to tell you how you can buy the ice cream cart, where you can buy it, which wheels you need for it, what kind of ice cream refrigerator you need to install on it, and so on... I won't need to waste my time explaining you the strategies to distribute, promote and add value to your product (that is "marketing").

   Why? There is nothing better than having an ignorant customer. They let you believe that they hold the key to success, while the reality, is they are just selling you information to setup an ice cream cart.

   If you understand the problem, then you get mad and you stroll around discrediting the guru or, if you still buy into the cheating card game, you fall into the final trap, which is this.





3. You have understood that with the ice-cream cart you can make money, but you have also understood that to make real, significant money, you need something much more advanced than an ice-cream cart.

   And it's now, that the guru suddenly pulls out from his magic hat a secret envelope and lets you sniff it. Obviously, you have a hard time resisting to such offer, and you buy the expensive envelope with the secret formula. You open it slowly, excited and curious... and what do you find inside it?

Good or Evil Gurus?

If the guru is an evil one, then in the envelope you'll find some marketing strategies. But, to be put to use, these strategies require you to buy a new, motorized, 12-wheel ice-cream cart that your guru is going to sell to you, or yet worse, you will have to become a reseller of his motorized 12-wheel ice-cream carts, s/he has been selling for years that will make you a millionaire in a very short time...

I guess you have understood how the story goes.

On the other hand, if the guru is a good one, then in the envelope you will find some real good marketing strategies. Too bad that on the way to get there your good guru had you spending all your life savings. And not taking into account that now, if you really want to make money online, you will need to roll up your sleeves and start working very hard for quite some time.

Conclusion

The two concepts, "making money" and "internet marketing" go perfectly hand in hand as long as they are clearly distinguished by whoever promotes them.

Whoever consciously mixes these two concepts, creates an inviting dish that is as poisonous as venom. This approach can be valuable at a first stage, but in the long run it bears only disgraces.

I have seen this mix utilized for many years in the American market, almost in every field, but firstly in "internet marketing", where marketing gurus grow faster than mushrooms.

It is always the same story, with the same plot being sold over and over again. "How to make money online with the superninja formula", "find the ultimate web marketing secret", are the typical slogans that characterize this ambiguous universe.

As a matter of fact, there would be nothing intrinsically bad with all this, if it wasn't for the fact that these slogans and tactics are always the same, copied over and over again, and promoted by supposed gurus who have never tried and experimented them for real in their own strategies.

Here in Italy, it is a little bit better, because culturally we are much more prepared to sniff out situations where someone wants to take advantage of our ignorance. But I don't know if this will last.

Making money online is something that sometimes can happen fully naturally, in a short amount of time and without excessive efforts. On the other hand, to do effective marketing you need real dedication, perseverance and a lot of time to try and experiment all possible venues.

To say it in simple words, in marketing you really need a lot of experience gained by having experimented lots of strategies in a real world situation.

Who has gotten this experience through lots of efforts and over many years, out of respect to you or by being coherent with his hard-learned skill, will never sell it you as the magic formula to become a millionaire in 24 hours while selling ice-creams on the beach.

Many understand all of the above right away, while others need to be caught in the trap before they start realizing how this internet marketing magic works. And this is part of the game too.

Originally Written by Enrico Madrigrano for Web Marketing Forum and first published on January 11, 2009 as "Il Web Marketing NON è il guadagno online".

Photo credit:
Make Money Online or Doing Web Marketing? - Rido
Creating Value - Eduard Härkönen
A Gambling Card Game - Visual 7
Good or Evil Gurus? -Piksel
Conclusion - Xiao Fang Hu