Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
In today’s Q&A, we are talking about how to do market research using the internet.
Be careful who you listen to online.
Today we tell you how to find the best information about internet marketing.
Do you have a question you want answered on our podcast? We would love to help you!
Click here to ask your question!
Resources Mentioned in this Episode
- Fiverr.com
- Check out VectorStock for stock images, icons and buttons
- Amazon.com
Let’s dive into this week’s question!
JOCELYN: Hey y’all, you’re listening to Q&A with S&J.
SHANE: Welcome to the Flipped Lifestyle Podcast, where life always comes before work. We’re your hosts, Shane and Jocelyn Sams. Join us each week as we teach you how to flip your lifestyle upside down by selling stuff online. Are you ready for something different? All right, let’s get started.
JOCELYN: Hi guys welcome back to today’s Q&A with S&J. Today’s question is from…
SHANE: Wait a minute, it’s Valentine’s Day.
JOCELYN: It is Valentine’s Day.
SHANE: Happy Valentine’s Day and all the romance out there going down.
JOCELYN: Yeah, if you listen to our podcast, you know how romantic we get.
SHANE: Yeah, it’s our Tuesday show, you’re probably like, what do these guys say? “I love you, Jocelyn.”
JOCELYN: Yeah. I love you too, dear.
SHANE: All right, read the question.
JOCELYN: This is getting awkward. So today’s question comes from Penny.
Penny says:
“At 51 with limited computer knowledge, I started researching internet marketing. The more I learned, the more overwhelmed I’ve become. Blogs, affiliate marketing, emails, podcasts, drop shipping, etc. Do you have any suggestions for where I can learn the basics that is not a scam?”
SHANE: All right, before we start talking about where to start in your online business, let’s talk about not getting scammed because that is a great question and I think that everybody needs to hear something like what we’re about to say when they first start out because there are a lot of people out there peddling crap. Really, a lot of people are teaching things that they are just not qualified to teach but they see other people doing it, they start some stuff, they have a snazzy website, and it makes it look like they are an expert when really, you’re just buying junk.
We want to make sure today that we help you avoid the scammers, so to speak, out there. So we want to give you a couple of things to look for when you’re looking at any online expert or when you’re listening to a new podcast, or you’re looking at a sales page, you’re thinking about taking some kind of course to help you get to the next level. We want to make sure that you don’t get ripped off and you don’t lose your money.
The first thing that you should look at whenever you’re looking at an online expert to kind of see what they are about to make sure they are not scamming you is to look what they are promising. If people are promising you that 100%, this is the magic secret that is going to make $600,000 in a year, you’re going to quit your job, and you’re going to move to a beach in Costa Rica, everything is going to be okay with your life, and this is the one program that you need to make that happen, that is not true because we are very upfront and honest when we tell people online business is very hard. This is a marathon, not a sprint.
To get to where we are or to get where other people are where you’re making money online and you get to quit your job and things like that is really, really tough and it’s not a magic pill kind of thing where you find the course that’s going to make it happen. It’s more a collection of steps along the way that you kind of fight through and get through that are going to make you successful on the internet. It is very possible all of the things are true that people do say about the internet.
You can make enough money to quit your job and things like that but if someone is promising you that in three months you’re going to have all the money and all the answer, then that is probably a scammer. So watch out what people are promising.
If people are being upfront, honest, and they are telling you what it’s about, like what is written at the Facebook advantage has a great thing on his sales page that says who is this course not for and he basically says, “If you’re lazy and don’t want to work, this course is not for you. If you think this is a magic pill that is going to make you rich overnight, this course is not for you.” Look for language like that that is very honest, very truthful, and very straightforward about how hard online business can be especially at the beginning and that’s a good indicator you found a good person.
JOCELYN: I would also say to look for social proof. What I mean by that is look for testimonials of people. A lot of people are going to have testimonials on their website but look for ones that are very transparent, like, they will put maybe the web address of the person who is saying the testimonial, maybe it’s a video. Just ask the person.
If you’re not sure about their course or whatever it is that they have to offer, just say to them, “Hey, would you mind to send me some contact information for some people who have taken this course” or whatever the case may be, whatever the product is, “and I want to talk to them.” If they are for real, they should be very happy to share that information with you.
SHANE: It’s very easy to fake testimonials. You have to be careful and not just trust what’s on a sales page because anyone can go to a stock photo website, grab a couple of pictures of some young entrepreneurial looking person and make up a testimonial and a name.
So if you’re finding sales pages that just have a name and just have a picture, you might want to be careful. Look for places where people, like we always give the web address of our students. Sometimes we even give the email and if people contact us, we’ll give you references of anyone that has taken our course because we want to be very transparent and open because if people are getting real results then the person selling the product should be very open to giving that information out to you so that you can go check it.
A video is a great idea, like Jocelyn said, if you find a testimonial and there’s real people on video talking about a product, that’s a little bit harder to kind of fake. I would still be careful though because you can go to places like Fiverr.com and pay someone to be a video testimonial.
JOCELYN: Not that we condone this behavior.
SHANE: Yeah, we do not condone that behavior at all. Never ever lie about a testimonial if you’re out there making a sales page. Like Jocelyn said, send the person a message and if they are willing to give you a lot of emails or something like that, ask if you can jump into their Facebook group.
A lot of people sell a community. Ask the person, “Let me jump one day. I want to jump into your Facebook group for an hour and just see what’s in there.” If they let you do that, if they let you kind of see those things, you probably found someone that’s honest. Also too, let’s shift gear now and talk about where to start. You talked about blogs, affiliate marketing, emails, and podcasts. There are so many ways to make money online but we think that you should always start with your product.
JOCELYN: The reason that we say that is because if you don’t have a product to sell, you can have all of the other pieces in place but you’re still not going to be making any money. We always start with the product and that’s where we start in our course, Flip Your Life.
SHANE: We don’t really get into the teaching people about, I mean, we show people that you can do Amazon links, you can do Google but all those things are really people just want to get you started quick so you’ll take their course and make them money. It’s real easy to copy and paste a link from Google or Amazon and put it on your website, boom, you’ve got an online business, and that’s not really the case. So focus on your own niche, focus on your own topic and interest, your own passions, focus on your expertise, try to create a product, and then you can move on to learn how to put that product on the website and do those other things with your online business.
JOCELYN: I hope that was helpful, Penny. I hope it was helpful for the rest of you guys out there. Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day and we will see you all next time.
SHANE: Always be careful. Don’t get scammed out there, guys. We love you all.
JOCELYN: Bye.
You can connect with S&J on social media too!
Thanks again for listening to the show! If you liked it, make sure you share it with your friends and family! Our goal is to help as many families as possible change their lives through online business. Help us by sharing the show!
If you have comments or questions, please be sure to leave them below in the comment section of this post. See y’all next week!
Leave a Reply