Internet Marketing Courses: Candid Review

Have you noticed how metaphors tend to trend? For awhile everybody had a boot camp. This year everybody’s doing summer school.

Regardless, summer is a very good time to kick back and fill in the gaps of your own knowledge. However, in this economy, many business owners are feeling tugged in many directions. It’s easy to feel like “Everybody wants my money.”

Based on my own experience, I’m making a few recommendations. Before signing up for anything, please consider these 3 points:

(1) Can you comfortably afford this course?

Once I got a call from someone on my ezine list. She was emotionally shaken. She had just maxed out her credit card to take a course that she hoped would transform her business. Now she couldn’t afford to pay for the basics to implement what she had learned.

I can’t tell you what to do. Some people thrive on financial risk. They sleep soundly when they have no idea how they will pay this month’s rent or mortgage. They are motivated by the edginess and even by fear. Others, equally talented, respond to risk with “deer in the headlights” syndrome. They get paralyzed. They’re the folks who should continue working at a regular job till they’ve got traction in their business. or until they’ve saved a healthy nest egg.

What’s healthy? I once had a client who confided, “I can’t sleep when my income falls below $200,000.” I’ve also had clients who felt rich with $1000 in the bank. Most of us fall somewhere in between.

(2) Be sensitive to your own learning and motivation styles.

Some people learn from workshops and groups. They enjoy listening to the sessions. They get motivated to apply what they’ve learned. They are gifted at taking information and applying it to their own businesses.

I’ve met successful business owners who don’t even attend sessions live. They work with recordings and home study versions of courses.

Others do better with one-to-one coaching that applies directly to their unique situation. These folks get more value when they pay for one-to-one coaching, tailored to their own business situation. For those people, one or two hours with the right consultant or coach will be more valuable than a six-week group workshop.

(3) Respect the value of your time.

If you’re already overloaded, it may not make sense to invest in programs that promise to help you do everything yourself. For instance, I’ve been tempted by some java scripts that turn a website into a time machine. Will I have time to learn how to use them? Who am I kidding here?

I recommend investing in education that will help you whether you outsource services or prefer DIY. For instance, I enjoyed Frank Deardruff’s graphics course but haven’t had time to develop my own graphics portfolio. When I recently hired someone to create a header for my upcoming website, I asked for features I wouldn’t have noticed earlier. Just one or two of these features (such as “gradient” tools) add considerable polish to a design.

Here are my candidates for summer courses, along with some candid comments and, of course, my affiliate links.

“List Building System: Strategies, Tools, and Secrets to Grow Your Own Profitable List of Prospects Who Buy”
By: Ali Brown

More info:

http://bit.ly/9AJ7in

Importance: 9 out of 10

If you plan to offer a service or sell products consistently, you need a responsive list. If you don’t have a responsive list, or if your list is less than great, then this course would be an excellent choice.

You don’t need this course if you don’t need a list. Alexis Dawes, author of Reach Desperate Buyers, does not have a list or a consistent target market, yet she earns a living that many would envy. She spends huge amounts of time choosing topics and markets. She generously shares details in her book, which is one of my ongoing recommendations.

Comment: Ali Brown projects a glamor image and she has fun with her marketing. But when it comes to sharing knowledge, she’s straight from the shoulder. She doesn’t mince words. She presents info in a format that’s easy to take. I’ve bought several of Ali’s products over the years and have been pleased. She offers an easy money back guarantee after the first session.

I listened to Ali’s preview call. She covered the basics. Not much new but she wasn’t boring and I did pick up some new tips.

Website Secrets Revealed: Elements of Websites that Sell by Frank Deardruff, That One Web Guy
More info: http://bit.ly/bW4VDN

Importance: 8.5 out of 10

After being on the Internet for several years, I am convinced that you can’t just close your eyes and turn over your website to a designer or developer. You may get lucky. However, even if your designer is smart and ethical, you have to direct the production. It helps when you know what to ask for, what’s reasonable and what words to use. Even if you’ve been around awhile, you can always pick up ideas that you implement yourself or discuss with your web designer.

You don’t need this course if you have a great designer AND you either hire a copywriter/strategist or you are a complete DIY webmaster.

Or, put another way, when your designer says, “I’ll just make some changes to the CSS code,” do you know what’s going on? Can you add a snippet of code to your site to become an affiliate? Somehow you need to learn things like that (and more).

I have always admired Frank, who’s the equivalent of “web designer to the stars.” He works with the top Internet marketers, yet he’s generous. low-key and totally unpretentious.

If you’re strictly a DIY person, I have a special tip: I just invested in the Thesis WordPress theme, after years of insisting that free themes were just fine. I’m already hooked.
Check it out here. You do need some knowledge of FTP and CSS to make it work.

Finally, a lot of marketers are promoting courses to help you deliver teleseminars that are previews for your fee-paid courses or products. Lisa Sasevich will be presenting a free preview call on how to deliver calls. I’ll be on this call myself and encourage you to join me. Just click here for the info.

If you are at the point where you plan to deliver online courses and workshops, this call would be a good investment of time.  If you are a marketer of services, chances are good that you will be delivering seminars. However, it’s not your first priority – get the website and list first.

And if you want a fast obstacle-blasting breakthrough call with me to sort out your ideas, check it out here. I have a few slots left for July.

Tagged as: Alexandria Brown, copywriting, Professional Services Marketing