Gurus

Here is a dilemma for you. In order to grow your online business, you are going to need to educate yourself. In order to achieve this you are going to find that the best information is available online – not in your local bookstore. Now, as soon as you go on the Net and search for good online marketing material, you are going to be inundated with an onslaught of sales hype and promises from the internet marketing “gurus”.

Here is the problem:

Information Overload

1. They are all hyping up their particular brand of “get rich quick”.
2. Quite often their advice is conflicting.
3. Generally you are getting tactical information rather than strategic.
4. They are absolute masters at peddling their information products – almost by definition. Their tactics usually work – at least for them.
5. Some of them provide excellent information but some are total shysters – how can you possibly tell?
6. You will get confused, suffer information overload and you will not know where to start. You will not get your online business off the ground – at least not quickly

So what do you do? Well, you need to recognize up front that there is no way you can absorb all this marketing information – it would be like drinking from a fire hose.

So what is the solution?

Go back to the Source(s)

If you dig deep enough (and I know you don’t have time) you will find that most of these gurus have studied the materials of these  guys:

Dan Kennedy – grumpy, doesn’t suffer fools, direct response expert, knowledge stems from the offline world but translates well to online. Has an excellent Free Gift Offer to get you started

Rich Schefren – VERY strategic thinker, has been the personal coach to many of the other leading gurus, visionary, very online focused, very process orientated, expert in the theory of constraints (TOC). Has written some great white wpaers which are available free.  Great resource for putting the entire online world into perspective.

Mark Joyner – author, ex US-military, great systems thinker, visionary, now lives in New Zealand (WTF:-) – seriously though – Mark has written two of the best ever books on internet marketing – highly recommended – The Amazing Formula and The Irresistible Offer

Marlon Sanders – not everyone’s cup of tea, in your face direct response guy, cuts to the chase, not slick, great products, what you see is what you get.

Not everyone would agree with the list that I have chosen. In fact there are a heap of other great direct response guys out there (particularly the old timers who were around prior to the Internet). However, I can only speak from own experiences. These are the guys that I have studied.

I can safely say that if you studied any ONE of these (exclusively – no one else) then you would have more than enough knowledge to build a successful online business. If you study all four then you may start to get into problems with information overload. If I had to pick just one (perhaps as a starting place) I would choose Dan Kennedy. I would then move on to Rich Schefren and see where the path leads me from there.

Other Great Thinkers

When I study the gurus myself, I like to focus on the ones that think deeply about their own business(s) and who market in a way that I can emulate. Obviously, they must be ethical and deliver great content. Apart from the two “sources” above, here are a few others that I would recommend:

Perry Marshall – highly professional, ethical, Google adwords expert, a great resource for a small business person to emulate.

Frank Kern – hilarious, politically incorrect, genius – particularly when comes to the mind games of selling

Eban Pagan – slick, slick, slick, great thinker, did I mention that he was slick

John Reese – smart, another visionary, great track record – particularly in the area of traffic generation

Jeff Walker – expert in product launches, his product launch formula has become legendary and his tactics used by all the top gurus.

Howie Schwartz – a bit on the wild side, really pushes the edge of what he can get away with on Google, smart dude, some great content on how to dominate the entire first page of Google (not just one listing), a “black hat” guy.

Again, this by no means an exhaustive list. There are a gazillion gurus out there who know their stuff. However, this list enough – in fact waaayyy more than enough to get you on your way. I suggest you start by going back to the primary sources above as I suggest and then pick the eyes out of the second list (the great thinkers) once you know what particular direct response strategies and tactics suit your business best.

As Dan Kennedy says:  “There are many ways to be right”

Just pick what works for you, keep the blinkers on and go for it.

One final word of warning. Do NOT be sucked by the latest “hot product of the month”. It will be tactical at it’s best. Until you know what you are doing, you will have no idea where it fits into your business. I can guarantee you will waste your money if you fall into this trap.

I have a library full of material from ALL of these guys. I have gone down the information overload path myself, so I think I can speak with some authority on the subject.

I hope you find this little analysis useful.