Earlier this week I got an email from John Chow on behalf of Kevin Wilke for his Local Business Money and Freedom Machine. For those of you who don’t know who John Chow is he is an internet marketing guru who makes millions of dollars (even though he is Canadian) each year doing internet marketing things. He is well respected in his online community.
I know most of what he is peddling is a scam or at the very least almost impossible achieve without certain no-how, internet skills (which I have) and most importantly a big list of people who are willing to shell out money for a product that usually doesn’t work. I get that John Chow makes his money by selling the system and not actually doing the system. I haven’t unsubscribed from his email list because I figure one day he might send some information that actually works.
The email he sent me was for a free webinar by Kevin Wilke. I don’t really know who he is except that he bills himself as another multi million dollar internet marketer.
Imagine being paid $1,000 to $5,000 EVERY month
PER client (meaning the ULTIMATE continuity)
for doing SIMPLE online marketing for an offline
business in your area (or any other town).There’s almost no competition right now, with an
18 to 24 month window of opportunity where you
can take advantage of it easily.Wouldn’t that be amazing… to be making a five-
figure, full-time income with only a couple
clients!Does that seem almost impossible?
When you join the free webinar training by
Kevin Wilke
Yes, as a matter of fact that would be amazing. Now right off the bat I discounted the figures he used. But, offering services to offline businesses to give them an online presence seemed like a legitimate way to earn some income. I actually thought I could do this since I know how to get online, can build a webpage and all that. I thought they might tell me what businesses would be a good match and probably offer some package for website building.
The email went on to say:
Sometimes it seems that the guru only cares to make
money, and it’s a win/lose situation…What’s great about this is that it’s a win/win/win.
It’s great for you since it makes you money, the
local business wins for your help, and it’s a
win for your client’s customers because can now
easily find your client’s service or products.Everyone wins!
And you’ll quickly see how it’s not only possible,
but actually one of the BIGGEST, FASTEST and most
LUCRATIVE opportunity available to online marketers
like you and me.Webinar Reveals All…
This coming Thursday, Kevin Wilke is holding a
HUGE webinar to show you exactly how he — and
his students — are making a fortune doing simple
online marketing for offline business… so you
can too.
Now when I see the words FREE and WEBINAR REVEALS ALL, I think to myself “yeah, I’ll watch this, it’s free and the webinar reveals all, which means I don’t have to buy anything.
So I sign up and plan on watching it for 90 minutes even though it is right smack in the middle of a new episode of Ancient Aliens. I don’t have a DVR or Tivo so I’m just going to have to miss the best show on the air but if I can learn how to make some extra cash doing something I already know how to do then hey, it’s worth it.
So here is what happened.
The first hour was all about how Kevin Wilke was once down on his luck. It was all about eating Ramen noodles (just like ever other guru out there) and how he stumbled on this system by some guy who mentored him and showed him how to do everything the right way. He went from making less than $5000 in a year to making millions all because his mentor took him under his wing and showed him everything he knows.
I’m all for this, I would love to have a mentor. I really need someone to show me how it’s done. And not just for internet marketing but for life in general. The idea of a mentor is really comforting to me, it means I’m not in this crazy thing called life all by myself. I want to crack this code and if there is someone out there who is doing right and can teach me I’ll miss my beloved Ancient Aliens to find it.
Alas, it was not meant to be. I knew that after an hour of how Kevin struggled to feed himself that there was going to be sales pitch at the end, and I was okay with that. He explained that there were millions of businesses out there who did not have a web presence and they were in need of one. He even showed some graphs and statistics that made it seem as if this was a doable project. He talked about outsourcing the system to third world countries and kinda lost me but the idea of getting local businesses online seemed like a decent job I could do.
Of course he didn’t tell me how to do it, that information was included in his “business in a box” system with all sorts of great things (I was zoning out at this point) worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Whatever. I was anxiously waiting for the price of this thing because I figured if it cost $47 I might shell that out because I was still on board with the idea of getting offline stores online.
Even though the email said all would be revealed and it was free I knew there was going to be a cost. No matter how much Kevin Wilke talked about paying it forward and helping out his fellow man, and even his single parent sister, I knew he was going to ask for money from me. And I’m cool with that, if the system works it has value and I would be willing to pay for that.
In a side note, two years ago I saw a similar pitch from John Chow about mentoring other people. I sent him an email and asked if he would mentor me. I told him I couldn’t afford the systems he was offering but since he had such a big heart, and I was a fast learner we could both help each other out, I even offered to document the mentorship so he could post it on his site. He politely declined my offer and suggested I try his free ebook, which I did.
So, we get to the end of the webinar and Kevin gives us all a link to the squeeze page. He doesn’t even have the balls to say the cost of the system in the webinar! I go to the page and after scrolling through his whole webinar in print (which would have been so much better than to listen to the damn thing while missing Ancient Aliens) I see the cost of the FREE system that was going to be revealed in the Free Webinar is $997.00!!
I was pissed off to say the least.
I don’t have an extra $997 sitting around and if I did I most certainly wouldn’t be missing Ancient Aliens so I could learn how to make money online. Who does he think is watching these pitches? It’s not people with real jobs I can tell you that for sure.
Kevin posted pictures of his students sitting with him in some bar, these were his testimonials, people who gave up their day jobs to make millions of dollars. The people in the picture looked like his mom and John Chow but it was kind of blurry so I couldn’t be sure.
What is all this talk about paying it forward? It’s bullshit is what it is.
I have a challenge to all these gurus out there. Take me under your wing, mentor me, for FREE, like you say you will in your emails, and then teach me all that you know so that I too can make millions online. I’m not stupid, I can find my way around the internet. I actually have social skills. I can do this if it is actually possible to do it. I don’t want to resell your system, and I know that is how these gurus are making the money, I want to do a real job that has value to the clients. If one of these gurus like John Chow, Kevin Wilke or Justin Blake mentors me then it’s nothing but good press for them. I don’t think they can do it but I’m willing to be the guinea pig.
I’m waiting.
Great post–the hype is so misleading and a time waster. It’s hard not to lose respect for people that promote these false claims. Loved your rant!
Kim
And I assume you are going to try to take this post up the line – stick in their faces so to speak. Shall we all Twitter and Stumble it? I’ll be first…
Yes. That absolutely needs to be done. Here I come Stumble.
First of all, John Chow became a “guru” or authority in the make money online niche because he had made some money with a technology website. He setup a blog and started talking about his money and not how to make it.
It seems like John Chow really started transitioning to a “teacher role” a few years ago when there were a lot of gurus hitting the scene. But it quickly became apparent that John Chow was doing basically what the title of his blog states – “i make money by (correction here) telling people how much money I make)”.
No offense to John Chow, because he does make money online and a lot of it. But he only makes money online by selling other people’s courses, aside from his tech website.
As for Kevin Wilke…
I watched one of his webinars on the same topic. It had a fair amount hype in it, but that’s what selling is all about. Preselling in Internet marketing is only effective if you relate to your audience – their fears, frustrations, and all.
The problem that I have with Kevin’s offline business stuff is that he doesn’t provide enough free content before pitching his full course.
There is a guy named Robert Stanley who released a course about offline marketing a few weeks ago. His pre-launch content was amazing. On his webinars he basically walked you through the entire process and then said that he had some extras. His course was around $1k and it sold out in a day or two.
As for getting someone to mentor your for free…
Time:
Here are my thoughts on that. In business, nothing is free. When you find success online, you’ll soon realize that you only have so much time in a day. Time is also worth money because it is limited. A mentor would have to spend a certain amount of hours teaching you and this time would replace other tasks that he/she could be doing.
Free training:
Business is also about investment. With investment comes risk. If you knew for a fact that you could make at least $50,000 per year and you had to first invest $1,000, would you? But you don’t know that for a fact. Doubts come into our minds about:
-will this work?
-will I be able to make it work?
-and so on
In the end it really just comes down to investing yourself in order to get where you want to go. If you depend on a guru or teacher to get you to making money online, then you will be waiting forever.
But if you make a plan, implement it, and stick with it until you see success, then you will start seeing the results you’re looking for.
I don’t mean to sound to harsh, but the mindset you have will get you nowhere. No guru is going to jump at the chance to train you for free. You have to invest something in order to get something in return.
I’m with you! It’s all bullshit as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been trying to break into internet marketing to stop doing what I hate for over a year. I’ve listened to more than one hype and bought plenty of courses. Where am I today? Let’s see, um, NOT independently wealthy and still have to do too much shit I don’t want to.
Guess I need a hand holder, too:D
I’m actually a goo-ru, and will teach you that for free.
I might even pay YOU.
Inquire within.
Amen girlie. I HATE getting those emails… and it all stemmed from chow somehow. Ugh
Oh yeah, I got that stuff too. John Chow is awesome, in the sense that he knows exactly what he’s doing. He definitely knows how to make money, for himself.
To each their own though. I’ve gotten some good tips through him.
That is WRONG on so many levels that it’s throwing me into a tizzy. I can’t even organize my thoughts right now. Although I have three kids HANGING on me at the computer right now so that might be part of why I can’t think.
I really want to go on a crusade right now to take this dude Kevin down. Hopefully karma will smack him in the ass for me.
perhaps we should use our “primitive” social networking skills, youtube and a few good tags and mobiliize in a singular movement to create an anti-Kevin buzz. Perhaps he would “buy us out”! At least then we’d make something off his bs message!
Ok wow what a post.
Yes, I did the similar thing lately for a webinar I wanted to be on and missed THE EVENT.
But I do have a recorder.
Hey check for your alien show here http://www.tvduck.com/Ancient-Aliens.html
or search watch aliens in google you may find it.
I have been doing the offline consulting thing for a long while.
Although I’m slowing moving out of it and into something else.
If you really want to get into the offline stuff try Joshua Hayes course it’s great to get you started and at a price you CAN afford.
I also have released an affordable course that will help you make money fast with offline businesses and get your foot in the door with them so when you are ready to sell them offline services you have already established the relationship.
You can view it here http://www.pizzamoney.net.
I also have a blog with a ton of FREE offline info for you as well that’s here
http://www.homebusinesswarriors.com/
Take care and I wish you tons of success.
Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Gina
Does that mean that the Nigerian Prince doesn’t really intend to share his millions with me for FREE, either?
One of the first things I learned online was to not listen to anyone who claims any of the following- 1) they’re a guru 2) It’s a win/win 3) It’s a no brainer 4) you can make thousands a month as long as you give me money first
As a matter of fact one of the first blogs I set up was on all the scams out there. I was so pissed off because I had wasted money on some of those stupid lists and programs that I wanted to shout it out to all those new internet users out there.
Yep. Nothing is FREE – especially from these so-called-gurus who are going to help you become a millionaire. Yeah, right. I’d like to see them do THAT for REAL.
Ahh, the internet scam. If we took all the scams and porn away, would there be any internet left.
Refreshing post to say the least.
If you think that’s bad you’re going to love his latest offer, Easy Button Book (though good luck finding it here’s what you get at the link now http://www.easybuttonbook.com/instantauthority/ondemand).
He’s pushing a ghost written book “Guide to Marketing Your Business Online…” complete with publishing, ISBN number, template cover design, listing at Amazon, and up to 2 or 3 websites if you need them. It’s the shortcut to instant expert status and profits by being a published author. And how he says you can command the $1,000-$5,000 per month most small businesses cannot afford. Only $1,997.
It’s a great offer, fills a big need but comes with a big monkey on your back if you buy into it. That is if your credibility matters.
I looked under the hood by searching for the book on Amazon.com (http://tinyurl.com/kevinwilkebookscam) and so far found 35 replicated books all looking alike except for Kevin’s book. Two wrote the same book for “Boston.” Two wrote the one for “Chicago.” The other 30, well, they just wrote the same book by the generic title (minus there name of course which makes it unique).
Digging deeper the websites he’s offering are also replicated and come with duplicate content.
Either he’s blinded by his own BS or he’s laughing all the way to the bank. Either way Kevin Wilke is no one I respect in internet marketing.
logic.
If Wilke’s strategies are the “end all” solution, then why is he peddling the solution? Altruism? No, its a clever idea wrapped in a lot of fluff. He’s peddling “hope” and that’s the most dangerous commodity on the planet….
If his strategies work, then he should be outsourcing his ourtsourcerers and making a mint… with no need nor time for marketing his solution. PLUS, why share you “trade secrets” really???? No one does that. The most philanthropic gazillionaires on the planet may give out the wazoo but never tell “trade” secrets. …A trade secret is the source of a well. I guess I am a dunderhead for taking the time to even post this…. I was at first, fascinated, but then realized… he’s just clever and profiting off our “hopes” to break into the world. If you wanna make Wilke’s kind of money, find some hope and wrap it in a few clever marketing techniques and tie it up in a rags to riches story… If you have the conscience for it, then go for it!
I ignore all get-rich-quick schemes and sales pitches. Don’t even give them a second thought. There is one thing and one thing only that I’ve ever paid money for and it was your guide to making money on the Internet. Was it good? Yes. Was it worth the $5. Yes. Did I implement it? No. Why? Because I am an idiot. You are my personal Internet hero, Jen, because you’re making it work. Perhaps not as well as you’d like, but you’re slugging it out, making a living, and working independently. Everybody else can go fuck themselves.
Mike, I have to tell you to see this comment after the shitty day I just
had, with 1/8 of a tank of gas, no laundry detergent and out of ziploc bags
and with no payments coming for several days, almost in tears, oh and the
drama at school, which I am torn about handling, well this made me smile.
Thank you.
You guys are missing the entire point. The reason you are not meeting your expectation you set in your life is your lack of fAith in what you can accomplish. Start thinking positively and you will move forward. It may not be instantly but you will move forward if you truly believe you can. The mindset is the true difference between the have and the have nots.
Fantastic post, I sure am a huge believer in commenting on blog to assist the blog authors know that they’ve added something of worth to the cyberspace!
Great post I must say.. Simple but yet interesting and engaging.. Keep up the good work!
it looks like you delete any messages that disagree with you so I’m sure this one will disappear too… you should try the program before knocking it. I did and have quit my day job and am enjoying my career as an internet marketer making more in a week than I previously did in a month.
I only delete comments that are mean or filled with links. I don’t care if you agree with me or not. However, starting off your comment that way is a sure way to get deleted. It’s just downright rude.
if you’re for real, prove it. give us some identification or something!