Thinking of buying IM courses from Gurus? Here's a case study

Headmaster Cid

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Take a good read on the article below, which I copied from a local blog.

A 36-year-old male sales executive shares his experience on how he dropped S$5600 on internet marketing courses in the hope that he would be able to make a quick buck, but was left sorely disappointed.

He wants to warn readers about such schemes so that unlike him, they won’t part so easily with their hard-earned money:

Dear Readers,

I am sure you all have seen countless self-claimed ” INTERNET MARKETING GURUS” trying to tell you how easy it is to own an internet business/do internet marketing and how you need to spend so little time on it such that the whole thing is automated and you just sit there and watch money roll in.

There are many such ads on facebook and they get blasted into our emails too.

I would like to share my negative experience and honest review having attended one and paid MORE than $5,600 in all. I hope people will not waste their money like I did.

1: How I got to know this internet marketing course preview?

I got to see Imran Md Ali's advertisement on Facebook and decided to attend the preview. The advertisement was very impressive looking and had lots of people smiling and posing in pictures with him.

2: What happened during the internet marketing course preview?

During the preview, Imran Md Ali showed the audience how much money he has made using the power of internet. Nothing was really verified by an independent 3rd party and the audience did not ask for evidence. Imran Md Ali presented as though money will keep on coming in through internet marketing.
During the seminar, Imran Md Ali asked us to buy handouts to see what is included in the course. I was quite shocked. I though such basic handouts are free but I paid anyway.

Imran Md Ali then told the audience the following
– “NO TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE IS REQUIRED”
– “NO START UP COST NEEDED”
– “IT IS A FULLY DONE FOR YOU SYSTEM”

I thought it was true so I signed up.

However, during the course which I paid to attend, this was what I found out

– “NO TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE IS REQUIRED”
Not true. A lot of technical knowledge is involved. It was left to us to come up with our own website.

– “NO START UP COST NEEDED”
Not true. Not only do we have to pay for the cost of hosting, there are A LOT of hidden costs that were not mentioned during the preview.

– “IT IS A FULLY DONE FOR YOU SYSTEM”
Not true. There is no such thing as FULLY DONE FOR YOU, because there are still a lot of things to be done. The so-call FULLY DONE promised and delivered was probably at most 5% of the whole system.

3: How did Imran Md Ali get people to sign up?

After the preview ended, Imran Md Ali told the attendees (including myself) to sign up by saying that there is limited seats left and Imran Md Ali will keep counting down the number of seats left.

I later found out it was not true. Because even after the preview, there are still people signing up for the course!!!
Unfortunately I too succumbed to the pressure and signed up, believing what was promised in the preview
What happened during the 2-day Internet Marketing course? What was taught? (I paid more than $1.8K for this 1st course)

Day 1

Basically I only learnt how to create advertisement using Facebook which took Imran Md Ali 8 HOURS to teach!

I already know how to create Facebook Ads. It is easy and anyone can do it within an hour max.

Imran Md Ali didn’t teach us how to sell on internet as promised but how to market his course. This is definitely not what I had paid to learn! I wanted to learn how to market my own products, not Imran Md Ali’s course. And not just on Facebook, but on different platforms.

When we market Imran Md Ali’s course on internet, a very attractive referral fee will be paid. So in the end we were just trained to sell his course. The amount of money one needs to spend on the internet ads might not be recovered if you don’t get a converted lead.

I wasted 8 hrs. Just like that.

Day 2

Imran Md Ali taught how to do affiliate marketing. However, I soon realized that the cost involved to do the affiliate marketing is easily more than you can earn.

For example, one has to spend extra money to buy email list, facebook ad etc which can easily go up to more than $1k without getting a single sale. It’s not as if there are no extra costs involved. I wish I was told earlier during the preview instead of finding it out only much later during the course.

Just before Imran Md Ali end the course, Imran Md Ali tried to upsell another course(2ND COURSE) to us! Using the same method, counting down the number of seats left, to make the attendees make a fast decision.

Imran Md Ali told us, “Today will be the last day that you can buy this course at $XXXX dollars”, tomorrow will be double. But UNTIL TODAY, THE COURSE FEE IS STILL THE SAME!

A LOT OF PROMISE but DELIVERY a LETDOWN! (I paid more than 3.8K for this 2nd Course)

I was so naïve to think that the 2nd course will be better, so I signed up for it.

During the 2nd course, Imran Md Ali promised us a series of modules that we will be going though together. But nobody knew that in actual fact, only 2 modules are conducted as a live training!

The rest of the modules are basically delivered to us via downloadable videos, telling us to learn on our own. In other words, they used old training videos and told us to learn on our own.

And in a nutshell, this is how they delivered their training which I spent MORE THAN $5,600 in total.

I know that many netizens will comment that I was silly for paying so much for attending the course. But I know if I keep quiet and not share my experience, more people will lose their hard earned money like me. So I shall not keep quiet like the rest even though I know I’ll be ridiculed. I have decided to speak out so others can learn from my negative experience.

Be careful of these overhyped seminars full of promises and claims and boast how easy it is to make money. I should have left my wallet at home like a friend advised me. But it’s a lesson learnt that I will never forget.

All in all, I wasted my time and money. Don’t repeat my mistake. I’m just one voice but if my sharing prevents just one person from losing his hard earned money, it would be good enough.
 
The gurus are always junk. But it’s hit or miss on forums. The more guru it sounds, the more junk it is. I’ve had a $50 method make me $2k in a month. Was sold on another forum by a basic member and had 2 sales prior.

I’d never buy something that teaches stuff like “how to make x,xxx on Shopify with perfect niche”, as most things are known already.

If you already know IM and are careful about what you buy, plus can put a spin on the method it could be worth it.
 
Thanks!

Btw, you have bhw and it has a lot of real tactics and guides which can help you grow your business!

I have never bought a course on the internet as it was always difficult to spare more than $100 to learn something. So YouTube/reddit helped a lot in my early affiliate marketing career.

So people who are on bhw don't need to follow any course to learn. They can just follow methods and journeys that are shared here and just do.

It's awesome that you brought this up. People who are looking to buy courses should consider the above.
 
Most of the guru like that only. they are good at only collecting the info and put it together as group. Its a good lesson to all of us.
 
He wants to sell you a course about not buying courses?

I think he is more interested in recouping his $5600!
 
What gurus have good quality courses? Serious question.

I got involved with Becker at the start of my journey. Sold me a load of lies.
 
What gurus have good quality courses? Serious question.

I got involved with Becker at the start of my journey. Sold me a load of lies.

None. Think about it, if you know how to make $1 million for $0 investment, with no skills would you tell me for $7 and give me a 60 day money back guarantee incase i cannot?
 
This industry is becoming very toxic and beginners are mainly the prey. I watched a video online about the sales tactics that are used at those events and they are really scummy.
 
It's the same everywhere these days. Even with Private Educational Institutions.

The joke is that people like Md Ali call themselves Edupreneurs here in my country, totally changing the meaning Edupreneurs
 
I can not be sure that gurus are trustworthy. So that I dont buy anything from them.
 
LOL Guru's are the ultimate finessers, could never be me!
 
When it sounds too good to be true it probably is :)
 
Thats where the famous quote fit perfectly "Common Sense is actually not very Common"

ask yourself why would anyone sell you a method which is making him thousands of dollars for just few dollars.

I would rather suggest to experiment with that money surely you will reach to some results.
 
Thats where the famous quote fit perfectly "Common Sense is actually not very Common"

ask yourself why would anyone sell you a method which is making him thousands of dollars for just few dollars.

I would rather suggest to experiment with that money surely you will reach to some results.
Gurus just make use of the greed in the buyers showing them fancy stats.
 
Mark Winnet is doing something soon on youtube where he is deliberately signing up for these sorts of courses using his own money and says they are all cons but will eat his words if they are real. He is spending tends of thousands of his own money for this purpose (although he is rich since he sold his company for millions, so he is spending the money to create good youtube content). Mark calls these guys "contrepreneurs".
 
I have seen quiet a lot in 3rd world countries. They build this big picture where they get to work at home for a couple of hours and earn $$. I found one Guru who actually provided tuition while affiliating some products to his own students.
 
Anyone that sells IM course is either selling a dead method or a method that is super hard.
No one will sell his money making method for pennies.
 
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