What Is An Internet Marketing Guru, And Will They Help You?

Some think internet marketing gurus are the biggest scammers going. Others follow their every word and practically worship the ground they walk on.

Crazy, but true.

Allow me to cut through the noise and show you what they are really about.

What Is An Internet Marketing Guru?

According to Wikipedia:

A guru is a Sanskrit term that connotes someone who is a teacher, guide, expert, or master of certain knowledge or field… a reverential figure to the student, with the guru serving as a counselor, who helps mold values, shares experiential knowledge as much as literal knowledge

It depends on how technical you want to be about it. But a guru is really just an expert who teaches and guides their students to become successful with something.

Internet marketing simply refers to web based marketing designed to generate leads and/ or sales. This includes all kinds of marketing methods performed across many different channels. And it’s not limited to selling any one product or service.

Here’s a practical definition:

An internet marketing guru is an expert mentors who teaches people how to do internet marketing successfully.

Cool. But are these guys really trying to help you, or take advantage of you?

On one hand, there are many great, ethical and inspirational gurus (expert mentors) in this space. But there are those who want to take as much money from you as possible, without ever helping.

Let me explain…

The Reality Of Internet Guru’s Today

If you’ve been around the internet for any length of time trying to learn how to make money online, you’ve probably seen one or both of the following:

• Sleazy “gurus” who prey on beginners inexperience to line their pockets
• Real internet marketers who cannot stand them

I personally spent quite a number of years running around in circles attempting to make money online, I tried many different strategies presented by many different so called gurus.

Nothing worked. Looking back, I was always hoping that ‘this could be the one’ when in reality, I was getting nowhere. This is the struggle many hopefuls go through online and the ‘sleazy gurus’ know this, and use it to their advantage in an unethical way.

They “present” what people want, feed into their desire to make money quickly and easily, and sell them false hope. They flash pictures of money piles, sports cars, luxury holidays, beautiful mansions and show people ‘the good life’ to sell their products.

Another common tactic they use, is exploiting people who are desperate to make money quickly. They do this by bringing out a person’s deepest fears, and focussing on their pain points with a story they can’t help but relate to.

To the point the person feels they ‘need’ the ‘solution’ being sold to them, or it’s game over.

Don’t get me wrong, even ethical sales pages have some level of hype, and naturally bring out the problem the person is having so they can offer their product as the solution.

Fair enough.

Take too far however, and it becomes a form of bullying and manipulation for selfish gain.

In any case, this has been going on for years and based on what I’ve seen, people are getting sick and tired of it. After years of putting up with overhyped sales pages, unethical marketing tactics, and plain old crap products… people are starting to wise up.

Thanks to these kinds of shenanigans, the way people view a ‘guru’ these days is quite different to how it may have been long ago. In my experience, when most people think of a guru, they think of them as someone who is trying to rip them off or lure them into a scam.

Clearly, this is a long way from a ‘trusted mentor’ who will guide you towards success.

On one hand, it’s good people are more skeptical about spending money on crap from gurus. On the other hand, these fake gurus have stopped many people from taking advantage of the very real opportunities within internet marketing as a result.

Gurus Who Present vs Experts Who Teach

Thankfully, it’s not all bad news!

But you do need to learn the difference between the ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ if you want to achieve your goals online. Here’s my take on the good vs bad when it comes to gurus.

Typical Guru

Your typical guru presents a sales pitch promising the world for very little effort, in a short period of time. They lock their ‘hidden secrets’ behind a paywall, and string you along for as long as possible.

Genuine Internet Marketer

These folks show you how to get results, teach you real skills, and help you build a real online business. They don’t resort to misleading sales tactics or use hype to get your money.

They show you the process and explain that getting results takes time when starting out. Rather than present a well crafted story to suck you into buying a worthless product.

Some would argue that it’s what you are selling that really matters, regardless of how you promote it. I think promoting good quality products and services is standard, and no excuse to promote something in a misleading way.

Conclusion

Safe to say, I’m not a fan of ‘internet marketing gurus’ because in my experience, they’re mostly full of it. I choose mentors that share real value, show people a proven business model, and who actually help you succeed.

Most internet gurus have given the industry a bad name, and destroyed a lot of trust. But there are good leaders, teachers, and experts out there who are legitimate and worth learning from.

Try to find a good mentor. See if they offer a free training course to help you get started before spending any money. That’s what I did.

Even reading a great blog, watching a good YouTube channel, or engaging in relevant forum can go a long way. Believe it or not, you can learn more this way than buying many of the products in this space. It takes time, but so does anything worthwhile.

Choose who you listen to based on the value they give before asking you for money. Rather than buying based on their convincing story, or because it sounds exciting.

You’ll be glad you did.