The sad thing about this post is that it won’t be read by those that need it most. The newcomer to the internet who is looking for the goose that will lay the golden egg for them.

We were all there once, shiny new in our ignorance, afraid and excited at the same time. Reminds me of the first day I opened the doors on my first business. Even though it was a well established existing business in a prime position that couldn’t help but make money, I was freaking out that I would do something wrong and mess the whole thing up.

Along the way I did make mistakes (never hire family as a favour!) and also had triumphs, but the work I put into researching that business before buying it meant that the mistakes were not already part of the business. That seafood take-away (fish and chip shop) was a successful first foray into small business and paved the way for my next two businesses . I just looked it up on Google Street View and it is a Dominoes Pizza place now… yep great location for a food place.

How many of us due the same kind of due diligence before we choose to invest our hard earned cash on the promises of one internet course or another. In fact how many really look into who we associate and align with when we choose who we entrust part of our future to? With the recent James Ray tragedy that killed three internet marketers (and followed closely on the death of someone else in one of his courses) this “ignorance by choice” has become life threatening, rather than just financially dangerous.

Time to start asking the hard questions before handing over your cash and ignore the hype of the mega-launch.

• Has the promoter a history of bad publicity regarding their products (use Google to research)
• Has the promoter experience in being successful outside of selling this product
• What does your mentor/group think of the person
• Is there anything that makes you uncomfortable about the promoter’s claims
• Can the promoter provide references (not cheesy testimonials) that you can communicate with
• Does the promoter have a criminal history that includes fraud, deception, embezzlement or other red flag type of offences
• Is there a no fault guarantee on the product that can be claimed without jumping through hoops
• Can you completely view the product without penalty
• Are you being asked to keep secrets, avoid telling family, or only associate with a certain group of people
• Will you be subjected to techniques like sleep deprivation, sensory overload, etc as part of the product
• Can you clearly state a tangible goal for buying the product
• Is the price beyond your means
• Do the claims of the promoter seem too good to be true

We all should be asking questions, and acting on that information. People should be asking why I am still working a day job AND running businesses on the internet.  We should be asking gurus why they promote  individual effort, yet they all out-task their work. We also should be asking, what am I really going to get out of this next bit of information I am about to spend a fortune on, and could that money be better spent in putting into action what I already have learned.