I really hope this next story of mine will help you avoid making the same mistakes I did…
A couple of years back (or was it a decade ago? Who’s counting anyway?),
guru Thomas shows up promising to fix my life.
He’s a leading authority in the field (or so he appears).
He seems like a great honest dude.
He has a great looking website.
He even has a YouTube channel (wich was rare back then).
I asked him a question in the comments section on his blog and he answered within minutes.
Wow, I thought, this guy really cares about me. I can trust him!
I then went ahead and join a $47 a month mastermind program.
Then I emailed Thomas to let him know I’m in and I kind of expected to hear back
from him with congratulations and gratitude.
I waited a week – no reply – nothing.
I emailed him again.
STILL Nothing.
And suddenly it dawned on me…
I GOT PLAYED!
Lesson learned.
By the way, the gurus name in this story has been altered. I don’t hang people out to dry.
But unfortunatly I met several “Thomas’s” on my journey.
Today I’m grateful I did.
Because it showed me how NOT to treat my peeps, my family and It taught me an important lesson about how to not get shammed by gurus which later saved me thousands of dollars and potentially shaved years off my success.
Would you like to know what I learned?
Ok, here is my 5 tips to avoid scammy gurus…
#1 Avoid Anything ‘Auto-Pilot’ Or ‘Push Button’
A lot of the “guru’s” love telling people how easy and push button
their solution is. This is probably THE biggest thing to watch out for.
#2 Watch For Fake Income ‘Proof’
A lot of salespages includes images of sales proof with statements like…
“Look at all the money I make with this system”
Problem is, these are very easy to create with an image editor or simply
copy/paste from another sales page.
I would even watch out for sales video’s where the guru logs into their
dashboard and shows sales statistics. They can be fabricated as well.
#3 Be Carefull Of The Reviews You Trust
This is one of the most difficult things to spot. There are a lot of
affiliates, not all, doing fake and misleading reviews purely designed to
get you to buy whatever product they are promoting. This is so common
it’s not funny. It can be VERY difficult to determine what can be trusted
and what cannot in the online marketing field, so it can take time to learn who to trust.
#4 Research The People Behind
Do a simple Google search for the guru behind a product. If they have a history of delivering low quality products or ripping people off you will find out. It’s pretty hard to erase what you’ve done online so chances are if you dig around a bit, you’ll find whatever that person has been up to.
#5 Look Past Fake Testimonials & Endorsements
This one really makes my head tick.
Unfortuneatly you’ll sometimes see gurus using fake testimonials from so called
‘product users’ who are really just paid actors. Whenever I look at
testimonials I always look to see if I can find the person online through
social media or any other way. If not, I take a look at various freelance
websites where buying a testimonial video is as cheap as $5! Like on Fiverr.com
So, what to do to avoid getting scammed?
I advice you to do your research very well before buying and only trust the
advice from those who have proven to provide quality information and products
and you know cares about you.
Throughout the years I have found some very good guys online that I trust.
Guys like: Brendon Burchard, Jeff Walker, John Thornhill, Lisa Nichols to name a few. And you know what… Not one of them look at themselfs as a guru. Come to think of it, one of the most important thing to look for is genuine kindness and someone NOT proclaming to be a guru and a know-it-all.
Thats it, hope you learned something usefull. Let me know what you think, just leave a comment with your thoughts.
