I have to admit that I got stuck in the Clickbank trap. Buying the next latest and greatest ebook on how to make thousands daily while I slept. And most turned out to be systems. Systems that would only work for a while until everyone was doing it. And I would try the system and the system would work, but the money would eventually slow down or the time I had to put in to get money out got to be more and more. I would write software to try to streamline the system so I could spend less time and still make the same money. But eventually, I would get the next ebook.
I'm done with this cycle. There is too much too learn in this dynamic growing thing we call the Internet to be stuck between the pages of a PDF ebook written over a year ago by an author who was trying to trick the system. He only sold the thing because he realized the end was coming near. Others were on to his little trick. Might as well make a quick buck on the system before another guy does.
There are some that I have read that have been worth it, like Perry's Marshall's book on AdWords or Google Cash. Many of the search engine optimization books have given valuable information, but to tell you the truth, I discovered more in the Complete Idiots Guide I bought for less than half the price.
But most suggest setting a professional looking site up, so that you could pull off reviews of products that you never purchased, including all the stars, screenshots, and stolen testimonials. Some 100 or more page ebooks were written around just a single sentence like "People search for product names." Some just rehashed what had been written in other books. And most of these books are being sold by people using the method in the book.
It's almost as if these ebooks are self-perpetuating pyramid schemes. The book is about how to sell the book. Of course, the same method could be used to sell other ebooks, but the author knew that many of the people buying the ebook would try their hand at selling the ebook, which in turn, would create more salesmen for the ebook.
I would only rarely get out of this cycle of reading ebooks, playing with systems, and writing software to track the systems. At those times, I would check out blogs and social networks for a day or two. Each time, the internet landscape had changed so much I didn't even recognize the new names. It was as if, in internet time, missing a week means you're living under a rock.
This time though, I took a long break and plan on continuing it, after finding a wealth of information on blogs I read for the first time just this week.
Like Evil Blog Promotion Techniques which outlines ways to promote a blog or web site that I never thought of. Or SexySeo's post on optimising your user page on MyBlogLog. Information like this is freely available all over the internet. You just have to look for it. Paying for an ebook only means you are getting, old secondhand information.
Stop spending the money. Start doing the footwork. That is my plan from now on. That was my plan before but I got sidetracked and stuck with tunnel vision. And anyone else stuck in the same trap that I was should get their nose out of the ebook and check out some more great posts:
The Secret to Utilizing All Social Media Sites
Commenting Your Way to the Top
98 Blogging Tips for a Lazy Sunday