A couple of days ago I joined Alex Jeffreys’ Internet mentoring program called… “Marketing With Alex.”

How did I get involved? Well, I received an email from Mike Filsaime entitled “this makes ME proud.” I think I have been on Mike Filsaime’s email list for quite some time.

This email was buried in amongst all the other emails that I had overnight. Emails from everyone and everywhere about all sorts of things (and a lot of useless spam – you can read what I think of spam elsewhere in this blog).

Anyway… Mike Filsaime is a well known and respected internet marketing – dare I say the word? – g… gu… guru. There, I said it. So, I was wondering what would make someone like him proud. Initially, I thought it was another one of his products but the title intrigued me so, I opened the email.

The opening two sentences said, “I had the fortunate opportunity to meet and mentor a young man from the UK over the last 2 years. His name is Alex Jeffreys.”

Well, that was different!

He then went on to say that Alex Jeffreys had paid him $5,000 to mentor him. That sure caught my attention. $5,000? Huh? Now I was interested.

A bit further down in the email Mike Filsaime said – and I quote – “Alex is now making $20,000 per month.”

What? I had to read that again. $20,000 per month!

Now I was definitely interested. Who was this guy Alex Jeffreys and what was he doing?

Then Mike Filsaime said, “And recently, he has done over $200,000 in sales in just 10 days.”

OK. That did it! I just had to know more. 

I googled Alex Jeffreys. I was looking for what this guy was doing. Was it illegal? Was it immoral? Was he a shonky operator? Was he involved with one of those sites where people photograph and film themselves sans clothes (ie without them)?

You see, my code of honour won’t allow me to do anything illegal, immoral or shonky. No, I’m not a saint – far from it – but you’d have to know me personally to understand just why I say that. (I might tell you later)

Back to the mission at hand… investigating Alex Jeffreys…

… after half an hour of clicking on links I couldn’t find anything negative or derogatory at all about Alex Jeffreys. I even watched a video of the guy and thought he looked and sounded pretty good. (In other words, if he was dodgy then he’d passed beneath my radar)

At this point I have to admit that I have spent $1,000’s on useless e-books, programs and other time wasting exercises that promised so much but delivered so little. Several years ago I parted with $3,000 to a company (and I use the term VERY loosely – read that as scam operator) that was going to be my “PARTNER” in internet success. To cut a long story short – they ripped me off big time. It still annoys me. It wasn’t the money, it was my TIME and time is something you  will NEVER get back. But enough of that.

Back to Mike Filsaime’s email…

It said, “Alex documented EVERYTHING he has done and now wants to PERSONALLY mentor YOU.” 

Gee, I thought, that sort of success with a documented A, B, C, D dot-to-dot plan would be pretty interesting.

So, what did I do?

I shelled out the money and joined the Alex Jeffreys coaching program. But I didn’t tell my Minister of Finance (wife) because, patient as she is with my internet interests, the only BIG goals I have kicked have been offline. And I have kicked some pretty big ones there. So, she trusts me…

Er… but I have taken a LOT of money from outside the internet and “invested” it into the internet. If you get what I mean.

If you can imagine – or if you have some online “experience” (LOL) – then that can be like pouring water into a sink. Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle. Gee that disappeared quick, didn’t it?

So, I’m hanging with the Alex Jeffreys Marketing and Coaching program and I’m going to update my experiences here on this blog.

That’s it for now. I’ll post again later and let you know some more about the things I am finding out. And doing.

Best Wishes

Gary

How much spam do you get? I get dozens and dozens of crazy spam emails in my inbox every day – everything from making a certain part of my anatomy three inches longer to winning a lottery that has been amazingly “tagged” to my email address. Gee whiz, lucky me. How did that happen?

Oh, and don’t forget Mrs Oomooloogoo of the little known country of Gabon.  Her husband (the late) General Hoodoo  Oomooloogoo was assassinated leaving her an account in Switzerland with US$68.8 million in it.  Only thing is that poor old Nancy Oomooloogoo is in hiding and cannot get out of the country.

Enter me.

Luckily, she has seen me on the internet and trusts me implicitly. Oh, why not? I’m a trustworthy guy!

All I have to do is give good ole Nance my banking details – and password – and she will put the whole bang lot in there and we can split the spoils when I send her a first class air ticket to Switzerland. Lucky me!

Sound familiar?

All the pigs are lined up on the tarmac…

Goodness, are people falling for this stuff? I guess they are. Otherwise these crappy emails that are so obviously scams wouldn’t get sent.

I suppose if the scammers send out 100,000 emails and only get a couple of replies then it’s worth it.

And that’s the name of the game isn’t it folks? The internet is a numbers game and with such collosal numbers it only takes a few suckers to get duped and the con perpetuates.

Yep, the internet is a reflection of life in the real world. There are decent people helping others and there are cretins just wanting to prey on victims. It’s up to each of us to make those choices – who to trust and who to avoid.

What is your most common spam invasion? I’d be interested to know. If we know what’s out there then we can protect ourselves from those who seek only to rip us off.

Any comments?

Regards

Gary Simpson

by

Gary Simpson

We hear the term ALL the time – guru. On the internet it would seem anybody who is anybody is a GURU. So, what is a guru?

The Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines a guru as follows:

1. a personal religious teacher and spiritual guide in Hinduism,
2. a teacher and intellectual guide in matters of fundamental concern,
3. one who is an acknowledged leader or chief proponent of a cult, a movement or an idea.

I suppose, therefore, that when somebody is called an “internet guru” then they are being hailed as some sort of teacher or leader.

Guru. It’s a stupid sounding word. Say it: Goo-roo. It sounds silly, doesn’t it? In particular it is silly to call somebody a name or give them a title that has no formal qualification of any distinction.

What determines a guru? Is it because somebody self-proclaims it? That seems to be the way that it is used on the internet. Moreover, it seems that a bunch of people all get together in a Joint Venture scheme and all determine to call themselves guru. Guru A promotes Guru B who promotes Guru C who promotes Guru D who promotes Guru A. Hey presto – we have a guru ring!

Let’s examine the different types of guru that we find on the internet. We have the:

• Copy Writing Guru – it is very fashionable to be one of these – once there were hundreds, now there are thousands – all claim to be able to write a letter of psychological warfare against mere mortals so that the mortals will be beating down your door to hand you money
• List Building Guru – often thought of as the most valuable gurus because a big list = big potential profits. These guys are the gods of “squeeze pages” that get your name and email address in return for information that you simply cannot afford to be without.
• Marketing Guru – anybody can be one of these – just throw out the shingle and make a lot of noise. These are the gurus who advocate adding thirty seven “bonuses” (of incredibly dubious worth) just to get you to buy something that needs a lot of extra credibility to help sell it.
• Financial Guru – this “guru-ship” can be very difficult to obtain because to be one of these one has to have formal qualifications. To be a financial guru you need to have a license from an accredited licensing body.
• Search Engine Optimization Guru – these “gurus” will be right one day then blown out of the game the next because Google changes its algorithms like most people change their underpants. SEO gurus can fall from grace virtually overnight. Position 3 one day then position 33 the next.
• Traffic Guru – there are many false gurus claiming this status. They write all sorts of worthless, out-dated text claiming that if you follow their advice then you will have an armada of visitors beating a path to your website.

In reality, the term “guru” has been bandied about on the internet so freely and willingly that it has reached farcical proportions.

Anyone and everyone is a guru. People we have never heard of are put up as gurus. Oddly enough, I have never heard of a female guru on the internet. I guess that would be called a guru-ess. Now that really sounds stupid, doesn’t it?

lion – lioness
tiger – tigress
guru -guruess

I am waiting for some person to anoint another or proclaim himself a “super-guru.” You see, there are so many gurus around these days that it has become, well… far too common to denote any distinction at all.

The sooner the hackneyed term “guru” falls from grace and stops being used by all and sundry the better. That’s what I think anyway.

About the author: Gary Simpson is the author of eight books covering a diverse range of subjects such as self esteem, affirmations, self defense, finance and much more. His articles appear all over the web. Gary’s email address is budo@iinet.net.au. Click here to go to his
Motivation & Self Esteem for Success website where you can receive his “Zenspirational Thoughts” plus an immediate FREE copy of his highly acclaimed, life-changing e-book “The Power of Choice.”