Thanks

MMO advertisements are for costly junk products or information that is freely available on the internet – I am certain that you would not recommend the products sold by your advertisers to your friends and family.

But your ‘innocent search engine user’ lands on your page and then, by your own admission, you have ‘tricks’ that lure the user to click an ad. For example, in your latest post you argue how a boring and ugly template induces users to leave your site via an ad.

You are driving users away from your good free information to your advertisers junk products that cost money. Your goal is to get as many ‘innocent search engine users’ as possible off your good MMO free information site and onto a MMO site that will cost them money. To your family and friends you say, “go onto my site but do not click on the ads, it is just costly junk”, but to everybody else you say, “get off my site, click an ad and go buy some something”.

Of course, I see nothing wrong with that. I just think it is unfair to pick on Brian. In MMO all publishers are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

The biggest difference is that the “innocent search engine user” doesn’t part with any money after landing on my sites – the advertiser does. Users just click ads – the sponsor pays me…
.-= Griz´s last blog ..Customizing Your Blog Theme To Make More Money Online =-.

If you want to know how to sell high priced courses then his site is a great free resource – just do what he does. Nice site, good writing, target a specific audience, marketing, make the potential buyer feel warm and fuzzy etc.

I would never pay 000’s dollars money for a ‘how to make money online’ course. But there are people out there that would. Brian Clark knows how to reach that audience. He does it by providing a pretty blog, great writing, and tips that people want to read. He knows what he is doing and the proof is that he sells the courses.

I do not think he is doing anything wrong. He is simply providing what the market wants. He doesn’t force people to buy it – they buy it because they want to. They buy it because he is able to create an atmosphere that makes it easy for people to part with their money for his product. In this way his blog teaches how to make money online – do what he is doing – create the atmosphere and sell expensive courses.

Do the courses work? I have no idea. Does he make money? Yes. Does he show you how? Yes – his blog is the how.

It is the same principle as Griz’s website.

I think Griz has a great website. Like Brian he shows how to make money online and like Brian he has proof that his system works (near the top for ‘Make Money Online’). Both of them provide free content. Griz describes how to to get the most out of search engine traffic and Brian shows how to get the most of eager wanna-be bloggers (via the blog itself, not the course).

In this post you pick on Brian by claiming that his product is overpriced and ruthlessly targets innocent newbie’s. Maybe. But to be fair (of course you do not need to be fair) you should also pick on Griz. Griz’s methods target the innocent search engine users who land on websites that, if Google had their way, the user should not land on (hint: unnatural backlinks).

My point I think both of these guys have great sites and teach a lot for free. They just have different strategies.

Sure there is no certainty in anything. That is logical. Nature abhors a vacuum.

Both look like good value. I think I will try the KWA as I need something structured to make me ‘do’; otherwise I will passively read everything and DO nothing.

In the final analysis there is no silver bullet. I know that. But I may as well at least give it a go. There is some opportunity cost associated with time and effort, but it is preferable to shelling out thousands of dollars on seminars.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’ve always been prepared to work hard, but I can’t think of anything worse than contemplating a lifetime of doing something you really don’t enjoy.

Thanks again. Will get stuck into it, and won’t give up my day job just yet.