I've been watching the online series, The Next Internet Millionaire, hosted by Internet revenue expert Joel Comm.
The series is similar in format to Donald Trump's series, The Apprentice. A group of moderately successful internet marketers compete through various individual and team challenges for the chance of winning a $25,000 dollar cash prize and the opportunity to be Joel's next Joint Venture partner (presumably a millionaire opportunity). Each episode the losing team ends up in the judgment room where one or more contestants is eliminated.
At the time of writing only episodes one through four were online so this is all that I've seen. In any case this post isn't so much a review of the show as an observation of Joel Comm and his marketing approach - as you'll soon read.
Joel runs a highly informative Youtube channel, which is what prompted me to watch his show. There is no doubt from Joel's videos that he clearly knows his stuff and provides no nonsense, down to earth advice for anyone looking to earn a decent income online.
That said, The Next Internet Millionaire is rather a lot like The Apprentice in that, as far as useful information goes, it offers sound bites of valuable ideas but never really explores them deeper. In fact, the useful part of the show, where a guest speaker explains the key theme for the team challenge seems little more than an opportunity for one of Joel's marketing mates to pitch their key marketing idea. However the viewer (i.e. us) is not party to the details of that message.
This is fairly understandable (I assume these experts usually charge for their knowledge and time) but it does reduce the shows usefulness to that of a game show and a platform for Joel and his mates to make their sales pitch. Kind of goes a little against the 'Content is king' message that Joel himself promotes.
Since discovering Joel his advice has played a big part in recent changes I've made to this site - which appear to be showing some early, positive results. Naturally I signed up to his mailing list. Unfortunately that has soured the relationship some what.
Whilst Joel knows his stuff and no doubt can run rings around me with his marketing abilities he does come from a really old school of internet marketing. The school of personal selling emails and web site landing pages explaining why you should sign up for whatever Joel's latest offer is. I hate that kind of marketing.
Daily emails, addressing me by name, with a sales message and perhaps a free offer thrown in, directing me to a bloated single page web site that scrolls forever with reason after reason explaining why this offer is so good. It's soooo... web 1.0.
I can't stand those landing pages. If I do take the time to look further I usually scroll straight to the bottom just to find out how much accepting the offer is going to cost. Nearly every time, if I could afford the offer I wouldn't need it.
Joel is proof that this technique works and can earn you a lot of money but I didn't sign up for a sales pitch I signed up for content. Even in the course of writing this article, exploring Joel's blog lead me to various landing pages with a sales pitch.
I really don't want a business in a box, web site templates or yet another report on how buying this latest product can increase my earnings. All I want is help and advice on how I can make what I do earn me an income that will pay my bills with a bit left over for savings.
I have all the skills already. What I need is help in finding out how all the pieces fit together. Joel says to make money from a web site you need to do something that you're passionate about. That's what I've done. Why then does he keep pushing all these other products at me?
Just give me some useful advice that directly relates to running an artist web site.
The series is similar in format to Donald Trump's series, The Apprentice. A group of moderately successful internet marketers compete through various individual and team challenges for the chance of winning a $25,000 dollar cash prize and the opportunity to be Joel's next Joint Venture partner (presumably a millionaire opportunity). Each episode the losing team ends up in the judgment room where one or more contestants is eliminated.
At the time of writing only episodes one through four were online so this is all that I've seen. In any case this post isn't so much a review of the show as an observation of Joel Comm and his marketing approach - as you'll soon read.
Joel runs a highly informative Youtube channel, which is what prompted me to watch his show. There is no doubt from Joel's videos that he clearly knows his stuff and provides no nonsense, down to earth advice for anyone looking to earn a decent income online.
That said, The Next Internet Millionaire is rather a lot like The Apprentice in that, as far as useful information goes, it offers sound bites of valuable ideas but never really explores them deeper. In fact, the useful part of the show, where a guest speaker explains the key theme for the team challenge seems little more than an opportunity for one of Joel's marketing mates to pitch their key marketing idea. However the viewer (i.e. us) is not party to the details of that message.
This is fairly understandable (I assume these experts usually charge for their knowledge and time) but it does reduce the shows usefulness to that of a game show and a platform for Joel and his mates to make their sales pitch. Kind of goes a little against the 'Content is king' message that Joel himself promotes.
Since discovering Joel his advice has played a big part in recent changes I've made to this site - which appear to be showing some early, positive results. Naturally I signed up to his mailing list. Unfortunately that has soured the relationship some what.
Whilst Joel knows his stuff and no doubt can run rings around me with his marketing abilities he does come from a really old school of internet marketing. The school of personal selling emails and web site landing pages explaining why you should sign up for whatever Joel's latest offer is. I hate that kind of marketing.
Daily emails, addressing me by name, with a sales message and perhaps a free offer thrown in, directing me to a bloated single page web site that scrolls forever with reason after reason explaining why this offer is so good. It's soooo... web 1.0.
I can't stand those landing pages. If I do take the time to look further I usually scroll straight to the bottom just to find out how much accepting the offer is going to cost. Nearly every time, if I could afford the offer I wouldn't need it.
Joel is proof that this technique works and can earn you a lot of money but I didn't sign up for a sales pitch I signed up for content. Even in the course of writing this article, exploring Joel's blog lead me to various landing pages with a sales pitch.
I really don't want a business in a box, web site templates or yet another report on how buying this latest product can increase my earnings. All I want is help and advice on how I can make what I do earn me an income that will pay my bills with a bit left over for savings.
I have all the skills already. What I need is help in finding out how all the pieces fit together. Joel says to make money from a web site you need to do something that you're passionate about. That's what I've done. Why then does he keep pushing all these other products at me?
Just give me some useful advice that directly relates to running an artist web site.