How Much Does A Recipe For Success Cost?

You probably know that the question in the title is more of a rhetorical one than anything else. And the answer is different for each individual. For some of you, the answer may be 0. For other persons, it may be thousands of dollars or even more. Let’s get something straight: we are talking about money spend, not time or anything else, and yes, I know that time costs money.

So why do I insist on only taking money into this equation? Well, to be frank, because this is how Internet Marketers who supposedly sell recipes of success put it. And you might argue that I have something against them, which is simply not true. I couldn’t care less for the majority of them.

But why do they insist, in their sales letters, to say things like:
“This product will bring you tens of thousands of dollars each month, what is this worth to you?”

If you have seen some of the sales letters, I know you will recognize the speech. The overwhelming majority of their hyped up sales pitches have this line in order to justify their often absurd prices. In order for you to understand how stupid this type of line is, let’s think about an example that could easily be – and probably has been for many people – a real life example.

John buys a van, and starts transporting people between two different towns. He starts a small business, and due to the fact that he had a somewhat lower price compared to other companies and started developing a good reputation, business was good to him. He bought another van and so on and so forth. John now has an incredibly developed business, with many coaches and lots of routes, between many towns. Let’s say that the first van he bought cost $15,000. His current business has an annual money flow of 3 million dollars. So, was the first van he bought worth $3,000,000?

Of course it wasn’t. The time, dedication and commitment he put into development of his business is worth that much. However, many ebook and other digital products gurus try to lead you into believing their products are worth the metaphorical $3,000,000. But their products are not. It’s your own commitment and work that is worth the output you manage to get out of your business. You shouldn’t judge a product based on how much money it can theoretically bring to a person, because in theory you can make millions starting with a pencil. Now I wouldn’t mind the gurus saying: “Hey, this kind of advice is scarce and there are not too many experts on the matter, so that’s why it’s priced at $197”. In other words, to base their prices on the supply and demand balance of the market. But wait, now I remembered: they’re not real Marketers, they’re just salesmen.

Of course, in the end, this is just another one of their strategies that try to play with one’s mind and induce them the buying attitude. For me, it is just not fair. It doesn’t seem fair that an ebook from a quasi expert who barely knows how to write costs $97, while a real Marketing book, from a real expert, Philip Kotler, can be found on Amazon for as low as $68.

Tags: gurus, Internet Marketing