Make Money Online - Who Do You Trust?

The "make money online" niche is probably the most distrusted and vilified niche on the net. And for good reason. Everyone has spent money foolishly on one gimmick or another in pursuit of making money online themselves. People are convinced that this "gadget" or that "widget" will be the answer only to find out that it makes money alright - but unfortunately, only for the person who sold them on it. We all know this scenario.

I have long had issues with people who build up trust and then use that trust to take advantage of others. This "Make Money" niche is full of such people. Some are outright blatant about using the trust their readers have in them in order to take their money. Yes - John Chow is the king of this breed. He provides little value but is entertaining and this seems to be enough to fool his readership into trusting him. He is a snake oil salesman and these type of people have been taking money off of suckers since the first coin was minted. They always will. I have little sympathy for his victims as you need to go to great lengths to allow yourself to be duped by people like Chow. Anyone who works that hard at ignoring the obvious deserves what they get.

On the other hand there are those who are genuinely sincere and likable and sincerely believe in what they are doing. Caroline Middlebrook is a prime example. I am bringing her up in response to a Vlog post Vic made today. You can watch it here;

Be warned that it contains some very strong language.

Caroline Middlebrook

Yes, Vic is upset and some of you may think that he is a little hard on Caroline.

The question is... is he right?

Only you can make that call but I do have a few points to make about this issue myself.

Regardless of how much you may like Caroline's personality, her writing style, her sincerity or her perceived success there is the nagging problem that she has become just another blogger taking advantage of her readers. She readily admits that she makes little money, knows nothing of SEO and basically sells stuff to her readership. She admits this and one would give her credit for her honesty.

The problem is that she sells stuff to her readers giving them the illusion that the stuff will make them money or at the very least that it's stuff they need if they want to be like her.

She promotes ebooks on her site that claim to teach you how to make money with adsense, SEO and various other things. This is no different than thousands of other sites online. The problem is that she doesn't make money with adsense or SEO and she doesn't have organic traffic. She has 1800 readers and has no problem selling stuff to them that hasn't worked for her. She has adopted the John Chow belief that it is OK to build up your readers trust and then sell them crap. This bugs me a lot.

The thing is I don't think she has even given this a thought. The assumption is that this is WHAT you do to make money online. It's what everyone else does so it MUST be ok.

It isn't ok. It's why the make money online niche is looked on with disdain. This is why Vic gets so upset. This is why I get upset. We have been trying to teach people the real methods of creating an online income without selling you a bunch of crap.

If you don't make money online then you have no business telling others how to make money online.

If you don't make money with adsense then don't sell books telling people how to make money with adsense.

If you don't rank on top of the serp's then don't tell others how to rank on top of the serp's.

If you don't know SEO then don't promote an SEO book.

If you can't do it - don't sell it or tell it.

Do I sell crap online? Absolutely. All the time but I do it elsewhere - not on a blog that I have developed trust from my readers. Do I feel good about selling crap online? No. Will I stop? No - I like the money and they are just numbers - visitors - not real people. I don't know them and I haven't built up trust with them. They are looking for something and I provide it. This is how I justify my own hypocrisy because deep down I know that they are "real people" and not just numbers. I don't take advantage of their trust in me though - they have none as I am just a page on the net offering something they want. For all I know they are happy with the crap I sell. Moreover is selling a dog calendar to someone looking for a dog calendar selling crap? To me it is but maybe not to them.

I promote crap in the sidebar on this blog. This is because I test it on this site using my considerable search traffic as a measuring stick. Is this right? I tell my readers not to buy a thing on here without asking me. Does this make it ok? Probably not but I have convinced myself that anyone looking for a way to make money and finds my site and doesn't bother reading my posts, well then they can click the ads. Good luck to them. They could have found a few answers but decided to try the get rich quick crap instead of spending a few minutes reading. No skin off my nose. Those who do the reading will find out quick enough that I don't sell stuff to my readers.

My readers are my friends - they trust me. I will not betray that trust in order to make a few bucks. I know Vic is the same way. I know Court is the same way.

I wish Caroline was the same way.

If you have readers then I hope you have the same philosophy. We don't need anymore John Chows.