Blogging Social Media

There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

Robb Sutton51.7K views

I’ll admit…I am starting to get irritated with Twitter and other social media outlets (a lot of bloggers included) as more and more people try to get a free lunch. What do I mean by free lunch? They actually think that by spamming the hell out of everyone…they will get a long lasting income. You know which ones I am talking about. The Twitter user that promises to put your income on autopilot and get you 1,000’s of followers a week (but only has 200 followers themselves), the self-proclaimed gurus with the next get rich quick scheme, the make money with Google experts…they are everywhere! And the more these kinds of wastes of Internet space show up, the harder it is for real business owners and bloggers that want to bring real value to the table to stick their head above the mess.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. There is no quick and easy way to make money online. There is no quick and easy way to get thousands of Twitter followers that want pay your mortgage. Building real businesses that make real income over your lifetime takes hard work and dedication. The only real sustainable growth is slow and steady increases. You wouldn’t even be able to handle a drastic increase if it was handed to you…and besides…you wouldn’t have the tools and knowledge you had built over time to use it properly anyway!

As you look at all of the products and offers online, if it seems too good to be true…it probably is. If that wasn’t the case, we would all be rich off of our South American prince that just needs to move his money and wants to give you a cut! All you have to do is give him all of your banking information right?

As you build your business, bring value…bring hard work…show your readers/followers/customers that you are willing to put in the work it takes to enrich their lives with your product, your content and your dedication. If you want real success…that is the only way of going about it. The rest is just pissing in the wind.

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5 comments

Debbie Ferm January 14, 2010 - 8:28 am
I agree, Robb, and there are always scammers, both online and off. The weird thing is, that it obviously works dollar wise, or it would not keep happening. It's kind of like telemarketing. I've always wondered who actually buys things over an unsolicited phone call, but people actually do. Another internet thing that kind of gets on my nerves (and I'm not saying these people are scammers) are the people who are like 20 years old and they think they are some kind of "life coach", and then you find out they live in their parents' basement. I'm not saying that everyone needs to be educated up the wazoo or be the expert in their field, but some kind of qualifications or credibility would be nice:)
Steve Youngs January 14, 2010 - 1:29 pm
Hi Debbie! From the scammer's POV it's a no-brainer. Do a mass snail mail campaign to every household in your city can cost hundreds even thousands. Do a mass email campaign to hundreds of millions for a TOTAL cost of a few cents. Even if they get only one response in a million, it is still viable. As for the 20 year old life coaches, yeah they annoy me too. But it is the 15 and 16 year old ones that I really can't tolerate. :-)
Shirley January 14, 2010 - 9:39 am
You hit it right on the head, Robb. It's exactly as you've said. Those guys are so irritating, and when I see their tweets on Twitter, I just say well why don't you use it yourself. What irritates me most is those DMs filled with affiliate links. So irritating. And as you said, they are making it hard for one to differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys. Thanks for the article, Robb, it's a good one :).
Steve Youngs January 14, 2010 - 1:20 pm
If it looks like a scam... it's a scam. If you can't decide whether or not it's a scam... it's a scam. If it looks too good to be true... it's DEFINITELY a scam. For anything else... be incredibly wary of and do your homework.
Chad @ Tech201 January 14, 2010 - 10:00 pm
"You wouldn’t even be able to handle a drastic increase if it was handed to you" - You hit the nail on the head with that one, Robb. I, and I'm sure most of us, spend as much free time as is reasonable apart from our regular jobs/family obligations trying to make this blogging thing happen. And we get very excited when a big day of traffic means a couple of hundred visitors. As much as I want a huge spike in the thousands, I know I'm not ready for it and wouldn't have the time to keep that kind of audience right now anyway. Being able to do that will take time to get established, which takes some seriously hard work. Good stuff, as always.
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