Mentoring and Coaching Programs

I wondered for awhile if I need a coach or mentor to see what I was missing. It IS the fastest way to learn it all at once. That is: 1) learn how to find a sellable product, 2) build a website to sell it and 3) market it. It costs some dough, of course.

I tend to be a DYI'er myself and learned a lot the hard, slow way. Now, I do recommend most people should seek a mentor or coaching program if they can afford it. Ah, but you really must be careful when choosing one. (Yep, scams there too - and EXPENSIVE ones!)

Surely a coach should speed up your learning curve if you are willing to put in the time and work they expect. That's why they "interview you", to make sure you are "ready". I understand. They do WANT you to succeed. Even though they clearly do NOT GUARANTEE it.

Most of the true Internet experts offer some sort of mentoring program to get you on the fast track. They teach you what they know that works. That's GOOD!

BEWARE though - Be SURE to find a credible expert for your coaching or mentoring program. There are a bunch of them out here that may talk you into spending thousands of dollars on their programs and they will only be a BIG WASTE of money!

There are also a bunch of MLM systems that declare they will coach you and teach you everything you need to know. These are actually the WORST of them, I found. They really are adding you to their downline and hoping to take a big percentage of your profits. Of course, they say they will help you. They rarely do. I have never heard of anyone happy with their MLM experiences - except for the people on their training calls. Everyone (me too) tries them for a few months, then drops them as a waste of time and money. (Vemma Juice, anyone?)

That does NOT mean that you CAN'T learn Internet Marketing and become successful on your own. Or, that a coaching program teaches the ONLY "formula" for making a profit online. I hope you soon see that there are many ways to profit online, as well as many ways to get scammed.

Shorten Your Learning Curve and Get a Fast Start to Profitability

If you want a fast start and can afford money and can put in the time, I recommend you consider a credible mentoring program. Just don't agree to one because they called you on the telephone. They CAN be a scams, or really fall short of your expectations. As an entrepreneur, you will get yourself on lists, email and phone lists, and people will call you with pushy sales pitches. BE SURE to do your research!

Don't let telephone sales pressure convince you to try anything you are not ready for, even if you have researched the organization. Unfortunately, that's why I took the program I mentioned below. Once again, I learned a valuable lesson that I wanted to share with you here at PlanBreview.

My First Coaching Program Experience (ouch):

I am adding my take on coaching programs a few months after completing one. Ok, I just had to see if I was missing anything. I decided to invest $8000 in an known expert that was recommended by one of the mentors I had trusted. I won't mention who.

For me it was NOT worth the money. They offered to help me setup my company. I already had done that years earlier. They did have a credible team of coaches and I did learn a few things. I felt more confidence in article marketing and finding "the right keywords". I learned more about linking strategies which are important to get traffic and better rankings.

But was it worth my $8000 - NO! I had already learned most of what is here at PlanBreview already. The only add for me was the additional motivation of working with a coach for a short time. You have to do the work. You need to keep adding good content and getting more incoming links. OR, you can pay for advertising. There is no free ride. You just have to take action.

Update as of 6 months later: Actually I am pleased with improvement of natural traffic to my decorating website since I applied the lessons learned from my mentoring program. However, my conversion sucks. They didn't help me with product selection and presentation, just forming a corporation (I didn't need) and getting traffic to my website. Oh, they would have helped me build my website too, but of course, I didn't need help there either.

The mentoring program I took certainly did not live up to my expectations. I've been undertaking a huge website redesign. No I'm not adding flash and graphics, I'm changing the domain name to equal an important keyword. THIS should have been done before I did all the linking. I wish I had thought more about my domain name. Again, live and learn. I still may give up on that website altogether. It's ok; I've got others;-)

Lately I've learned more about FOCUS and product selection. I learned how to get traffic from that expensive coach, but not how to make a good offer focused on a single product and build a list and proceed to offer more related products.

I have finally learned it is best to provide a YES or NO offer right up front. You should too. I'm fixing up most of my websites - again!

Mentoring or coaching programs may be the most expensive business opportunities you will receive. Please be sure to do your research. Only consider those you find credible and are highly recommended!

I have a friend who signed up and was very satisfied with a full-service mentoring program he took from Derek Gehl and the Internet Marketing Center awhile back.

My friend has a couple ebooks now on black mold and a very professional website for selling them. I know one step IMC used was to coach him through product selection. He didn't know what to market. (Been there.) When we first met, he didn't even mention that he was an expert on black mold, but IMC brought that out of him. It was a good "sellable" product.

The Internet Marketing Center, IMC, is very credible, as is Derek Gehl, and was Corey Rudl, his mentor. They have a proven formula for success with focused product websites. They teach website design, credibility, the ping and buzz strategies I love for SEO marketing, and great viral tools. I've used his "Secrets" course from the beginning and it is a great guide to getting a website up and start making profits.

I now recommend the Internet Entrepreneurs Club, a new subscription coaching service from IMC. Their monthly fees are low enough that most anyone can afford them and they provide one-on-one help every step of the way. Read more about the Internet Entrepreneurs Club here.