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Like many, I was tempted into these same areas - driven by success stories and my own technical knowledge which fooled me into thinking it would be "easy". Wha

Like many, I was tempted into these same areas - driven by success stories and my own technical knowledge which fooled me into thinking it would be "easy". What I found is there's lot of money to be made in... telling people how to make money! Those guys like Shoemaker who have an almost cult following end up making an empire on those in the "pyramid" below them. Not to say this is shady, just that the real "riches" are in charging people to tell then how ... not in actually practicing what you preach.

butwhy 12y ago
I disagree. He probably makes a bit of cash on that but he has a lot of case studies that show legitimate success. He's the kind of guy who explains exactly how he did it as well.
- josefresco 12y ago
  Yes Shoemaker does both well - however beyond the superstars, there's a huge network of "how to make money online" websites/people whos income dwarfs those who are actually practicing the concepts.
beachstartup 12y ago
in norcal tech lingo it's called "selling shovels to the miners".
simonebrunozzi 12y ago
I like to say that gold rushes make the showel sellers rich, not the gold seekers.
- rjm226 12y ago
  Levi's
timepiece 12y ago
This always disturbs me that only a handful people make it big such as Shoemaker while the rest of the population sample barely make ends meet. I don't know if this has anything to do with some obscure physical law like these phenomenons that best described by a normal/Gaussian distribution or just explained by the probability theory (read: sheer luck) and the success ratio of this magnitude in these "games" or life in general is very slim and thus people should not get that excited to imitate them or feel down and dejected if they don't. Certainly, wealth and power distribution on Earth is one of these life mysteries that kept and will keep puzzling humans for a long time to come.
- kokey 12y ago
  Have you read The Black Swan yet? If you haven't, it sounds like you might enjoy it.
- pjonesdotca 12y ago
  Taleb has said before (it could have been in 'Black Swan') that focusing just on the successful massively distorts the reality of the curve. So much so that it would be more important to study as many of the failures than and all but ignore the successes.
hackerboos 12y ago
To be honest, HN is full of this stuff too - Double your freelancing - Guys who create a not-very-well-known startup and then start pushing guides on how to be successful - Email marketing, write 3 tutorials on topic X to build your list and then spam your ebook. Don't get me wrong, things are better targeted and less shady. It just feels like people spend more time selling their systems than they do using them. It looks like 'snake oil'.
- mootothemax 12y ago
  To be honest, HN is full of this stuff too Agreed, and some of it (as you mention) is quite ingeniously marketed as well, e.g. pushing a load of free content that occasionally suggests using a certain SaaS app as part of the success strategy. It just feels like people spend more time selling their systems than they do using them. It looks like 'snake oil'. I'm not sure that it's always snake oil exactly, more that it's simply easier for these people to make their money training others, especially compared to making money with the systems they're pushing.
  - smacktoward 12y ago
    There will always be a market for selling people messages that they desperately want to hear.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  First you sell the stuff you mine from the ground, then you sell shovels to the miners, then you hire the miners and make them dig stuff out of the ground for you that you sell. The final stage is selling miners to other mining companies.
  - egypturnash 12y ago
    This is starting to sound like an incremental game.
  - kolinko 12y ago
    The final stage is selling stuff that helps people sell miners to other mining companies.
gadders 12y ago
Ramit Sethi does this as well. An info product on how to see info products...
- SonicSoul 12y ago
  He is an amazing speaker and an even better marketer. But every time I get lulled into signing up for his newsletter I have to unsubscribe after a few months because the amount of self promoting fud is unbearable. But even he admitted that a lot of his readers skip straight to the "buy" link because they like him so much, so I guess the ratio of value to promotion can shift noticeably once you have the audience

butwhy 12y ago

I disagree. He probably makes a bit of cash on that but he has a lot of case studies that show legitimate success. He's the kind of guy who explains exactly how he did it as well.

josefresco 12y ago
Yes Shoemaker does both well - however beyond the superstars, there's a huge network of "how to make money online" websites/people whos income dwarfs those who are actually practicing the concepts.

beachstartup 12y ago

in norcal tech lingo it's called "selling shovels to the miners".

simonebrunozzi 12y ago

I like to say that gold rushes make the showel sellers rich, not the gold seekers.

rjm226 12y ago
Levi's

timepiece 12y ago

This always disturbs me that only a handful people make it big such as Shoemaker while the rest of the population sample barely make ends meet. I don't know if this has anything to do with some obscure physical law like these phenomenons that best described by a normal/Gaussian distribution or just explained by the probability theory (read: sheer luck) and the success ratio of this magnitude in these "games" or life in general is very slim and thus people should not get that excited to imitate them or feel down and dejected if they don't. Certainly, wealth and power distribution on Earth is one of these life mysteries that kept and will keep puzzling humans for a long time to come.

kokey 12y ago
Have you read The Black Swan yet? If you haven't, it sounds like you might enjoy it.
pjonesdotca 12y ago
Taleb has said before (it could have been in 'Black Swan') that focusing just on the successful massively distorts the reality of the curve. So much so that it would be more important to study as many of the failures than and all but ignore the successes.

hackerboos 12y ago

To be honest, HN is full of this stuff too - Double your freelancing - Guys who create a not-very-well-known startup and then start pushing guides on how to be successful - Email marketing, write 3 tutorials on topic X to build your list and then spam your ebook. Don't get me wrong, things are better targeted and less shady. It just feels like people spend more time selling their systems than they do using them. It looks like 'snake oil'.

mootothemax 12y ago
To be honest, HN is full of this stuff too Agreed, and some of it (as you mention) is quite ingeniously marketed as well, e.g. pushing a load of free content that occasionally suggests using a certain SaaS app as part of the success strategy. It just feels like people spend more time selling their systems than they do using them. It looks like 'snake oil'. I'm not sure that it's always snake oil exactly, more that it's simply easier for these people to make their money training others, especially compared to making money with the systems they're pushing.
- smacktoward 12y ago
  There will always be a market for selling people messages that they desperately want to hear.
jacquesm 12y ago
First you sell the stuff you mine from the ground, then you sell shovels to the miners, then you hire the miners and make them dig stuff out of the ground for you that you sell. The final stage is selling miners to other mining companies.
- egypturnash 12y ago
  This is starting to sound like an incremental game.
- kolinko 12y ago
  The final stage is selling stuff that helps people sell miners to other mining companies.

gadders 12y ago

Ramit Sethi does this as well. An info product on how to see info products...

SonicSoul 12y ago
He is an amazing speaker and an even better marketer. But every time I get lulled into signing up for his newsletter I have to unsubscribe after a few months because the amount of self promoting fud is unbearable. But even he admitted that a lot of his readers skip straight to the "buy" link because they like him so much, so I guess the ratio of value to promotion can shift noticeably once you have the audience