I saw this today —

The person Naval Gupta is referring to a particular facebook group (yes, the digital marketing group), which is quite a popular one.

But, here are some problems I repeatedly keep seeing with the so-called “digital marketers” and this industry:

• They breathe on webinars and workshops: At any given day, you get 5-10 emails, asking you to sign up for their webinars, or attend workshops, etc. 
• They provide NO value in their emails: The sole intention is to only make you sign up, and eventually buy something. I mean, give me a break!
• Big claims, no results: The claim is “make 1 crore doing X (X is either starting an agency, or affiliate marketing, or earn money online, or insert whatever you have been pitched). But, the result is nothing. You know why? Because, it’s just not realistic. I’d rather promise you a result which is achievable (for eg: use these 4 techniques to come up with 10 online business ideas), than to brag about some baseless claims simply for the click-baits

My questions to them:

• What are you providing me first? Any value?
• Have you built a relationship with me first? Oh no wait, I am only sold all the time with some random email marketing software
• How are you solving my problems? Have you written any content, email, article about it? Or is it just to please the search engines?
• Do you even know me? If I replied to your email, will you take the time to answer?

This whole digital marketing industry is filled with people whose core monetization strategy is to show you dreams of “laptop lifestyle”, with literally 0 efforts to –

• provide REAL value
• develop deep 1-1 relationship with their readers and subscribers
• focus on their reader and student results 

What I have observed is there are primarily 3 types of people:

1. Digital marketers, (as they like to call themselves) who only sell courses, programs, and provide NO VALUE
2. Scamsters, spammers, so called bloggers: I do not even want to talk about how unethically they trick people (hint: Open your instagram or facebook, and chances are you will see an ad from “Mr. Ram Singh”, a digital marketing “expert”
3. People who do sell something, but also provide 10X value through their website, articles, emails, etc. first (eg: an in-depth article on starting a business)

The last one is SUPER RARE. I mean, you can count that list on your fingers

Why this Entire Digital Marketing Feels Like a Fraud

Story #1:

Months ago, I got in touch with another “expert”, someone in the personal finance domain, who wanted a guest article for his blog.

So, we discussed on — topics to write, what will it include, etc. which would be highly valuable to his readers.

He agreed.

I started researching, writing, editing, etc. Spent almost 3 weeks to create an article super valuable, high quality, and very actionable.

Think about the effort you spend when you pour all your time behind something, adding more, deleting, perfecting it, to make it the absolute best. I’ve spent years perfecting my craft and copy, so that each piece I create I aim to create it the best. 

What happened next? 

Oh, you can only imagine, but I’ll show you.

I can show you other screenshots where this guy never bothered to respond to my chats AFTER I completed the article. Only after months does he gets back with such a reply.

My favorite part is when the same guy talks about ethics, values, principles, etc. in his emails.

It’s a joke, and a shame.

One of my readers shared his experience in personally working with him, here’s one screenshot of our conversation – 

Story #2

Some other “blogging expert” I met at Starbucks. I spoke to him about his content, his plan in further, and how does he plan to provide value to this readers.

His response?

“Hey, bro. Who cares about them? The important thing is I earn enough to travel the world. Here, check all the countries I have visited”

And of course, he went on to say which countries he’d visited.

Fakeness v/s Authenticity

I can give you countless examples and stories behind why this so-called digital marketing industry is flawed and in so many ways feels like a fraud, but you get the picture here. 

There was once someone I found who directly plagiarized my article onto his website. When I reached out to him, he deletes that article, but never responds to my emails.

I am not saying I am the most credible guy on this planet, there are many out there who are far better than me.

But, I am personally offended when the industry is crowded with such people, who ONLY pitch everyday, and does no real value addition to the audience.

An authentic person is someone who:

• provides real value (meaning – you just know this guy is authentic and not talking BS)
• brutally honest with you (even if that means telling something you might not like)
• shows you realistic promises (v/s fake claims of “do affiliate marketing and make a million bucks!”)
• gives you detailed techniques, proven business ideas, step-by-step material, actionable content, concrete examples, etc.

Btw — I’m not devaluing anyone’s work here, all of us are putting in efforts. But, my point is — are people providing enough value? That is the true question you should ask.

If you don’t like me, no problem, I encourage you to leave my website and never subscribe to my emails. At the end, only follow someone you connect and resonate with. 

My only objective with this article is to emphasize the importance of — who should you listen to, and who should you not listen to. There is just so much noise out there.