Are you not achieving the level on on-line success that you
desire? Are you not making enough sales for the products and
services that you promote? Are you having trouble finding that
program that's going to give you that BIG break? Are you still
looking for that "silver bullet?" If you answered yes to all or
most of the above questions then your problem may be that you are
riding on the "hype train."

What exactly is the "hype train?" It's a term I coined to
describe the ride taken by people getting pumped up (excited)
about every great product they read about. They haven't yet found
that product that's making them incredible riches. They jump from
product to product searching frantically for that one product.
They jump from car to car on a train that's taking them nowhere!

You need to be aware of how the hype train works so that you
don't get on for the most futile ride of your life!

The success of the hype train is fueled by a number of human
faults. The biggest one that I've noticed is what's termed the
"herd mentality." This is very noticeable in the "internet
marketing" arena.

Humans are reassured when they see others doing the same things
they are doing, or doing things that they are contemplating.

That's part of why testimonials work in advertising. We are not
sure that we are about to make the correct decision, but we get a
"warm fuzzy" when we see those we believe are savvy individuals
making the choice we are contemplating.

If those we follow are making good choices, that can be good....
it saves us the trouble of doing all of our own research.

Where the herd mentality gets us in trouble is when we let fear
of missing out cause us to take action. If we read about a new
product or service and get involved because we fear that
hesitating will cause us to totally miss out, we often make bad
decisions.

We fail to reason that if a product or service is really that
great, the demand will still be there tomorrow and we do have
time to "sleep on" the decision. If the market is so limited that
thinking about it for a day or two will cause you to lose out,
then you should probably pass anyway!

As we contemplate our decision to get involved in promoting a
product or service, hype often rears it's ugly head.

I define hype as things designed to get us so excite about a
product or service that we don't examine it objectively. Laws and
standards often keep the hype from being blatant lies. Instead,
the positive points are emphasized and the negative aspects are
never presented.

An example of this is when an affiliate program manager tells of
the affiliate making $10,000 a month. If he fails to mention that
this affiliate is not "average" and gives the impression that
many, many affiliates are achieving this income level, then it's
"hype."

Hype is used in the internet marketing arena and many others
because it works. People have to see the "potential" in an
opportunity. If an affiliate program manager spent a lot of
effort emphasizing that most affiliates never make any sales, he
would get very few signups. It doesn't matter that the reason
most affiliates for many programs never make any sales is that
they never do anything to promote the product.

Those drawn to the hype often enthusiastically embrace what
appears to be a really promising product or service. As soon as
they get on the train and get settled in for the ride, they look
over at another car and see another business opportunity that
they can't afford to miss. The herd mentality kicks in and they
jump into the next car. As the train chugs along these people
jump from car to car.

All of this unfocused activity rarely produces significant
results and the person soon dozes off to sleep.... tired and
disillusioned. He awaken day after day and continues his frantic
jump from car to car never seeing how unproductive it all is.

How do you avoid taking a ride on the hype train?

You take a hard look at any product or service that you are
thinking of promoting. You look for real value and long-term
potential. You confirm that it's not just a product that in a
week will be old news and will have left a lot of disappointed
purchasers in it's wake. You acknowledge that the true path to
earning a decent living on-line is marketing products and
services that deliver real quality and value.

Delivering real quality and value produces repeat customers, and
this gives you a steadily growing income.

Now that you are aware of the hype train, you can avoid the ride.
You can ensure that you don't help finance a train that only
leads many to terrible train wrecks. Now you can look for that
gravy train that is on the true track to long-term business
success. It's at the same station, you just need to make sure you
get on the right train.