[anonymousadguy]

I recently did a Google search for "get rich quick," thinking I'd see results ridiculing and cautioning against all the crazy scams out there. And there were a few. But what blew my mind was that most search results led to sites that actually promised me ways to get rich, and quick. Some things never change.

My favorite listing of all? The one that warned me how “almost all of the get rich quick schemes online are scams, EXCEPT THESE THREE, so click here now!” That's gold.

Then I narrowed to marketing and small business terms. More of the same crap, targeted squarely at the small business person. It makes me sick.

Let’s be clear: you do not need to spend several hundred dollars on CD recordings of some schlub's seminar. Period. There's a reason why that schlub is online peddling crap, and not actually out there building successful brands. Because he's a schlub, and he needs to go back to the used car lot.

Try this: read a couple of good books. A truly good book on the topic will do more for you than any packet of droning blather telling you “How to get thousands of referrals this instant,” or “Make millions placing tiny ads right now,” or “My five super-golden, diamond-studded secrets for email success!!!”

Read Positioning.

Read Harvard Business's Marketer's Toolkit.

Read Good To Great.

Read The Art Of The Start.

To better understand the way the consumer mind works, read The Tipping Point.

If you find yourself writing your own ads, the most important book you can read is Elements Of Style. Just dust off that old copy you have from high school.

Read books by people who have actually done what you want to do.

Forget reading (or buying) stuff from people who seem to come out of nowhere, label themselves as gurus, and promise the moon. Your business doesn't need the moon. It needs a smart strategy for generating enough sales revenue to help it grow.

Let’s put the schlubs on notice.

Anonymous Ad Guy

[DDY]

Great post, amen.

[AchieveWithAdam]

It's funny how often common sense fails to prevail, and people get started in business for themselves or take part in a business opportunity looking to "get rich quick" or make come easy cash.

Anything worth having in life takes work. Period. End of story

[spencerxi]

achieve with adam,

look at your signature ????? how can you even post on this topic

[anonymousadguy]

Oh man, that's funny.