For over a year, we’ve been publishing The Wealth Vault, which is an all-encompassing compilation of researched & vetted wealth-building resources and investment vehicles. Everything is tested and evaluated before being included in the vault, and while no actual “recommendations” are made, nothing without value makes it through the rigorous process.

Now, just to be clear, The Wealth Vault has nothing to do with marketing or running a business. It’s for people who want to use money to make more money, in unconventional ways (i.e. not just by sticking it in a savings account at your local bank). In other words, income to be made through any Wealth Vault resource is almost exclusively through passive investments.

As we all know, marketing and selling is not about passive income (and if you don’t know, read my post called Why Marketing and Passive Income Don’t Mix). But not all income needs to be passive; if you have a passion, want to help others by sharing it, see value in creating more value, and just generally want to DO and ACCOMPLISH things in life, you might very well want to start a business venture.

Of course, these days running an online business is the top choice for many. Start-up costs are minimal, audience reach is greater, and leveraged opportunities are generally more abundant online than in a traditional offline brick-and-mortar business.

As someone who has interviewed and/or worked with nearly everybody who’s anybody in the internet marketing and online entrepreneur community, through a journey that has continued for six years and counting, I have come to a few conclusions:

>> The term “internet marketing” was coined to set it apart from “network marketing” and “multi-level marketing” as well as make a clear distinction from running an offline business. However, it’s limiting and misleading because it implies that “marketing” is all that’s involved in making money online, whereas that’s only true if you choose to be simply an “affiliate marketer” — promoting other people’s stuff — and never want to create anything of value yourself. If you do feel a desire to give more value to the world, you’ve entered the realm of running a “business”. That includes content creation, sales, product delivery, customer service and more, not just “marketing” on the internet.

>> And, just because running a business — even if it is 100% web-based —  involves more than just marketing, there’s no rulebook that says you have to do all — or any — of the various processes yourself. Partnering with others and hiring people to do what they do best, while you focus on doing what you do best, are always options.

>> If you want to learn how to do all, or some, of this yourself, there are many options that allow you to focus on one thing. I always advise choosing what courses to invest in based on your strengths and interests. If you hate testing, tracking and being analytical, for example, stay away from Google AdWords; however, you might have fun with video marketing (and vice-versa if you hate performing but were a math whiz in school).

>> There are truly some pioneers in internet marketing and business building who have put out some valuable products and services to help people get up and running, and then grow, an online business. These people are often called “gurus”, and the recent backlash against them is not always (but sometimes) deserved.

>> When the criticism is NOT deserved, the finger-pointing comes from a place of poverty consciousness instead of prosperity consciousness.

>> When the criticism IS deserved, the “guru’s” ego has grown as big as his income, and the focus has gone from helping others to profiting as much as possible; ironically, that also comes from a place of poverty consciousness instead of prosperity consciousness, but this time from the other side of the coin (the “teacher” instead of the “student”).

>> There’s also a rash of people, who would like to be included among the “gurus”, but have never created, devised or perfected any valuable part of the business-building process. Instead, they simply re-hash what others have done and call themselves “mentors”, “coaches” or “teachers”. Around here, we always question why they feel the need to be the ones teaching something that they’re really just learning and implementing themselves.

>> Since so many people are trying to be their own teachers (no doubt taught by some other “teacher” that they should “be an expert” and “create a product”), there seems to be a complete lack of resources that actually test, evaluate and compile the best-of-the-best from the true experts. I’m not talking about “review sites” or “scam sites” (more on that in my article called Ever Been Scammed by a “Scam Detective”?), and I’m not talking about sending out emails, blog posts and newsletters hawking this product, and that launch, from others… all that is just meant to promote something through “affiliate marketing”, which I mentioned in the first point. What we see missing is all-encompassing research-based resources you can trust, like The Wealth Vault but for non-passive income.

So, here’s what we’d like to know:

>> Have you found such a resource that really gives it to you straight, in an unbiased way? Something that includes various business-building, marketing, and selling resources, tools, and usable advice from different vendors, and focuses on all the aspects you need to run an online business?

>> Have you found individual products or teachers that you feel are worthy of being included in such a resource, if one existed?

I’m not saying we’re going to start such a resource… and I’m not saying we’re not. We’re just curious as to what you’ve found out there that works for you, and what you feel is lacking.

Leave your comments below…

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Filed under: Business Development, Marketing - Selling, Online / Passive Income