The other night I was listening to a tele-seminar with Internet Marketing Master (I avoid the term guru) Ross Goldberg, and one of the darndest things happened.

You see, Ross is unique as a successful online marketer in that he has weekly open-line teleseminar calls where his subscribers and customers can call and talk to him in person.

Only last night was different, because one of his so-called subscribers got on the line and started asking rather challenging questions of Ross. 

Calling him out, as it were.

The caller wanted to know Ross’ exact earnings based on the claims he had made in various teleconferences or seminars or on his website sales letters.

And not just that, he was challenging him on the fact that he had made differing claims from one source of media to another.

Fortunately, Ross kept a pretty cool head during this interrogation, and told the caller to basically look at his sales letters and then he can see his proof of earnings there.

He also said that if the guy was a coaching client he may be more inclined to disclose his full earnings, due to the large cost of one-on-one coaching.  

But for a free teleconference, neither Ross nor many of his loyal supporters on the line saw any reason for him to go into any great detail about his penny by penny earnings.

I have to say, it was a most uncomfortable call for most of us in attendance. 

Especially Ross, I’m sure.  

And after the 10 minutes or so that the caller and Ross debated, the discussion continued along those same lines - even after the caller hung up - for about another 30 minutes.

In fact, after the guy hung up, Ross then proceeded to reveal to the rest of us some of the details of his long haul in internet marketing from day one to the present. 

He also disclosed some of his trials and tribulations - and that his income had not always been steady and predictable.

So, if the caller’s intention was to disrupt the call (as many of us thought it was), he succeeded big time. 

But he also got Ross to open up in a way he might not have otherwise.  Really, pretty enlightening.

While it wasn’t the most educational or teaching-oriented call that I’ve ever listened to,  I have to say that there were a couple of distinct lessons that I learned from it.

Lesson One -

Anyone who dares to stick their head up above the crowd is bound to catch a tomato or two once in a while.

In this case we’re talking about someone who has had a good deal of success on the internet being challenged to prove the earnings he has claimed through various means in the past.

I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes:

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."  
  –  Theodore Roosevelt (26th U.S. President)

Several of the attendees thought that the caller was very hateful and was trying to exact some sort of revenge on Ross.  

And that may be so, but his questions were also quite valid…

Which brings me to…

Lesson Two -

Whenever you use financial social proof in ANY format, be it live at a seminar, on a tele-seminar or in print somewhere like on a webpage, make sure you’re consistent with the numbers you use.

And don’t you dare exaggerate!  It’s better to understate and then overdeliver, than vice versa, you know?

Personally, I’m NOT a big fan of how some of the master marketers use their financial statements to prove that their product can earn you money.  

Because quite frankly, their earnings have no bearing whatsoever on what I might earn. The appeal is to the reader’s greed gland and not a more realistic view of what a novice might expect to earn with the product.

So, while it was the most bizarre internet marketing call I’ve ever listened in on (and participated in), I still managed to extract a couple of valuable lessons from it.

In Part 2 of this article I expound a bit on the topic of Internet Marketing Masters And Their Finances.
 

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