With the rise of online courses, more and more people are wondering if they are legit. Can you really get a good education from an online course? Or is it all just a big scam? In this article, I’ll show you step by step how to determine if the online course you want to buy is or isn’t a scam.
First, we’ve got to understand the why.
It’s really that simple.
If you’re an influencer with a large audience, you can make a lot of money by selling online courses. And if you’re good at what you do, you can make even more money by teaching others how to do it too.
Now, that doesn’t mean all online courses are amazing. If I had to guess, I’d say 80% of them are scams that just regurgitate free information and don’t provide much value. Plus it’s much easier to teach to someone who knows less than you, than it is to be actually successful in the topic they’re teaching.
Another big reason why influencers sell online courses is because they can scale their business. When you have a physical product, you can only sell so many before you run out. But with an online course, you can sell it to an infinite number of people without ever running out.
Rather than provide a service where you have to deliver results, influencers don’t have to promise you an outcome. The outcome is weighs on “how hard” you work. It’s much easier to blame you the customer, than it is to take responsibility for shelling out crappy information. If you fail, well it’s because you didn’t “work hard enough or do the things you were suppose to do”.
The right online course is totally worth it, if and only if you pick the right person to buy from. People don’t do enough research before they jump into a course.
Online courses can really fast track your ability to learn and become an expert in a particular area.
Ok so you’ve been following chad on instagram for about a few months. He regularly talks about crypto. Should you buy his course? Here’s how to see if he’s legit step by step.
Google them, read about them on sites like Quora and Reddit. You can see if there’s any information about them on Youtube. Are people reviewing their course or making any scam videos about them?
Do the reviews have an affiliate link at the end of the video that they want you to click on for an “exclusive discount”? If so, you can’t trust that review, they’re being paid to promote.
Ignore any good reviews on their landing pages. Those are going to of course portray them in a positive light and are super bias.
With every course, there will inevitably be some bad reviews. Take these with a grain of salt and try to understand that some people are disgruntled. When they can’t make it work, they blame the person who created the course. However, if you see multiple bad reviews talking about the same things, that’s never a good sign.
Do they show off their fancy cars and jets. Do they post screenshots of their epic sales? The truth is that the most flashy people are the one’s who are faking it.
If you look up Alex Hormozi, he’s a millionaire and not one of his videos has a Lambo or private jet in them.
People who don’t really have much value to offer you are the one’s compensating with rented cars. They won’t be transparent with you either. Someone who does these things but tells you they’re rented is deemed more trustworthy
Based on probability, there are more people who teach than are actually successful at what they do. If they were that good, they probably wouldn’t need to teach it.
However, some people like to help other and give back. I do believe that knowledge is valuable and if you can make some money and change people’s lives it does make sense.
However, always approach a course with healthy skepticism before making a purchase. Look at the value that these people give away for free before committing to a course. Is the information valuable? Is it something you can actually apply or is it theoretical fluff? Are they just a copy cat videos of every other guru?
Scammers will pay others who are more successful than them to praise them. For example, you can get a cameo shout out from Kevin O Leary for $500 -$1000. For that kind of money, he does a 30 second video congratulating you on your “success”.
I believe that online courses are totally worth it, if you do your due diligence and pick the right one. There’s a lot of crap out there but if you put in the time to research, you can find some gems.
The best way to learn is still by taking action and doing things yourself. However, an online course can help speed up the learning curve.