I have a confession…… I am a bright shiny object collector.
Over the many years I have been working online, I have bought many bright, shiny objects. It becomes a bit of an obsession. You buy something so that you don’t miss out on the one thing that will mean you are successful. You try it for a week or two and give up because you are not getting the results you were expecting. Or even worse, you buy it and never implement it.
Over the last year, I have reduced my purchases and only buy a tool or course which is linked strongly to my core business OR if I want to try it out to see if it is worth recommending it to you. To achieve this, I look at the product and ask myself a few questions.
The questions are
- Is it a loophole? If it is, then I won’t buy it. Loopholes get closed quickly.
- Does it promise quick results? If yes, then experience has taught me that quick results are rare so I don’t purchase it. I also ignore anyone who boasts about the car/house they have – cars and houses can be rented for a photo session.
- Does it promise to work with little or no work? If yes, then I don’t purchase it because very little works without some input buy me.
- Is it to do with designing, low content products or print on demand products – if yes I investigate further.
- Is it to do with creating a business including how to do website design or SEO or marketing or advertising – if yes I investigate further.
- If it is to do with 4 or 5, does it help me work smarter? This includes templates, add-ins and plugins – if yes I investigate further.
- Finally, if I buy it, will I have the time to implement the new idea? If I am working at near full capacity, then I wont have time for anything new.
Why am I telling you this?
There are four reasons. The first is don’t worry that you have been caught up by a great sales page and have bought something you will never use. We have all done it! Set up a file in the cloud and put it in there. When you have time, go back to it and see if applies to you then. If yes, then use it. If not, leave it in the cloud.
The second is if something looks too good to be true – it probably is. I have great fun creating books, courses and other products BUT it is still a job and not a get rich quick scheme.
The third is so you know when I recommend a product to you, I do so because I have looked at it and it will probably fall into points 4, 5, or 6 above.
The final reason is based on my childhood. I asked my Dad if we could go to the Boxing Day Sales (26th December) to get a bargain. He asked me if I needed anything. I admitted I didn’t. He said not to bother because anything I bought, I didn’t want or need, so would never be a bargain.
So whenever I recommend a product, look at it and decide that a) you need it and b) you will use it. It doesn’t matter it will be more expensive next week because if you don’t use it, it isn’t a bargain.