subject: Are So-called Internet Marketing Experts Really Experts? [print this page] If you are involved in Internet marketing, sooner or later you will receive offers in your email inbox claiming that they will help you drive more traffic to your site, make your site more appealing and make more money. Who are these people and are they really experts?
Perhaps you simply do not give it a second thought, especially if they can prove themselves in a practical way. Think about this. Would you hire a mechanic just because he or she claimed to be one? Would you go to a doctor who only claimed to be a doctor, but had no credentials hanging on the wall of his or her office. Probably not. The people claiming to be experts in Internet marketing should not be let off the hook from having to prove that they know what they are talking about.
There are some very simple ways to investigate one of these so-called gurus. To start, check the page rank of their websites at Google. You should expect a guru's site to have a reasonably high page rank, preferably higher than three.
Next, check the Alexa ranking of the so-called experts' websites. The Alexa rating shows how much traffic a site is getting. The lower the ranking, the better. Sites with rankings more than one million get very, very little traffic. Once again, the experts should be able to demonstrate that they know how to drive traffic to their own sites.
Testimonials can be quite enlightening to confirm. Most sites that offer products for sale have testimonials that usually include a URL. Go to the URL and see what is there. Sometimes the site cannot be found. Other times it is simply a parked domain name. Hopefully, it will be a legitimate site giving the testimonial, but do not be surprised if it is not.
On the experts' websites, try to figure out what their credentials are. Do they have a college degree in the subject they are supposed to be an expert in? Do they have many years of experience in the field? While a college degree is not necessarily required to be an expert, there is no substitute for experience.
Before you hire someone to assist you with an Internet marketing campaign of any kind, spend some time researching the experience and qualifications of the person you are planning to hire. Doing so will save you money and frustration in the long run.
