One of the most common questions I see people asking online, is why do some people fall for those scam ebooks, which promise to make them rich? They are clearly bullshit, so how come people buy them?
There are 2 reasons these books sell, even though they are obviously bogus.
1. They are not aimed at you
Those ebooks are designed to convince people, who are a lot less savvy than you. People like you don’t buy those books, because you can see through the BS. However, like all successfully marketed products, those get rich quick books have their marketing designed to appeal to a niche, target market. Their target market is people who are desperate and ill-informed. Thus, their marketing message is designed for people like them, not people like you, which is why you can see right through it.
2. They offer hope
Those books offer hope, albeit false hope, to people who are often in hopeless situations. When people have debts, with no sign of money on the horizon and a family to look after, they will often act irrationally. In an effort to find a way out, a $30 ebook promising to make them rich or give them a few grand a month, is suddenly an option that they will consider.
Once they are in that frame of mind, there’s a very good chance they will buy the book. They see the fake testimonials and fake bank statements and actually want to believe them. At that point, they are looking for reasons to proceed, so that’s what they see. They need hope and the ebook offers it to them.
It’s easy to be harsh on people who waste their money on these scams, but sadly there are a lot of people out there right now looking for a way out of debt and financial hardship. Being broke is bad enough, but the feeling of being broke and knowing you just wasted another $30 on a scam must feel awful.
The best we can do, is share some free education (like this post) and hope it helps people think a little harder, before they part with their money for crap, at a point when they can least afford to.