As is always going to be the case when a big online event like the Thirty Day Challenge happens, the criticisms and misconceptions begin to fly. It happens to all the big name marketers when they launch a product or do something new. It happens in the offline world as well. Successful people will always have critics. Individuals will always have their opponents.

Some things I’ve heard others say about the Thirty Day Challenge so far:

• They are just teaching affiliate marketing

• They are just teaching social networking

• They have given this tool away for participants to use but there are other tools that do the same thing

• They are teaching people to create spammy blogs

• They are not giving everything away for free – look there are affiliate links on their website!

All these statements can be confusing for people just starting out on their Internet journey and can lead them to doubt what they are learning and who they are learning from. How can they possibly judge which course is best? If you are one of those people facing confusion, it’s worth noting that:

1. Some people criticise a process without first getting all the facts and then following the process through to completion i.e. testing the process to see if it works
2. Many people online become very defensive about their own process and tools for marketing. Instead of observing what others are doing from an analytical standpoint they immediately see it as a criticism of their own methods.
3. It’s easy to criticise the leading names in Internet Marketing, and through creating controversy they draw more people to their own blogs and websites.
4. Any big name on the Internet is going to face criticism, especially when they launch a new product. It happens offline as well. Famous authors, directors, actors all face strong scrutiny when they release something new, and much of it is far from complimentary.
5. People can’t see that free is actually free. They look for a catch. They have to point out what’s in it for the person giving stuff away. They even have to criticise the giver for doing it.

I would like to suggest that people bear these points in mind when following the Thirty Day Challenge (or any Internet Marketing process for that matter):

• There’s more than one way to skin a cat! Meaning, there is more than one way to create an online business. People have succeeded creating businesses online using many different methods, so no one method is necessarily best

• If you start following a process (in this case the Thirty Day Challenge) you are most likely to succeed if you pursue it through to its conclusion. Giving up halfway through because you can’t see the outcome, or switching to another process because someone else slammed the current one or made a great case for their process being better is not an effective use of you time and efforts. Have a little faith and follow the process exactly. If it doesn’t work for you then you can move on (in this case after only a month of your time)

• Personalities clash online and offline. You may not warm to a particular teacher and/or their methods but that doesn’t mean they are wrong and does not give you or someone else the right to flame them. If you truly believe you have been ripped off then follow the appropriate legal path. Trying to discredit them online is beneath you and serves no purpose except to make you unhappy. Your energy would be better spent becoming successful yourself.

• Trust that the process you are following has been tested and proven. I can’t speak for all online marketers and I do believe you have to be discerning in your choices, but I know that the Thirty Day Challenge system has been tested over and over again by the lab to ensure it works. And they have the added difficulty of finding a process that will work for thousands of people all using the same tools and methods at exactly the same time. Most Internet Marketers are only teaching their method to a fraction of those people.

• Show gratitude to the people who give their time and a lot of energy to try and teach you new things. Not everyone has an ulterior motive. No, they wouldn’t be Internet Marketing “gurus” if they didn’t make a good living out of it (that is true) but many of them only choose to teach their methods because they have a desire to help others. The Ed Dales, Dan Raines, Jeff Walkers and Jason Moffatts of this world all know how to make a lot of money online, and would probably make even more money if they focussed solely on non-Internet Marketing products – that’s how they became the experts in the first place. But something compels them to share their knowledge and success with others. I may sound naive to some of you – and I know that many people start teaching “making money online” because they think there is a fast buck to be made – but if a person is an established online marketer and has been at the top of their profession for some time and others hold them in high regard, then there is probably a good reason for that.

• We’re all human. Some people we will like, some we will find annoying, abrasive or arrogant (got to love alliteration). Some people will not warm to you and your style either. When I was a radio presenter I used to have people criticise me all the time – not everyone liked my style, what I said or the way I said it. But I also had enough people (thankfully) who loved listening to me. You can never please all of the people all of the time.

• The great thing about the Internet (and radio) is you can shut out the people you don’t like. If you don’t like their Twitters, their constant promotions by email or their Facebook invites then you just turn them off/block them/stop following them. If you decide you don’t like their personality and would rather not learn from them, you never have to deal with the again. Just walk away (figuratively, of course).

In terms of the Thirty Day Challenge specifically, I hate people criticising what Ed and Dan do. They are two of the finest and most giving people I have ever met, but I understand that other people have their own opinions and experiences. However, I will defend them to the hilt if someone makes a slur on their character or suggests that they are not as honest and transparent as they make out.

I could go into great detail responding to those earlier comments but I can’t be bothered! There are too many other things to be doing right now and it just demeans me and my time to enter into petty arguments. I simply suggest they (and you) follow the training through in full before passing judgement, and if you have any questions, concerns or comments you can join us on the forum to air them (I’ll try to be polite).

If you are still on the search for the Holy Grail – the best Internet Marketing course ever – then I’ll let you in on the secret. The best Internet Marketing course is…..the one you finish and take action on.

Best Internet Marketing Course? is a post from: Internet Marketing Geek Girl. Head over to the blog to read more..

Related Internet Marketing posts:

1. Thirty Day Challenge 2008
2. Marketing Lessons in Shopping Bags
3. Another Thirty Day Challenge is Over…so How Did I Do?