When it comes to choosing a coach – whether it’s for internet marketing or anything else – the price is very elastic. Some coaches underprice themselves either deliberately or otherwise. Other coaches seem to turn their telephone number into the price.
Whether any of those prices are affordable will depend on your current circumstances and also where you want to get in your internet marketing.
Coaching can take many different forms. In approximately ascending price order, here are the main ones:
1. PDFs and videos plus some homework
This is the cheapest form of internet marketing coaching.
You may need to dig deep into the sales letter to discover that your “coaching” is really just a sequence of PDF, audio and video files coupled with the occasional piece of homework that may or may not get marked by anyone other than you.
But the first clue is usually the price.
If the coaching is priced at anything from a few dollars to mid-hundreds, there’s a good chance that you won’t get much – if any – personal attention and you’ll be on your own for most of the time.
If you learn well in those circumstances, that could well be the most cost effective method for you.
But if your bookshelf is full of part-finished books and your hard drive is littered with files that seemed a good idea at the time but you’ll never actually open before you pension off your current computer then this type of coaching isn’t for you.
2. Group coaching
Group coaching is usually a weekly, fortnightly or monthly call where you and a group of other people get some time with your coach.
It’s a bit like a time-share.
The call can be a mixture of training and a question and answer session or it can be just questions and answers. The precise format will depend on the coach and how the training was pitched in the first place.
Some people offer a fixed length training, others leave it open ended. You’ll need to read the sales letter carefully to find out what’s on offer or sometimes even click the payment button and read the small print.
The major plus point of group coaching is that you get to talk with your chosen coach without having to pay the full price for their time.
This can work well for a lot of people but you need to have the self discipline to join in the regular calls – there’s rarely a roll call to check whether or not you’ve attended – and to complete any homework assignments that are given out.
3. Individual coaching
This is normally the most expensive option. Anything from a few hundred dollars a month upwards to whatever price you can imagine.
The format will depend on the coach but it has the major advantage that at least some (and quite possibly all) of the package should be able to be tailored to your precise needs.
There is a much higher degree of accountability: you’ve got one-on-one time with your coach and they will be asking for progress reports each time you speak.
This accountability can make all the difference to the results you get.
Partly because there’s a much higher chance that you’ll actually do any homework that’s assigned, partly because the help and advice will be specific to your needs.
If you can find a way to afford it, this kind of individual coaching is far and away the best choice as your results will almost certainly be head and shoulders above the ones you’re likely to achieve with the other options.