What is Shiny Object Syndrome and does it even exist?

You might wonder what I am on about and what it has to do with online marketing and making money online. But I can assure you that it is very real and is, in my opinion, one of the biggest traps a newbie entrepreneur or someone just starting out in affiliate marketing or starting an online business, or someone wanting to simply improve their life can fall into.

In a nutshell, it’s all about being distracted by either numerous business opportunities, ideas or products or the next best thing to come out since sliced bread. I am writing this piece to talk about the financial dangers associated with Shiny Object Syndrome and my husband’s experience with this condition and how it caused us so many problems.

My husband started off with an idea of starting a blog and publishing his fictional work on Amazon Kindle. But because the Internet is so full of distractions, of people trying to sell you something, he got distracted from his main goal of being a writer and blogger because he caught Shiny Object Syndrome. He went after the Holy Grail of software, a one button fix to make money quick online and deliver instant life changing results. As a result, he lost sight of what he originally set out to do.

The type of Shiny Object Syndrome I am talking about in this article is the addiction to buying purchases, subscriptions, sometimes lifetime subscriptions to cloud-based software or online apps that can be anything from a funnel and website builder, an ebook creation software, or some fancy piece of video creation and editing software, to software that promises to rank your videos or content to the top of Google. It can also be a course aimed at improving your life, or a video course bundled together with a piece of software that makes big promises of driving X amount of traffic to your affiliate offers, products and make you big money.

Let me first start by saying there is no such software in existence, be it the kind you download onto your desktop or the cloud based kind that can make you X amount of big bucks with just a few mouse clicks or finger swipes (if you are using a tablet or phone). And no course online that can deliver instant, life changing results in your life. If there ever is, you are welcome to comment and show me the proof and I’ll eat my words.

Let’s face it, there are lots of Shiny Object like software and courses out there on the internet. The most popular sites I know where you can find them are Clickbank, JVZoo and Warrior Plus. Obviously, there are many more but the fact is, these sites have products created by people who make big and sometimes outrageous comments that promise you big money, life changing results if you invest in their products or courses. My husband went through a phase where he was obsessed with buying lifetime subscriptions to cloud based softwares that could make funnels, websites, create professional looking videos, fancy social media posts, even software that claimed they were fully fledged, all-in-one businesses in a box that presented a whole host of online tools that you could use to provide services to people on sites like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer etc. My husband’s favourite ones were the types of software that promised number one rankings on Google, that claimed it could reverse engineer Googles algorithm and get thousands of visitors to your sites, videos etc.

My husband was literally obsessed with these types of software. His email address was literally spammed by affiliate marketers that were trying to sell the next best Shiny Object. And most of them were. He would literally buy what was known as the Front-End version of the cloud based software he was interested in, only to be presented with a series of upsells, where, if you invest more money, you can get the Pro version, the Enterprise version, or with a couple hundred bucks, resell the whole software depending on how skilled you were as an affiliate marketer. Nearly every software on sites like JVZoo and Warrior had upsells. The front end version of a particular cloud based software only presented you with the basic functions of that software and to unlock yet more of the software, you literally had to buy the upsells. Sometimes the software, say for instance if it was the kind that created videos, would require a monthly subscription to buy assets like images or video clips, and enable unlimited video creation or a funnel builder that for a small fee, would pay for hosting costs and each month, unlock new elements and tools to create new funnels. These are only examples.

The danger was that my husband could not stop buying these online software tools and courses. He would end up with three or even four video creation software, two website builders, probably even three courses on The Law Of Attraction all teaching the same thing. He became distracted from his original goal of making money online from his writing and instead did nothing more than waste money and dabble in what he had brought. It was a vicious and destructive habit.

My husband literally maxed out his credit card twice, buying these lifetime and sometimes monthly subscriptions. Many of these so-called-shiny-objects promised big results, hardly any delivered. Now I don’t know whether it was to do with my husband and the way he used the software or whether he followed the courses. There was certainly some impressive software he chose like Sqribble which created some impressive ebooks, Mobifirst which designed websites from a mobile phone perspective and video creation software like Video Robot, Doodle Maker, Avatar Builder which produced some very impressive videos. But the obsession with buying the next Shiny software that comes out is real. There is a lot of rubbish software out there, false overhyped courses, the sales funnels hyping these products up to the max to convince people to buy. They promise big results but deliver nothing, or they make you do something that could be deemed illegal like stealing other peoples content. One example is a video transcription software my husband brought that took the audio from any YouTube video and turned it into text to be used as articles for a blog. Now if that is not stealing, I don’t know what is. I know there is also some good software as well and I do believe getting good results online is based on the individuals effort alone. A piece of cloud based software, no matter how powerful it can be, or a course that is well developed and put together is only as good as the person using it. You might have a yearly subscription to Clickfunnels, one of the best funnel builders on the market, Vidnami, one of the top video creation softwares out there. Or a course that really can, when followed correctly, deliver positive results. But, if you lack let’s say the right mindset, the right education for instance on online marketing, the right business mind to project your services to clients, you won’t make any money or improve.

Here’s some simple pointers when it comes to Shiny Objects, preventing you from wasting money on the wrong product, and stop you falling into the trap, thus saving you money in the process and enabling you to commit to your success…

a. Always research the product, course that has come out. Check the reviews, the honest ones especially. I say honest because some reviews whether it’s from YouTube or a website will praise it a lot and these people will usually be affiliates helping to promote the product. I am not knocking these people as I understand with affiliate marketing,  these people just want to make money. Honest reviews of online software are hard to find, but these are from people who have tried the product firsthand.

b. It always helps to question just how long the online software tool you are purchasing is likely to last, whether it will be around forever or just a few years. All these online software tools are run mostly on servers, whether its the companies own servers who made the software or another company that is providing the service. You see, all businesses need to make money to pay for server costs and other bills and maintenance of the software. Any software that is offered as a one time fee, especially the upsells, you need to watch out for. Some vendors will sell the online software for a one time fee during its launch phase and then revert to monthly subscription costs once the launch period is over. Subscription costs alone create an income for the vendors and developers to keep their services going and make them profit. But if it looks like a one time fee only, ask yourself just how long it will be around before the vendors take it down. Businesses, developers need to be making money. Take for instance website and funnel builders. If it offers a small one time fee to build X amount of funnels and website  with hosting thrown in, ask yourself just how long it will last. My husband invested once in a funnel builder software. He paid a one time fee for it and the upsells and it came with free hosting.  There was no monthly subscription with it and I remember asking him how the people who had made the software to provide the service were going to continue making money to maintain the software. He didn’t know and at the time he thought it was a bargain. He built quite a few funnels to advertise his ebooks with and then one year, the website with the software on it was taken down and he lost all his funnels. It appeared as if the vendors had moved on to developing their next shiny object. My husband certainly learnt his lesson, and again, it helps to do your research.

c. The sales funnels for these products and courses sometimes contain a lot of hype. Hype is obviously a very effective method to entice buyers into spending their money. What may look good and promise so much may end up being entirely untrue. So it always helps to check the reviews before making a decision to spend your money.  Anything that promises to make you wads of money with just a few clicks of your mouse or swipes of your finger is probably too good to be true. Anything that promises to make you rich overnight, stay away from it. Its probably a scam. If the testimonials are from top Internet marketers then it’s obviously because they know the software vendor/developer/marketer really well. They help one another out by giving the product vendor a good review. I’d look more at the beta testers for their testimonials but again ask yourself if these people have been paid to put in a good word for the vendor or whether they are affiliates working to make a commission off the product. Again, I would try and find honest reviews of people who purchased the product firsthand and tried it and are offering their honest opinions.

d. Ask yourself why you need the product. Is it because you are hoping  to set up a YouTube channel and fill it with eye catching videos or overcome certain problems in your life? Or generate unique content for your websites? If you already have a website/funnel builder and another fancy piece of website/funnel building software comes out and you want it because it looks good, you got Shiny Object Syndrome. If its a course promising instant results and you want it, you got Shiny Object Syndrome. Every person who sets up an online business or aims to make money, needs a plan and some of that will include getting the online tools you need. If you already got a decent website/funnel building software,  a video maker etc, you don’t need another Shiny Object to make your business complete. It’s just wasting money if you already got software that does what you want. It’s like having a shopping addiction.  It’s just a case of catching yourself in the act. If necessary, unsubscribe from the emails the vendors spam you with. That way, you won’t be lured into buying something you don’t need at the time. You will be in control of your money and when you need another tool for your business, you will find it and buy it in your own time without it pulling you if you get what I mean.

Shiny Object Syndrome is a dangerous addiction that can lead to unnecessary debt. I am sure you all know by now that there is no magic software, no holy grail program out there that will make you rich or turn your life around overnight. It takes time, hard work, dedication and a lot of mistakes and failures before you finally get the results you need. Buying software after software, course after course will just distract you from your success. You become a dabbler, trying things out here and there, never really having any solid plan of action because you are always distracted by the next best thing. You spread yourself out thin because you are dabbling in so many different things. My husband was trying to promote affiliate products, run nearly eight blogs at once, trying his hand at dropshipping, trying to be a pro at video creation, trying his hand at being a Freelancer, and an SEO expert, all because he brought a ton of software that enabled him to do all these things. The only thing he succeeded in doing was exhausting himself mentally and financially thanks to his addiction to Shiny Objects. I forgave him for it because I now understand the financial and emotional dangers associated with Shiny Object Syndrome.

So it always helps to make a solid plan and stick with it when going online to make money or change your life. Stay focused on what you are setting out to do. Treat your plan as your blueprint. And tell yourself you don’t need to spread yourself thin and conquer the internet and become this Jack-Of-All-Trades because you definitely will be a master of none. And you don’t need the next Shiny Object. The most successful people, the people that changed their lives for the better did so because they stayed focused on what they set out to do. They mastered the skills they needed, overcame the bad habits they wanted to change. You won’t do that if you are always distracted. Only if you have the time, money and resources to try that other thing, invest and try that software or course, then do it. But if you are new online, just starting out with a limited budget, then stay focused on that one goal, that one plan. Conquer that mountain before you climb another.

I’ve only covered a small part of this. But I hope it helps.