I recently downloaded the free e-book The Zero-Hour Workweek by Jonathan Mead of Illuminated Mind. The title is a play off of The 4-Hour Workweek, the popular book by Tim Ferriss.

The e-book is pretty inspiring, but when you get right down to it it’s a guide on how to start a blog on something that you’re passionate about and then make money selling information products like e-books and e-courses. The zero-hour workweek comes in because you love your job so much that it doesn’t feel like work. When you work, it feels like play — so can you really call it work?

I realized a couple of things while reading this e-book. First: I’m there! I love what I do so much that it feels like fun. Sure, there are times when I get burned out, but since I made my pact with myself last year to stop writing for markets that are a PITA, I’ve felt very energized towards my work. And while I say I cut my workweek down to two days, I’m not sure that’s accurate as what I do often doesn’t feel like “work.” I guess you could say instead that I spend two days per week teaching, and writing for clients who appreciate me and treat me (and pay me) well.

I love teaching my e-courses and doing mentoring. I love it when a student who was having problems coming up with a salable idea or crafting a query lede writes to me to say that my advice helped her, and when she writes to tell me she just landed her first assignment from a newsstand magazine. I also love when an editor thanks me for making her job easier. (Just got one of those today, in fact!) And of course, I love it when checks from magazines appear in my mailbox.

The second thing I realized is that I’ve fallen into a business area that can come across as kind of — well, scummy. I don’t know if this is new or if I’m just starting to notice it, but there are lots of people who try to make money by “creating value for others,” as the personal development-speak goes. People build blogs, call themselves experts, and promise readers riches. Coaches and e-courses abound, all promising to help you live your dreams or to make you a millionaire — usually by selling info products yourself. They kind of remind me of those envelope-stuffing scams: The scammers promise to show you how to make thousands of dollars working from home, and when you pay up, you get instructions on how to run your own envelope-stuffing ruse.

One thing I never notice is that these self-appointed gurus never mention how much they earn, but they give the impression that they make big bucks and you can, too.

(Okay, I can’t very well post that and not come clean myself. So here’s the big reveal: I make $70-80,000 per year (it varies), mainly by writing for magazines. I’ve written for more than 120 magazines over the last 13 years; you can see a list here.)

Selling information products like e-courses and coaching online is so easy that many people with dubious credentials are jumping on the bandwagon. One aspiring writer e-mailed me recently that she took an e-course in query writing from someone who claimed to be an experienced magazine writer, though she listed no credits on her website. (No, she didn’t tell me who the instructor was. I wish I knew!) The student was disappointed in the course, and decided to do a little sleuthing. She looked up my name on Infotrac, which is a database of magazine articles, and saw that I had about 240 articles in the database. (I believe it tracks only national magazines, though, as I know I’ve written more than that!) She then plugged the other writer’s name into Infotrac and came up with — get this — three articles, all for the same magazine. Yikes! Even taking into account that Infotrac doesn’t track local magazines, that’s a pretty skimpy number for someone charging money for her expertise.

I’ve also run across many self-proclaimed personal development experts who promise to help you live your dream. I have no idea if these people are credentialed, because what are the credentials for such a thing? These instructors are probably living their dreams, because their dreams are to make money coaching and selling e-books. And they can help you live your dream — if your dream is to build a blog and sell info products yourself. (And the cycle continues.)

I don’t mean to diss everyone who sells information products except yours truly. I regularly have sessions with a life coach who has helped me in many ways. I know very experienced writers who teach courses online and off. And lately I’ve been reading some really good productivity blogs written by people who also offer coaching, and I believe they have the chops. But the field seems to be exploding with — well, not scammers, but people who simply don’t have the credentials to be charging money for their coaching, e-courses, e-books, and so on.

So here I am, offering e-courses and mentoring! I’ve wondering lately if I give the same icky impression that I get from some of the coaches I’ve run across in the burgeoning personal development field, or some of the writing instructors who claim to be experts but have nothing to back it up.

But I like to think that I got in on the game early, when the Internet wasn’t crawling with coaches, and managed to set myself apart before coaching turned into a free-for-all.

So that’s my rant: I love what I do, but worry that I’m icky. I guess if there’s any take-home value to this post, it’s that you should give the third-degree to anyone you’re considering hiring as a coach or whose courses you’re considering taking — including me. Check their websites for credentials, and if they don’t list any, ask (not everyone feels the need to brag about their creds online!). Then check out their claims by doing a little sleuthing on your own, and be sure that their credentials line up with what you want to learn. (For example, I admit I can’t teach you how to break into The New Yorker because I don’t have the creds to do so!) Remember that the money you spend on information products should be a good investment in your career, so don’t be afraid to ask questions. [lf]

If you liked that post, you might also like:

• A Change in Direction — And I’m Psyched!
• New Renegade E-Courses Start Next Month
• The Dark Side of Diversifying
• Guest Post: What I’ve learned about writing from being an agent
• A New Place for Freelance Writers to Gather: The Den