<i>"It was over a period of about 5 years, we made several million running our web service and a significant minority of them (I'd say 1/3) came from elitetrader. Unfortunatly I have no way of proving it at this point, but I have no reason to lie about it."</i>
That was in another era, brandon. At the time I worked for a newsletter service that made solid six-figures monthly off $39.95 subscriptions alone. Live seminars at $4,000 person filled large rooms. The stock bubble was raging, and everyone threw $$ with reckless abandon at the relatively few info providers back then.
Today we have info providers popping up like mushrooms on youtube and everywhere else. The crowd of incoming new traders is ebbing compared to late 90s. More noise, fewer people to wade thru all that noise. You worked thru a period in time that will not be repeated again, and you could not duplicate 1/10th of those results in the same timeframe today.
Aspiring traders are more sophisticated and jaded now. Marketers had better know trading, and must be able to demonstrate success if any semblence of client retention is expected. Smoke and mirrors won't last long.
I have no opinion of anyone who attempts to teach anything out there except to say it's more work than what appears. If someone doesn't genuinely like working with people AND be able to teach something of value and/or post legitimate trade signals demonstrated, darwinism will prevail fom there.
Bottom line? Profitable trading is a must. Sideline services to that have no forward life unless profitable trading is the core. Time takes care of the rest.