2008/01/08

The Truth And Myth About Internet Marketing: The Lie By Implication

The Truth And Myth About Internet Marketing: The Lie By Implication
Author: Roger Zimmerman

The Truth And Myth About Internet Marketing: The Lie By Implication
and
The Top Ten Things You Must Put Into Your Internet Marketing Business If You Want To Make A Living At It.

Author: Roger Zimmerman
Site: Internet Marketing Gurus Reviewed
http://www.pickaguru.com
(c) 2006 Roger Zimmerman All Rights Reserved.

The Truth and Myth About Internet Marketing: The Lie of Implication

Just read the ads from the Internet Marketing gurus and you'll be led to believe they will make you rich if you'll just buy this course or that software. After all, the ad will tell you, "this is the exact same system I used to rake in over 2 million dollars last year."

Are they lying to you? Probably not. They probably did rake in 2 million dollars last year using this or that method. But the implication is that they only did this one thing and money, traffic, or fame just poured in. They probably aren't lying about the facts, but there is a lie built into the implication.

Here's the truth. Nearly every one of these Internet Marketing gurus runs a large company. He (or she) has a formal business plan and a registered company. It is a full time job. Often it is a full time job for an entire staff of people.

They want you to believe that you can work two or three hours a day in your underwear and make a killing - just like they do. But again, that is the lie. Do you know how many hours most of these gurus put in? That's right, tons. In fact I remember a top ten list about the top ten signs you're a marketer. The number one sign was "You think a 'half-day' means leaving work at 5 O'Clock."

One of the reasons these guys achieve the success everyone else only wishes they could achieve is because they work -- hard and long!

So yes, you too can make millions using the same system they're about to teach you, but you must run it like a real business and you must be willing to devote incredible time and effort to it.

Having said that, let me present these and several other elements that must come together in order to be a successful Internet Marketer. Without them you will almost certainly fail.

Top ten things you must put into your Internet Marketing business if you want to make a living at it.

1. A Business Plan

You simply must treat your Internet Marketing Business like a real, formal business. If you can't even put together a business plan then you do not have what it takes to run a successful business.

2. Time, time and more time

Later on you may be able to hire out several functions like Web page building, answering email, and writers. But for now you will put on all these hats and it will take loads of time. When I was new at this I spent several days just figuring out how to set up one Web feature, like a mailing list or order system. And that was just a single feature. There are dozens of different things to worry about. Researching your content, affiliate tracking, mailing lists, SEO, Web page building, order cart systems, answering email, writing articles, researching keywords, blogs, RSS setup, forum posting and monitoring � the list goes on and on. Do you really think you can do all these things in two hours a day? If so, you are deceived. If you want to build your business as a full time business, plan 10 - 12 hours a day at least six days a week for the first six months or so.

If you do it part time, it can be done, but plan for a much longer gestation period before you expect to make any money. After it all comes together you will eventually be able to relax, but give it a lot of time to build traffic and attention first.

3. Communication skills

I can't tell you how many times I get email that looks like this:

"I'm new in marketings using the Internets. Could you tell me how I should make big money now. There are too many things to know so I think I'm not learning good. No body is no help for me."

My response? GET OUT OF MARKETING NOW! Spelling errors and typos are one thing. But if you can't form a sentence you are in deep trouble. Marketing is a medium of communication and persuasion. Good communication skills are a MUST!

Imagine reading an ad written by someone who writes like that? Does this person exude the intelligence to be able to run a business? Do I trust them? No!

In nearly every field, those who rise to the top are those who can communicate. Master the skills of speaking and writing and you're half way there. If you don't have those skills and you want to get rich I hope you have talent as a football player or rock star. They're not required to communicate well. But for goodness sake, get out of marketing!

4. Focus, focus, focus

I've heard countless interviews with top executives in business. One question nearly always posed to them is "to what do you most attribute your success?"

There is one answer that nearly always comes first, "FOCUS."

Successful business tend to be relentless organizers, goal setters and single-minded people. They will not jump from one project to another, but will stay on one task until it is either complete, or in the hands of someone else who is responsible for completing it and reporting back by a given deadline.

Focus and goal setting are nearly synonymous concepts. Here's a typical scene. You get all excited about the promises about writing Google Adwords when you buy Perry Marshall's excellent ebook 'Definitive guide to Google Adwords." You get half way through and start writing some Google Ads. But you're not proficient at it yet, so you lose some steam and suddenly run across Phil Wiley's very fine treatment on "Minisite Profits." It offers new hope so you jump on board, and soon you find you're not making big money there either. Then you go on to the next thing, and the next and the next - always hoping one will pay off, like a big lotto game.

This will not work. If you had paid attention to point one (write a business plan) you would have been more likely to stay on focus. You would complete one task at a time and each new one would build on the last, so that Minisites, Google ads, SEO and all the other elements of Internet Marketing would all feed each other in a big unified plan.

5. Multiple Streams of Income.

Robert G Allen popularized the phrase Multiple Streams of Income in a series of books on the topic. It is right on. If you count on only Pay Per Click Advertising, or only on Minisites, or only on Google Adsense, or only on article writing, then you will not do well in marketing.

You'll need to sell affiliate products, make and sell your own products, sell ad space, and use all of the different marketing techniques like email marketing, copywriting skills, pay per click, ezine advertising, article writing, forum presence, and all the rest. They will all combine into multiple trickles of income that can ultimately be very handsome indeed.

Put all your eggs in one basket and the bottom will almost certainly fall out.

6. Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, succeed, fail, fail, fail, succeed, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, etc.

Get the point? Some day sit down and watch the E! channel when they dospecials on your TV and movie stars. You'll hear statements like, "So and so went to no less than 439 auditions before landing her first roll, which she did for free." Really! That's the kind of persistence you need to succeed in your new marketing business.

Trouble is, most of us tend to quit after maybe three or four failures. Many people give up after only one failure! This is what sets the big dogs apart from the squeaky miniature poodles.

We hear this concept our whole lives. How many times have you heard about the number of failures Edison had before he perfected the light bulb? I've heard that story dozens of times. But my nature is still to give up at the first sign of failure.

When you start a new project - say a new Pay Per Click ad campaign, get yourself a piece of graph paper. Every ad that doesn't get any clicks or make any money within say 10 days, check off one box. Promise yourself you will not quit tweaking and improving that ad until the entire sheet of paper is full.

7. Know when to quit

This advice sounds like the polar opposite of the previous advice on persistence. But it turns out there is a fine line between persistence and stupid.

Successful business people seem to have an innate sense of knowing where that line is. They seem to know when it is time to bail. But they do not do so on a whim. They do so after a lot of research.

Let's look at your Pay Per Click ad again from point six above. You've filled in five or six lines of your graph paper, constantly tweaking your ad, and you're just spending money with not a single lead.

Is it time to bail. Not yet. It's time to do some research. Have you chosen good keywords? Do some keyword research to find out. Is the market flooded for this type of item? Take a look at the number of Google Adwords ads and get a feel for this. You may find that your product is just too overused and worn out to be worth while.

Only after good research and some hard indicators do you give it up. But don't be afraid to admit defeat when you find you've made a bad choice of product.

8. Market first then product to fill it.

The most common mistake by new Internet Marketers is to try to start with a product rather than a need. The first question out of the mouth of new Internet marketers is usually "What should I sell?"

This person is in trouble already. You must take the time to educate yourself until you see a need to fill. What are people asking for? When I first started reviewing Internet Marketing gurus and their products on www.pickaguru.com I found that people were clamoring for unbiased reviews of marketing products.

The number of sites already selling Internet Marketing education materials was already staggering. It seemed a dangerous market to break into. But there was this wide open gap. Nobody, but nobody I knew was doing anything like what I started doing on pickaguru.com.

My email box became flooded with expressions of "thank goodness a truly honest site that is more interested in the truth than his bank account." And guess what. I found that more people were willing to use my affiliate links when they did make purchases just because they wanted to support me for my honesty.

This is what I mean by filling a need, or finding a market first. No matter what your area of interest - gardening, auto collecting, racing homing pigeons, music from Outer Mongolia, Dr. Who, I don't care what it is, there are needs to be found in the forums, newsgroups, friends, clubs, and so forth. Go out and find them.

They do not have to be needs people are asking for. I did not find people asking for unbiased Internet Marketing guru reviews. But I noticed a void in on the Internet and I filled it.

9. Do SOMETHING

While I teach lack of planning as one of the most common mistakes newbies make, I also advocate getting something out there. When I published my first page on pickaguru.com there was nothing more than a home page. There were no reviews. There also was no apology or "under construction" icon. I simply added a page at a time, about one page per week, until there were a few pages up.

Guess what. After I only had two gurus reviewed I was already seeing affiliate income and already getting some reader attention for my honest reviews. It took shape slowly. After one year I still only have twelve gurus reviewed. That's about one per month. But I would not be this far if I had not decided to build that first page and get it started.

If you plan to start with a Blog, get it going today. If you plan to start with Pay per click advertising, start today. Get something out there. Build it to its full potential later.

Doing nothing will guarantee failure.

10. Go with your heart, and the money will follow. If you go for just the money, it never works out.

I lifted this phrase from an interview in the local newspaper. A man I used to work with had suffered a near fatal motorcycle accident and couldn't do industrial work any longer. He had built a photography studio and now makes over $400,000 a year.

This was his wife's (and partner's) advice when asked about the best business advice she had ever received. I cannot pass it up as some of the sagest advice I know on marketing. If you concentrate on making money first, your customers will sense that and your business will struggle.

If you concentrate on an honest, heartfelt, desire to help your customer solve his or her needs you will succeed. As she put it, "the money will follow." This was also some of the advice taught by one of my favorite business celebrities of all time, Walt Disney.

I cannot end this article with better advice than this. I beg of you please follow it. Look out for others and they will support you.

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