Posts Tagged ‘internet marketing’
I've received quite a lot of flack since my last post. It has been made very clear to me that it wasn't appreciated by many. But rather than apologize, let me explain a couple of terms and add a clarification or two. When I said "that just about everyone in this business that has done well has had to work very hard," what I meant was that… Well, I define doing well, or success, as being in it for the long term and to me that means whatever you're doing is legal, honest, ethical by the most widely accepted standards, and that you make a sincere effort to add at least some value for your clients, customers and fellow marketers — at least whenever possible. So when I said what I said, I guess I was revealing that my definition of success, or doing well, doesn't just mean making money, or just making money for now. It doesn't jive with everyone's definition. I know that. Certainly not with some of the quick-and-easy-buck types. So yes, I'm wrong. It is possible to make a quick buck, but if you intend the above, i.e., legal, honest, ethical, and added value, then you almost certainly will:
- have your own unique and valuable product to sell; and/or
- have all the right connections within your particular industry, and/or
- be one of the very first to find out about and implement a new and effective methodology, and/or
- have at least $10,000 to invest upfront with previous and up-to-date experience in marketing, and/or one or more valued information technologies, and/or
- just luck into something.
But not very many of these things tend to be very true for those who are brand new to the game. That's all. That's all I was saying. I wasn't trying to discourage anyone. I was trying to tell those who need to be told that it's a business, like any other — except that it's been rather like the wild, wild west so far — but that's changing some already and likely to change a lot more in the next few years. So if you are in it for the long run, if you are going to stay legal, ethical, honest, and add value for your customers — and there simply are too many out and around who don't act as if they understand that — then it most likely will take work, lots of it. So, yeah, maybe you can figure out a way, as a still-wet-behind-the-ears newbie to make a lot of money fast and easy. What do I know? It might be that very next product launch that will make it happen. But if you compromise on the long-term strategy I've laid out above, as far as I'm concerned, you might be a rich crook or a rich con artist, but you are not a successful marketer, and anything you do that doesn't pass the smell test probably will come back to bite you sooner or later. Well, that's my take on it anyway. Regards, Richard D. Farley
Be forewarned. I'm going to talk about a few matters hardly anyone in the internet marketing business ever talks about, things a lot of us think we're not really supposed to say. But for both good and bad, I've always pretty much gone my own way, so here goes:
First, my approach here is to be something other than, or more than, simply promotional. I've been promotional on this site, sometimes, and in all but a couple of cases, that's been because I had seen the product, used the product, or believed in the marketer who was selling the product, and in the other cases, because they were recommended to me by someone I believed in, and, well, you either believe that or you don't. The point is, I do want to be more than just promotional, so I want to talk about a couple of issues that really have been bugging me.
One of them is that, if all you newbies want, or all you are going to respond to, is hype, then you will get what you deserve. Chase after the dream of instant, easy money if you want, but the truth is that just about everyone in this business that has done well has had to work very hard, at least at some point, to achieve that — either to build and build, gradually, on their efforts, or to FINALLY make that sudden breakthrough.
Now, I know this isn't what some newbies want to hear, but those guys around that are telling you that you can make a lot of money in a month, or a week, or a few days, or within 24 hours, or whatever, generally speaking, are not worth listening to. Yeah, sure, every now and again, someone figures out some 'trick' or some methodology that pays off in spades, but, you know what? Every now and again, someone wins the lottery, and someone else gets struck by lightning, but — and this is what you need to listen to — it doesn't happen very often. In fact, given the number of people involved in internet marketing, the percentage of those kinds of stories that are valid is miniscule to the point of being almost nothing.
So you got to expect to work.
A second item that has been really bugging me lately is the attitudes. Just yesterday I was out on a site and seeing all these comments, and some of them were complaining that this and that product or strategy doesn't work, or was deeply disappointing, and I mean some of the products and services that were being dissed were literally only a few weeks or a few days old! What?
One guy was saying that Site Profit Bot was a big disappointment. What? Like four days after its release, you're saying that? Did you even bother to try to learn how to use it? Have you taken even a moment to ask for support? Do you understand that results take time?
My last post was entitled, in part, 'Or what more do you want?,' and if Site Profit Bot is such a disappointment, I guess I have no choice but to conclude that what some of you want is to have a truck full of gold backed up in your driveway or deposited in your bank account the day after you first try something. No. Come to think of it, I bet some still would find something to complain about even then.
I mean, c'mon, people! Some of you buy into all the hype and so you expect something to work instantly? There are a fair number of good products out there, folks, but they are for marketers, and a marketer doesn't just try something for a day or two, or even a week or two, or even a month or two, and say it doesn't work if he or she doesn't get results. A marketer knows better than to buy into all the hype.
Sure, you may think its quick and easy someday, when you've got the traffic, when you've got the skills, when you've got the instincts. It might even be second nature someday. But a marketer knows that no matter how good or 'easy' something is, it is very likely going to take time and energy to learn, and time and energy to implement, and time and energy to work. A marketer persists long enough to be sure the product or service has been given adequate time to prove itself, or not.
And no, I can't tell you how long that is, because it depends a lot on the product, and on you, and on how quick a study you are, and how much time and energy you devote to it, and how much action you take, and how often, and whether and to what extent you can, as Winston Churchill once defined as the secret to success, 'move from one failure to the next without any loss of enthusiasm.'
So stop dissing products and marketers you know nearly nothing about. And take action. And persist. And expect to have to work your butt off, at least for a while, because winning the lottery is not a plan to bet your life and well-being on, and lightning isn't going to strike very many of us very often.
I'm sorry. For some of you, it's probably tough medicine. I wish it were otherwise, but that's just the way it is.
And finally, a few years ago, I was doing a little contract work for a fellow who…, well…, let's just say he had obtained a somewhat higher net worth than yours truly (about $80,000,000). And I'm thinking of using something that guy said to me to segue into something else I want to talk about, but it'll have to wait.
Maybe next time, or if not, sometime soon.
Thanks for visiting.
As I'm sure you know, being able to drive sufficient traffic is a major element of success for just about any form of internet marketing or online business. So I want to tell you about a guy that knows how, who has a system he developed himself through trial and error and from which I have benefited in my own business.
His name is Bill McRea, and he calls it 'Marketing on the Fringe 2.0.'
I took his original course, 'Marketing on the Fringe 1.0,' and was so impressed I am thinking about signing up for the new course even though I'm expecting a good percentage of it may be the exact same information as his original course.
So what I'm saying is, you REALLY need to check this out.
Why?
Well, I won't ask you to suspend your better judgment and swallow whole every miniscule mote in his sales copy, but Bill's "traffic machines" are the real deal, and this new course is the next level in his traffic machine revolution.
They are almost COMPLETELY automated, and they do drive the traffic. Since taking the first MOTF course, and implementing only some of Bill's suggestions, I have sites that are driving at least 10 times the traffic they were before. Frankly, I need to cut this post short so I can go implement some more of his suggestions.
Bill's letting people in the door to test the system for just $5 right now. But I don't expect that offer to last very long. So you've got to move on this.
Those of you who know me, know I've only rarely been this promotional or this enthusiastic, so you also should know I'm really serious this time.
Check it out right now, okay?
(Edit:: Nov 21 2009 – I owe most of the recent increase in my traffic to what I learned in his first course. Not all directly of course as I've continued to build on that knowledge, but I wouldn't have ever had the knowledge to build on in the first place if I hadn't taken his course. Bill told me this morning that he is almost sold out and expects to be tearing this down soon. Now maybe that's just a marketing ploy, and maybe it's not. In my experience, Bill usually means what he says, so to be on the safe side, you should fork over that massive $5 for the 7-day trial and check it out now if your current traffic strategy isn't all you hoped it would be.)
http://mythospheres.com/recommends/McReaMOTF2
To your ever-increasing success!,
Richard D. Farley
