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Be True to Yourself… Do Your Own Thing
By Sue | September 27, 2007
When entering the world of Internet Marketing, we are bombarded with information on “how to do it”. “Guru’s” tell us we have to do things a certain way and so we try that. But it is possible “that way” isn’t right for us. Or, maybe there is a missing piece!
What am I talking about? Well, let me tell you a short story. OK, it’s a long story, but I will shorten it! Stick with me here because I am sure many of you have done the same things - or, at least some of them.
When I first became interested in working online (it really was totally by accident), I landed in affiliate marketing. I happened on a program that taught me (with video) how to make minor changes to websites with Dreamweaver and upload them to the Internet. It was great information and I learned a lot. He made it sound like this was all there was to it. So, I created a bunch of sites. But nothing happened. I purchased more information that told me to put ads in ezines, etc. So I did some of that - I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on advertising at the time. But nothing happened. I had money in sites and ads, etc and nothing was coming in. So, like many others I decided this wouldn’t work for me and went looking for another way to make money online.
I tried gifting but in the back of my mind I wasn’t really comfortable with the “fringe legality” of it and I couldn’t convince many people this was a good thing to do. Besides, I hate cold-calling people! Again, I didn’t make any money - but this time I at least broke even.
Then I came across HYIP’s - very exciting at first and I had great hopes. I just did the projections and it was mind blowing! You know what happened there - I lost money! And, by now our financial situation was desperate and I didn’t have money to lose. I was trying to find the miracle!
I then found Internet programs and finally had success… at least I did once I found a group of marketers that taught me how to market! In fact, I joined several others and was successful (even if most of the programs themselves finally died) - until I realized that most of the people I brought in weren’t being successful and then I couldn’t do it anymore.
With reflection, I have come away with these lessons:
1. It wasn’t the affiliate products that caused me to fail, it was my lack of knowledge about marketing them. Marketing is the key to success in any online venture.
2 You can’t sell something you don’t believe in whole-heartedly - your lack of conviction comes through in conversation. For me - Gifting!
3. HYIP’s just don’t work for the long term. The only way to make money is to get in right away with big bucks, then take your money out real fast and run - i.e. you are the reason they fail as quickly as they do! They always fail eventually…Mathematically they just don’t work in the long run.
4. I can’t sell something when I know the people I recruit have virtually no chance of being successful. Many of the big names are comfortable selling anything to people even when they know there isn’t a chance that person can duplicate their success. I’m not!
5. Calling people to recruit or convince just doesn’t work for me - it’s not what I like to do and I don’t want to change it. Even when I found quality programs and was successful, I realized that my success was limited because I just didn’t want to talk to people all day!
6. And, finally… there are NO MIRACLES! An Internet business is still a business and it takes time. You have to invest the time to get the reward - you’ve heard it before and it’s true. Which is NOT to say you can’t be successful… just not $10K per month with no effort!
So, the bottom line is “Be true to yourself”. Find out what fits your personality and do that. Then get all the information you can about ALL the strategies for that method and concentrate on following through … do something every day toward reaching your goal.
Recently, I’ve come full circle… I took another look at affiliate marketing and I discovered PLR products. Although, I still believe there is a place for Internet programs (such as PWF and G.A.P) as a part of business, there is room for diversity. I am adding both of these to my business portfolio (e.g. ScriptDojo and MarketingBurst, etc.). Perhaps some of my selections will also work for you and we can work together.
Regardless, if you are struggling or trying to decide which way to turn… I hope that my reflections and, more importantly, my lessons learned will help you take a look at your own business and decide what to do.
Share your thoughts… I would love to hear them.
affiliate marketing G.A.P MarketingBurst PLR products PWF ScriptDojo
Topics: Home Business, Marketing |
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