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What Does It Take to Succeed in Internet Marketing?
Probably the question I am asked most frequently is “What Does It Take to Succeed in Internet Marketing?” because for some people it has become akin to the pursuit of the Holy Grail. In this way it has become shrouded in some sort of mist and indeed it often seems as if it is all smoke and mirrors!
What I see happening and this is equally true of people at every level in internet marketing is that the focus is too often on the tactics and the minutae of doing. People choose something to pursue or hop from idea to idea and think that this tactic or that idea will suddenly be the one!
I was talking with someone this morning who asked me how I tended to explain how to be successful in Internet Based Marketing. I summarised it in three steps:
1. Know what you want - a business, extra spending money, money for a particular thing, a hobby.
2. Work and behave based on your answer to what you decide in response to point one. Learn the skills necessary - if you want a business learn how to build one, if you want extra spending money learn how to make it etc etc
3. Do it!
Many people will tell you that they want a home based business because they want to be free! but give them the freedom and they would hate it! The security of a regular (well as regular as these things can be) income and someone else to make the key decisions is what they really need but they get caught up in the idea or dream of being their own boss.
They spend hours, days and months hopping from one idea to the next in the hope that they can build a business and get needlessly frustrated by it all. One of the things that I have found when coaching people is that what they really want is to make a little extra spending money or some money to pay for a new car or for a holiday or something else that will make their life better without taking away the security that they really do need in their life.
Read any of the major forums to do with Internet Marketing and you will see people asking questions that make you wonder what they really want from Internet Based Marketing. I remember seeing a little while ago someone asking whether other people responded to emails from the lists they have built in various niches. You know the sort of thing I mean? When someone joins their Dog Niche Newsletter (probably a Private Label Rights Newsletter they bought for $20) and then writes and asks a question because they think you know what you are talking about. Well this individual saw this as an intrusion and something he really couldn’t be spending his time on - all he wanted was for the subscribers to buy one or more of the products he promoted every other newsletter! Heaven forbid that they start to engage with him as an authority on his niche!
The responses in the thread were quite illuminating but what was completely missed was the fact that he had bought the idea of “the money is in the list” without understanding what part list building really plays in building a business. But I bet of someone had sat down with him and asked him what he really wanted they would have soon discovered that he didn’t want to build a business! He probably just wanted some extra money each month to help him along with his life - absolutely nothing wrong with that and indeed it’s not only commendable but is also precisely the sort of opportunity which Internet Based Marketing can provide for anyone.
Yes if you want to build a business on the internet you can do but of that isn’t what you want then don’t get sucked into the idea that is the way to succeed.
If you want to build a business then learn business skills! Discover who you want to be the supplier to, what it is that they need and how you can meet and exceed their expectations. Building a real customer centred business is a subject for another day!
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