The Golden Rules of Internet Marketing That Unsuccessful People Miss, and Successful People Follow (Whether They Realize It Or Not)
I almost wish I could say the clichéd line, "I don't know where this industry is headed..." But the fact is, we always have been, and probably always will be, distracted by at least 1000 new ideas and concepts every day when we're trying to build an income and a lifestyle online.
The biggest trap to avoid is the "herd mentality." If you've visited message boards in your niche you know what I'm talking about. Someone asks a question like, "What's the best membership software?" Gets a couple answers, doesn't get the exact answer they were looking for, waits until there are at least 20 different answers. You probably had one good answer in that heap somewhere but it was out-voted by the 20 other answers of the mob mentality.
You can't always tell who's telling the truth and who's making it all up. Who's actually teaching you what works or talking about something just because it's "hot right now" (like Google Hangouts).
I saw someone post on a forum the other day that just ran their very first webinar. I was about to post a congratulatory message... until I read further. The first webinar this person had ever run, was about how to run webinars! (Wait, what???)
Another very high profile marketer has taught, for a long time, to locate 20 competitors in your niche, buy all their products, then release your OWN products basically combining all their ideas together. Then this person bought one of my high ticket products... I quickly, quietly, and politely refunded the person.
For some reason,
many people label "untested" as "new"
and "proven" as "old."
"Creating an optin page, selling a product online, getting affiliates on my affiliate program, that's old stuff... I want something new and exciting." There's nothing wrong with new and exciting, as long as you have the BASE SYSTEM IN PLACE! (Lance and I call this the "Income Machine.")
Here are the biggest "strategy" problems or mindset problems I'm seeing today's marketers make...
- Mistake #1: Can't Separate the Forest From the Trees
- Mistake #2: Going Down the Rabbit Hole
- Mistake #3: Risky Marketing
- Mistake #4: Ignoring the 80/20 Rule
- Mistake #5: Not Understanding Why People Really Buy
Here's what I mean...
Mistake #1: Can't Separate the Forest From the Trees
The next time I hear someone teaching that everyone needs to sell at exactly $97, and have a $37 upsell with another $27 upsell and a $17 downsell, or use a big orange button on their sales letter with the text "Add to Cart" ... I just might throw my computer out the window.
Using your own success as a case study template for others to follow is just great. But did you make 1,000 sales at $97 just because the product was at $97 and that reason alone, or was it because...
- You had a clear compelling offer that people really needed that was the right thing at the right time
- You had a list of subscribers that trusted you
- You followed up with them multiple times
For me, it comes down to "must-haves" versus "nice-to-haves." Sure, maybe you said 1000 copies available, 34 copies remaining (and you were telling the truth) and that gave you a BOOST. Or you said offer closes Friday (and you were telling the truth) which gave you a BOOST. But it improved something that was already selling.
Mistake #2: Going Down the Rabbit Hole
The next logical thing that happens when people try to teach how they made money online... a new twist on an idea, which leads to a spinoff of one hair-brained idea after another.
Someone thinks, how can I improve the conversion rate on my sales letter? I know... charge people a few dollars to read the sales letter... then they end up with a page with almost NOTHING on it, asking people to pay money, when people have no idea what they're getting...
The modern day version of this is a thing people have tried called a "paid webinar." I've seen a few people do it every few years. They say, I'm doing a webinar, it'll cost you 50 bucks to attend, I won't tell you what you're buying exactly, just trust me.
It might work ONCE. But it sells based on the novelty and curiosity, and maybe a little bit on the trust you've built up with your subscribers... so it won't work with new traffic.
The solution? Add more detail to that sales letter explaining what they're getting for their $50, so now you need a free webinar to explain the details on that sales letter... you're back to selling a regular $50 product.
(It reminds me when "non fast-forward" videos were popular. Remember those? I ran a few, and tracked about a 2% conversion rate across the board with webinar replays with videos where you could fast-forward to the end, and 3% for non fast-forward videos. Meaning... that boost in conversion from 2% to 3% made it an OPTION for me, but not always an option I choose to take.)
Mistake #3: Risky Marketing
But it gets even worse. About three years ago I saw a marketer run a "trial" webinar. Basically, get people to sign up for a $0 3-day free trial (which gets them access to the webinar). The idea is they get your free training, they get access to a product at the end (so there's no pitch), if they don't want it they can cancel the "trial" before it rebills, if they do like it, they do nothing.
It's almost as if everyone forgot how scary things were a few years ago when there were new FTC rules, Visa/MasterCard rules, PowerPay rules.
For example, people seem to have forgotten that most popular payment processors FORBID a countdown timer on a sales page! Or that using the term "cure" anywhere in your marketing puts you in Kevin Trudeau land.
If you have any kind of rebilling, to clearly state the price and frequency on your sales page itself -- don't just rely on the terms spelled out on the order page.
And one-click upsells... the customer must confirm that extra charge TWICE, meaning no 1-click upsells.
For some reason, people either forgot, weren't around back then, or think "the coast is clear" and are falling back into the trap of having multiple upsells and downsells...
Mistake #4: Ignoring the 80/20 Rule
The good news about this thing called the 80/20 rule is that if you have just 20% of the skill you can get 80% of the results. When I started I was a terrible copywriter.
You know what else... I don't always choose the "best" headlines. I forget many times to speak with "bucket brigades" (starting sentences and paragraphs with words like "Because..." or "And then..."). I don't know anything about rhythmic hypnotic language or appealing to different senses (do you see what I'm saying, hear me out, this is what it feels like).
Put together an offer that solves a real problem that real people are having right now, make a convincing argument to why you're the best and they need you right now... get it out there... you can always tweak "clever wordage" later (but the dumber, simpler sales letters always convert better for me).
Mistake #5: Not Understanding Why People Really Buy
This leads me to the real triggers that get people to buy. Many people wrongly think that limiting the number of copies available, increasing the price, dropping the price, adding a deadline on it... is what gets them extra sales. All it's doing is WINNING OVER those people who already know they should buy, but are on the fence and need one more reason TO buy...
Off the top of my head, here is a quick list of the reasons people buy from you...
- It solves their problem right now (value)
- They're ready to solve their problem (timing)
- They know they need it now (urgency)
- Bad things will happen if they wait or if they go to your competitor (scarcity)
Basically, if you know what brought people to your website, you know the state of mind they're in, the problems they've had leading up to discovering you and what they've tried in the past... plus knowing what they know and don't know... is a GREAT starting point for your sales letter... which leads me to what I think is the first rule of internet marketing...
Rule #1: You're Not Your Market
Remember earlier how I said someone ran their first webinar ever, and it was all about how to run a webinar?
Here's the problem: if you create a business around teaching weight loss, or webinars, or WordPress site building, you yourself don't stay "intermediate" for long. Either you're brand new to it and know nothing about it (so you shouldn't be teaching it) or you know it so well that you're an expert (and then you can't relate).
This is the big reason why I see these guys teach "advanced" internet marketing topics like automated webinars, 1-clicks upsells, funnels, traffic arbitrage. They're bored with the simple stuff. Not realizing that the majority of their market is not advanced. They're newbies, they just don't want to admit it!
Right off the bat, if you talk about running weekly webinars where it filled up all 1,000 seats every time... you make $100,000 every time you run an event... you're in the top 1 percent... you don't know where to stash all this extra money... and don't even bother asking "dumb questions"... you're not relatable!
On the other hand, if you dumb it down and talk about running webinars with 10 people where you make $100 or $1,000... that's not exciting enough.
The solution? Before and after... empathizing and connecting by saying, "I was just like you."
"I was just like you. I ran webinars and no one showed up, I was nervous and scared, I did everything wrong, until I developed a system for doing it the right way and here it is."
Rule #2: People Are Easily Distracted
Speaking of your pitch and your story... you SHOULD run these things called 1-hour no-cost pitch webinars where you demonstrate value, share some knowledge, introduce your offer and ask for the money and close it down.
The easiest way to simplify it so that you'll actually do it, have fun doing it, and continue doing it? Or the easiest way to make them more effective if you're already doing them?
Compress it all down to 1 hour. People don't need to know your life story, you don't need to start the webinar late ("to make sure everyone shows up" -- I guess???) You also don't need to unmute anyone else during the call, not even a business partner. This is a big one.
And if you're going to "launch" a product of yours (I've been doing them since 2001) limit it to 1 week, 2 weeks at the most. Meaning... you don't need 4 videos dripped out and a blog post with 2,000 comments and a PDF report or a mindmap.
Mail every day for several days leading up to a free webinar you're running. Run the webinar pitching your product where they can buy that night. Mail for several more days to the replay where there's a link to buy from the replay. Mail for a few more days directly to the offer. Done and done.
The reason for all this is because people are easily distracted. This is the same reason why, on a webinar, we mention the URL we're promoting multiple times... ideally, 10 different times, because most people are only half paying attention.
When it's a product with a payment plan, I list the exact dates they'll be rebilled when they join today, because most people aren't looking that closely.
If there are two payment options (like pay full price vs. a payment plan) I'm sure to list them side by side (NOT one on top of the other) and list out identical bullet points so it's 100% CLEAR that whether someone pays full price or a payment plan, they're buying the same thing.
We put the contents of our entire offer compressed into one single table, an offer stack, because people aren't going to scroll around or skip through the video to find out what module 3, 4, or 5 are.
Rule #3: Build the Damn List
Remember when Senator John McCain had the campaign slogan, "Build the damn fence?" Kind of an angry, almost immature thing to say but my attitude is the same with list building. Build the damn list!
Lance and I have private discussions over and over again about this marketer, or that marketer, who made it big in 1999 or 2004 or 2006 or 2008 or back in 2010 and are hurting big time, but don't want to admit their income has dropped drastically... and they have no idea how to get back to where they were...
I know the answer. Build the damn list! What happened back then was, everyone had "launch calendars" and when it was your turn, all these affiliates of yours would send massive traffic, massive sales, enough money to live off for a couple of years.
What happens when the money runs out? Most of these guys didn't email their list after their big launch, not really. Maybe once a month or once a year. The list ran out and the cashflow stopped.
You need to keep your list alive. If you treat your list well it'll decay at 1% daily and if you ignore it, or email too much, that will drop off even faster. But best case scenario, if you build your list up to 10,000 subscribers and aren't adding 100 leads a day, your business is slowly shrinking and dying. 50,000 subscribers and less than 500 leads a day, shrinking and dying. 100k subscribers and less than 1,000 new leads, dying.
Most people don't have the urgency that I think they should for building their list bigger, for some reason they think a small "tribe" of 1000 or even 100 or 10 people is going to support them. Not long-term it won't.
Rule #4: It's All About the Joint Venture
You need those little things like forum posts, articles with your name on them, blog posts, podcast episodes, paid ads but those are all just tiny trickles of traffic.
To get real traffic you need to tap into other peoples' lists.
The only realistic way to make that happen is with an affiliate program.
Setup an affiliate system with tools they can use to promote, actively get people to join and then regularly contact those affiliates to promote -- another big step people miss.
Once you have that affiliate program setup, you're going to want to do a bunch of things to get your name out there. This includes doing things that the majority won't do (but are easy) like attending offline events. Connecting with people on Facebook groups and legitimately helping them without asking for anything in return.
Contact people one on one (make a schedule for X number of people you want to contact per day) with a PERSONAL message. See if you can get THEIR affiliate link for YOUR product on THEIR download page or membership site. Schedule a 20-minute interview with them if they have a blog or a podcast.
Get your affiliates on a mailing list so you can broadcast to them and remind/encourage them to promote. Give them lots of tools like pre-written emails and banner ads. When new affiliates join, they get on a timed follow-up sequence so they've given instructions on what to promote for those first 30 days. We run specials like prizes or increased commissions for short periods of time.
Anything to break even on our sales or even take a slight loss, because every one of those affiliate sales builds our list for us.
Speaking of joint ventures... the ULTIMATE joint venture that many people seem to miss is..
Rule #5: Get a Mentor
I'm not talking about JUST becoming a busybody on a forum or Facebook group. Or even attending offline events (which is good but not enough). Or even joining a mastermind where everyone is an equal. I'm talking about paying for a COACH who will tell you what to do to get you where you need to go. And to SOLVE all the problems that creep up on you!
Look, I've seen far too many people fall into the traps we've talked about today such as... giving away their best ideas before they've taken action on them. Next thing you know, you aren't as motivated to take action (because you talked about them so much), or someone copies you before you had a chance to implement. Or the strength in numbers from the inexperience mob drowns out the real answer you should have listened to. Or just maybe... you have actually been asking the same question over and over until you get the answer you were looking for. Don't do it!
Sometimes the truth hurts. Sometimes a coach will tell you, you're doing too much of this and not enough of that... or... throw this part of your business out because it's not working. It all comes down to this: do you want to be "comfortable" (and continue getting the same results you've always been getting), or do you want to be "temporary uncomfortable now and comfortable later" (get new and different results) with someone who's helping you?
I know what I want.
I think these five tools combined will really help you with your internet business:
- Rule #1: Understand you're not your market and sell to the mass newbies in your niche
- Rule #2: Make your marketing and offer as clear as possible because people get distracted
- Rule #3: Build the list so that your business is growing and not dying (maintenance is a myth)
- Rule #4: Recruit people into your product's affiliate program to take advantage of the "real" internet traffic
- Rule #5: Get a mentor who's already achieved what you want so you can follow their path
Now it's your turn. If you had to add just one extra "rule" to your personal internet business, what would it be? Comment below with your one-sentence "rule of internet marketing" right now.
Filed in: Archive 1: 2012-2016 • Product Creation • Product Launches • Site Building
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STOP PROMOTING PRODUCTS YOU DON’T USE!!! or didn’t even check out
Do it, test, follow through…repeat. Do it, test, follow through…repeat.
Just Do IT!!!!
The Truth In Advertising Needs To Apply To Our Industry That You Cannot Advertise Nor Promote A System/Product Unless You Have Tried The Product Yourself Or Know Someone Very Close To You That Has.
Focus on the activities/things that make you money. Improve yourself and do more on those..
Learn it. Practice it thoroghly. Then Sell it
Give your customers value and content.
Build a relationship of trust and customer service before you try to sell something. This will build your list and give you repeat customers.
To know when to invest and what to invest in, and above all know when to stop something that does not work.
Build a list, be honest, create a product, and find a good paid advertising source, or try SEO for many many months.
Seek and follow advice from those who know, not those who think they know or pretend to.
Create content regularly. Publish it regularly. Backlink it with social media and social bookmarking. The more content you get online, the more long tail organic search traffic you’ll get… and make sure to have a lead capture offer for that traffic.
Change your mindset and stop being negative about the things that are not going right in your life. Focus on creating positive results in your life regardless of what is going on around you.
Get to the point…
Find one thing that work for you (even if it’s only
Little or only a few small comissions), celbrate
The small successs and grow from there. Continue to do it
Every step and stage on your IM journey !
ENJOY THE WAY !
First would be learn from Robert and Lance.
Stop procrastinating, clear your mind, make up your mind on what you want and damn well get started, you are going nowhere until you do.
Find the system that has the mentors you resonate with, listen to them and follow what they do with MASSIVE ACTION!
Great topic, great content, great relationship with readers! That would be my formula that works. Thanks.
Hi Robert,
I would say that The number one rule of Internet marketing should be to supply products and or services that are more valuable to the purchaser than the money they are parting with to obtain them. (you did say just one sentence)
Know your prospect, know what you want them to do, make it easy for them to choose to do it 🙂
Don’t assume everybody else knows what you are talking about, it can be frustrating when marketers mention terms you have to go elsewhere to find out what they mean, resulting in time wasting and more often than not, becoming side-tracked. A couple of sentences can be sufficient and/or a link providing more in depth information.
First and foremost provide VALUE in all you do. You’ll only succeed if you research the market and find out what THEY want and not what YOU think they need.
Non credo che esista una vera regola d’oro, almeno qui in Italia, in cui tutto viene monetizzato da chi ha soldi da investire.
Un blogger può semplicemente sperare di riuscire a trovare il giorno fortunato.
Condivisioni, relazioni col lettore, ricerche e studi per approfondire gli argomenti, simpatia e feeling… e così via, se non investi, non ti aiutano. Ma chi ha soldi da investire? Qui in Italia?!
Don’t promote trashy products just to make money
The MOST damaging behavior IMers are exhibiting is the shiny-new-object syndrome:
They get an email, or read a FB post or blog, etc… about the newest, freshest, awesomest (sic!), possible tool/software/method/strategy/loophole and they jump on it…
So I’d say the rule should be, stick with ONE thing until it starts working (makes money, brings signups or likes, etc…) whatever the goal is.
Set a determined time span to try to make it work first, w/o testing ANYTHING else meanwhile.
Assess the results at the end of the period.
If it was producing results and expanding/scaling it (up, of course) would bring in (more) profits, continue.
If not, dump it, choose another one and repeat the same process.
After a while everyone can find THAT thing that would work for THEM (which doesn’t mean the other ones didn’t work for other people, just that they weren’t a good fit for the said person).
This way, anyone can keep focus and move on, adding one brick each day, ending up with a big palace at the end, looking back and wondering:
“Did *I* really built all this?”
Cheers,
Steve ? Master eMailSmith ? Lorenzo
Chief Editor # eMail Tips Daily Newsletter
how to get traffic
Rule #1: There should be no rules to making money online because rules get in the way of creativity.
The history of online marketing has already shown that when people start following the same rules to make money those rules eventually stop working.
That being said there is a mindset you need to follow, Roger Bourdon, Steve Lorenzo, Stephen Bray and many others have given us great examples of them.
Don’t Compare your life with others, you have no idea what there journey is all about.
A thought process that people should have is “Never assume ever one knows what you are talking about.”
respect your customers
Stay on task and do the three or four things a day that grow your business. Get a system and DO IT, don’t run from plan to plan.
Respect your customers why a lot of the old guard are starting to fade, pushing product after product as “The Greatest” and over promise and under deliver, under promise and OVER deliver!
Develop some core values, other than money and be true to them.
Keep it simple but be prepared to work on a project, without distraction, until it works for you.
concentrate on one project at a time, and provide complete marketing to that project.. one at a time….
Make your 4DT list. Every. Day.
Solve problems , help people and create value to your subscribers …the money will follow
Find targeted traffic.
Post a good and valuable information and spread it to the web, keep doing this.
The #1 rule for making money is ABO…Always Be Offering.
Be honest with what the product or service really does. And don’t over promise, rather over deliver
Near the end of his life Sir Winston Churchill was invited back to Harrow Grade School (where he was in the lower third of his class) to address the student body and was introduced as one of the greatest orators of all time. The students were told to take plenty of notes, as he was going to talk about how to achieve success in life.
When Sir Winston addressed the boys he said, “Young gentlemen, never give up! Never give up! NEVER GIVE UP! Never! Never! Never! NEVER!” That was his entire address.
Sounds pretty good, but I modify that a bit for my own use. Here’s my version:
“If at first you don’t succeed, analyze what went wrong so that you can adjust your next attempt accordingly.”
DO SOMETHING NOW! worry about correcting it later.
• Don’t go two or more ways at the same time.
• Whether it’s seo, email or affiliate marketing, whether it’s cpa or ppl, whether it’s Amazon and Ebay or Clickbank and Offervault, your own website or social blogging, just choose the way that inspires you, the way you like and think you are good at.
•Do not procrastinate
• Do not give up too quick but keep improving your activity, testing, tweaking and retesting.
• Advertise your activity, deliver good content and, in time, you should be rewarded.
If you’re just getting started in online marketing, you should choose a market that’s used to spending money and build your product and service line around a proven market. It’s great that people want to follow their passions… but once you add the business element to your “passion,” you may find that it’s no longer your passion a year or so down the line.
Bookkeeping, clients and deadlines can have a way of transforming something you love into something you “used to love.”
So my advice would be, find a market that’s used to spending money and provide them with a solution that delivers more value as compared to what your competitors are doing (that could be as simple as ramping up their customer service experience). That’s basically what Robert and Lance do. They provide excellent solutions to their market along with a great customer service experience..
Commitment is key as without effort and focus nothing is deserved. Show your faith in the path ahead and others will follow you as you show them the way forward. Set no limits!
FOCUS — Follow One Course Until Successful (props to Bryan Dulaney for teaching me this acronym). Learn how to avoid Shiny Object Syndrome.
Above everything else deliver that which is uniquely you – DO YOU!
Don’t disappear after I buy this from you, keep emailing me and I might buy more and make sure I learn how to use it.
You have to be consistent.
When you are working turn off cell phone, skype and facebook to be more productive and to focus on what you are doing.
Without a doubt the answer is – Focus and stay on track and do not allow distraction
When you invest in a program you think will work, unsubscribe to everyone who is throwing shiny objects at you. Including the person you bought the training program from if they send you too many bothersome emais. Other wise it is impossible to stay focused. You can always resubscribe after you have completed the course.
Focus, staying focused on few things and those few things should be be high leverage eg list building, content, affiliate programs.
Focus! Have the mindset you need to accomplish your goals and remember stay the course and you will succeed
One sentence Mmm…… Work with an accomplished IM mentor , and differentiate your branding and product sales and services to a targeted market that will pay big for what ever you have to offer ,and really enjoy your focused journey . Barry Anderson aka Holistic Chef Barry
Don’t try to invent the wheel, Find a good mentor stick with’em and by all means don’t quit..
Do not fall for shiny object syndrome, and keep your blinders on for building your branding , offers , and services to a point with attraction marketing using every IM tool that works for conversions and business growth. Barry Anderson formerly Barry Gourmet & Raw now aka Holistic Chef Barry
Stop planning to be perfect and “Just Do It”.
Robert,
My one rule would be:
“Find out what your cusomers/prospects/clients want and make it available to them at a price that conveys value for them and economic satisfaction for you.”
Take the time to plan & then implement a good target based marketing strategy. May the internet gods be with you!
No trash,and mean what you say I am new to the internet and not any good, but I will keep trying. Really some of the programs, are flat out ripping people off.
Forget about yourself.
Give your visitor what’s he looking for.
I am the worst salesman in the world – so I have to make it easy for them to buy.
QUIT offering a ‘Free’ course…then, after you open the link…They ask for some Money to make Real Money…. GRRR
The most important thing about anything is total organization. That is where it all starts!!
May sound like a trivial thing but, in reality, it is essential for not only im but everyday life.
Wow, some really great comments on this page.
I didnt read them all (off to work) so I don’t know if this was touched on.
BE REAL. We bloggers are all unique, and who connects to one, wont connect to another – even if it is the same info.
– thats #1.
#2 If you are promoting something or selling your own product, be detailed about
what it is
what it will do
and Who would benefit from it.
If it has upsells, talk about them.
Don’t sell a product for a price, make it sound like the ULTIMATE – but there is a catch if you want it to work.
.
Dont just SOUND like you care – really care.
Thanks for asking!!!! Great idea Robert!
Focus!
Jumping around to try and do every tactic on the web will accomplish nothing. Like the old saying, ‘jack of all trades, master on none.’
Focus on one thing, master it and then move on.
Learn, Implement, Profit. That’s my philosophy. Too many people overthink this stuff I know I did for years.
Peace
Tre.
learn from the best and forget the rest…..
To whatever degree you “bend” the truth, you have told a lie. Truth does not have “versions” … simply tell the Truth!
The Internet is the most diverse entity of the 21st century. Be respectful of Diversity (cultural, ethnic, religious, etc.)
Don’t use profanity or other language that may prove offensive, disrespectful or prejudiced.
Let’s protect Cyberspace (to the degree we can) from viruses that dishonor our humanity.
Follow the internet golden rule: Give something of real value away!
Don’t expect to find the SINGLE idea to change everything for the better. Get into a continuous improvement process and monitor the results with analytics tools.
1) Identify customer has the money, authority & need (MAN) for what you sell
2) Ask for the order and repeat asking for the order 3 – 5 times if needed
3) Get Laid!
I Believe the number one rule should be “Treat the end user (Customer, List Subscriber, etc) as THE most important person in Everything you do” (after all, they are the ones paying your bills)
Went thro’ all the one liners.Many of them were great advice to emulate.
I feel good attention should be given to teaching and learning up technicality, exact method to execute the internet procedures. Lot of time is lost in finding out and executing it how to do it correctly small tricks how to work out correctly and fast saves time and keeps up he morale. thi sof course after you have learnt up to do 5 things Robert has goaded up to do and others our readers have suggested!
sudha sheth
Thank you I see it in my field also (NLP & Hypnosis)
Will Follow through
Will
Get a coach who is successful then follow what he or she says TO THE LETTER.
Hey Robert, one other thing stands out to me is time management. If people would just commit to spending like 1-2 hours a day on doing one task for their business, like writing emails, creating content like blog posts, do a video or the next part for their course, etc. they’ll get so much more done in less time. Practicing this gets us to focus and when we focus we get results.
Hi Robert,
My answer to your question will be:
Read this post over and over until it sinks in, virtually everything that you need to get going is here for you.
I thought your answer would be a short one but your answer is superbly constructed to get people headed in the right direction.
Great post Robert.
Thank you.
Get to know your STRENGTHS and all the things–little and big–that ARE working, and FOCUS ON THOSE daily, using em, evolving them, keeping your projects and actions in those zones and hire everything else. It’s these areas that are the only ones you and I have effortless long-term energy for, easy passion for. Study after new Study in the Psychology of leadership world are bringing up these discoveries repeatedly. Engagement–staying actively engaged and passionate in productive result-getting actions have been tracked in the business work world to jump up from the average 9% to 76% plus when each person begins to focus on using these recent discoveries.
Pick one primary source for information, and unsubscribe for all the others. I choose Robert Plank and Lance Tomashiro. Their content is good. They don’t insult their customers. They have DONE it. Great products, integrity, consistence, and results. . . Thanks guys!
Learn it, Do it, Teach it.
I’m adding this one rule from above: Rule #1: Understand you’re not your market and sell to the mass newbies in your niche.
Solid content Robert. Recruiting an army of affiliates is the best way to leverage other people’s time and effort plus there’re really no risk on your part. The other point I agree with is getting a mentor/coach. They can definitely shave years off of your learning curve. Well worth the investment.
Psychology has its place in marketing, but it is trumped by the concept of ethics. When crafting your sales letters and other marketing copy, always keep in mind the difference between PERSUASION vs MANIPULATION. The former is using words & images to influence another person to take action, with honest intentions, toward a mutually beneficial goal; the latter is trying to influence another to take action, with a SELFISH purpose, to take action that will primarily benefit the manipulator. Your goal is always to create a win-win situation in which your customer is trading his dollars for something that has a much Higher Benefit to him than his perceived value of the money, while of course the transaction also benefits your bank account.
Rule #6: Create a Business Plan for your Internet Business with guidelines for Time Management, Prioritization, Goals and Product Development.
Implement it.
Don’t get distracted by things that don’t work!
Follow all the rules specified. Its that simple.