The trouble with marketing is that you get told what you want to hear, not what is necessarily true.
You can't blame advertising for painting the rose coloured picture instead of the nitty gritty. Who'd buy a kitten if we knew up front that it would excrete quite so much in so many places?
So we are sold the dream or promise of ownership, because we should get that, plus maybe some stuff we hadn't expected ;-)
The problem with Internet marketing in particular is that it still smells of MLM. There are endless self appointed gurus charging for their master blue print or seminal insider information. But the real problem is that the majority of would-be Internet marketeers are, and I'm sorry to say it if it is you, but, are LAZY! So they fall hook line and dollars and 95 cents for the earn money while you sleep for doing absolutely nothing, because the internet is such a big place, scam.
I'm sorry if the word "scam" offends you, but that is the most appropriate word in this case.
The truth is there are a handful of Internet Marketeers who either got lucky in the past, when the new world opportunities did exist, or are one of the handful (less than 20%) who manage to make some money. That's a 4 in 5 chance of failing. But these aren't sleepers. these are people who work 70 hours per week, every week, and even at the weekend. It is not the work tyranny freeing utopia that we are promised. It is actual HARDER work, with a very insecure financial reward (if any) than having a day job. Plus you don't get holidays, sick pay, medical insurance, training, an automatic pension, or work mates to bail you out.
After several years feeling very stupid in the IM arena by not making any money, strangely it was IM guru Frank Kern of Mass Control fame, who highlighted what was happening.
His persona is of a laid back surfer dude who somehow know s what he is doing. He rocked the cradle by saying "hey be nice to people and stop selling and you will sell more". And the great mass control formula, without giving away any trade secrets is 40% "be nice to people".
As daft as it may sound, it is pretty revolutionary in IM circles.
There are some major flaws in this as a business tactic if adopted in this simplistic way, something I highlight in my FREE business analysis of Frank Kern, but it a new tactic that you need to consider.
But my main point is, that the main thing this highlighted for me was, "do what you love, love what you do". Because without this simple ethos, you can not hope to be nice to people in he way that is needed.
You can not constantly follow the "next fad" pony's tail for the fast buck fashionable niche.
1) it is already over and
2) somebody bigger than you is doing it properly and
3) you know nothing about it.
Sure one guy has done it and wants to sell you his (now extremely OLD) blueprint to repeat his success (sic) and sure 1 person in a million may make a few thousand bucks doing it.
But that is one bloke and only a few thousand bucks, which is way lower than his yearly salary probably was and now he has to repeat the "magic" again for this month!
If it was really that good and "still" worked, do you really, really, think the guy would rather make less offering you his magic formula than doing it himself?
the simple economics are he can make more money now by selling you his old scraps.
But I am straying from my original point.
"Do what you love, love what you do".
Why do I say that?
Simply because your customers can sense it. People want to buy from the expert. Not from a box shifter who will fleece them and disappear in to the night to do the next scam.
I am not saying it will be easy. I am not saying it will work. I am certainly not saying it won't demand work and considerable time and sticking power. But that is the essence of any "real" business with any longevity.
I just can't understand why people supposedly leave an employed job because they hate "it" to go and talk endlessly about stuff they have no interest in. It is not even a hobby of theirs. It is just where they think there is a niche. A minute pool of money they can tap in to. Then the reality kicks in of spending 70+ hours per week to make that work. How is that self employed freedom?
"Do what you love, love what you do"
Certainly there is a trick and a skill needed to convert what you love in to a business and to get sufficient market share.
That is not something I am going to give away for free. Sorry. I do not even have it packaged up read to sell you. there is nothing to buy!
This is purely to start you off on the right footing at least and not waste your time and get endlessly frustrated like I was, doing stuff you do not want to do. It is actually worse than a job and you don't even get paid as a recompense!
"Do what you love, love what you do".
You might be poor, but at least you'll be happy.
If you follow the IM niche route, you are highly likely to be ever poorer and not happy either.
Peter.
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Contributor's Note
Peter Buick is an independent new media publisher of 29 years standing. You can get a copy of his Frank Kern's brain program via his blog.
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