I’ve been at IM or internet marketing for about 5 years now, and I’ve seen plenty of wannabes come and go. Only some manage to break free and make it work, and the rest stand and scratch their heads!
My buddy Steve wrote an awesome post the other week for me so I asked him to give his take, on why most IM’ers fail – and 4 things that you must do to be successful online.
When most people hear the term marketing, they think sales and promotions. It’s kind of a generic term for getting your brand out there and driving sales.
The problem with marketing, specifically Internet marketing is that the majority of it is bullshit. The great big WWW is a 24/7/365 day marketplace where anyone can put up a sign (or site) and start peddling their wares.
The life of An Internet Marketer
As an IM, your job is to make a living using the Web, email, and social media. Obviously there are many variations and ways to go about this, but at its basic level, it’s all about selling something online.
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There are a great number of people who make excellent livings from their online presence such as David Risley, Chris Guthrie, or Glen Allsopp but far more who struggle to make anything at all.
Becoming proficient at Internet Marketing takes time, education, patience, persistence, and a little luck. Good marketers understand how human psychology works. They understand their markets, trends, analytics, and conversion rates.
But unfortunately they are in the vast minority. Many people see the Internet as a way to earn quick cash and live on the beach sipping mai tai’s while tapping away on their keyboards 2 hours a day.
This is not reality
Internet business, like any business takes hard work. If you’re serious about earning money online there are dozens of ways to go about it. A few of the most common are:
- Authority blogging
- Affiliate marketing
- Niche marketing
- Physical/digital product sales
- Mobile technology/App creation
- Coaching
- Website flipping
Getting started online has an incredibly low barrier to entry. Meaning just about anyone can be up and running with a website in 20 minutes.
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And if you’re interested (and committed) to creating a viable business, then consider the following:
Here are 4 things that you must do to be successful online:
- Give a shit about your readers/customers. This should be #1 in your book. How can you expect to build relationships and develop brand loyalty if you don’t care about your tribe? I once heard Gary Vaynerchuk say that listening to your readers is important but giving a shit about them is vastly more important.
Think about this for a moment. How would your business, blog or really anything improve if you truly cared about the people who follow you, read your stuff, or buy from you? If they weren’t just a statistic, but rather an opportunity to help or educate?
- Focus on relationships, not sales. Aim to connect and help as many as people as possible. Offer to help people who need it without expecting anything in return. The fastest way to have a zero income business is by ramming sales down everyone’s throat and flooding their inboxes with “buy this today” emails.
You will be amazed how much more success you will see by reaching out to people and building a relationship with them. Personally, I’ve had more doors open for me because of the people I’ve met and taken an interest in than by any other means. By far.
Even in the world of affiliate marketing where your #1 goal is to sell products. That’s what you do. You promote a product, package it in the best possible way, and sell it.
And there is nothing wrong with this, but think if you took the time to send a personal thank you to them afterwards? What if you read their Amazon review and contacted them directly to open a conversation? If you don’t think things like that will get you noticed online, you are sorely mistaken.
- Deliver 10x the value. If you aren’t delivering at least 10X the value you charge for a product or service, you aren’t doing a good enough job. Today’s online marketplace is super fucking competitive and if you aren’t delivering THE shit, someone else will.
Providing outstanding content is the norm now. It’s expected. The days of delivering sub-par content are over. Getting 70% of your email list to open and read your email is a thing of the past.
If you aren’t delivering great stuff, take a hard look at why you’re doing what you do. If you are doing it for purely financial reasons, you may want to revisit your strategy. Sure you can make a shit ton of cash online, but most people want to enjoy their work and feel a sense of fulfillment.
- Stand out. If you’ve spent much time online (and who hasn’t?), then you know that the online world is filled with followers, wannabe’s, and copycat’s.
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People have a tendency to see the success of one person and try to duplicate it. And while this may work, it usually doesn’t. Why? Because everyone has a different story, personality, and passion. Take for example, Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com. He is killing it online and has had hundreds, if not thousands of copycat’s try to replicate his style.
How many of them have you heard of? None. Me neither. Why? Because they are merely sheep trying to use what worked for him. It doesn’t work because they aren’t doing anything different.
When Pat started his blog, he was one of the first guys to post his income, success, and failures as they happened. And people loved it! Now it seems that every other blog is doing something similar.
My point is this; you must, must, must be unique in your approach to online business. There are hundreds of millions of blogs you are competing against and in the ever shortening attention span of readers, it’s imperative that you have a hook.
Be bold, be brash, have balls!
Don’t Be Full of Shit!
Having an online business can be extremely rewarding and gives anyone the opportunity to build something around what they love.
Be honest with yourself about what you want to create and do it with integrity. Allow you to be you. The world doesn’t need another Internet marketer; it needs the kick ass version of you!
The post Why Most Internet Marketing Sucks: Are You a Bullshit Marketer? appeared first on Mission0ps dot com.
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