The Internet Marketing Minefield
This post relates to the ninth e-mail (Web Marketing Formula - issue 7)
Up to this point, you have generally been fed positive information regarding Internet Marketing (IM). That is not going to change drastically today, but you ought to know some of the dangers of IM. That way, by being aware of where it is easy to trip up, you can avoid costly mistakes.
Internet Marketing is like a minefield, there are lots of ways you can get blown away. But, the important point is this, there is something worth crossing for on the other side! You want financial freedom, IM is one of the easiest ways of getting it. You want your own business that will provide you with a long term income, IM can provide that. You want a bit of short term cash, yes, IM can get that for you too. You want a better life style, IM can even provide that for you. If you look at it, you will find that IM is a terrific vehicle for achieving many goals in life.
So, that is the first thing you need to do, decide what it is you want to achieve. This will determine your route across the minefield. It is no good shooting for long term income, if you cannot put in the time without seeing a return at first. Equally, you could be very frustrated if you managed to get some short term income, only to find that you had to work equally hard the next week. The route you choose is important.
Probably the best way of starting is to do some affiliate marketing. If you learn how to run a Google AdWords campaign, you will get up and running quite quickly. If you cannot dedicate the time required, pick an online survey company to go with. Once, you have some money coming in you can be a bit more creative, and start building a long term income that should, eventually, run on auto-pilot.
Right, assuming you have picked your route across, now you have to contend with the mines! How do you do that? Obviously, you do not cross a minefield by closing your eyes and hoping for the best! Lets talk about the mines, so you can recognise them, then steer around them. That is the safe path. The first thing obviously, is to take action. You are a bit scared of the minefield? That is perfectly understandable. It is daunting. The IM Minefield is very large, and so is very imposing. So first, you must decide on a route and take action. Now, you are set on a particular course of action. You are focussed and going forward.
1) Focus - keep to the path! Do not look back. Press on. Keep going until you complete your task. Whichever route you take, stick to it. A better opportunity might come along, but do not get diverted. Do not consider another route until you have crossed on this one. If you divert from the path you are on, you will get blown up!
It is very tempting to look around and see what looks like a better path. It is shorter. It seems to have less mines on it. The goal at the end is greater. As you gain confidence in your IM business, it is easy to get tempted away by a rosier looking way of doing things. They say, “the grass is always greener on the other side.” Focus is the first key to your success.
2) Offers - as you become a member of the IM community, you will become increasingly bombarded with offers. Of course, they are all very tempting, they are meant to be. The best marketers make fantastic, ‘irresistible’ offers. But, as a marketer yourself, you want to be making them, not taking them up. What will happen, if you are not careful, is this, you will buy up many ‘good’ offers which you will never use. They will be like books filling up your book shelves and simply gathering dust. You will fill up your hard drive with information you will never use. Believe me, I know because I have done it. You soon forget: where things are; who you bought them from; whether they are incurring a monthly charge. It is very easy to ‘max out’ your credit cards. Please don’t get blown up by this mine!
3) Information overload - if you do not focus, you will try to do too much. Learn every traffic technique there is to know, etc, etc. Do you have hours of free time and a brain the size of a pumpkin? If so, then you will not have a problem here, and will be fast on your way to being the next IM superstar. But, most of us ‘mere mortals’ struggle to take it all in. Better to focus and succeed in one area, then either milk that or move on to something more profitable. Again, it is all to do with focus and staying on the path you are committed to.
4) Too ambitious - it is easy to get very excited at a brilliant idea you have, without first counting the cost. Perhaps the biggest problem with the minefield is getting your site to work properly. The more complicated it is, the harder it is to sort, and can be a real head ache! For example, I was given the opportunity to resale a product I have used myself. I was excited about this. I even had a potential customer lined up, before I went for the offer! But, I had not thought long enough about one thing, how to deliver the product to my own customers! I need a matrix of delivery pages for all the different permutations! This is something I do not even know where to start creating. I am going to have to consult an expert and probably pay him to solve my problem, or ditch my project and lose my investment. Basically, I was too ambitious.
When building a web-site, everything needs to work. One link in the chain not working, and the whole thing falls to the ground. For example, when I built my first site, I had a problem right at the start. I like domains with a hyphen. But, when logging in to set the domain up on my hosting, I had to ignore the hyphen! Fortunately for me, Jacob knew this problem, so it was quite easily solved. Start small is the best advice.
5) Running out of time - of course, it takes time to plan and digest all the information you need, especially at the beginning. So, please be aware that you can easily run out of time. This is, again, where focus is important. Buying all the offers you will receive will take time, and you might have been better spending it on your current project. It should not be hard for you to find a simple, straight forward project to start with. Affiliate marketing with Google AdWords is probably the fastest, most lucrative way to start, and you can ditch it easily, if it does not work out. If it is OK, you can almost leave it to run. Perhaps the best thing to do is, work out what time you have per day, per week, per month, and then halve it! That way you know you are on the safe side.
By all means, buy information that relates to your project. It is prudent to learn everything you can up front. It should not cost you too much to learn all you need. But, even there, set yourself a realistic budget. Right now, I am having 3 sites built that will teach nearly everything that you need to succeed at affiliate marketing, resale rights and list building. You could buy all 3 sets of videos for under $100. Maybe you would need some information of traffic generation in addition. But, you would be pretty much there! It does not have to cost an arm and a leg! If you had the time, you could work through each set of videos to decide which path best suited you and your goals. You would pretty much know what you had to do to succeed, before you even started!
If you need some advice. Why not join the blog by entering your details to the right at the top. You will get the free “Web Marketing Formula for Beginners,” e-book. Then, reply to this post, and ask me your questions. If I do not have an adequate answer for you, I promise to find someone who can help you. Jacob has coached me, and is still offering his list-building training.
To your prosperous future!
Richard Mortimer
