Happy Halloween everybody!
What a mighty fine metaphor Halloween presents me with to briefly bring you up-to-date with my latest internet marketing thoughts and plans. The question is: Where are the best opportunities to make money online, and after finding them, how do you seize the moment and take action? And when you knock on the door of an internet marketing guru do you get a trick or a treat?
I confess to being easily tempted by many of the “make money” promises that daily flood my inbox. I’m not proud of admitting it but what saved me during this past week was my credit cards were maxed. So maxed out that I couldn’t pay for gas at the service station. It’s not fun to see a credit card transaction fail right before your eyes.
Let’s see what opportunities I had to pass up just during the last few days. There was an automated system for PPC display ads; as well as ready made business-in-a-box websites with everything “done for you”. And on and on. New PLR content, new coaching programs, new seminars, must-see webinars – the constant barrage is mind numbing in intensity. So many miracle schemes are promoted that any gems among them threaten to get lost in the background noise that passes for today’s internet marketing tools and training infomarketplace.
This incessant clamoring for my credit card dollars – when the cupboard isn’t as bare – reminds me of when I was a tourist in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, about 10 years ago. What I needed to buy was a simple bus ticket to get me back to Singapore. I clearly remember that at the downtown bus terminal was this double row of booths each containing an independent ticket vendor literally screaming above the din for my attention. The funny thing was they were all selling tickets for the same few bus companies going to the same destination. Multiple voices, limited opportunities!
Let me tell you something that running out of money (credit!) taught me. You have to make whatever tools and programs you already own start paying their way. It crystallized my thinking like nothing had before in my entire life. And when the funds do become available again you need the wisdom to choose only the very best programs or offers.
In the coming week I am returning to the USA for Armand Morin’s BigSeminar13 in Las Vegas. Yes it will be an internet marketing pitchfest, no doubt about it, but more importantly for me it will provide marvellous opportunities to network with like-minded entrepreneurs. The speakers will share a lot of internet tips and know how too, maybe not everything in their toolbags but hopefully at least sufficient knowledge to be able to break through the barriers holding us back.
In the last few months I’ve learned first hand that it is near impossible to succeed on your own right out of the blocks, no matter how strong your desire and intention. We all need to align ourselves with mentors and join mastermind groups. Somehow most humans are wired to need someone else to hold us accountable for carrying out what we promise. I guess that means laziness is a default condition.
Going all-out to achieve success online is what we all desire, yes? The question is – does a half-hearted effort cut it? I can tell you first hand that it doesn’t. My recently aborted Halloween online project is a case in point. I started making what seemed to me to be all the right plans, bought fresh PLR content, and joined some affiliate programs. Upgraded this Wordpress premium theme to a multi-site license. Then threw together a site that is so limp that I’m too ashamed to give its URL. OK, if you insist you can find it at http://www.funthishalloween.com.
Point made? Just like there’s no such thing as being half pregnant, my take home lesson is that internet projects need to be followed through to completion. How else do we expect website visitors to show sufficient interest in what we’re offering that they’ll purchase from us in order to have their needs met?
I’m determined not to repeat my halloween debacle in whatever I turn my online attention to from here on. As I’ve said in this post already, to achieve success I need the support and goodwill of others, be they gurus or newbies like myself. I also need to remain vigilant and be astute enough to identify the genuine opportunities that if grasped and acted upon will help move me forward.
Everything else is a marketing trick that could not only help send me broke again but will deflect my efforts in a wasteful manner which could very well end in discouragement and humiliation.
Let’s refocus our attention on the online marketing treats that will surely come our way.
