www. stands for work, work, work!
August 15, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Momentum, Newbie Help, Web2.0, internet marketing
It never ceases to amaze and intrigue me how many people embark upon some kind of Internet venture or other and then expect some kind of magical "Internet" formula to kick in and start rocketing them, their product(s), cause or business to dizzying heights of success.
Never before has any other form of new media had this kind of phenomenally mesmerizing effect on so many people,.. I mean, we must be talking "millions" of people here that have this kind of expectation that they fully expect will come to fruition close to as they’ve imagined it or even better.
My observation is that it’s the Internet itself that’s responsible for creating this kind of "lemming like" mass hysteria. Certainly there have been many very successful Internet marketers that got involved in the "early days" of the mid to late 1990’s and made an absolute motza in online sales. Added to that is the next generation of Web1.0 marketers that followed in the steps of their mentors and also did very well indeed.
However,.. you’ve got to remember that back then it really was the early days,… kind of like the California Gold Rush where anyone who could afford a bucket, a pick and a shovel and was prepared to do a bit of digging could strike gold without too much effort, but as is the case with all gold rush experiences,- once the mother-load vein has been farmed, the hard and the smart work begins in figuring out the best ways of finding new tracts and even better ways of using leveraging to get it out.
So there’s a kind of echo that’s still ringing out loudly in the ears of lots of folks out there that "thars gold in them thar hills",.. the hills of course being the "Internet",.. and to be plainly factual about that… it’s a fundamentally true statement. The problem lies in the fact that there is still a misconception that striking it rich or making more than enough to sack your boss is an easy task that can be achieved within the first 90 to 180 days online.
I’ll be the first to say that YES,.. it is entirely possible to achieve those kind of results. I personally know of several "new comers" that in the past 2 to 3 years alone have achieved astonishing and consistent results from a virtual standing start, but the thing that distinguishes these people is that they all worked really hard and really consistently to get to where they are now. It seems that those that have broken into the good money have all established some quite stringent work practices and routines that have allowed them to achieve their success!
In my opinion, anyone that has a plan to buy some kind of "business in a box", "turnkey website" or start hawking around the same old rehashed PLR e-info that everyone else has, is just kidding themselves about ever being able to become financially independent or even replace their income online.
What about Web2.0,… doesn’t that make the whole task so much easier now?
My quick answer,… "no way Jose". Don’t get me wrong, I think that Web2.0 and the evolution thereof is a fantastic thing,.. but it needs to be basically understood and then a working and/or marketing strategy has to be created around that which then needs to be RELENTLESSLY worked on until the results and the networking power becomes activated enough for it to make any real difference.
Whilst many people have already figured out which elements of the Web2.0 network they need to be working that will be most suited to their marketing or promotional objectives, there are just as many and more that have not or haven’t even got a clue. The point here is, that with so many new Web2.0 sites starting up (many of them are very good too) it’s impossible for you to have a profile and be active on every single one of them (or even half of them) unless you had a team of diligent and objective focused virtual assistants working for you. At the moment, most people tend to to using a combination of *blogging (including commenting on similar niched blogs for exposure and some backlinks) *Facebook, *Twitter, *Youtube/Metacafe, *Linkedin, *Friendfeed (now owned by Facebook), *Squidoo, *Hubpages, *Forums, *Article submissions. However, to put in the required time on each of those on an average daily basis not only requires a clear schedule to be drafted,.. but several hours each day just to keep such a network alive! I take my own example and say that whilst I’m not afraid of hard work (most of which I really enjoy anyway) and long hours, I just cannot keep up with the demands that my "Web2.0 network list" requires,- well certainly not to the level that would be considered as suitable or consistent enough for me to be satisfied with.
If you’re one of those people that’s been led to believe that simply by setting up a Facebook profile, a Twitter account, a Youtube Channel and a WordPress blog that you’re now on the "network" and you can just occasionally post and tweet content as you feel inclined and the whole Web.2.0 machine will kick in and do the rest, then you’re just a time bomb waiting to go off. A time bomb of frustration, disappointment and debt (yes it costs money to start an online business and stick with it,… for some poor uninformed folks… that’s WAY too much!).
Yes,.. WordPress is great,.. and the search engines and Google love Wordpress sites and blogs because they’re typically very reliable resources for street-level knowledge and information that people are looking for. But it depends on your content.,- if that’s not consistent reliable regular content then you can forget about it having any real impact on your site’s or blog’s performance from a ranking perspective. Sure you can get the best SEO expert in the country to tweak your blog with all the latest plugins and do keyword analysis and make sure your posts, categories and initial content are full of all the keyword rich content, but if you don’t continue to back that up and keep the snowball rolling you’ll soon find yourself scratching your head and relegating your blog to the "could’ve-been-great" graveyard where 80% of blogs all end up.
It’s kind of interesting that in the offline world, a common international statistic (in capital driven economies) is that 85% of businesses would fail within the first 5 years and 50% would fail in under 2 years. Is it then any coincidence that those figures are not only echoed online but also amplified? I was visiting Darren Rowse’s blog at http://www.problogger.net/ this week and noticed that he had a poll running in his right sidebar. The poll asks whether you have a blog and for how long you’ve been blogging. I found the results very interesting and they just confirmed my anecdotal evidence that I’d assumed had been the case for some time. Considering that Darren’s blog has a very wide readership and attracts what I would consider a very broad spread of "typical" bloggers and IM aspirants, I thought that his poll results (spread over 5,075 voters at time of this post) represented a reliable slice of the blogging and blogger perspective.
You can go and see for yourself (just take the poll and click "View results" to see) that the first 3 categories represent over 50% of the voters. Those categories are 1) "I don’t have a blog". 2) "Less than 3 months", 3) "3 to 6 months" and the total number of them being 2,610 is therefore 52% of the total voters. So therefore we have a clear indication that more than half the people either "preparing to start a blog" or having "started a blog" get to a period of about no more than 6 months before they either give up or kind of continue to limp along without realizing the goals that they started out with. Even if that assumption isn’t entirely correct, then one thing is clear, and that’s the fact that only 28% of bloggers have been active for more than 18 months. I wonder how many of those 28% of bloggers have achieved the successes and objectives that they started off with? I’d like to wager that it’s quite low and that only a small proportion of those blogs could be considered as being truly successful or mainstream fixtures!
I’m coming to my real intended point in this article which is that most people (probably 85% to 90%) embark upon their internet venture wearing rose colored glasses and expecting some magical Web2.0 formula or Internet phenomenon to sweep them up to success without actually having to break much of a sweat. When I look at all of the successful online marketers and professional bloggers they all appear to have one thing in common,.. they work their tails off in order to achieve and maintain their successes. For sure, all of them are applying outsourcing and Virtual Assistant practices (some on huge scales) in order to get their results,… but the common fundamental ingredient and theme is there,… it requires WORK,.. "www. work work work" in order to achieve online success and any kind of niche domination.
I read recently that Rich Schefren (you can Google him to discover he’s a much respected and very knowledgeable online (and offline) businessman), brought up the topic at one of his recent seminars at which many of the the Internet’s top marketers and performers were present,.. and that topic was along the lines of ,.. How realistic is it to believe in the notion of the "Internet Lifestyle"? (That "lifestyle being,… sipping Margaritas on an island resort while your clickbank and Paypal accounts keep churning out the dollars for you). The combined consensus of the delegates present was that that lifestyle (on a permanent or semi permanent basis) was a myth and didn’t really exist. The reason for that is that it takes work (and some genius strategies) to get there,..and it takes work to stay there…even if you do take some time off for a long "holiday",… the work is always there waiting to be attended to or waiting to be pumped to the next level if you want to keep the kind of dollars rolling in that your business and lifestyle now demands!
Here’s my advice to anyone that’s in that early starting out phase (for me its a "re-starting out" phase). You need to identify your best or most productive Web2.0 network sites to focus on, which you can do with research, and a bit of testing (if you have successful competitors or know of any like-styled businesses, watch what they’re doing). Then make a schedule for posting content to those sites and stick to it (make it realistic,.. but make sure its really regular). If you can afford to outsource some work to a VA (Virtual Assistant) then do that, but if you can’t just make your plan and stick to it. That will mean performing some routine daily tasks (write them down in a schedule) even though you might not feel like doing them,… and you WILL feel like you’re talking to yourself for the first 2 to 3 months (or more) whilst you’re getting little response or comments to you blog post, articles & Tweets etc. The thing is that during this time many people are watching and waiting for a time when they feel it’s a safe and reliable proposition to enter your "conversation" and become a part of it. The problem for most people is that they don’t have a clear and committed objective and they just come to a grinding halt once their enthusiasm has faded away (usually within the first 3 to 6 months!).
In conclusion: if you’re not prepared to put some real work into building your online presence and creating a groundwork of trust and credibility then you should stop dreaming and wasting your time on every other out-of-the-box get rich program that comes out because although some of those programs can provide you with good ideas and information and tools,.. the main ingredient needed is YOU,… putting in the work.
I’d love to hear your views on this and perhaps if we can get some conversation happening it will provide some worthwhile support for our readers and also encourage me to post more articles going into more detail on this topic.
Until next time…. Cheers,..and have a great day!
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Internet Marketing Momentum
August 14, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Momentum, internet marketing
I decided to do a search of some articles and blog posts that were focusing on Internet Marketing Momentum and I came across a few that were quite worthwhile.
In fact, a couple of them are very good and they do touch on other aspects of marketing success and promotion in general so I thought I’d share them with you here.
Please note that all links open up in this browser window (unless you right-click "open in new tab/window"), so you’ll have to use your browser’s "Back" button to return to this page 
The Pivotal Stage In The Rise of a Professional Blogger | John …
I figured, as I blog about valuable information like how to publish board games, Chinese manufacturing, blogging, and internet marketing will provide me with readers who will be prepared to buy my games. … A lot of momentum is required to launch a new business. And I remember John saying in an interview that I read, “previous experience plays a part.” How very true. For those who persevere during the darkest moments will come out the other side of the spectrum as a …
Internet Marketing Tips #4 – Gary Simpson
Alex Jeffreys Internet Marketing. … Meaning: Do nothing-nothing happens-Inertia becomes impossible to overcome. Must…watch…another…Oprah… So, the more action you put into something, you will experience not only a larger reaction, but the action itself gains more energy and momentum, the “snowball” effect, thus making all future actions easier to initiate and maintain. Class dismissed… Denis. Oh yea, may I mention (and link) to you and this page in my upcoming ebook, …
INTERNET BUSINESS REVENUE PRO: Using Momentum To The Advantage of …
‘Internet Business Revenue Pro dot blogspot dot com’ is the definitive network marketing and cyber business guide to the wonderful and wild web. This site uncovers the technical aspects of thriving in the world of online business, …
Building Marketing Momentum Without Social Media
Michael Stelzner is an experienced Internet marketer, but even he was surprised with the results from the marketing campaigns that he and his team implemented for their Social Media Success Summit . In the interview that follows, …
Hope you enjoyed the read,.. and if you’d like to open up any conversation around this topic or any of the articles just leave a comment and let’s get into it!
Until next time…. Cheers,..and have a great day!
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The Great Product Creation Hurdle
July 25, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Momentum
If you’ve been on the Internet for any amount of time and have tried to make a few dollars selling or promoting or just trying to make money any way possible, such as with Adsense, banner ads, affiliate marekting or whatver, you will have it it said time and time again that in order to be really successsful with IM you need to create your own product(s).
At that point of golden realsization you suddenly understand that everyone who ever pointed you in that direction was right, and you then start to make plans to create your own product.
Actually, you’ll probably find that when you knuckle down to it, it’s not really that difficult.
There are lots of resources and courses and forums dedicated to this very issue (many of which won’t cost you anything to join) where you can get lots of ideas and some pretty reliable formulae for cranking out products that would be really worthwhile and highly valued by many of the folks you had in mind when first setting out on your product creation trail. Uh oh,.. ROAD BLOCK! So the grand day arrives when you’ve painstakingly put your new product together, the graphics are all done, the content looks great,.. and you’ve even put together some sales copy that looks pretty darn splendid,..BUT,.. how now do you get people to know about it and then motivate them to part with their hard earned cash to buy it? This is the one BIG area that newbie product creators and marketers encounter when they first releas a new product. Without a decent sized list or an army of affiliates or JV partners you’re pretty much stuck in a hole feeling sorry for yourself and considering your alternatives such as,- spending even more money to drive traffic to your sales page via an Adwords campaign. I recently read a terrific article by Paul Myers (a really excellent copywriter and Internet Marketer) in which he was addressing this very issue. In that article Paul said something that rang out as being so true and so typical,… he said
"Some get so wrapped up in the process of creating products that they never really think about how they’re going to sell them when they’re done." Paul Myers
I know this to be true of my own original efforts in creating products,.. and also that of many others including several clients. I put this down to a combination of factors;
- Inexperience (being a bit naive)
- Blinding excitement
- Fear of facing the truth
- Over confidence born of listening to too much hype!
- Simple lack of strategic planning
Sadly,.. this is the point at which many fine and talented people that have a lot to offer just give up and fall to the wayside in disillusionment, frustration, and mounting costs of "trying" to establish a profitable online working experience. It seems strange also, that many of these poor unfortunate folks just kind of limp along continuing to buy this program and that one in the hope that it will be "the one" that will somehow magically turn things around for them. The thing is though,… that until this issue of establishing your own online products is revisited and mastered,.. lasting success will continue to elude you!
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The Momentum Forces
July 19, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Momentum
Momentum is an awesome and formiddable thing,- harness it and you’ll be 
unstoppable, but be at the effect of it and it’s like trying to shake the weight of the world from your shoulders.
How does this relate to Internet Marketing? Whether your focus is on the "IM" "niche" or whether you’re marketing to some other specialist niche,.. you first have to consider "momentum". Get it working for you otherwise by default it will start working against you. Let’s take the Internet Marketing niche (in which we could include any kind of professional online consultancy, whether that be in email etiquette or SEO management or whatever).
When you first decide to commit to this aspect of the online marketing realm then you’re approaching it as a relative novice who is about to embark upon a steep learning curve (the steeper the better actually!). It doesn’t matter whether you’re already successful offline in the same or a related field such as corporate consultancy, marketing, selling, success coaching, wedding planning or cake decorating,.. the fact is that the Internet is a whole different ballgame and the moment you stick your toe in the water you’ll start to get sucked into the Inertia and momentum of the Internet because whether you like it or not the fact is that the Internet and online marketing (in virtually every single niche you can think of ) is already charging along at an enormous rate of knots and therefore if you don’t recognize or understand the dynamics of the momentum of that then you’re likely to get swept away in the undertow of that mighty wave and get dumped very heavily on the sandy shores of disappointment and frustration despite the stellar effort and enthusiasm that you started with. On the other hand, if you go into it with a firm strategy and adequate knowledge and are willing to perform daily tasks that will be VERY difficult to stick to then you can succeed.
So,.. what are some of the ways in which you can get the power of momentum working for you when you’re actually setting off from a standing start?
I can list just a few here, although there are many more than I’m listing here (some of which we’ll visit in later articles).
- Get yourself on top of your task management (some people refer to this as "time management" but I don’t like that term because it infers that we "mere mortals" can control or manage time,…which of course we cannot (although many scientists have tried to figure that out including Einstein). However, we can control the way in which we manage our tasks and control our own behaviors and set patterns of productivity. I’ll confess right here and now and say that this is not one of my strong areas and I tend to let distractions and procrastination creep in too often, but in knowing that I do implement some systems and use some software that helps me greatly, one such product which is really quite brilliant and so easy to use allows me to set tasks and then to assign time quadrants for each of the tasks. I then just activate that task when I’m ready to get the task done and I stick with it until its completed while the software and the timer keeps me focused on the outcome being delivered on time. Then, upon completion a report is recorded and I can review these reports at the end of the day to see how objective I was in (A) allocation of adequate time for the task,. and (B) getting the task completed as specified. It really does help. I’ll be featuring this product very soon as soon as I write a proper review.
- Identify your daily goals and split them up task by task BEFORE you start the day. If you wait until your day gets rolling then you’ll find that by the time you’ve checked your emails and clicked a couple of "must see now" links that you’ve already wasted the first couple of hours,… and if you’re working on your Internet projects in your spare time (say after dinner of an evening) it can be 11pm before you realize that you’ve done zip and just added further weight to the tide of inertia puching against you. I like to write down the following day’s tasks the evening before,.. just take 15 minutes to really focus on what’s important and then stick to that list in the morning and you’ll find it really helps a lot and motivates you further because you can see results happening!
- Getting a mentor, accountability partner, or facilitator to work with. This is a really powerful way to get the momentum forces working for you because you’re immediately harnessing the experiences and skills of another person that’s working with you to keep you on track and help you avoid mistakes, pitfalls, and all kinds of results producing negative thoughts and emotions. However, just be careful that if you are hiring a "mentor" or whatever, that you know that the person can really help you and that the objectives of the engagement are put in writing before you start,. like having a working agreement that you can keep referencing against. If you can’t afford a mentor to personally work with (usually a mentor will cost you anywhere from $100 per month to $1,000,.. many of which are very worthwhile,..but some are absolutely useless,.. or worse…they can be damaging) there are alternatives you can employ. If you can’t afford to hire a mentor of be a part of a mentoring program (where the mentor works with a small group of say 20 people) then you can assign yourself one or two "guru mentors" for FREE. Yep,.. I said the "F" word… "free". How to do this,…. There are many really worthwhile gurus out there that have fantastic programs and write a lot of articles, e-reports and videos to help people achieve certain objectives (usually centered around IM success). Most of this content that is FREE,.. is really great and very worthwhile and powerful if applied properly. Of course the "guru" is enticing his "free" content followers with enough excellent content to convince them that their (the "guru’s") programs and products are worth subscribing to,- which in such cases of excellent free content,. the paid subscription is much more powerful again and can be the difference between mediocre achievement and remarkable permanent success. The key here to bear in mind is to NOT make the huge mistake of subscribing to 3, 4, 5 or more free programs because you’ll just get buried in information overload and conflicting methods and processes that can either really slow you down or stop you due to frustration and lack of focus. My advice is to select ONE guru (two at most) and stick with his or her free program until you’ve really got the most out of it. Follow all the information and read all of the content and watch all of the videos and then take notes and apply what you’ve learnt. If you do that you’ll find that it can really help you to move forward and clear up your focus. Once you’ve arrived at that point you’ll then be in a much more commanding position to make an objective choice about committing to some payment based course, but at least this time you’ll be able to justify $197 to $997 as being a sound and practical investment rather than a fear based emotional reaction to the need to advance too quickly. I’ll be featuring some of the free content programs and courses in m review pages shortly, so stay tuned or subscribe to this article via RSS feed.
Another example I can give of seeking out and assigning yourself a free mentor is in my own case where I’m very interested in successful copy writing. I’ve written many things and have created some very good sales and landing pages,..BUT,.. I certainly do not consider myself a guru and I always review and analyze other expertly written pieces of copy and research cutting edge techniques that are know to be getting good conversion results. I have several sources for this purpose and constantly use Google search to help me find new things, however, the main copy writing guru that I constantly refer to is Michel Fortin. I frequent his blog several times a week and I’m a member of his mailing list,… and that’s another thing,- his emails are great and always loaded with great free value and references. Now I don’t wish to present myself as a Michel Fortin freeloader,- and in fact I so far have never spent a dollar with him, but there’s a distinct probability that one day I will buy something from him or via one of his site links (if not, I really should start hitting his "tipping jar" because I really do appreciate availaing myself of his "free" mentoring support). One final and important codacil to that remark is that it only becomes "mentoring" material if you take it seriously and respectfully and then apply it,.. otherwise you may as well add it to the volumes of other free info gathering digital dust on your computer’s hard drive!
Cheers,
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