First of all, this is not a ‘guru bashing post’, but rather, my 2 cents on the subject of the “real truth” about Internet Marketing.
It appears that some established marketers are saying “This is THE way to make real money online – follow me!”.
Some say, “The best niche to make money online is in the Internet Marketing (IM) niche”
Some say, “Stay AWAY from the IM niche if you’re just starting out”
Some say, “You gotta have a list if you want to make real money online”
Some say, “Naw, you don’t need a list, it’s good to have but not essential”
Some say, “I’ve made millions selling on eBay, I can show you how”
Some say, “Nope, not eBay – surely you jest?”
Some say, “Some say info-products are over-saturated, you need to go physical”
Some say, “Digital products are the best!”
The list goes on …
So, who’s really telling the truth?
Are you ready for the ‘shocking’ answer?
ALL of them!
Yes, all of them are telling the truth from their perspective, i.e. they have made their fortune in their respective niches/methods.
HOWEVER, and this is a BIG however, what worked for them may not work for you!
The best advice I can give you came from my friend, Michael Campbell:
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“Every time you switch business models you lose momentum!”
If you stop applying power to your goal and keep trying for quick hits you’ll never build a successful, sustainable business model” Michael Campbell, Internet Marketing Secrets
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This relates to my previous post about Knowing and Maintaining Your Focus
If you jump from one business model to another, you’ll end up spinning your wheels and getting nowhere.
If you already have an existing profitable online business, look at the various ways you can enhance it further. Spend more time in marketing, finding JV partners, getting more backlinks, etc.
Buy stuff that will enhance your existing business, stuff that will save you time by automating some of the manual work, etc.
Do not buy stuff that will distract you from your focus. No matter how good the copy is.
Serious.
Do this and you will prosper in 2008!
Remember, NOBODY is going to build your business for you.
You have to build it yourself.
Don’t be distracted –> FOCUS
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If you’re a newbie and you are looking for directions on which way to go, then I suggest you spend some time researching the various online business models. Once you have decided on a particular business model, stick to it like glue.
Do not be swayed with the latest fancy product, video, report or what have you. If you’d like to ask me a question, please head over to your marketing questions answered |
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments …
Best wishes,
Comments 35
It’s obvious! you have no business getting into the Internet marketing guru niche unless you have actually established credibility by successfully creating one or more internet businesses in another niche. There are plenty of wannabies misleading newbies already.
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 9:56 pm ¶Staying focused is something I always have to work on. Thanks for the reminder, Adrian. :-)
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 9:58 pm ¶Hi Neil,
Thanks for dropping by :-)
This post is a reminder to myself as well.
There are so many opportunities and ways to make money online … and it is so tempting to go after them all …
But I guess Michael Campbell sums it up best “Every time you switch business models you lose momentum!”
Cheers,
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 10:11 pm ¶Adrian
Nice post, Adrian. It’s part of the reason I blogged about the same video, saying: “John Reese is WRONG!” – and then went on to clarify WHY I thought so.
I love the bit about every time you switch models, you lose momentum. How true. Reminds me of a bit in another ebook I always remember. If success is the surface of a sphere, we all begin in the center. If you only keep moving in one direction, even if slowly, you will ultimately reach the surface (success). But if you zigzag and keep turning back on yourself, you’ll always be spinning around the center – and the surface of the sphere will remain just as far away as before.
All success
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 10:17 pm ¶Dr.Mani
I think its all a conspiracy theory by google and no-one is telling the truth.
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 10:37 pm ¶Getting more and more people to spend money on adwords and create adsense revenue
Dog eat dog world.
Everyone is trying to manipulate everyone else, IM world included.
Sickening indeed.
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 10:41 pm ¶Hey Dr Mani, good to see you here :-)
That’s a nice analogy about the reaching the surface.
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 10:53 pm ¶Hi Roy,
I wouldn’t call it manipulation – basically, every online marketer’s goal is to make money right?
And they will try to sell you stuff and/or teach you stuff that works for them.
Note: I’m not referring to those ‘newbie guru wannabe’, but those established long time marketers with a good reputation.
For example, if you ask Joel Comm, what’s the best way to make money online, chances are, he will tell you Adsense. If you ask Frank Kern, he’ll probably tell you to do non-IM niches.
If you ask Ewen Chia, he’ll teach you how to be a super-afiliate.
Each of them are operating within their expertise/niches.
All of them are right, from their perspective.
The IMPORTANT question one need to ask is this –
WILL this work for me?
And one can only know that if one has clear goals and FOCUS.
Best wishes,
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 11:03 pm ¶Adrian
Hi Geoff,
You’ve completely loss me here :-)
How is google involve in this?
Best wishes,
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 11:04 pm ¶Adrian
I think Adrian is correct. Most of the “gurus” teach what works for them and each of us has to decide whether it works for us or not.
In order to succeed in any market requires a focus in that market. I believe that the market choice should be one that you are interested in and either know something about or you are willing to learn.
My own focus is in internet marketing which I find not only interesting but extremely exciting.
The problem with choosing the IM market is there are so many niches within that market it requires strong discipline to maintain focus.
And I admit that in the beginning I was all over the board which caused me to lose momentum.
Jim
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 11:24 pm ¶Great post Adrian! the hardest thing for me is to stay FOCUSED! there are so many distractions around, all of them promising a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I have to constantly stop myself from veering off in another direction. It’s very difficult, everyone promises you the earth but never delivers. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to hard work. I work on my internet business every day, usually until the early hours of the morning. It’s like a drug, it’s addictive. The problem is knowing who you can trust, who should you listen to, who isn’t just out to make a quick buck. Anyway…I’ve rambled on far too long..must get back to work now.
Best Wishes
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 11:33 pm ¶John
Hey Adrian.
Two thoughts…
1) People who have never flown a plane should not be teaching newbies to fly. Likewise, people who have not made any money online should not be in the IM business. You can’t teach what you haven’t yet learned to do. Trying to is dishonest at best and unethical at worst. IM is not a newbie business.
2) Not all IMers teach ‘what they know’. For example, there’s a lot of IMers promoting really poor quality SEO products because the profit is good. Ethical marketers preach, teach and sell what they know – but there’s lots that sell what pays well.
Caveat emptor. Let the buyer beware.
: )
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 11:33 pm ¶Linda
Hi Adrian,
Good point. I hadn’t heard Michael’s view on this before and it’s very encouraging. I’ve just come through a diificult period where I had to evaluate three different areas I was operating in. I wasn’t sure whether the outcome would be all three, two or just one – and which one.
After much evaluation, I decided yesterday to drop two and focus on the one only. I then had to make a couple of phone calls and apologise/backtrack a little.
So your post has given me great clarification that I made exactly the right choice.
It is so easy to get pulled in multiple opposite directions and end up nowhere. It’s possibly the greatest challenge of online work – maintaining laser-like focus.
Many thanks :-)
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 11:43 pm ¶Just wait for some guru to tell you what can’t be done and next month you’ll see some Joe from Nowheres Ville show you his earnings in living color splashed up on his website.
I’ve satisfied myself over the years that I can make money from anything if I stay focussed on it and keep tweaking…and reading Adrian’s blog. ;-)
Live your dreams,
Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 11:53 pm ¶Marvin
Personally I started in the Internet marketing niche, by chance actually even though I planned to do something else. I’d say you can make a lot of money in internet marketing “niche” as a newbies, but not in the general internet marketing line. I’ve built an entire business just teaching people how to use WordPress to build websites, you dont need to be a guru to do that, you just need to know the subject matter much better than the average person.
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 12:13 am ¶Adrian
You are *so* right about maintaining “focus”. But there’s a lot of confusion about what is “internet marketing”. Some people seem to think that it’s about selling to other internet marketers.
I believe that *anyone* who is selling stuff online is in the internet marketing business.
Now it’s true that selling to these people can be tough. It’s a crowded market, and highly competitive. But it’s also a vast market if you accept my broader definition of an “internet marketer”.
One other point – it really annoys me when I see the “IM product of the moment” being touted by scores of people who have probably not even *used* the product they are praising.
This, to me, is downright unethical.
End of rant!
Ian T
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 12:26 am ¶—–
A great thought to start the week on.
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 12:40 am ¶Focus is what makes things powerful.
Focus is also the hardest thing to maintain. Link together 5 straight 4
hour days of focused energy and you will accomplish more a week of 12 hour days.
oh and don’t leave anything to chance..
Test, Test TEST
Enjoyed your post Adrian. “Program hopping” is a disease that is a success-killer. I see so many people giving up on 1 thing before they ever really gave it a real effort.
I believe it’s either because they’re too lazy and under the impression that internet marketing doesn’t require real work, and/or they’ve received emails hyping the “next big thing” and decided to hitch a ride and never look back. Of course, it could be a combination.
But I honestly think some people don’t want to think and do for themselves. If people aren’t held by the hand, they don’t want to mess with it.
I’ve witnessed subscribers signup to an excellent “99% done for you” membership and after the first month, every one of them cancelled. Why?
People want a system to follow and want things done for them, but I believe when they discover that a small percentage is up to them to make it work, they just give up.
Your post reveals that everyone is telling the truth, but there is one more truth to reveal..
No matter what you do, your success is ultimately up to you. Work is involved, challenges and obstacles will litter your path. But choose a path and stick to it. Focus until you see results.
“You don’t have to get it right.. you just have to get it going!”
Dave
P.S. I have to leave a testimony for your Easy Clickmate script. It’s the best investment I’ve made over the years. Does what it says and customer service is excellent. I’ve used it to easily manage custom sales pages for joint venture partners for my Clickbank products for years. I love it!
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 12:42 am ¶Hi Adrian!
Great to hear from you! You are always a “breath of fresh air!”Many, if not most, well known marketers started their online careers with small niche sites or selling software. Yanik had his household plants site and “Get Fit While You Sit” site. Jim Edwards had (and has)his FSBO site,among others. They only made modest amounts of money with these sites. However, they did parlay that success by teaching what they learned with those modest successes. It was only when they created products to sell to aspiring Internet Marketers that they started making the big bucks.(i.e. Yanik’s Instant Sales Letters, Jim Edwards’s “7 Day E-Books etc.)In a sense, when marketers advise you not to compete with other Internet marketers, their is an element of deception. Simply because they don’t inform you that it is hard to make serious money in small niches, unless you have a back-end firmly in place.
Mike
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 12:42 am ¶I think your absolutely right Adrian. There is no right or wrong – just what works. Where it all goes sour is as your other visitors highlight – when people who don’t know what they’re doing start trying to teach. There’s nothing wrong with entering the IM sector if you are promoting someone else’s success story as an affiliate – providing it is genuine success. Why so many people get burned is the incredible hype and claims of overnight success without any work that abounds in the IM area. That’s just preying on the vulnerable. It gets worse when the tactics recommended by a “guru” get supplemented a few weeks later with the “now you must use this method” approach to upselling.
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 1:01 am ¶Most people got into selling IM stuff to IMmers before they really had enough reputation and experience to do so ethically. Me included. 10 years ago I was pushing what now seems like the most ridiculous things to marketers and my only defense is no one really knew what they were doing at the time. Your point about focus is CRUCIAL. If someone is finally on the verge of “making it” with whatever they are doing and they switch now they might have just lost their big opportunity and all they’ve worked for so far.
So it’s a nice conundrum. But John is speaking the truth from his perspective. He’s made a lot in and outside of IM markets, but we can all verify his IM success and it’s nothing to shake a stick at.
But you have to go back to 1991 or so to pick up where John started building his experience. That’s hard to do without a time machine that doesn’t turn you into a fly.
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 1:15 am ¶Great post Adrian,
And so true, great to hear from you again,
Sincerely,
Paul Kleinmeulman
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 3:06 am ¶Australia
Adrian,
I agree completely.
Lack of focus kills dreams.
Joe
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 3:34 am ¶Thanks Adrian,
What sound advice: Focus.
It reminds me of a story about one man digging for oil. He put what he had left – everything – into drilling just a little further, and it paid off for him.
Indeed, I am happy for the great strides that the “gurus” have made, and also for the many tips they have recently shared. Gratefully, I have gained keener insight and perspective. And I am making some necessary adjustments where needed.
I believe that many more voices will be heard if what they have to say has value. Your choice words are certainly encouraging.
Thanks again,
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 7:03 am ¶Jean
Great Post Adrian. It goes along with many headline teachings. It gets attention.
Thanks for inviting me :)
I love just about any quote on “Focus” It’s my weakness.
I call it leap froggin’
In my beginnings I was poor, I focused on helping people with little money (rewarding) but not financially. I think people should focus on what they know and enjoy, rather than falling for every glamorous website that says make $200,419.17 per month. Sure it can happen, but let’s make a nice business then expand it from there.
On or offline marketing needs knowledge, it needs to be applied, and you need to at least know there is a market before developing a product.
(Another of my own follies)
Focus, focus, focus (turn that into tenacity, tenacity, dog with a bone, dog with a bone, and make it work.
Also, if you are in the IM market your competition is brutal. If you use what you learn about marketing in an offline or online business; your bridge to success will be a lot closer.
Just remember no matter what you choose, you have to make your first dollar then turn that into more dollars.
Regards,
Teresa King
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 8:11 am ¶Hello Adrian,
In my feeble experience online, it is the mis-information by all the above. One common thread they all have is Branding them selves as the go to guy. They have web sites, domain names and follow-up systems. These are the common thread. They have a system to plug any business into. Not one of them focus on just one thing that is foolish to think they do. All earn income from multiple streams.
What they sell is the systems they use to BRAND them selves as the expert no matter what product, service or JV they may be sending out to THEIR PERSONAL LISTS. Yes they all clamor to be number one, drive up costs for keywords in the Adwords marketing, many have multiple sites 100′s, some even 1000′s of sites designed to take advantage of the Adsense miracle, they all blast us with the latest flavor of the day and design mega blasters to control the conversations in any tool the newbie or less connected marketer may be or have been using to see some modicum of success. Then they conspire to tell you that to succeed you have to have this gadget, widget or the newest e-book telling us the same things exposed in “Think and Grow Rich”, “As a Man Thinketh” and the typical training would used to get with Dale Carnage’s “How to Sell” course.
Then they package it up in the latest technology and conspire through JV’s and hypnotic sales pages, to take advantage of the latest crop newbies and wannabes.
The common thread is in the LIST and Branding their selves with their personal domain names and websites.
It is that simple and the average person believes there has to be some magic bullet and there isn’t any magic. Most of these guys have been reinventing themselves for years. Now that they have built their personal systems, lists and have successfully branded their selves. They want you to believe it was/is simple to earn massive amounts of income. It is for them because they have been doing whatever it takes to build their systems and branding themselves.
Plain, Simple and Takes lots of work! But they know one secret. Most people are not willing to work for it. So they take advantage of our own GREED and belief factor that someone has the magic potion. There is none, but is simple. Brand Yourself, build your system and grow your lists.
Now they are setting their sites on the Social Communities look out they are out to take over your markets now.
That’s my rant,
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 10:38 am ¶Jim Allen
http://jimssimplesolution.com
Wow … thanks responding everyone! Great posts!
A few more observations … the human nature is lazy and anything that promises a quick fix is likely to get our attention. The savvy marketers knows this – and they use it to the max. in their sales copy.
And I do agree that many affiliate marketers are promoting products after products simply because the commission is good.
But ultimately, if you provide real REAL VALUE to your subscribers and customers …
And you make it EASY for them to do business with you, then you have already won a major battle.
I saw Frank’s latest video – which had a very important message.
“Whatever niche you decide to enter, make sure it is a PROFITABLE niche, i.e. there are many folks who are buying stuff in that particular niche”.
Otherwise, you’ll be focusing on the wrong thing!
A quick non-exhaustive summary
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 12:11 pm ¶——————————
- FOCUS!
- STICK with it!
- Make it EASY
- Keep it Simple
- Provide REAL VALUE to your customers!
Hi Adrian,
Yes, it’s me. It’s a long, long time since we last communicated but believe me, I still think of you and your lovely family in Malaysia.
I was with you when you first started out on the Internet and have seen you moving in the right direction ever since, albeit sometimes losing your ‘focus’, and have admired you for being so persistent.
Personally, I have one niche product, hypnotherapy training, and have stuck with that over the past five years and have always earned a decent income from my Internet Marketing efforts. But lately, there seems to be a new breed of customers entering the Internet scene which can only be described as ‘greedy’ and the Gurus manipulate their greed and make large sums of money from them.
Most of the Gurus have it right because they go after the greedy punters who believe in moving in a straight line to get to the end of the rainbow instead of learning, working and following the curve of the rainbow.
Personally, just like you Adrian, I love helping people, but it is getting harder because they now demand more and more of a seller’s personal time.
I work 7 days each week, always have and always will and I am 71 years old, but should I take a few days off, I can guarantee to have emails waiting for me asking why I hadn’t replied to emails sent two days earlier. That is why you must focus on one product as you will never be able to give full customer satisfaction with more than one without employing staff.
IM is getting more difficult and the only way to succeed is to keep focused.
Adrian, you are so right! So very right!
My love to your family and keep up the excellent work you are doing.
Robert
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 10:26 pm ¶Hi Adrian, I’m just going through the phase of more focused action…and I think I’m going the right way.
It’s not easy at all but I know I’ll do my best.
Thanks.
Marian
Posted 23 Jan 2008 at 3:52 am ¶It’s marketers’ job to sell and it’s our job to stay focus on the task at hand. Building one business at a time. Thanks for your truthful post!
Posted 23 Jan 2008 at 8:32 am ¶Hi Robert,
Yes, it’s been a long time :-) Do you still go to Philippines during Christmas?
You should raise your consultation fees for personal support/contact or you’ll burn out.
Or have tiered structure, e.g.
24hrs response – $X
48hrs response – $Y
Or have a fixed day(s) for answering questions. Perhaps an autoresponder replying with the “Wh” questions – e.g.
Why …
What if ..
How will …
And get them to think over their problems first. Your customer will benefit more if they can come up with solutions themselves. They can then email you their proposed solutions on a certain day and you can go through it with them.
Win-win for all parties!
btw, that’ll be 500 quid in consultation fee ;-)
Cheers,
Posted 23 Jan 2008 at 10:14 am ¶Adrian
Hi Marian, Shei,
Thanks for your input, appreciate it.
Best wishes,
Posted 23 Jan 2008 at 10:15 am ¶Adrian
Hi Teresa,
You’re so right about making the first dollar!
Joe, that’s a nice quote,
“Lack of Focus Kills Dreams”
Thanks!
Posted 23 Jan 2008 at 10:18 am ¶Adrian
One more thing: “Nobody ever got rich by relying on the intelligence of the American people.”
Posted 24 Jan 2008 at 7:05 am ¶H.L.Menken
Adrian:
Every time a read a writing like this post, makes me realize that I have a big problem with the “focus” stuff. Maybe is because I haven’t found so far the program that makes me focus on it. I wish I had.
Posted 30 Sep 2008 at 5:45 pm ¶Jesus Moreno
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