Written by: Troy Pentico
Hello, I am getting married. Want to pay me $798 dollars tocome? Yes, this is the theme in the latest marketing campaignfrom the infamous Corey Rudl. Now before I give you the wrongidea here it really doesn't cost $798 dollars to attend. Inreality it will cost you only $97 dollars and Corey haspromised to give everyone that attends a $97 dollar credittowards any of his products. So really Corey is only going tomake $97 dollars per person that attends his wedding. PrettyGood Deal, huh?
The $798 dollars is for the one day finally. What someonecould actually learn in a seminar environment in one day thatis worth $798 dollars is beyond me. But, I am sure even someof you have bought into it. If you are thinking about it but,have not committed to it, I would consider spending the moneyon some one-on-one time with a consultant if you feel you mustpay someone to learn about your business.
This really is not what this article is about though. Itsurely made me think about writing this but, would make for apretty bland article unless I was promoting Corey's Weddingwouldn't it? No, you see Corey is in the Internet MarketingInformation business which in my opinion is getting way out ofhand lately. And that is the basis of this article.
So I give you "How To Fail... Faster Then a Speeding Bullet!"
As all of you know one of my favorite past times and really thewhole "Niche" of my online business is testing new marketingtools, and resources and then sharing those reviews with mysubscribers and customers.
Through all of the years of doing this I have gained someserious in site on what makes the online entrepreneur tick.Most of the "initial successes" these marketer have, as wellas most of the failures are attributed to many differentthings.
This list of reasons people fail is enormous but here are thefive most common and how to avoid them:
#5 Bad Guidance
Through out life people are used to being taught how to dothings. Their parents teach them how to tie their shoes, andtalk. In school they learn how to read, write, and performarithmetic. In college or trade school they learn how toperform the tasks they are going to use at their job for therest of their lives.
Then one day they decide to start a business on the Internet.Most of the time that is exactly what happens. They decide tostart "A BUSINESS". Not just any business mind you. But,"A BUSINESS". These would be entrepreneurs want to make moneythat all the SPAM mail promises can be had on the Internet.But, there are now a few road blocks. They don't have aproduct sell. They don't have a web site to promote.They don't have any friends that are successful making moneyon the Internet to help them. So in pure haste they go to thenearest search engine and type in "How to Make Money" orsomething a long them lines.
A lot of them won't be to picky when it comes to choosing.They jump onboard every free to join program out there. Someare "smarter". They know that if every body is selling thisor that product it must be the one people want and thereforethey need to sell it to. Luckily for them they will inevitablyend up on the mailing list of a very successful online marketerwho will provide them with all the guidance they need.
Generally this will consist of them telling their prospect thatto succeed they need to buy and follow the strategies in aparticular book they wrote. Once they spend their money andread the hype in the book they find out to make money with thesestrategies they will need to utilize a particular softwareprogram, or service that luckily for them is provided by thesame person that sold them the book! And then thankfully thatsame marketer is throwing a seminar that you can pay an arm anda leg to attend so that you can actually figure out thesestrategies that so far you haven't had any luck with. All thewhile nobody is working on your business because you are tobusy reading, learning new software programs, and attendingseminars to build your own business.
Avoidance Strategy:
When looking for guidance find a professional with a telephonethat they answer when you call. If at all possible findsomeone near your location that you can work with face toface. Demand a free consultation to see if this person trulyknows what they are talking about. Demand a money backguarantee. If this Guru is flashing sales copy that you canmake Millions selling this or that surely they can guaranteethat you will be profitable with your business following theirstrategies in X amount of time.
Do not buy any products at all dealing with Internet Marketinguntil you know what your business is going to be. Don't spendhundreds of dollars trying to figure this out. You will findyour own Niche without the help of a $137 dollar digital book.
#4 Playing the FREE Game
Why should I pay to advertise on Google when I can join thatFREE Safelist and mail my ads to millions? Why should I foradvertising on ClickBank when I can join CBClicks for FREE?Why should I pay for ads on Google when I can use this freeclick exchange program to generate traffic?
There are an endless amount of free programs on the Internetthat promise to make you successful. This game started yearsago with a service called a Free For All Links Page. Here ishow they all work and why you can get them for FREE. When yousignup for a FREE service you will need to provide someinformation to the provider. This can range from just yourName and Email to a more extensive survey that includesquestions about your monthly income level, your physicalmailing address, your phone number, etc. A small price to payfor using these services for FREE right?
WRONG!
If you didn't catch on yet these services can guarantee youwhat ever they want. But, the truth is they rarely workbecause they were not designed to! These services are for theprovider to obtain your contact information and yourpermission to contact you with advertising anytime they want.Many times your contact information is sold via a leads service.In the end you find out that you wasted your time joining theprogram and all you gained out of the FREE deal was in inboxfull of junk!
Avoidance Strategy:
Do not utilize FREE Traffic or Lead Generation Strategies withvery few exceptions (like submitting your URL to Google forFREE for example). Find a service that is pay to play by aknown provider of successful strategies. Like Google Adwordsfor example. Use the service that you can afford to and whenyou can afford to utilize another move into it. Don't makeany exceptions to this no matter what anybody tells you!
#3 No Focus
This one is closely related to all of the other causes forfailure. The normal scenario goes something like this. Youare selling a book you wrote about cross stitching. You havemade a few sales and things are going nicely for you as yourbusiness is starting to grow. Someone that you respect sendsyou an email. It says, "Hey my Google PR just shot throughthe roof because I am using X product". You quickly moveinto action and purchase the product. You follow thedirections and spend hours, sometimes days applying thestrategy.
When you are finished you decide to stop by one of yourfavorite marketing forums and find everyone talking about thisout standing new book by X marketer where he reveals all histop secret marketing strategies. You move into action andpurchase the book. You spend days reading it and then weeksapplying the strategies.
This is a never ending chain for some people. They never spendone day completely devoted to working on their businessbecause, they are to busy being distracted by the next bigthing.
Well I got news for your folks. There is always going to be anext big thing. Some things do not change and will provide youwith much more success.
Avoidance Strategy:
FOCUS your time on YOUR Business. The Top of you To-do listshould always be Provide Outstanding Customer Service, MarketYour Product Continuously, Build Strong Relationships with yourcustomers, Improve the Content of Your Web site, etc.
Don't start another business if the current one is notsuccessful! Why put yourself through the mental challenges offailing at two businesses? When you have made one businesssuccessful you will have the know how and the resources tosuccessfully expand it to include another.
If you do this you will laugh as you watch your competitorschase their Internet Marketing Dreams in Circles.
#2 No Creativity
You decide for your business that you are going to market Xproduct as part of their affiliate program. This one has to bethe easiest business to start in the world! They provide a website template, pre-written ads, banners, articles, and graphics!All I have to do is use these items and I will make Millions!
WRONG!
Having no creativity is a killer. Especially, in the affiliatesales world. Think about it if everyone of the affiliates in Xprogram are using the exact same sales materials for every aspectof their marketing program who do you think a prospect is goingto buy from?
If you answered "I have no idea", you are correct. And a lot ofthe times the prospective customer has no idea either. If youdon't successfully close the deal on the first visit from thiscustomer you are probably not going to. Your prospect wakes upthe next morning and decides to buy the product. They forgot tobook mark your site so they type the name of the product into asearch engine and come to a page that looks exactly like yoursand they buy.
The scenarios for not having creativity are endless. They gofrom something simple like using canned sales materials from anaffiliate program to creating a software product that is exactlythe same as 12 others on the market.
If you do not put some creativity into your business. You willfail.
Avoidance Strategy:
Only join and market an affiliate program if you have purchasedthe product and used it yourself? Why? Because, if you don'tyou will have no choice but, to used the canned sales materials.You cannot extend any creativity into it and write your own salescopy, give a testimonial to your prospects or anything of thatsort because, you will have no idea on what you are talking about.
Always, write your own sales copy, advertisements, web pages, etc.Even if you only change a few graphics, and include a few of yourown paragraphs into a canned version you are way above the heap.When modifying web pages include testimonials (if you don't haveany when you sell some ask the customer for one). Always includeyour contact information including a phone number that you answer.Always change the headline. If the headline is just to good tochange then change the sub headline. Do what ever you can to makeyour sales materials unique.
When creating your own product research the hell out of it. Don'tcreate something that can be had elsewhere. And definitely don'tcreate something that people can pick up at the local Wal-Mart.If you can't come up with your won idea hold a survey with yourezine or mailing list subscribers asking them what they wish theyhad to improve any aspect of their life or business.
Apply creativity throughout your business from product creation,to sales, to good customer service at all time.
#1 No Determination
What am I doing wrong? I have created a unique product. I havean awesome sales page. I am getting tons of hits from my OverturePPC Campaign. But, nobody is buying! The heck with this.
I have a ton of ads inserted for my Google Campaign but nobody isclicking on them. The heck with this.
I just can't get people to buy my product. I guess I will justgive it away.
I see this all of the time. People try everything that theycan to make their business work but, nothing seems too. Theygive up and never really tried. Folks, the Internet is not a getrich quick environment no matter what you may think. Yes, it iseasier to target your customer base and actually make contactwith them. But, it is no different then selling off line. Ifyou don't provide a compelling reason to buy then no one will.And just because you think it is compelling and all yourmarketing friends said the same thing does not mean it is goingto work.
The failure rate of online business due to No Determination isastronomical. People actually believe that whatever they do isgoing to work and when it doesn't they give up without a fight.
Avoidance Strategy:
Expect failure and LEARN from it. Write the underlying causefor each failure down and refer to it when ever you can so youdon't make the same mistake twice. Research and analyze yourmarketing methods. Write at least two versions of a sales pagefor a particular product and run a split-test on it. Always askyour current customers why they bought a particular product.Make them be specific. Apply copy cat strategies with yourproducts. If it worked once it might work again. Just don'tgo word for word. Ask for help from an Internet Marketer thatyou respect by offering them a cut on sales. If you can't makeit sell maybe they can provide you with a way it can. Aboveall DON'T GIVE UP, DON'T GIVE UP, and DON'T GIVE UP.
If you are the average everyday Internet Marketer you probablyfound at least one failure strategy that you are following rightnow. This does not mean your business will fail. If just meansyou got a head start in start in that direction.
Keep in mind that I could not possibly list all the scenarios,or avoidance strategies for each of these as it would havecreated a volume of information and this article is alreadylong as it is.
You must learn to identify failure strategies and cut them offbefore they have an adverse effect on your business. I haveprovided you with a good start it is up to you from here on out.
So I challenge you from here on out to remain determined, becreative, stay focused, avoid free things with big promises,and seek out and find good guidance if you need it.
Copyright © 2004, Troy Pentico