If you have read any internet marketing resource
ever created, you have no doubt seen simple, one
sentence, pot-shot solutions to all of your problems:
You will only be successful if you think you are
successful. You will make money if you work hard.
Think outside of the box. Content is king!
. . .If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
How can this possibly help me, you think. These people
are just crack-pots! They do not actually have any real
help to offer me--just general advice, which really
has no practical implications for me and for my business.
This is exactly what I thought and this is now what I see
newer marketers and affiliates saying. I was always
skeptical of general advice. I thought success stories that
ended with an exhortation to "work hard" and "make plans"
and "think outside of the box" were just plain worthless.
What I now know (what I have learned as I slowly became more
successful) is that this "common wisdom"--which I initially
regarded as foolish and too unspecific--was actually the
best advice available on the internet and it didn't even
cost me money.
These simple cliches make up the best possible over-arching
structure of complex business and marketing plans. They
arbitrate the decisions of the most successful internet
marketers. And when marketers decide to be short-sighted
and deny these cliches for quicker returns, they
are smacked-down and brought to reality or ruin by the
manifestation of these cliches.
As someone who has received many brutal, unrelenting
smack-downs from the Internet, I can verify this.
So what is it about these cliches that give them such
universal, lasting truth?--They ignore hype. They ignore
nuance. They don't marry a fad. And most importantly,
they are results-oriented.
They don't give you the specifics. They tell you what to
focus on--broadly--and allow you to find the best way to
nuance, build, and strengthen that simple concept,
which ultimately should to be your choice, anyway. Just
think: if we all tried to occupy the same niches,
optimize for the same keywords, and advertise on the same
sites, then none of us would be making money (and this is
actually why quite a few of us do not make money).
If you create an ebusiness according to these simple
cliches, you will not become wildly successful overnight.
You will not find that silver bullet to turn everything
around. You will simply create a solid, practical business
with linear increases that achieves realistic outcomes
and will one day--with enough work--become that
profit-pulling empire you have dreamed of since day one.
That's great. But how do I apply these ethereal parcels
of "wisdom" to my real ebusiness?--Through structural
adjustments and long-term planning, the two most
important parts of building a successful, long-term
internet business.
Unfortunately, too many new internet marketers--in their
eagerness to see immediate results--refuse to plan
anything. Instead, they rush forward, purchasing products
and services and piles of nonsense that, no matter how good
they are, cannot be useful unless implemented within a
solid business plan.
They get frustrated. They give up. They fail.
Other internet marketers, weary of trying new plans,
constantly pound away on unprofitable ideas that also
will never achieve long-term results. They purchase
thousands of clicks, impressions, and guaranteed
visitors. They never remake the amount they spent
on advertising.
They get frustrated. They give up. They fail.
They never sit down and create plans. They never
follow up with those plans and revise them as they
go. They make no structural adjustments to their
businesses to reflect their successes and failures.
They react to everything immediately or just stagnate
altogether.
But you are different. You will no longer do this.
You know that content really is king. And that if
you want to succeed, you really must work hard.
You know that when you make a new product, you
had better be thinking outside of the box or else
you will be smacked-down by those stupid
cliches that make you cringe whenever someone repeats
them.
So set goals and try to achieve them. Make your
business results-oriented. Stop hinging your entire
internet business career on a single marketing fad.
Don't count your e-chickens before they hatch!
. . .And most importantly of all, always remember:
if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.
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