Blog Home: [Internet] Marketing Pie
Note: I originally wrote this in 1999. Thought it was worth bringing back to the future.
Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating his marketing pie.
He stuck in his thumb, and tossed me a crumb, and said;
“What a smart boy am I!”
It was one of those nights. Wide awake.
Tic toc, two o’clock.
My thoughts were on the people flocking to the Internet looking to build their future or repair their past. Hopes and dreams rolled up into how to programs and affiliate tags. The next morning, Jack was still kicking around, hawking;
“Sign up here. Do what I do.
I pay commission. You’ll get rich, too.”
Sadly, it is people with the highest hopes that are so easily blinded by the glitter of money for nothing. Dreams die hard, and hope doesn’t pay the bills.
All too often, people end up disillusioned, saying; “This Internet Marketing thing doesn’t work.” Disillusioned, they quit. Throw in the towel.
It does work. There are many, many people making great profit online.
I am just one of them.
The biggest mistake most people make is viewing the web as a place. Some bizarre counterpart to “real life.” The internet works best when you see it as a medium of communication for a home business. Not so different than distributing flyers or buying ads… except that the reach is much more vast and the cost is drastically lower.
Given that vast reach, do you want to show people how much you know about your field?
Or how little?
You website is the first introduction many people will have to you. People. Not buyers or subscribers or prospects. People – with feelings just like yours and mine. People that need to feel welcomed and respected if you want them to come back and visit again.
If you have a website online, test it for visitor value. If you removed all advertising, affiliate or sales related content, would there be anything left? Would it convince the reader that you’re the person to buy from? That you can be trusted?
Ask five people that don’t love you to review your site. Because, no matter what they say, your spouse and your mother can not be objective. And they will never buy enough to keep you in business.
Once you’ve done that, maybe I can help you with the real skills you need.
Until then, it’s your help you need.
5 Responses to “[Internet] Marketing Pie”
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Hi Linda,
Well it may be an oldie but it is certainly a GOODIE!
This is a great comment:
Linda, I have seen some TRULY amazing examples of this. There is probably no better example than those advertizing proof-reading or editing services… and their sites are absolutely littered with spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, syntax errors, split-infinitives etc.
I don’t expect absolute perfection (hmm, well… I do actually with these sites) coz anyone can miss something (yes, even me! LOL!) because when moving quickly it is easy to hit two keys at once. But that is where the proof-reading and editing should come in. Surely!
Some people are their own worst living examples of “mixed messages.” When I see sites like the ones I just described above, I just shake my head and leave now. I used to point out the most GLARING errors but what is the point? Half the time they don’t respond and half the time I get a nasty – how dare you! – email back. But most of the time they have NO idea what I am talking about anyway. I know that coz they TRY to fix the error(s) and just introduce more.
So, what to do, what to do? Easy. Just click away and never bother to return.
Oh, Linda, I could go on and on here – as you very well know in our long and detailed email exchanges over the years.
Diamonds and gold on the internet are very, very hard to find. So, when you do find them you tend to want to stick with them and tell everyone else. True quality is seriously very difficult to find.
Gee, and I didn’t even begin to address many of your other points.
Later…
Gary
PS: IF there are any errors above it is because I cannot edit. Just covering my own ar*e there, or a**. LOL!
Hi Linda
Just popped over from the Gazz-Man’s blog and found that he’d got here before me.
This still rings true today especially:
“If you have a website online, test it for visitor value. If you removed all advertising, affiliate or sales related content, would there be anything left? Would it convince the reader that you’re the person to buy from? That you can be trusted?”
I really dislike all that being pushed at me from the page.
I certainly don’t want it on my site.
Perhaps I am a little more refined, but I think that there are plenty of people out there like me who prefer it that way and those are the ones I want to reach.
So thanks for this – I understand what you are saying and concur fully.
Hilary
Hilary… thank you. I used to think I disliked that stuff because of my age. Or maybe my profession. Too old or seen too much of it. I like your explanation much better. We’re more refined. I like that. lol.
Gary… if you look under the posting box, you can watch your post for typos. There’s a live preview as you type. Here’s a funny. I’ve had a couple of people email when they’ve found errors. I thank them profusely. Most of them write back and are shocked because they were expecting to get their head chewed off.
: )
Hi Linda,
The live edit thingy must be turned off ATM. I’m not getting it. I watch it on my site and find it rather helpful, especially when adding little bits of html like bolding or italics or blockquotes etc.
I just don’t see the point of smashing somebody because they were helpful and thoughtful enough to take time out of their busy day to try to help someone. I guess some people find it FAR too challenging to think that other people may care that THEY have made – shock, horror – mistakes.
Gary
It’s all ego, of course. When you point out someone’s error, they think you’re belittling them so they give back snark. So small minded. Ah well. And the live preview is on here, too, but it’s under the submit button so you need to move the post box up so you can see it. Did that make any sense at all?