Archive | November 16, 2024

You may have noticed that Internet marketing goes through phases where everyone seems to be jumping on the same bandwagon. That wagon might be the latest, greatest social network. It might be paid newsletters or membership sites or video marketing or…

You get the point. There are times when it seems everyone is coming out with a new product that does basically the same thing as the previous dozen products, and they’re all competing against each other for customers.

This is when you can be a copycat or smart cookie. Let’s say the newest, greatest thing is $10 a month paid newsletters. (Yes, I know that was a number of years ago, but this is just an example.)

The copy cats observe that courses on how to write and sell little newsletters for small prices to lots of people are selling like hotcakes. And because they’re copycats, they create their own courses and jump into the selling fray. The competition gets stiffer and stiffer and soon underhanded techniques are being used, prices are being slashed, and everything is downhill from there.

Just like the copycats, the smart cookies watch to see what’s happening in the market. But instead of jumping in like everyone else, they sit back and ask, “What do these people need that I can provide?”

In the case of the paid mini-newsletters, there are now tons of customers who bought or are about to buy the newsletter courses who are going to need:

• Membership software
• A list of profitable topics
• A list of places to find their prospects
• Content for their newsletters
• Sales copy for their sales letters and sales videos
• Etc.

And this is what the smart cookie does. She doesn’t try to compete with the dozens of people selling the “how to” courses on mini-newsletters. Instead, she looks to see how she can complement what everyone else is doing.

In this manner every customer of ANY product teaching how to run these newsletters becomes her target prospect. She’s not competing with the course sellers. In fact, she’s often working hand in hand to provide their customers with exactly what they want and need to make their new businesses work.

The customers are happy. The people selling the courses are happy. And she’s rolling in the dough because she took a step back from the fray and asked, “What can I do to complement this trend, rather than compete in it?”

Next time you notice a trend, don’t compete. Instead, find ways to help both the sellers and the customers of this trend, and watch your bank account grow as you fulfill customer’s needs and desires.

I see new marketers all the time who have a goal of $100,000 per year or even a million dollars per year. And how are they getting their traffic? They’re happily submitting articles, writing blog posts and commenting in forums and blogs.

Now, if your goal is to earn an extra $1,000-$2,000 per month, then these methods are great. But if you want to earn far more, you’ll want to change the way you get traffic.

No one that I know of is making large sums of money using only these methods. Instead, they are doing either SEO, PPC, Facebook Ads, or creating their own products and affiliate programs.

Or they have a HUGE list. But how do you get a huge, responsive list? Generally by using SEO, PPC or some kind of advertising.

So the real questions to think about when it comes to not only traffic but also any issue regarding your business is:

A) What is your goal?

B) Is what you’re doing going to get you to that goal this year?

And if it’s not – look for another method.

I will say there are of course always exceptions to the rule. If you’re really good at a particular marketing strategy like blogging, or direct sales using Facebook chats and other social networking engagements AND you sell products that can pay you high commissions, it IS possible to build a 6 or 7 figure income with free marketing.

But for the average person, paid advertising can be a faster path to the higher income tiers. Either way, choose a strategy that works within your current budget and commit to learning how to execute that strategy at the highest level possible if you are in the online marketing game to make a serious and life-changing income.