What’s holding you back in your online career?
If you’re like me, when you first started out, you knew next to nothing about marketing online. And before you say, “I don’t want to know anything about online marketing, I just want to make money online”, marketing is how you promote a product, promote a blog, promote yourself, etc.
So what I did when I first started out was I joined systems. These systems had a vested interest in me becoming a good marketer, so they provided training. The training told about using email signatures, traffic exchanges, etc. Over time, I realized the basic mistake I’d made.
A system doesn’t need for every member to become a great marketer, they just need a whole lot of members to become mediocre marketers. So that’s all the training you get. Sure, they’d give you better training if they could, but most of the people who create the systems are only mediocre marketers, too.
The absolute best lesson I learned about marketing online is to break away from what everyone else does. Market outside the lines, try something that you’ve thought of, not something that you’ve read about. Break rules and see what happens. It’s through this process that you learn how to do business online effectively.
In short, be yourself, and don’t try to be who everyone else is.
Very good post! A good example of this is that everyone is marketing the same affiliate page on the traffic exchanges.The result is that only a few manage to get a sign up. Marketing outside the lines would be to create a separate website to promote the opportunity.This is what I do.
Great example, Tom!
I found this post inspirational. I need to do a lot of work when it comes to marketing and I will be looking to do it differently to everyone else. Any chance of you sharing what has and what hasn’t worked for you?
Hi Gerri, I’m glad the post helped! As far as sharing what works for me and what doesn’t work, I’m still figuring that out. I do share bits and pieces in blog posts.
For example, the Inbox Dollars post I made has worked out wonderfully in terms of recruiting referrals. Give people a step by step set of instructions that shows them exactly how to get a payout, and they’ll join.
What didn’t work out so well there was the way that Inbox Dollars used to do their referral bonuses meant I made very little on those referrals. So while the marketing part of the equation was good, my homework on the benefits I’d get wasn’t so good.
(Inbox Dollars has changed their referral program since then, so that problem has gone away)
I’m also learning a lot about how to market (and not market) a forum with The Advisory Panel. Eventually I’ll do a post on what’s worked and what doesn’t.