In a previous post about How To Succeed In Internet Marketing I suggested that rather than reading about how to market online, you just try to market something, and learn from the results.
Practice is truly the only way to build the skills you’ll need to survive long-term in online marketing. But, for many people, trying something and failing seems like, well, failure. Even though that’s the only way to learn what doesn’t work, a lot of people don’t see the benefit in not succeeding. And they may not be able to waste a lot of money in efforts that don’t succeed (although, they typically manage to waste a lot of money in programs that promise success, but never deliver).
So, as part of my ongoing efforts to help as many people as possible learn the Internet Marketing skills they’ll need to succeed, I’ve started advertising exercises over at The Advisory Panel. The basic idea is that I pick a product, and members brainstorm unique angles for targeting that product, and websites for advertising those angles.
I then pay for all the advertising, and split half of any profits with the people who made the suggestions, and the people who referred them to The Advisory Panel. The other half of the profits go back into a pool for the next advertising exercise.
I’m pretty excited about this. It gives people who cannot afford paid advertising to test out ideas. Totally unreasonable ideas won’t get funded, but we’ll talk about why they probably wouldn’t work. Reasonable ideas get funded, and if they don’t show a profit we’ll analyze why not.
If you’re interested in gaining some real Internet Marketing experience with my money, come on over to The Advisory Panel and join in.
You say you are pretty excited about this. I think it is extremely exciting. One, you are putting up the cash. Two, you are going to get some great ideas to work with. I have seen the Entrecard community come up with outstanding over the top ideas. Three, anybody that really wants to learn marketing with real world experience will have the opportunity.
This is like a Masters in Marketing education program. Real life experience with the ability to talk through good and bad ideas. I applaud you for this opportunity!
Hi Ken, thanks for the positive comment! I believe absolutely in the power of collaboration. Better ideas flow out of group brainstorming than ever arise in my own head alone (worse ideas, too, but that’s all part of the process). And everyone learns from the process.
Now this sounds interesting. I just signed up and will confirm my email later today or tomorrow. I am excited about this opportunity and would love to hear what everyone has to say about marketing angels. This is something that I also hope to learn a lot about.
Glad to have you, Rosa! We’ve already had some ideas I wouldn’t have thought about for the current exercise, so I expect to learn a lot from everyone.
Very good idea starting a training program to market online! It´s not easy to market anything online, and If the results are not immediate people will get frustrated and quit.
Jay, that is a great idea. Even if an advertisement loses money, you’ve learned so much in the process.
Since you are llikely to have some unprofitable campaigns, why not have a fund instead so that the profits can offset the losses.
There isn’t really any failure, there’s only feedback.
Oh, and don’t forget to split test, and keep a close track on your results!
Hi Paul, thanks! That’s my take on it, that it’s all about the learning process.
[quote post=”496″]Since you are llikely to have some unprofitable campaigns, why not have a fund instead so that the profits can offset the losses.[/quote]
The way I’ve got it working right now, 50% of the profits go into a fund to pay for other exercises, and 50% gets split among the participants and their referrers.
[quote post=”496″]Oh, and don’t forget to split test, and keep a close track on your results![/quote]
Definitely!