Copyright 2004 Willie Crawford
Let me ask you a somewhat personal question today. The answer to that question determines how you treat your on-line business, and dramatically impacts your chances of on-line success. That question is, "Are you really an Internet Marketing Professional?"
Being a professional means that you view what you do as much more than just another job or a business. It's something you do because it's your "calling." It's something you do because you believe that it's what you were meant to do and because you believe that it helps to make the world a better place.
You don't have to view it as a permanent calling, but you do need to believe in the importance of what you do. If you don't see what you're doing as significant, then you should seek a different calling.
I borrowed that definition of a profession… of a calling, from how I felt about my job when I was in the military. That was one of those jobs that you did because you felt that it was something that needed to be done. The pay generally wasn't that attractive, so you had to look for a higher purpose in sticking with such an often-thankless, always-demanding job where you were expect to be prepared to sacrifice your VERY life if needed.
Running an on-line business should be much more financially rewarding and certainly demand less personal sacrifice, but it should still be viewed as a profession that you can throw yourself completely into.
Like many professions, your on-line job involves offering solutions to peoples' problems. Doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, mechanics, and schoolteachers, all provide solutions to problems. They all fill needs. I submit to you, that if you are an Internet Marketing Professional, your job is no less important, and that it comes with no less obligation than any of the jobs mentioned above.
It may seem like a "stretch" to envision your job of marketing products and services on-line the same as diagnosing and prescribing medications for an illness. Yet, that is exactly what you should be doing. You should be analyzing your customers' and clients' problems. You should understand what is causing the problems. You should be familiar with possible solutions, and you should prescribe the best suitable solution that you are aware of.
Adapting that view of your on-line business is one of the big keys to your success. That's because if you do view helping your clients as a sacred trust, you WILL really strive not to violate that trust. There's that word again…. "trust." Lack of trust is what keeps potential customers who want and need what you offer from buying from you. Trust is earned, and people intuitively know whom they can trust.
Jay Abraham was the first person that I personally heard clearly explain the sacred trust and obligation that a marketer has to his clients. That obligation is to only offer products and services that really make their lives better. It's to treat a client the same as you would a close friend or a family member… always deeply wanting only the best for them. It's also selling them products and services that you know they need but may not yet realize that they need.
If you conduct your on-line business with that degree of professionalism and commitment to your clients, you do a number of things:
- Regardless of the product line or service that you are providing, you make sure that the one you offer is the best available for what your client can afford. In the real world, not everyone can afford the best doctor or lawyer. However, the lawyer or doctor that they can afford is obligated to provide the best service that they are capable of rendering to their clients.
- You take yourself seriously. That generally means that you come across to your prospect as being the expert on your topic. That sometimes means you may need more training if you're not the expert on a topic. Taking yourself seriously also means that you charge what your time and expertise are worth. You don't fall into the trap of competing on the basis of price.
- You promote something that you believe in. Some on-line marketers promote get-rich-quick schemes that they KNOW really don't offer their prospects any real earning potential. These people soon burn out - or the universe simply gives them what they deserve. When you really believe in your product, that is sensed by your prospects. These prospects are therefore more open to examining the products and services that you recommend as solutions to their problems.
You don't necessarily need to market important sounding products on-line to be a professional. People need ordinary good and services everyday, and they turn to the Internet to find them. A good mechanic, sometimes covered from head-to-toe with oil, knows the value of what he is doing. He knows that if he doesn't service your brakes properly, it could kill you. He takes pride in a job well done. He sees himself as a professional.
That mechanic also views himself as a professional because he can do something that not everyone can do. I submit to you, that when you craft webpages, write ad-copy, create a computer program, or promote a product through the search engines, that you also do something that not everyone can do. So I ask you again, "Are you really an Internet Marketing Professional?"
About the author:
Willie Crawford is a corporate president, published author, seminar speaker and host, tele-seminar speaker and host, retired military officer, karate black belt, master network marketing trainer, and lifetime student of marketing. He shows people how to actually generate substantial income on-line using very simple, easily modeled systems. An example of such a system that you can study and duplicate is at:
http://ProfitMagician.com
The Online Businessperson Butterfly - Part 1Michael DixonThe Online Businessperson Butterfly - Part 1
by Michael Dixon
(c) 2004 All Rights Reserved
The Internet is LOADED with opportunity for those who want to start their own online
business today! The only thing that seems
hard to find is where to start.
Too many beginners start out like a butterfly. They go from program to program as the butterfly moves from blossom to
blossom. Like the butterfly, they never land in any one place for very long. Do you know
that the average lifespan of a butterfly is
20 - 40 days?
To be successful you need to be more like the tiger. The
tiger moves with purpose, focused on his prey to enable a
lifespan of 10 - 15 years.
By remaining focused on your prey you stand a much better
chance of a feast as opposed to a snack.
Focus is fundamental to success! Without focus your vision
becomes blurred. Eventually you become blind.
Too many of us find all those large packages of products, you
know the ones I'm talking about, and download all the free
ones we can find and buy all those we can afford.
This is our first mistake! Don't look for products; look
for markets. Once you have identified a market, the product
will come.
How do we find a market? With a little practice, and a lot
of focus, it isn't all that difficult.
Just think about your own life. What are the things you want?
What are the things that bring you happiness, wealth, health,
gratification, or whatever? Would others be interested in
these things? Ask them!
With just a little effort you can find out how many people share
your interest.
Let's pick 'bird watching' as an example.
If you go to http://www.google.com and type in
bird watching : forum in the search bar and click the
Google Search button you will find 167,000 links listed to
sites that deal with bird watching forums.
This gives us plenty of opportunity to visit and see
what these bird watchers are talking about and what
they are looking for. I haven't researched this, but I
imagine it is a safe bet that birding binoculars are
a hot topic. Have you ever seen a birder without
binoculars?
Now type "birding binoculars" (enclosed in quotes) into
the search bar on Google.com and we see that their are
9,480 listings of sites that deal with "birding binocular"
in some way.
Now we need to know how many people are looking for
information about "birding binouculars". Go to
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
and type in birding binouculars. The results show 19,390
searchs were made for birding binoculars in May 2004. That
means that the ratio of searchers to sites (potential
customers) is 2.05 (19,390/9480).
We have just closed in on our prey by remaining focused
on a market (bird watching), not a product (birding
binoculars), and we are nearly ready to pounce like the
aggressive tiger marketers that we are.
I will expound on this focused research in Part 2 of
The Online Businessperson Butterfly
About the author:
Michael Dixon is struggling to become an overnight
success (after 18 months in online marketing) at
http://www.insaneinternetincome.com and is the editor
of the free "Whacky Weekly" newsletter. Subscription form
is on the home page.
