Stop Making Business Decisions Based On How Nice Someone Is!

This post was inspired by a thread on one of the internet marketing forums I moderate. People are arguing about the legitimacy of a certain program and the owner of it. There are some people calling it a scam and others defending it. However, one thing that stood out to me is that some of the people defending it are doing so based on the argument of how “nice” the owner apparently is even though they haven’t actually joined or have any real inside knowledge about it. If you ask me that’s about the worst way you could possibly make a business decision.

If you really think about it for a minute you will see that it is in the best interest of any scammer or shady business person to be nice and come off as a great person. That’s how they get you to trust them and ultimately give them your money or time, or whatever they are after. If they walked up to you and said, “Hi my name is John Doe, I am a total asshole and nothing but a scammer” — you wouldn’t be stupid enough to join their program or send them your money.

Instead they come off as very nice, helpful, legitimate and having your best interests in mind. Therefore, you trust them and defend them when someone calls them out for doing something shady or for flat out being a scam artist. That’s how they lure people in and give them a sense of security. They want you to think they are the greatest person in the world.

I’m not saying the particular internet marketer and program being discussed in the forum thread that inspired me to write this is a scam. I don’t know because I haven’t looked into it other than what is being said there. My point is simply that overall you should never get into a business, program, opportunity, or anything else just because the owner or someone else high up in the organization is a nice person.

Do plenty of research and get real information from people who have nothing to gain by giving it to you. Always make a truly informed decision before spending any money or time on any sort of internet marketing product or business opportunity. And don’t defend something unless you have actually joined and know firsthand what you are talking about. A nice owner doesn’t make something legit.

A Few Pieces of Internet Marketing Advice Every Newbie Should Read

When you are new to internet marketing then you will usually be called a “newbie” by the more experienced marketers. It’s not a bad thing it’s just the way it is. And if you are a newbie then I am sure you know that you have a lot to learn about online marketing and there’s a long journey ahead of you. As you begin your quest to learn how to make money online, you will find an incredible amount of information and resources. Some of it will be very beneficial to you but a large amount of it will be completely useless crap.

To help you start in the right direction toward success, I am going to give you a few pieces of internet marketing advice in this post that every newbie should read.

The first major piece of advice I can give you is to watch out for scams. There are plenty of very helpful and totally legitimate internet marketers out there but there are also a lot of scammers who are just waiting for a newbie to fall into their traps. As a general rule, if something sounds way too good to be true then it probably is, so don’t fall for the hype. You aren’t going to get rich in a month with little or no work, so run far away from anything that promises you will. Always do plenty of research on something or someone before sending any money.

The second piece of advice I have for you is that you need to be prepared to be very committed to your internet business and ready for a lot of work. Yes, internet marketing can be a lot of fun and you can make a lot of money doing it without breaking your back or enduring the corporate grind. However, that does not mean that you don’t have to work hard or put in a lot of time and dedication to it. You will have to work hard if you want to become a successful internet marketer. It’s going to be a while before you can sip mai tais on the beach while the money keeps rolling into your account. That is a fact!

The third thing you should remember is that you need a plan. This might be the most important of the three. Taking the plunge to become an internet marketer is a huge step in itself but trying to build a successful online business without any sort of plan is a bad idea. Your plan should be filled with short term goals as well as long term goals, and how you will achieve them. It can be modified as needed along the way but sticking to it as closely as you can will yield the best results.

Okay, now you have 3 very important pieces of internet marketing advice to remember. As a newbie it is very easy to fall for scams, not be committed enough, and forget about a plan. Don’t make those mistakes! Your online business will become successful if you follow this advice and stick with it even when things get tough.

3 Mistakes All Internet Marketers Should Avoid

When you are first getting started with internet marketing, it’s very easy to make mistakes that end up turning into some bad habits. Many of these happen as a result of trying to cut corners or take the easy way out. It’s impossible for me to list or discuss every mistake many new internet marketers make but here are three that you should be sure to avoid.

1) Not Understanding Your Customers

Before starting an online business, launching a website, blog, or creating a product it is essential that you understand who your target market is and what their wants and needs are. If you dive in head first without doing the necessary research then you are setting yourself up for failure from the start. Instead, take the time to do some market research and learn everything you can about your potential customers. If you know who you’re marketing to you will be able to create and promote the right products or services to them correctly.

2) Selling Products, Not Solutions

For a product to be successful the customer needs to see the value in it. In other words, your products/services need to solve a problem the customer has as efficiently as possible. If your product doesn’t really offer the customer a solution to a problem, or answers to their questions, then your product won’t seem nearly as valuable to the customer as it otherwise would. The more valuable your product is in your customers’ eyes, the more sales you will make. It’s that simple!

3) Wasting Your Customers Time

When dealing with your customers it’s important to be upfront about who you are, what your internet business is all about, and what you are offering. If you waste time dancing around the facts, costs, purpose of your product, or anything else — Your potential customers will not stick around for long. Be clear about everything from the start and you will be a lot more successful in the long run. Stay away from hype and false promises. You might lose the customers who like to fall for that stuff but in the long run it will be much better for your internet marketing business.

As you can see, these three common internet marketing mistakes revolve around mishandling the customer or the product. If you make a real effort to understand your customers and their needs, you will be on the fast track to online business success.

What is a Joint Venture and Why Should You Do One?

Joint Ventures can be a great thing for just about any internet marketer to do at one time or another. They can be a great way to boost your internet business to a higher level in a shorter amount of time with less work. Basically, joint ventures bring you success more quickly than you could do on your own if all parties involved hold up their end. The following post is a quick look at what joint ventures are and how they can benefit you.

First, let’s look at what are joint ventures (JV’s) are. They come in various forms but traditionally they are an agreement between 2 or more people or businesses. All the parties involved agree to work on a project together, or help each other out in one way or another. Usually part of the agreement is that the profits from the project will be shared equally by all parties. Of course, this means that all parties equally contribute to the project too.

JV’s can be something very simple such as promoting each other’s products on their websites or to their lists. They can also get more complicated such as building a whole business together. Therefore, JV’s are also all about forming and building relationships.

Now that you know what a JV is, I will explain why you should use them. Hopefully, you can already see the power of JV’s just from reading what they are and are beginning to see why they might be a good idea for you. With them you are able to take what you’re great at and combine it with what other people are great at. By combining your talents and resources you are be able to be even more productive and become more successful than you ever could on your own.

Even though you have to share the profits with all your partners you still end up making even more money when it’s all said and done. At least that’s the idea. Plus, you will be laying down the groundwork for future partnerships that will also make you even more successful.

One of the most important parts of joint ventures is to have parties who are all really good at something that the other people in the party aren’t so good at. Or at least have all parties with different resources that can be combined. For example, you might have a JV between 5 internet marketers; One that writes really well, one that is a great copywriter, one that knows how to market using social media, one that has a large email list you can market to, and one that specializes in search engine optimization. This covers most of the main tasks that must be completed in order for an online business to be successful. Therefore, this venture should be a success.

Are you starting to see how powerful they can be yet? By joining together you can achieve greater success in less time than you would ever be able to achieve on your own. There’s strength in numbers!

Writing Good Content for Internet Marketing

One of the most important things you can do when it comes to internet marketing is to write good content for your website, blog, or sales page. This is probably the most basic internet marketing strategy of all but it is also essential, and far too many people don’t do it. If the content on your site is junk, then your entire website is going to be considered junk by anyone who visits it. On the other hand, if your content is really good then your site will be considered high quality even if it doesn’t have the best theme or look the greatest. High quality content matters a lot more than how “cool” your site looks.

It’s best to write the content yourself if you at least have some decent writing skills because good writers are hard to come by unless you want to pay a ton for every article/post you get. If you look at internet marketing forums or various webmaster forums, or even freelance writing sites, you will find many people with writing services claiming to be good writers. In reality, a lot of writers you hire online are not worth the money, even if their articles are cheap.

If you need someone else to write for you because you aren’t a good writer or you simply don’t have enough time to do it all yourself, then you really need to look around and check out many different options before you settle on someone. Don’t fill your website full of low quality content just because you found someone to write cheap articles for you and you don’t think you have any other options. Trust me, you do!

Now, here are a few notes for new internet marketers and bloggers, or anyone else needing a refresher on writing good content:

Don’t use fluff content – Make sure your words actually make sense and use short and specific sentences whenever possible. Do not ramble on about a subject for two paragraphs restating the same point over and over again just to fill space.

Include images in your posts – Always try to include related images in your blog posts and other website content if at all possible. Including images with proper formatting and SEO strategies will not only draw your reader’s attention to the post or article, but can also help you in ranking on search engines and can bring more traffic to your site. This is actually something I really need to work on myself. I have never gotten in the habit of using images but I do need to start.

Make it useful – There’s no point in writing just for the sake of updating your site. Make your content useful and informative for the reader. You want people to keep coming back and they aren’t going to do that if your content isn’t worth coming back to read again and again.

Use spell check and proof read – There’s nothing worse than an article/post full of spelling mistakes and other mistakes that could easily be avoided by simply using a spelling/grammar checker and proofreading your content before you publish it. It doesn’t need to be perfect, especially when writing online, but by minimizing your spelling and grammar errors, you will gain more respect for your work and more readers of your blog.

That’s about all there is to it. I’m sure you can handle that without any problems and if so you will be ahead of a large portion of your competition and on your way to a successful internet marketing career.