How Am I Succeeding?
October 17, 2008I was just sitting down and having a conversation with a guy, Jeremiah, that has been trying internet marketing for 3 years and has only made a few bucks. We’re talking $5 here and a few bucks here.. maybe winning some surfing contests or something like that.
Basically very little success.
I thought to myself, “Hmm, 9 months ago I was a complete newbie. I’m having more success than this guy in far less time.”
I continued to think to myself.. what am I doing that Jeremiah isn’t doing? So we talked a little bit more. We were basically doing the exact same thing! We both surfed traffic exchanges, we both bought credits from time to time, we were both promoting affiliate products, we were both using safelists, we were both getting the word out about ourselves and what we bring to the table.
Why am I enjoying the fruits of my labor and continuing to build while Jeremiah is going basically no where — a few steps short of wasting his time?
I took it upon myself to investigate and here’s what I found:
- I am networking
- I am list building
- I am consistent
That’s the only three differences I could see between myself and Jeremiah. And boy what a difference it makes!
Networking with your peers, as i wrote about a while back, is vitally important. You gather friendship with like minded individuals and you push each other to become better at what each of you do.
For me, I was approached by Paul Kinder and that’s how my networking begun. I got lucky because I had something he sought and he was networking, so I got drug into it by him. Luckily I stayed networking and began meeting people that gave me ideas, helped me further myself, and gave me knowledge and insight. The learning curve was high.. but I was addicted and this is still what I do. You can find me in NetMarketingForum or Affiliate Funnel networking a lot of the time.
Secondly, I was building my (ever-so-hyped-and-talked-about “magical”) ‘list’. I also did this unknowingly. I was trying to build blue-surf (a free membership program).. but what I was building was far more valuable. Each member has what everyone wants — an email address. And now my list is getting strong. I have thousands of email addresses that I can email to whenever I want to inform them of a new product or idea.. and they don’t mind because they can make a few bucks from it, too.
Jeremiah had no list. He had, however, made a couple ‘cold sales’ . Great! But, the problem is, once the sale was over with - that was the end. He could not contact them again. He could not follow up and ensure they were happy with what they bought.
So that brings me to list building. Build your list. Follow up with automated messages. Make people happy and they’ll trust you and continue buying from you again. (Actually, think about how you got to this blog post — you’re probably on my email list. And, although I am not selling you anything.. I am conveying to you a message, which is equally as important.)
You do not need a free membership program to build your list. You can in fact use AWeber as your mailing solution and promote splash pages or squeeze pages and build a nice list.
The money is in the list. Do not ignore this overused almost cliche-like saying. Your list is the most valuable asset you will ever have in this business.
And, finally, I am consistent. Jeremiah, like a lot of people, struggled to stay on top of his internet marketing when things just weren’t happening. He’d take a few months off and then try at it again. Perhaps the next time he tried it would be.. magical. It wasn’t, and this cycle repeated.
On the contrary, I can think of very few days (days when I was extremely ill) that I wasn’t on the computer for hours on end building me and my business.
As I like to say I was (and continue to be) persistently consistent. There are good days and there are bad days. There are good weeks and months and there are bad weeks and months. But you never know… that next subscriber, that next squeeze page, that next whatever might build a relationship between you and a customer that lasts a lifetime. You might get your next sale. And before you know it.. you might have a few extra dollars in the bank.