Thread: In Internet Marketing, Do you lead or follow?

I think that maybe one of the factors that make people not follow an idea is fear. There is always going to be some underlying fear that what you're doing either violates a rule somewhere, or that the experiment will bomb and not work out at all. I can see though that one fear would be the fact that they can lose money if the idea doesn't pan out, but then you have to remember that many of the most successful businesses out there started wit an idea. Here's another idea. If you had the knowledge, would you give back to the IM community? Would you make money out of it? Or would you be a mentor?

I have always been a strong believer of sharing knowledge. You learn most by teaching. When I was at my old job, I was very successful, and I used to get calls all the time asking for help. I spent a lot of time helping other managers. With that being said, I would share the knowledge.

However, with IM being such a big money making niche, I think I would be a fool not to create an e-book or a click bank product and make a little money from sharing my knowledge. That is what I would do.

Every new marketing method is only temporary. What's inportant is to be unique, even in a competative market. If you stand out because of your strong opinion and point of view you'll attract attention from the right prospects. You'll build up credibility and people will follow you. That way it's a lot easier to turn prospects into buyers.

Yes, you have to go for it, but you have to know WHAT you're going for.

Andre Stoelinga

That could make you a leader in your own right of course, and a strong one for that matter. But even while you are becoming an authority, you are still going to be following what others do. I tend to disagree when you say that every new marketing method is temporary. Some do fade out quickly, because of all the new ideas that are being used, but that doesn't mean that it is non existent. I think that many old IM methods can and still are used to some extent.

What I mean is, that every new hot marketing method gets used by everyone and loses its effectiveness very quickly. Look at Twitter. Even the bigger organisations (after research) have announced that "traffic from Twitter sucks". In the beginning it was a lot easier to generate traffic from Twitter, Facebook and what not. Now it's Google +1 until that gets flooded and spammed. Nowadays I think you should use as many marketing methods as you can to get the most out of it, instea of just focusing on one.

In my last post I meant that marketing is also how you profile yourself in your market and not just build backlinks, write articles, post comments, etc.. Your content is what pulls your prospects over the bridge.

Andre Stoelinga

Oh yes. It is all about what you do and how you do it. IM is a cutthroat world where you either learn to swim or drown IMO. It sounds suspiciously to me like the bandwagon doesn't always help marketers as much as they believe it would. Especially when the wheels come off and the wagon is stripped apart and devalued by everyone wanting to abuse it.

There isn't a TV show here today that doesn't have some form of social site like twitter or facebook or both. Luckily Google still keeps an eye on company profiles, and I have heard about a few that have lost theirs already. I know a few marketers that have notices on their sites. They reserve the right to turn you down if they believe that your site and / or product or service violates their standards in any way. So if they believe that a product is either below standard or not worth their time, or just a load of hogwash pasted on a site and the product/service/site does more harm than good. How far is too far? before they are labelled as snooty and their business begins to drop? Or do you think that a marketer like that is right?

What you see too much in this business is the big fancy headers with flying dollar bills and content filled with phrases like "Make a lot of money" or "Get rich fast" and such. Ofcourse Google doesn't like those sites. Only the big boyz in the industry can afford to use this kind of language, because they already have a name and a huge list they can sell to. So to answer your question (if I understand it right), these marketers are only making it more difficult for themselves to break through. Even visitors of their websites will think twice before believing it these days. Internet and its users have changed.

How often do you see a IM product salespage with google pagerank ? Hardly ever, because of the "money" and "cash" content. I've carefully built my salespages (with a little help from a pro) and this resulted in a pagerank 2 salespage. Even though the main website is only PR1. Yes...a salespage about a product to build an online business with PR2. I couldn't believe it myself, but it's the content that did it.

I think search engines will more or less ignore websites with too much hype about making money with the first crawl. You're right...most do more harm than good. Google for one recognizes this quickly.

Andre

I agree. Most times people wouldn't give that marketer a second look if they knew he/she does that. Do you think it would be the same if this person had a huge following, and was one of the best and highest paid expert in what they do? Sometimes I think that, once you transcend the rank and become one the best, a different set of rules apply to you than to us lesser perfect marketers. To be completely honest, I have never really liked a sales page. I believe marketers need them yes, but do they really have to look more or less the same?. Is it a rule?

Google's "rules" apply to everyone. Even the big boys who are known experts. But these experts don't care about search engines so much, because they have a huge affiliate base that drives traffic to their sites and offers constantly and JV partners who promote for them on a regular basis. And the best ranked pages can be dropped like a brick by Google...completely unexpected. I've seen it several times.

About salespages... There are no rules for salespages. In my opinion rules are made up and it's a choice to follow them or not. However, the are proven more appealing fonts and "templates" are built up in a certain order that are more effective. It's all based on psychological triggers, buried in human nature. The effectiveness of you salespage depends entirely on how you "fill in the blanks". The better you know your market, the better you can compose a salespage using the right language and emotional triggers to get people to buy.

I don't like most salespages either, but when I see something that doesn't make worthless promises or when I see a REAL product (not the "push this button and get rich" crap), I'll definitely read it and learn from it.

Andre

Maybe that would then be an area where people can break through somehow. Instead of designing something the way everyone else does, design something completely different. You say its all psychological and that I believe to be true. You as an IM have to be able to convince someone you don't know from a bar of soap that a certain product or service is a necessity for them.

AH the generic click here and get rich quick thing. There are so many new IM's out there that no next to nothing about what they can and cannot do, and its easy for people like that to prey on them in some form. This could also be an area to lead and not follow I think. Instead of taking advantage of newbies, experienced IM's should take them under their wings and train them as a mechanic might train an apprentice maybe?

Well, most IM'ers think that if they follow a successful marketer's lead they will eventually succeed, too. I don't believe that. My experience shows it's mostly better to do what others are NOT doing and with that stand out from the masses. This is also how a few of the top marketers of today have become 7 figure businesses in a relatively short time.

Taking starting entrepreneurs under your wings is a difficult task if you don't have a team to support you and your business. I must add that most starters have the wrong idea about coaching programs and training services. Most will think that this "service" will more or less build their business FOR them. Not true...! It's to guide you step by step with what you already have (or want to start). You as entrepreneur must act yourself to implement what you learn and this takes time and effort. No one can buid your business for you. You cancon lead if you don't know hat you're doing and that's also a big mistake most IM'ers make. They'll never build credibility they need to lead, because what they communicate is quickly recognized as phoney.

Follow first...gain experience...make mistakes so you'll have something to tell your prospects.
Build a proper business base and then you CAN lead.

Andre

You can learn a great deal, but if you don't implement it, you aren't going to go anywhere. Keeping yourself in a comfortable position before trying to lead yourself is where most get caught. IMO. The thought of moving ahead is too scary because of the likelihood of failure and they believe that staying put, using what they have and not venturing forward is good.

When you train someone though, you need to enforce a few rules. You can't just sit there "talking" someone's ear off when they aren't even going to do what you tell them to. Which then comes back to the original argument, that some IM's seem to think they don't have to do anything besides the basics. Building an online business is a lot harder than building one out of brick and mortar. People can't just show up at your door to look at your products or request your services. It takes a lot of hard work to firstly gain the trust of those around you before your business even starts to show any growth. That in itself could also scare people into not wanting to be a leader.

I agree. You set the "rules" and deadlines for tasks even, when you know what your client is willing to give. How much effort he's willing to put in.

Even as a leader you'll need to tell your students that if you want to achieve something...anything, you'll need to work hard for it.
Based on what your client wants to achieve in business or life you set the rules together with the client. It has to be realistic for them and doable.
If you scare them with too much work and information...you'll lose the client.

Andre

LOL I can relate with my studies, but they are a necessary evil at the moment. I guess to be a good leader you would then need to be able to not only pace yourself, but at the same time set the pace for anyone else that you are teaching. It has merits of course, but not many do this and tend to lose people really early from the start. You need to consider your clients as well and keep all lines of communication open for them and not care the bejeebers out of them when you use strategies other's haven't caught onto yet.

Hi,
In internet marketing, you don`t have need to follow everyone accept Google. Google is the main server that evaluates you and sets your directions according to your work. So, Google is the only path that you have to follow, if you want to be stronger in online marketing field.

Originally Posted by Navida

Hi,
In internet marketing, you don`t have need to follow everyone accept Google. Google is the main server that evaluates you and sets your directions according to your work. So, Google is the only path that you have to follow, if you want to be stronger in online marketing field.

That's actually very true in many ways. Working in accordance with them makes sure that your site stays up to date, indexed well etc. But I want to put a thought to you. What about not following search engines? What if you marketed your site without worrying about search engines or specifically targeting search engines in your marketing campaigns (submissions and so on). You could turn the tables and have these search engines following you? Wouldn't you agree?

I don't get it why everyone is so hung up on Google as leading for traffic or online success.

If you're a wise IM'er you'll start building a mailing list, create a product, acquire affiliates and you'll never have to worry about traffic again...
To speed that up there's always ways to explode your traffic and use some revenue for more paid traffic.
Of course you'll need to do an initial investment, but if you've got everything setup properly you'll earn that back in no-time.

Paid traffic is the most targeted traffic you can get...no joke.
Waiting for people to come and visit your site through search engines doesn't mean they'll spend money on your products or services.
People who search through google and yahoo etc. are mostly looking for information and will NEVER buy the first 1 to 5 times visiting your site.
It's been researched and fact that generally SE traffic are not buyers...

Andre

Originally Posted by Navida

Hi,
In internet marketing, you don`t have need to follow everyone accept Google. Google is the main server that evaluates you and sets your directions according to your work. So, Google is the only path that you have to follow, if you want to be stronger in online marketing field.

Following search engine is not something the solely way you can depend on... it also rely on how you can promote the products effectively, it is not something do or die if you don't follow Google... we also can depend on social media like facebook and twitter.. my friend of mine just success with her business just promoting her product through facebook.. it makes her own fan page and lot of people just 'like' and 'share' her product through facebook, i just wanna point out, it is not the end of the world if we don't follow Google

The concept of leadership is very important and reputable in any field. So, I would always like to be a leader. In an online business the concept of leading in my mind is, providing best services and updates to visitors at my business portal. I would like to offer the best services and try to be user friendly to retain them. It will be good for me and my business as well.

Well, I’m not competent enough to trial and error to find a new method. I would follow the tested method but modify it accordance with my knowledge and experience. However, same method will be saturated if it’s used by many people.