Fake It Until You Make It

Of all the business advise I have ever heard or read, this one takes the number spot. I first started hearing this many years ago in the Direct Marketing or MLM industry. The idea is you dress up to look the part of a successful marketer, drive a fancy car and get up to your eyeballs in debt trying to emulate the lifestyle of the truly successful. Not a great idea, huh? (No offense to MLMers, I'm talking about those black sheep)

In internet marketing, I am sad to say that people actually subscribe to this bad advice. Don't you really think we can't tell the difference between someone really good at what they do and someone who is faking it. Having said that, scammers tend to have beautifully created websites and convincing sales copy. But that's another story.

I have been in forums where these people are newbies to internet marketing, then when I go to their site, they try to sound like they are internet marketing gurus. I guess it takes all types in any industry.

Seriously, you don't need to do stupid things like this. All you need to is to find one thing you are good at, and build it up from there. The main trouble isn't that they don't know squat, it is that they don't know internet marketing. Well, forget about what the so-called internet gurus tell you. Or rather do your due diligence whenever you read an ebook or report, and a little research doesn't hurt.

By all means, research your niche and build your website. What you want is to get the conversation going. By that I mean, being relevant to your readers. From my own foray into website building, I can tell you that if you keep it real, you can build up your readership. If you keep adding relevant content, people will keep coming back.

What Do You Mean Free Gifts

Anybody who has been doing internet marketing knows about Giveaway Events. There are many Giveaways on the internet, for many niches and many big names internet marketer will have their products featured. The purpose of participating in a giveaway event is to build your list, which in itself is one of the main goals in internet marketing.

By its nature giveaways are supposed to be free, after all it is supposed to be an event where you get free gifts. The only trouble with that is, in internet marketing circles free doesn't mean free. Marketing is an exchange, an exchange of a product or service for money usually. Or in this case your email address. So in order for an exchange to take place, both parties must have something they both want.

Now you might think this is a win-win situation. It doesn't quite work out that way. What would you do if you see an product or report you are interested in? You enter your email, download the product and read it. Then you might decide that the report is nothing new, so you unsubscribe from the marketer's list. So the internet marketer has to repeat the cycle again. Of course, the process is automated so it isn't much hassle for the marketer. The problem is they are training people to unsubscribe. No one has time to scan through all the emails from marketers, not when the emails asks you to buy more products or contain old and rehashed information.

I would prefer to see marketers offer free gifts without the need to opt-in. Put links in your reports, they can lead to your opt-in page or your website. But let us review your report first, if the way your market is the right fit for us, you can be assured that we will opt-in. In order for the marketer to make money, well...what's in it for me?

Just One Idea For A Website

When you start a website, the temptation is to start writing before you finalize the design of your website. You might have one idea, and it grips you so hard that you just can't wait to get started on it. Well, this may be the only time it is a good idea to sleep on it. Better yet, write down a set of rules for your website. Then anything that doesn't fit in gets thrown out. That's another name for this, and it's called finding your niche.

Finding your niche is akin to finding your voice. To be heard you need find something worth talking about, on a subject that people are interested in. Something you won't get tired of in a few months. This is because you need to create content for your website, and you do this whether it is a personal website or an internet marketing site.

Once you have found the one idea, it gets easier to figure out what your website should look like. There are probably thousands of great looking themes you can use for your website, free or paid. Some themes work better with certain topics, and your theme should fit your subject. While it comes down to your personal taste, a website isn't only about you. It is also about your readers.

I like to think of a website as a magazine. It is about content, and style. With a website, it is also has to be user friendly and easy to navigate. But it can't be about everything, and the narrower your focus is, the better it will work.

Building A Business On The Internet

I meet a lot of people who are interested in having their own website, but most do not understand what it is to use their website to extend their marketing reach. A website is an additional channel to reach your target market and can be a sales channel. Your website should serve a purpose, so don't build a website just to have an internet presence. A website is a marketing channel, and if you have an existing business, be sure to promote your website off-line.

Many of the business owners I know should build an ecommerce website. Ecommerce solutions offer many benefits, from web hosting to shopping carts, and even custom solutions. A website is an extension of your business or the service you provide. Make sure the potential client know what you provide and can buy or sign up for your service right there on your website. Make it easy for your potential client to do business with you.

Especially if you have a retail channel, a website should be an extension of that channel, ie an on-line shop. That is what ecommerce solutions can provide for your business. Setting up a retail channel on the internet needs to be done well to convince your potential customers to buy from you. A website based business, ecommerce or on-line shop, is a face of your business and should reflect the way you conduct your business off-line.

I know of a bakery owner who wants a website, but instead of paying someone to build a professional looking website, asked her teenage nephew to build one for her using a free website service. There is nothing wrong with using a free service like blogger.com, but not when it reflects your business. While I am all for working with teenagers, unless you provide a specific brief on what your website should convey, it can turn out different from what you expect. As a business owner, you should there are no short-cuts nor should a website be a afterthought. It is part of your marketing channel, and the rules of marketing applies.

9 Year Old Webmaster

I had an amazing experience today. I received a phone call from a business associate of mine, and he told me his nephew needed some help with his web project. So I said, "Sure, why not? Come on over to my office this afternoon."

This kid turned up and he already knows more about html than I do. But he needed help to put a video together to go on his website design. He had until November of this year to turn in this project, and the marks he get will determine if he passes or fails this subject.

I was surprised to learn that the school actually had this subject and it counts in the school examination. I had to know his level of skill, so we chatted for a bit and, let me tell you, he asked some very good questions. Most of it was on the technical side, but his questions were more in depth than most adults I talk to.

Kids today are amazing. Imagine knowing how to put a website together at 9 years old. Like I said, he knows more about html than I do. But it's what you do with the knowledge that matters. So we spent 2 hours together, we went through how to put a video and audio together using Movie Maker. Than we worked on the layout of his website, and the navigation. This made the presentation more interesting, and the website look better. This isn't cheating, I just gave him some tips, and basic knowledge on how a website should look like. Something his teacher should have done but either did not or did not know how to.

I will be meeting with him to review his project next week. Hopefully he will have completed it, as he had already done the content and graphics. He just needed help to pull it together. And he got what I was saying, just like that! That was what is amazing. I'm going to help guide this kid. His mother said he wasn't sleeping well at night being too worried about this subject. It seems that there was no-one he could talk to for advice.

After hearing the comments his teacher said, I have to agree with my friend's opinion of the teacher. On the other hand, I'm not a teacher so I wouldn't know what is the norm in teaching a 9 year old. What I do know is, if he can handle it, I give him the tips. The way it looks, this is one future webmaster.

After The First Year In Internet Marketing

I realized I have not be blogging here since March 2009. Been busy with off-line work and maintaining my other websites. It has been slightly over a year since I ventured into internet marketing. If truth be told, I have had less than stellar results.

Where Did I Go Wrong?
1. Following the advice of just about every internet marketer/Guru out there. I am talking about some serious information overload here. It wasn't the hype, I'm a marketer and I recognize what hype is. No, I just had to try everything once just to see if it worked.

2. Lack of focus equals a waste of time. There are so many ways you can do business on the internet, that I couldn't decide on a business model. I failed terribly in affiliate marketing, stank at building a list and kept trying to do too many niches.

3. Tried to do everything myself and ended up being less efficient and effective than any reasonable person should be. Again, this was because I just had to try everything once, just to see for myself what it was all about.

4. The Make Money Online niche is the bane of all newbies. I liked marketing but that was really no excuse why I built a website on internet marketing. I had no credentials at all. It is understandable because when you just start out, you are reading everything there is about internet marketing. So it made sense (to me at least) that I ended up down this route, and besides you learn best if you built a website. It would have been better had someone actually set me right. As it were, almost everyone I knew didn't know squat about internet marketing.

5. Didn't have the know-how to capitalize on my search engine results.

I am glad to say that I finally came to my senses and created a website about something I knew about. So 6 months after I built my first site, I built my second site, www.AboutSabah.com. At least that is working out. It could have been worst. At least, I didn't blow a lot of money of stuff I didn't need.

So Did Anything Go Right At All?
1. The first ranked on the first page, first result for my keyword. Out of 300,000 pages. Not bad for a first website. The second website also ended up on first page, but not the first position for my keyword. Out of 18 million. I would like to say I knew what I was doing, but I have to give the credit to wordpress. It is awesome.

2. EzineAritcles accept all my submissions, so this meant I could at least string a sentence together in English. Just didn't have the motivation to continue after writing ten articles.

3. My first website, even though on the first position/ first page of google didn't really see much visitors. It also managed to get a page rank of 1 after 9 months. My second website, averages 3000 visits per month, from 2000 unique visitors by the third month. Achieved a page rank of 2 in the fourth or fifth month.

What I Learnt So Far?
Here are some of the lessons I learnt about internet marketing.
1. Follow your passion, and focus on creating content for it.
2. Don't be shy in marketing your website and asking for the sale.
3. Leverage on the first website if you want to start a second.
4. Stop reading about internet marketing and start working on your website. Develop your business model.
5. Internet marketing is almost exactly like off-line marketing. It's a business and all marketing rules apply. The only difference is the environment and the channel.

Twitter Followers

Twitter has been all over the news of late. Imagine my surprise when I opened my email and saw this.

|| Mike Filsaime (mikefilsaime) is now following your updates on Twitter.||

Most likely it was automated since he has 19,480 followers. But still, it was a nice surprise. One can always dream that Mike Filsaime talks to you.

Follow me on twitter, and I will follow you: http://twitter.com/adriansabah