I Finally Figured It Out - The Largest Stumbling-Block To Online Success
We're going to talk about one of those issues that I think is the most serious stumbling blocks to Internet success: fear of losing money. Now, I'm sure that you're reading that statement and probably thinking, "Oh God, here we go..." But, you know, I honestly believe that our fear of spending money has proven to be one of the most cancerous issues we have. There's an old adage that "it takes money to make money." We've all heard it. It's really become a bit of a cliche, and as such, it's widely ignored or just said in passing. But, it's actually just as true today as it was decades ago. The most cunning Internet marketers, however, won't tell you that. And I don't really blame them. It's much easier to get money out of people by telling them what they want to hear than by telling them the truth, and if all you want is people's money, you'll tell them anything to get it. While I don't "blame" them, I certainly don't agree with them. Listen, we're a fast-paced society. Most people would agree with that. But, what they're not so readily willing to agree with is that we're also a frugal society, a society that loves to get instant results for the least investment of time or of money. Look around the Internet in the marketing circles. One thing you'll see emphasized over and over again is the word "only" as it relates to price, and "just 15 minutes a day" as it relates to time. They tell you, "All 150 software packages are yours for only $19.95." They tell you, "Spend just 15 minutes per day at your computer and you'll be a millionaire with this system." Why do they say such things? Because they're trying to get you to make the one time purchase of their miracle solution. And we keep buying into it with the hopes that this time it'll work. Are they lying to us? Are they flat our fibbing about what can be done with their system? Absolutely not. I'm sure that they probably only spend 15 minutes at their computer, and most of that time is spent checking their Clickbank or Paypal earnings from the day before. And I don't pretend to believe that the people who submit their testimonials are lying about their success. I have no reason to think such a thing. You see, the question you should be asking is NOT: Can the average Joe make lots of money with your system? The question you should be asking is: WILL the average Joe make lots of money with your system? In other words, are the successes more numerable than the failures? If someone follows the steps, do they have a pretty solid chance of having their own success story? Most marketers, if honest, would answer, "Heck no!" But, they weren't selling us on the reality. They were selling us on the possibility. And we kept buying into it. Notice that I said "we". I can't tell you how much money I've spent buying e-books that were supposed to change my life. Did they work? NO! I've even bought e-books that were advertised as marketing software. To find out it was just an e-book was upsetting to say the least. Could I get a refund? Well, technically, e-books ARE a form of software, so I wasn't necessarily lied to. The moral of this article is simply this: As hopeful Internet successes, we have to stop looking for free lunches, cheap resources, and miracle solutions. We need solid, yet affordable MARKETING TOOLS. Think about that for a minute. We've bought e-book after e-book. Why? Because it promised us information that would change our lives. Come on people! This is the INFORMATION AGE. Information is all around us, especially on the Internet. I can find the information most people are selling for free! Now, at this point, it probably sounds like I'm very anti-marketing or anti-spending. Actually, I'm neither of those things. Spending money is absolutely necessary. I said before that I think that our fear of losing money is our biggest problem. I'm just pointing out how it is that we've gotten so afraid to spend money. You see, we've bought into the wrong things. What I think is that spending money is necessary, but we should stop spending money on information. If it's just $10 or $20, no big deal. But some of these worthless e-books and reports are going for $99.95! You know why they're priced that way, don't you? Because making you pay that much for it is a means of manipulating you to use the programs their e-book is advertising. In other words, if I spend a hundred bucks on a system, you'd better believe that even if I don't like the system, I'm going to at least try it so that I can feel like I got my money's worth. It's the smartest game marketers play, and it works over and over again! Information is definitely something you will need. But, it is NOT something you should pay lots of money for because in this age, it's likely you can get it for free with a little research. What you SHOULD be dishing out money for are the TOOLS you'll need to put that information to use, and this is exactly where we have went wrong. We've invested more into promises made by the sharing of information, while we were hesitant to invest in the tools necessary to bring those promises to pass. Actually, there's a pretty good reason why we are hesitant. With information products, we expect for one $30 purchase to change our lives. However, with marketing tools/resources, we have to purchase from 3 or 4 different sites (possibly more) in order to get all the various tools we'll need. For instance, every serious Internet marketer needs a feature-rich autoresponder service, and there are many to choose from. So, let's say that you find a good autoresponder service for $19.95/mo. Next, you need a nice ad tracker system, one provided by a site with GREAT uptime and server stability. Keep in mind that if their server goes down, so do ALL the links into your site through that server. So, you finally decide on a nice ad tracker service for $19.95/mo. Now, we all need leads, so you decide to purchase monthly recurring leads since it's cheaper that way than if you made one-time purchases. So, you enter into an agreement to purchase 5,000 leads per month for $19.95/mo. Altogether, you wind up spending $59.85/mo for these three absolutely necessary marketing tools. But, the collective price bothers you, and so instead, you wind up buying an e-book for $19.95 that promises to change your life tomorrow with only 15 minutes of time and absolutely no investment of money, except for the $19.95 you paid for the e-book, of course. ;-) Are you getting my drift? Are you seeing how we're kept down by this cycle of frugality. Take some time and do some research. Find a system that can provide you with multiple marketing tools, the tools you'll need to take your business to the next level. Once you find it, don't be afraid to invest in it. Marketing tools work a lot better than marketing promises. Wishing you great success! Romell Weekly is an Internet marketer who has combined his programming skills and marketing experience to produce a winning combination -> http://www.TrafficLane.net. Visit today for all the marketing tools you'll need to grow your business. He lives in Saint Louis, MO with his wife, Monique.
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