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Letting one pass us by
- 29/01/2010
- Categorized in: Affiliate Marketing
We’ve got a lot of stuff coming across our desk. There is always something to do, watch, try, accept, keep up with.
It’s exciting and we get a sense of forward motion, but neither of us get the sense that we’re getting to that holy grail, not being flat out all the time. That time will come and what will bring it to us is doing the things we do, well enough that we involve others and the machine itself pays us, not for our labours but for what we’ve created. The machine will do that not by taking benefit from other people, but by helping enough people and taking a part of the big benefit that’s created.
Anyway, the thing we have to do now is to check each opportunity and if it meets our purposes, grasp it. Last week we were contacted by someone who had found us on twitter and wanted to understand what we did. This person had a sense that we understood internet marketing and wanted us to get on board and help. Splendid, we want to help, and we know more about internet marketing every day.
The contact then asked our advice and kind of made a proposal. I say kind of because the offer was cloudy, even after I asked several times for clarity. Basically though, the offer was to get involved in a multi level marketing (MLM) system and sell a consumable that I agree, millions of people want. Actual prices were a bit masked but I could have found them out. Actual margins seemed to make sense, but again, I asked a couple of times and didn’t get a clear understanding.
I believe that there is still some value in MLM, but it doesn’t fit with our model. I believe that affiliate marketing will overtake MLM as it allows producers to get straight to the marketplace, and the internet has changed some basic dynamics that made sense of MLM. Mostly though, I believe in sorting out your vision and going after what you’ve set yourself on. We looked at a saleable product with reasonable margins and a massive market. We took the details and checked it against Market Samurai, and found that there wasn’t a niche we could effectively work in, and we let the opportunity through to the keeper.
Our lesson from all of it was simple. The model is gaining pace and will serve us well, but we need to stay on track. Clarity would have help our contact to get us on board, but we think we were clear enough to assess that it wasn’t right in tune with us. The payoff will be simplicity and a few minutes off, and we think it’s worth the opportunity it may have been.
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You are spot on there Dave - not every prospect is going to measure up when it comes to giving them internet marketing help, especially when their objectives are vague. This seems to be a major issue with many who want to profit online is that they haven't really identified their true goals to themselves, and therefore there is no solid online strategy that can support goals that don't exist. It's confirming the power of social media to see that the opportubity found you through twitter and went from there, but ultimately you are the gatekeeper of who you decide to do business with. I've let clients go in the last 12 moinths because they couldn't clarify what they really wanted out of their website, or their online marketing efforts. Most small businesses get caught up in the small things like what their website looks like (to them), and how they can update it themselves etc, and won't venture to see the bigger picture issues such as what is their offer, how are they going to convice people to buy or sign up to their offer, etc. I wish you all the best in getting to your "holy grail:, you look like your doing all the right things and making the best choices...one of those namely being to pick choose who you do business with.
The sense of leaving the money on the table because it's not right for us is quite empowering. I got the sense that our contact really believed in their product and business model. No one was doing anything I thought dodgy, but sometimes you have to do what's right according to your own business model
Meanwhile if there's a hint in all this for anyone reading, it's that the amount of information available on the web makes you look like you're concealing something if you won't tell the truth, and you can't do that if you haven't thought through your offer. You also can't make the same empowering decisions if you haven't decided on your model.
Being conscious and considered is everything.
DR
Dave....In your article you wrote "We took the details and checked it against Market Samurai, and found that there wasn’t a niche we could effectively work in, and we let the opportunity through to the keeper."
I too have thought I had a viable market to enter into but like you , checked it out in market samurai and decided against it after checking out the competition. I highly recommend the Market Samurai program so that one can check out the competition before entering a market. Doing so will eliminate wasting money and valuable time!