IM Inbreeding?

I'm glad you found someone doing what you want to do. It took me quite a while to determine exactly what I wanted to do -- and my journey to my current business was very circuitous.

I had a deep interest in all things marketing LONG before I discovered IM. My major in college was marketing and I started studying mail order and then direct marketing while still in college. I discovered Dan Kennedy when I was just 19, BEFORE I discovered IM. IM was just an extension of direct marketing.

And once I discovered IM... well, it's like falling down the rabbit hole. There's a steep learning curve and way too much information to sort through. I faced the same overwhelm as everyone else.

Marketing IS my passion, specifically direct marketing and Internet marketing. I freelanced as a copywriter for a while, but quickly discovered that a service-based business wasn't the kind of business I wanted. So I kept searching.

I LOVE IM -- the high ROI and the leverage of it. Being any type of marketing consultant IS a legitimate, but I disliked the "inbreeding" aspect of IM that you mention. I HATE that -- and it feels unethical to me. So how to specialize in IM without only making all my money showing others how to do IM?

Offline marketing -- showing offline business owners how to attract more clients and increase business through IM -- was the answer for me. It's completely legitimate and 100% ethical. I can feel good about it while still playing in IM.

However, for some personal reasons, I want to keep my business almost entirely online. I don't even want to pursue my local businesses. (I have some physical problems which limit my mobility and so I need flexibility.) For me, the answer was specializing in one particular industry (instead of on geography: my local business community).

Most of my copywriting clients were health and wellness professionals: nutritionists, fitness/personal trainers, etc. I discovered that, generally, they're very passionate about what they do. They're warm and personable: "touchy" "fee-ly" people who love what they do. BUT aren't very business-minded -- and need a LOT of help.

Voila! A PERFECT target market.

But I went a step further: I decided to think BIG and chose a very different business model: the traditional association. I created the International Association of Health & Wellness Professionals. My primary target market is chiropractors, nutritionists, massage therapists, personal/fitness trainers. Then of course, there are yoga professionals, acupuncturists, etc.... The list is long.

Yes, there are already associations serving these markets. But they typically focus on the specialty side of it -- that is, becoming a better practitioner. This is very common. People think: "If I work on being the best at what I do, the world will beat a path to my door." So they attend conferences, lectures, etc. which focus on helping them become a better chiropractor, massage therapists, etc.

But it's not true. They won't come just because you're the best. (Or better than most.) Good MARKETING is what builds your practice.

Plus, good systems, etc.

So I'm focusing on the BUSINESS side of it. And since I'm an association, I stand FAR ABOVE all of the individual marketing consultants who provide marketing services. (And most especially above the mom and pops just wanting to work from home in their jammies!)

My first IM mentor was Ali Brown (AliBrown.com). Her Online Success Blueprint was a HUGE help. And I bought it because she WASN'T marketing to other IM wannabes. Her customers were REAL business owners. It was a critical distinction.

My mentor last year (and the woman I currently consider my mentor) is Sheri McConnell. She founded and ran the National Association of Women Writers for 10 years -- and currently teaches others how to create and run association-type networks.

She's very business-savvy and a successful Internet marketer in her own right. But she's a lot more than that.

I'm THRILLED with my new business, which I'm pre-launching this fall and launching officially in Jan. I can feel proud of it. And my business model puts me head and shoulders above all of my "competition."

Michelle

Sure there will - but most of it has gone the way of offline business now - something you can buy a textbook on, learn the general principles, then have enough background to keep up with the changes on your own. When one actually takes place that is large enough to require a little bit of peripheral mindset and methodolgy change to require a new product to educate people about, you can be on top of it -- and everyone else gets to figure out how to copy what you said and put out some more hash because all they are learning is enough to make copies of originals to sell.

It works well for people who are motivated, sharp, and willing to put some actual effort into their education. Some of those who copy even get over for awhile until they run out of ways to copy stuff that's already rehash when they get their hands on it. Then there's a few that make it just because they are good at teaching the established methods to new people who don't have enough background to figure it out by themselves (which is where I stand with technology. I copped out of that one and went for a tech instead).

Then there's CD, who you met in a post just above your last one. He's making it because...um....gee....nobody has quite figured CD out yet. He's good, but he's so far out there nobody can figure out what it is that he's good at. Ah well, he's honest and makes money at it, whatever it is so he's got something right. It will be interesting to see what the copycatters do with his stuff when they figure out what his stuff is. :confused:

This is something I always have in mind before looking for the refund button. I've looked at a lot of IM products over the past 10 years or so. If they fail to show me something I didn't know already they don't get to keep my money.

I know there are some contributors here have recently got me motivated with some WSO's. To those people I'd like to say thank you for not wasting my time, you have earnt my respect, and my dollars.

I'm not saying that some products don't save time, but most people justify WAY too many MMO purchases using this rationale.

Most people already have enough information to execute, but they choose to consume more information anyways. It's not really a hypothetical either, since most people will tell you they don't actually use most of the stuff they buy. So you're..

1) Wasting money buying the product.
2) Wasting time reading the product.
3) Wasting more money because of the opportunity cost of switching gears and reviewing the product.