Are You a Marketer or Are You Just The Target Market?

Have you ever stood back for a minute to ask yourself this question?

If you are new to this forum and Internet Marketing (like me) this message is for us mainly. I have been a lurker at the WF forum for more time then I care to share, and I am very happy that I decided to join in June of this year.

But I came to the realization that I have got this problem that I am sure you and many other newbies just like you will also come across, if you have not already. This problem is vicious, and I believe that it should be dealt with before you go any further in your journey.

There is a saying in a popular poker movie (Rounders) that goes like this "If you can't spot the sucker in the first half hour at the table, then you ARE the sucker."

So are you the sucker?

How long have you been buying product after product?

Now I am not saying this to offend you at all NO, in fact I have the opposite agenda in mind. I want to help you get past this newbie problem that I feel is hindering many newbies including myself. Most importantly help you realize RIGHT NOW that when you come here or any IM site to learn IM, you will fall into one of two categories #1) The Marketer or #2) The Target Market (TM)

Dictionary (dot) com says marketing is -

1. The act of buying or selling in a market.

2. The total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling.

I sum it up as, it is the process of selling goods and/or services to someone who wants or needs them through a medium called a market. Or you could say it's the process of communicating value of something in order to create a desire in someone so they make a purchase.

So the people selling are the marketers and the people buying are the Target Market. The place that brings these two groups of people together is the Market like the WF, amazon, your local mall, Wal-Mart, and any place you shop.

Go take a look at the main page of WF. What do you see? At the time of writing this I see 20,000 active users of which 7700 of them are in the WSO section and around 3500 people in the main internet marketing forum.

Now I am not saying that marketers are not on this forum or others buying and learning stuff just like the TM.

But what I am saying is that this is a market and many marketers are here to sell to the TM (is it you?). They are here to teach you but at the same time many are also promoting a product they want you to purchase, or an action they want you to take just look at the signatures.

The problem I was having was I was thinking I'm going to be an Internet Marketer who makes bucket loads of money when I should have been thinking I am going to be a Business Owner who needs to create a plan and execute that plan.

I am glad that I have now snapped back to reality and started focusing on what will bring me towards what I really want and not just a dream.

So I thought I would come and share this to you in hopes that this post turns into your welder's goggles and lets you get on the path of building a business and sheltering your eyes from all the shiny objects blinding you.

When you decide you want to start building a business you need to realize that you're going to be a business owner who will play the part of internet marketer. But you always are going to be the business owner first, and as many have said in the past, a businesses need a plan.

This week I have finally come to this realization I needed a business plan. It took a long time to sink in even after hearing it from my business school professors, many WF members, friends, and family. But I'm glad it finally did sink in.

Many WF members say stick to your plan and don't let shiny objects slow you down. I am now starting to realize that this is the type of advice I should have been taking all along. But I was blinded by all the big shiny objects flying around.

I had started a thread a while back saying that I am starting my business and I did have full intentions on it, but was sucked into the shiny objects. Not doing anything to further me in making money or building a business. But it finally sunk into my head and this week I started a business plan.

I now see why I was being advised to create a plan, because it's almost like putting on welder's goggles and focusing in on what needs to get done. So at the moment the only thing you see is your plan and vision, just like when a welder is joining two pieces of metal together s/he will only see the spot they are welding.

So far for my business plan I have got 6 pages not including 3 appendixes that include

1- details on my target market like age/sex the size of that target market in U.S and Canada (but I will not know to I test it on my TM)

2- Started my market analysis and overview

3- I have spotted some of my competitors, and started my S.W.O.T analysis.

4- I have started creating my USP (still needs fine tuning)

5- I have decided on a reasonable 1st year sales target and a graph of how many clients I will need to acquire to obtain my goal.

6- I have come up with 7 different types of revenue streams (of which I will NOT be going after all at once) but will gradually build into my business as it grows, and when I believe it can handle it

7- I have started planning how I will get all the work done and how I will grow the business by hiring employees or outsourcing to VA's (because I know I will not be doing everything because I'm not good at everything {like my spelling and grammar in this post})

Now that I have started my business plan, I immediately started to look at this from a business prospective and not an "I want to make lots and lots of money fast" prospective.

Within one week I have seen a big change in my motivation to take action and start seeing this plan come to reality. So now I am finishing my plan and anticipating the results I get from putting it into action.

As my plan is growing, I now not only see that it is possible to make my business work but I also see that this is not something that I am just going to do and see what happens. I am creating sales projections into the businesses 3rd year and saying if I focus on my plan and do this constantly I will have a business that makes $X by year 3.

So now I will be building an asset that will grow larger by the year. I know that I will come into many road blocks but I am willing to roll with the punches but in the end of year 3 I will be very happy if I achieve my business goals.

Now I am not saying don't buy nothing any more, I'm just saying create a business plan 1st and take the advice of a fellow warrior that I think sounds great (and I am sorry but I forget who it was). They said "once you have a plan from which you can take action on, you can go buy the information and/or research it for free; but only purchase what will go with your business plan, and put it to action right after you learn it."

I have read many threads on this forum from respected warriors saying that anyone building a business needs to spend 20% of the time on learning and the other 80% of the time doing.

But I know that can be hard to do when you are being plastered with many product offers all the time. So instead we end up spending 80% of the time learning and the other 20% dreaming and coming up with reasons (other shiny objects) to keep learning. We stay in the category of the TM and remain buyers and not business owners.

So ask yourself, Am I the Marketer or am I the Target?

When you get an answer decide if that's what you want to be.

If you decide you want to be the marketer, become a business owner first, create a plan and market your business.

If you decide your happy being the TM... Warrior Special Offers Forum



Gero C

P.S. This was supposed to be my break time, but I don't know what come over me to write this.