All This Whining About Lack Of Earnings... Wrong Focus, Maybe?

But these aren't people, remember? They're numbers. If you send enough numbers through your web page, some of those numbers have money and buy stuff.

Anyone who thinks that's how the internet works needs to read Nassim Taleb's The Black Swan.

Hi Michael,

Because they're not doing business online and haven't studied related subjects - they are primarily consumers.

Hi Vadym,

No I don't. There is more than one way to sell - although many (particularly in IM) assume that the method with the highest initial conversion rate is the best.

The Schwab theory above is only focused on conversion. What about the part after conversion, where you need to deliver the goods in order to increase customer retention and build a long lasting relationship/reputation via customer satisfaction?

If you target the most skeptical consumer in the world, you're going to have a particularly hard time retaining them. There's a strong argument for targeting the 'easily converted' instead - would the benefits of this outweigh the benefits of 'convincing those flocks'?

It comes down to your approach - are you going to try and sell something that is hard to sell, perhaps because it doesn't really solve the problem?

Or would you prefer to spend your time creating an exemplary product that requires less 'hard marketing'?

Hi Michael,

It's not an assumption. The default mindset setting for the majority of consumers is the consumer mindset. Most of the influence in the world is designed to condition them as such. Governments (owned and controlled by mass marketers) worldwide spend the majority of their time in this endeavour, and are succeeding.

It's not just 'obvious mental influence' - they use every available resource - for example, there are a myriad of methods to actually physically impregnate peoples' bodies with certain substances that have the effect you desire - whether it be directly implanted, or via the atmosphere, or via food sources - and 1000s of other ways.

The average consumer, when exposed to the theory behind mass marketing and persuasion has epiphanies where they can finally recognise the forces that had previously been surreptitiously acting upon them.

By default, they don't understand all of the influences that are brought to bear upon them continually. If they did, they would never make a conscious decision to go out and purchase a television set for 'entertainment' via broadcast media. By default, they don't recognise the existence of the enemies of their mind.

That's a pretty deep debate, beyond the scope of this discussion. Needless to say, I disagree to an extent, although I would cite the freedom of information available online as a positive radical change for the masses.

Now who's making assumptions Michael? Besides, by being here, you're actually residing precisely in that arena. But like myself, you are proof that it's not all encompassing here, just in the majority.

So it would appear that the crux of the misunderstanding here is that you are assuming that if one is to view marketers as having a different mindset to the consumer populace in general, then one must be looking down the nose at those consumers as it were - perhaps seeing them as a less intelligent lifeform.

Look at my nickname Michael. My whole online ethos is rooted in being the guy who came from consumerism (rat race), fought his way out of it, BUT never forgets where he came from - or those who are still there. And I have about 7500 posts here alluding to that.

Go back to the original post I made here and look at what I was actually responding to -

My web usage and my buying decisions are the exact opposite of the average consumer.

Web usage - They see a website and the end product. I see someone's business. I'm looking to reverse-engineer.

Buying decisions - they focus on WIIFM. I focus on recognising and avoiding hype and persuasion influencing my decisions. I expect it to be there. It's the first thing I recognise in order to avoid it and actually establish what's behind the marketing.

I have studied marketing and persuasion. The average consumer hasn't. Our approaches are diametrically opposed. I think the masses need to study these things. There is no wealth as valuable as a free mind.