What I've learned about Internet Marketing SO FAR

Let me first give you a little bit of background.

The first internet marketing course I bought was yahoo store profits back in 2004. I then spent the next 6 years spinning my wheels buying this course and that course and not really accomplishing anything.

You want to know who I blame for that.

Well... To be honest with you I want to blame myself but I can’t. Let me explain.

The reason I want to blame myself is because it’s the natural thing to do. I mean we live in a society that stresses personal responsibility but in reality is constantly stacking the deck against us.

For example, the food industry successfully states its case by saying that if people are fat that they need to take personal responsibility for themselves and eat a sensible diet but at the same time they are spending millions to influence our behavior to eat junk food.

I understand it.. It’s just good business but it’s a great harm to society in general.

I can specifically remember exactly what sent me down this internet marketing rabbit hole. In the yahoo store profits book the author said something like “If you want to be successful in this business you need to learn how to do e-mail marketing. I however am not going to teach you that... You need to go check out this other marketer who will show you how to do it. Oh and by the way it’s really easy.”

I then went to this “other marketer” to learn how to do e-mail marketing and he said something like “If you want to be successful in this business you need to learn copywriting. I however am not going to teach you that... You need to check out this other marketer who will show you how to do it and Oh by the way it’s really easy.”

This is really just a shell game to get you to buy from their buddies and make a commission. But hey... “You need to get your head straight and get down to work and stop getting so distracted... Start taking some personal responsibility” they will tell you. “This stuff is really easy... You just need to do it”. All the while THEY are the ones that are distracting you... Incredible.

I don’t know if they are being genuine when they say that they don’t understand why there is a lot of guru hatred out there but they should read some of their own e-mails pimping out their list to some other marketer for a commission if they want to get a good understanding.

I have spent a lot of time getting to know some fellow internet marketers out there recently and you want to know what most of them have in common... They can’t stay focused. They are moving from one system to the next. From one niche to the next. From one guru launch to the next. It’s a real problem. It’s hurting people and it’s f***ed up.

Another issue I see, is that the gurus want you to believe that anyone can do this internet marketing thing. The bald faced truth is that everyone can’t do this and it sure as hell isn’t “EASY”.

If you examine it... Why would it be easy? If it were easy everybody would do it and it would immediately loose it’s value. The second that everyone jumps into an easy solution, that solution gets over saturated and it stops working or someone changes the rules.

For example, a few years ago I came across this scam where I would buy google ads on the search engine and send them to a page with adsense ads where when the visitor would click the ad on my page I would make a commission. I was basically playing the spread and it worked really well for a couple of months. I made a couple grand, it was really cool.

Then overnight Google changed the rules. They started charging me 10 dollars a click and basically shooed me off of their system.

It was too easy... and I was abusing googles system... and they rightfully shut me down.

To get back to my point.. I have met some people recently that have no business starting their own business. To be honest they just don’t have the brain power. I know that sounds bad but I don’t know any other way to put it and I’m not trying to make myself sound like the smartest guy in the world... I mean I fell for all those guru launches and never really did anything about them but some of these people just don’t have it.

As a side note...I absolutely despise Frank Kerns persona. He’s trying to be this dumb ass surfer Bodie dude from point break wanna be... and hey, if he can do it... everyone can. The truth is that Frank is a VERY smart guy who is deliberate in everything he does. It’s horse s*** and he knows it!!

So lesson number one. Internet marketing is NOT easy and EVERYONE can’t do it.

Onward...

So what got me past all that distraction and inaction?

Eben Pagan. One of those guru types that just spent the last couple of pages bashing.

He isn’t quite off the hook because he pimps his list harder than most, but he really figured out how to get me to take action and I owe him big time.

Eben is a NLP practitioner. He is VERY good at identifying beliefs that are holding you back and then coming up with statements that allow you to just blow right past them.

Here are the big ones...

I can’t change myself..........

I can change myself at a fundamental level.

This stuff doesn’t work.........

This system has worked for me and all the people I’ve showed it to to the tune of millions and millions of dollars so the information isn’t on trial here... Your ability to use it and take action is.

I can’t change my circumstances......

You can change your circumstances and in fact here is how you do it.

HERE COMES THE BIG ONE.......

I can’t be successful because nothing I’ve tried in the past has worked......

You were missing a key piece of information... You need to surround yourself with success models if you ever hope to make it.

There is THE secret to getting yourself to take action. You need to surround yourself with people who are taking action in the area of life that you want to achieve.

If you work at a job where everyone has a victim I am stuck in this hole forever mindset then you are going to naturally just follow them. It’s how we’re wired. If all your friends work at a job and think the same thing then it’s going to be even harder for you to escape.

So what to do? Go find some people that are trying to accomplish the same goals that you are. Preferably, also go out and find people who have all ready succeeded. I admittedly haven’t found any of these successful people to hang out with yet but I’m really going to ramp up my efforts here soon.

Now, when you put yourself on the line and commit to someone in front of a group of people that you are going to do something and you are going to do it by such and such a date you WILL follow through. It’s F-ing Magic. It’s called public declaration and it’s VERY powerful.

It’s what essentially got me past all my garbage and allowed me to take action.

Now, I don’t want to discourage you here but there is a problem that you are going to have to overcome when you start hanging out with people who are in the beginning stages with you.

Let me start with a metaphor.

If you are out crab fishing and you catch a crab and put it in a bucket, it will crawl out. Now, if you put two crabs in that bucket, every time one of those crabs tries to crawl out the other crab will pull it down and neither one will be able to escape.

This is what basically happens when you are in a bucket full of newbies.

I belonged to a coaching club where we would all get on a conference line and and ask questions to a coach and he would answer them.

I was starting to see some real success. I sold a few of the books that I wrote and the coach celebrated and congratulated me over the line.

Then a bunch of people I didn’t even know felt inclined to get in touch with me and give me all their “Constructive” criticism and let me know how s***ty of a job they thought that I was doing. Keep in mind that *ALL* of these people didn’t even have a website yet.

Right around this time my mastermind group started to fall apart. I put together this group a few months before and all of the sudden they couldn’t make the meetings. They sometimes didn’t even let me know that they weren’t coming.

Crabs in a bucket... all of them!

They will really get you down if you don’t recognize what’s going on. It’s not really their fault (that was really hard for me to just say because I want to hate them but we are just wired that way). I’m sure that I’ve done the same thing to someone else. But hey... as my good friend captain planet would say “Knowing is half the battle”.

Lesson number two... Surround yourself with like minded people but watch out for the crabs!

Here is the last thing I want to impart to you.

Internet marketing gets really fun when you have a baseline to work with. Let me explain.

I spent a lot of time reading material, listening to audios, and watching videos in the area of internet marketing without really doing anything about it. It sucked.

It wasn’t really any fun. It was intellectual entertainment -yes- but it was really just a lot of self imposed mental anguish and anxiety.

One of the things that I think was holding me back was that I was afraid to take action incase it didn’t work. This would just destroy all of my hopes and dreams so I, at some subconscious level would not allow myself to follow through.

But the cycle I went through for YEARS was to get excited about some new IM course. Dive in for a couple of days or maybe a couple of weeks and then give up without any real idea why. I would then immediately get REALLY depressed. I felt like a real looser for not being able to get myself to take action.

Again, It wasn’t any fun.

Now, when I started taking action and got a blog up and a optin video and wrote a book and came up with a sales letter I now had something to work with.

I could read copywriting books like how to write a good ad and scientific advertising and Influence (not really a copywriting book I know) and I get super excited about what I am learning because I can see where it will help me immediately and then I go put them into practice. It’s freaking awesome.

Final lesson.... Get yourself a baseline to work with and internet marketing actually gets fun.

So where am I today. Well I had some dirtbag bash my work recently and it has stopped me cold in my tracks. Remember those crabs I was talking about. This incident is how I figured out what was going on.

So I’m having to re-focus and re-organize. I’m getting ready to get back on the roller coaster with some exciting new realizations that I know is going to take me over the top.

So I quit that coaching club that I belonged to for two reasons. First I wanted to get away from all those newbies. I don’t think it’s bad to have a few noobs in your circle but I now understand how important it is to have some people who have at least made some money online around. Not gonna find that there.

Second, I came across the realization that I needed to do some serious market research and figure out what my customers really want.

I have created some videos to give to my e-mail subscribers as an optin incentive and I realized that I really have no idea what they want. I mean I know what they NEED because I’ve gone through it but what do they WANT??

The coaching club will not give me the information that I need to figure this out. So I’m going to go use Glen Livingstons system to figure it out.

I also quit that mastermind group that I put together and I’m going to join Perry Marshals mastermind group and also do some more networking. I’m going to purchase a course on networking and I’m going to put it into practice.

All in all I’m super stoked. I’m getting ready to move to a new apartment right now but as soon as I get settled I’m jumping in with full gusto. I can see the next steps that I need to take and I’m going to take them. I’ve proved to myself that I have the ability to take action and actually make a few bucks. I just need to scale this.

So what’s the bottom line for you? Well... I guess if you have been stuck go check out Eben Pagans stuff. It should get you moving but please heed all of my advice. You at some point are going to outgrow step one but at least it will get you moving.

Good Luck!