In the last few months there has been an explosive proliferation of all manner of Make Money Online / Make Money at Home / MLM / Direct Sales opportunities.
Business opportunity fervor is visible in the requests for media interviews that I get; just a couple of weeks ago I was conversing with a reporter from the Washington Post about this very topic. It’s plainly visible on Twitter and in the blogosphere; we’re seeing it in our blog comments and the kinds of new customers we’re getting. It’s a sea change that’s resulted from the current economic climate.
Everybody is jumping in with both feet. But many people are AFRAID. And justifiably so. There are some very important things that all such people need to be mindful of. Especially beginners.
If I wanted to make a bunch of money I’d just shamelessly pander to this trend, and tell everyone how easy it is to make money online.
Those of you who know me know, it ain’t so simple. I’ve been burned before, so my caution lights go on. I want people to know what they’re getting into. Today, my thoughts about what separates the good from the bad in the biz-op world. And what it really takes to build a viable online business.
A web-based business you can run from home is the white picket fence of the 21st century. It’s hard to think of a more desirable asset. Allows the young mom to be at home with her kids and be able to manage interruptions (since email is less urgent than phone calls); allows you to travel, to live where you want, do business wherever you are. From hotels or beaches or cybercafes.
And it’s not like this is some remote fantasy. There are hundreds of thousands of people who make a respectable living online.
So let’s talk about the pitfalls:
- Online marketing as a profession is 10-12 years old, and furthermore, it’s based on Direct Marketing principles that are 125 years old. It’s just as deep as engineering or accounting or law.
- However, it can be made to appear a lot easier than it actually is. (Just like flipping houses or anything else on late night TV.)
- The public school education system conditions you to believe that success comes from “staying on track” with a plan or a program and being “at least as good” as everybody else.
- Most “business in a box” opportunities cater to #2 and #3.
- In marketing, the truth is: Conformity is death. In marketing, success comes from doing something distinctively different. It means “staying on track” with your customers but marching to a different drum than your competitors.
- Most “business in a box” opportunities blatantly ignore #5, and in fact pretend that it doesn’t exist.
- The best way I know of to describe “staying on track” with your customers is: Making a commitment that you are going to only try to market to people for whom you could literally write a page of their diary; and they’d say “Wow, how did you know that about me?”
It’s that psychic connection. If I had to name the most elusive yet most critical ingredient of marketing success, that is it, right there: Being able to write a page in your customer’s diary.
Now what’s cool about online marketing is, there are literally a million niches. There is nothing on earth that caters to your unique individuality like the Internet. There are few things I admire more than a person who has found his or her singular voice on the Internet and finds joy in expressing it.
Which means if you’re trying to figure out what to do online, the first question you need to address is:
What markets do you know so well that you could write a page of their diary?
A few weeks ago I wrote a post called “Memo to a Pink Koolaid Drinker” where a very frustrated woman from New York City asked me what she could do to get her business to finally work. I gave her some candid advice including a self-inventory that I think is a MUST for all marketers, successful or not.
Also, a couple of years ago I got a delicious rant from a Roundtable Member (read: NOT a beginner, actually was the owner of a fast-growing, multi-million dollar company) who was frustrated at all the people selling all advice and no results. Interestingly, the #1 recommendation I had for him was to perform some un-glamorous surveys and market research. Make sure there’s water in the swimming pool before you dive in.
For anyone who does not yet have a genuinely successful online business up and running – and even some who do – I heartily recommend Glenn Livingston and Terry Dean’s A-Z blueprint system. I think it’s underpriced and it’s got 10X more meat than most other systems that claim to teach you everything you need to know.
It’s also probably not as exciting and glamorous as those systems. It’s probably like that old movie The Karate Kid where the Kid spends the first half of the movie “Painting the Fence” for Mr. Miyagi.
But it works. You can download it and make it your “bible” and sole focus for the next 6 months, a guideline for everything you do. And as far as I’m concerned you can un-subscribe from everybody else who does not deliver meaty, actionable advice in the emails they send to you every week.
I’ve gotten a slew of questions, worries and gripes about this, from beginners who are clearly very nervous. Let me share some with you:
Perry,
I just don’t get it. I have been in this spiral of hype from you and [marketer X] and [marketer Y] which seems to have you all in simply an endless trail of “buy this now that you’ve done that” mode. And now this product your promoting (AdWords Technique: 7% to 20% CTR, Overnight) that sounds, of course, like something I’ve gotta have…you’ve done an absolutely stellar job of hyping it. BUT under your Terms and Agreement is this paragraph:
“Links to Third Party Websites.
We may provide links to web pages which are not part of the our web family. These sites are not under our control and we are not responsible for the information or links you may find there. We are providing these links only as a convenience. The presence of these links on any of our websites is not intended to imply our endorsement of that site but to provide a convenient link to relevant sites which are managed by other organizations, companies, or individuals. Accordingly, this Agreement does not apply to your use of unaffiliated sites to which this site only provides links.”
And this tells me basically that you are only blowing smoke. I’m very disappointed in this path that I’ve been led down. So, what you are telling me with this paragraph is that you are only promoting this product so that you can make more money. Right? In essence, “buyer be ware”.
Perry, I simply want to make an honest income for my family. I’ve got 3 young sons and have been desiring a home-based business that gives my the kind of money we need to live the way we choose while working for myself. Yes, I’m willing to work at it.
I thought I found it, then it wasn’t what was pitched, so I bought more stuff that I was told I needed, then I thought I had it, but I’m really still in the learning curve because it keeps getting more and more involved with what I need to buy next, thanks to all you great promoters. And so far it seems I’ve been led down a road of simply promoting other people’s info on how to make money, which promote other people’s info on how to make money, which (and on and on).
Can you please just help me make an honest living for my family without leading me down a seemingly endless hole of “how-to’s” and “must-have’s”?
I would be immensely grateful,
Wendy
Wendy, about the disclaimer: Our site has all kinds of links to all kinds of places. Not to mention blog comments that have links to the commentors’ sites. We cannot conceivably take any legal responsibility for what all those people do.
What I can tell you is that Howie and Glenn and Terry are among the most conscientious people I know and they’ll deliver a competent product, hassle free. If there is a problem they’ll address it. Most of all they will not saddle you with an endless hole of how-to’s and must-haves.
Glenn has some fabulous free material at www.LivingstonReport.com. Check out Howie’s materials at www.askhowie.com.
Also, Wendy, read “Memo to a Pink Koolaid Drinker” and hear my opinion of people who teach you to make money by teaching you to teach other people how to make money, etc.
Finally, notice how often it is that when I get questions like this, I direct people to do market research. I think Howie and Glenn’s Checkmate system is a really easy to use, highly effective way to find out – in an hour or two – where your competitors in AdWords are falling short.
I’ve never seen a market, however competitive, that did not have holes in it. No fortress is impenetrable.
But in any case, pick battles you can win. Sell to people for whom you can write a page in their diary. Never jump into a market you know nothing about, based on a promise of easy winnings. You’ll get slaughtered.
Here’s another:
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About the Author
Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.
He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.
20 Comments on “"Make Money Online": Fear / Enthusiasm / Hope / Uncertainty”
It’s actually very complicated in this active life to listen news on TV, thus I simply use internet for that reason, and get the most recent information.
Hi Perry,
First of all best wishes for a happy B’day. I love your writing and keep your newsletters.
I do understand what you say and write but find it difficult to implement with my limited knowledge.
You are right, there must be a reason and that reason will itself guarantee survival of a business or plan.
Nic,
Yes, I think you’re missing a trick. Which is: Build an email list.
Email is the engine of modern civilization. There is no substitute.
I said the same thing to a High School friend who is now a successful novelist. An email list is 10X more powerful than a blog or Facebook page or whatever. You should build it by any means possible.
If you can turn the email list content into an extension of the book, an Autoresponder series that takes rabbit trails and forks that you didn’t have room for in the book, so readers have more reason to read.
I suspect you could also spin off paid events and paid self-published content from this. If you sell 50 copies of a $20 ebook, that’s a thousand bucks. More than most authors make in royalties in a year.
I confessed to my HS friend, I have little experience working with non-fiction authors, artists and musicians. No huge success stories to brag about *that I know of.*
But one thing I do know is, an online relationship is an online relationship. Fiction or non-fiction, makes no difference. Build yourself an email list of rabid fans. You can write to your fans in a personal tone via email, such as you cannot do any other way.
If you had a whole “maze” of Autoresponders (the kind of maze I talk about in http://www.perrymarshall.com/invisible-streams ) that took readers into a year-long journey, maybe even the backstory of your book, I think you could build up all kinds of referrals and buzz. People get the story in installments – by chinese water torture.
Trade published books credentialize you. That’s good for media exposure. Makes you “Official.” Congrats on your Amazon book.
But your website and your self published materials are how you actually make money. That’s why I have two books in the bookstores but more than 90% of my material is self published.
Perry
Hi Perry, enjoy your emails on online marketing. But I have a question for you.
I’m a writer. I have a novel – a page-turning thriller – on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com etc. But no presence offline. I’m advertising on googleads, facebook and aol. i’m a sr copywriter, so i write fairly good copy and i have a fairly good understanding of the power of keywords. i average about 6 clicks a day per ad. The thing is i don’t have my own website – my direct link is my page on amazon.
Do you think i’m missing a trick here? Or, given the nature of the product, do you reckon i’m doing pretty much all I can to broaden my readership without going bust in the process?
Best
Nic Penrake
I am trying to build a freelance design service and it seems so hard to get customers to the site. But with a lot of effort, I will, coz I am determined!
Perry, I can identify with the frustrations and concerns of the people you refer to in your article.I started to establish my internet business with the same hopes and dreams they had. I believed everything I read and heard and then found out that most of it wasn’t true. I also felt cheated and betrayed. But I do know there are good people out there doing good things and who have ideas and information that would be very helpful to me. Finding them is the challenge. What I do now is I follow for a while people who seem to have something good to offer. I don’t put out any money. I read and listen to everything they are doing and saying that is free. If it is consistently good and helpful then I buy something from them. It may not be their top product but it is a step up from the free stuff. If that is helpful, then I go the next step and spend more money with them. That way I am taking responsibility for my own learning and development. I did that with your stuff and I’ve written previously to you about that.
This post as a response to one of Perry’s Tweets:
Hi John,
I too am newbie and information junkie, and found that I was easily overwhelmed by the deluge of “how to” information/pitches coming to my inbox from multiple sources as a result of signing up for a free “this” or “that” related to learning internet marketing and making money online.
I had to begin to be selective about who I listened to. Then I had to shift from “reading about doing” to “doing”.
As Perry says in his August 2007 MM call on copywriting, “You have to start somewhere.”
So I just had to start *somewhere*, and get my hands dirty making digital stuff, assembling my systems.
And I know my stuff isn’t going to be perfect right out of the gate. What makes a product good is the iterative process of incremental change over time i.e., constant “tweaking” over time. I got this from Perry.
I had to choose my strategy for making money online, choose my tools, then begin to create my info products (whitepapers), video emails, and websites/content.
I’m on a shoestring budget so I do all this myself.
I decided that I’m only going to listen to Perry and Glenn Livingston. I haven’t even worked through all the stuff I have from them yet but I had to get started, and gave myself a specific window of time.
So I make progress every day but it’s not all going to be done overnight and it certainly isn’t going to be perfect.
I decided my strategy would be to give away an information product in exchange for contact info so that I could ultimately sell a software package (Perry’s Whitepaper Strategy).
My tools: I use Infusionsoft and jiveSYSTEMS for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and video email followup. They both have forums that are a wealth of information so at this point, between the forums, Perry and Glenn, I’ve got my information limit.
I’ll also be scheduling Tweets on Twitter using TweetLater and HootSuite.
So I limit myself to these information sources, and I don’t use them as a distraction for getting things done.
Oh yeah, and I’ve found Mark Joyner’s Simple-ology site helpful (simpleology.com) to add a little structure to my self-employed workday, and also the cult of done
(http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-manifesto.html)
to keep me moving in the right direction.
Hope this helps,
Jim de Geus
Perry, I just wanted to thank you for your great newsletter. You are the guy that sends the most, but the only ones I really read. Great job…keep killing it.
Nathan
I have to agree that online marketing seems like a fad, and an easy band wagon to jump on, but it does have its quirks. It is like any other business where you must do what business owners do, find your niche, stand out in some unique way, and be prepared for some challenges along the way.
To John Pearson –
Are you already selling things or are you wanting to get started?
In my entrepreneurial journey, the times where I had the exact question you have was when I had no clear idea of where, how, and even what I wanted to sell.
What do you want to sell? And more importantly, who are you trying to sell it to?
In any case, I would refer you to this “Strategies and Operations” guide provided by Clate Mask – President of Infusion Software.
You can find it here: http://tinyurl.com/cmmrey
In a nutshell – you structure your business from the top down using this pattern:
* Strategic Intent — the long-term (10 years or so) stated intention of the business
* Primary Objective — the quantification of the accomplishment of the Strategic Intent. (this can be a certain number of clients, or a certain amount of monthly income, or certain market share. i.e. measurable objectives that when accomplished will allow you to say “I did it!”)
* Strategies — the 3 – 5 top available resources or competencies your company POSSESSES NOW that can be leveraged, capitalized or exploited to create a sustainable competitive advantage. (Here’s where it falls apart for most people. They’re selling things they don’t know that much about – i.e. no competencies – to people they don’t know anything about – i.e. no resources.)
* Annual Priorities — the top 5 or six things your company will do in a calendar year, based on the Strategies, that will propel the company toward the accomplishment of the Strategic Intent and Primary Objective
* Quarterly Tactical Operating Priorities (TOPs) — the top 5 or 6 priorities for the quarter that, when accomplished, will further the accomplishment of the Annual Priorities.
* SMARTs — the Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant Time-bound tasks that must be done during the quarter to accomplish the TOPs. Each SMART must have an owner and a deadline.
A quick story – I just went to a marketing conference last week and met a guy by chance. We got talking about his business which was very interesting to me. I told him I’d like to share some information with him that I thought he’d like.
I went home that night, took the info he shared with me and plugged it in to this exact formula. I didn’t have every detail. I just filled in the wholes with smart guesses/suggestions. I returned for day 2 of the conference and gave it to him.
A week after the conference, I’m going to go in to business with the guy and it looks very likely that the venture will be profitable for years to come.
Here’s the key – why was I interested in this guy’s business? Three simple reasons:
1) He has something very unique to offer
2) He knows the people he’s offering it to very intimately
3) The number of people who want what he has to offer is large enough for us to realistically achieve the Strategic Intent I created for him.
He had been spinning his wheels pretty much for the last two years. Now the future is very clear and organized. He didn’t have a Strategic Intent or Primary Objective before. Now he does. You should too. Everyone should.
Why don’t they? It’s not lack of time or lack of organization. It’s because the process reveals the real “inconvenient truth” – that 80% of people can’t finish this exercise without completely re-thinking, re-doing, or straight up starting over in their business. And of course, most people don’t want to admit to that.
Also, go back and get your hands on Perry’s Marketing Letter titled “Every Mistake in the Book, Blow by Blow”. It’s Volume 7, Issue 8. If you don’t have it, pester Perry and his customer service team until they give in to your will. You need it.
Here’s one of the more instructive bits from that newsletter:
“The simplest way to sell something is to find somebody who’s got a problem that they desperately want solved. Then guarantee them that you can solve it.”
If I were making a top ten list of how to make money right now – that would be number 1.
Good Luck
Nick
P.S. Of course, for those who find this Strategy and Operations exercise to be too difficult, they can always take comfort in this Deep Thought from our good friend Jack Handy
http://www.deepthoughtsbyjackhandey.com/media/031.swf
:)
Hi,
I enjoy reading your post, because they are so truthful. Receiving the truth from an Internet Marketer is a rare thing on line. I’m tired of deleting emails daily of the same marketers trying to sell you a different product. I’ve come to the point if they are sending sales emails on a daily basis. I decided to unsubscribe from their list. It’s difficult to build my business because I spend so much time deleting crap from my email box. I dont’t read get rich fast or it’s easy information that’s an automatic delete because I know it’s not easy or fast. Once againg thanks for the honesty.
Hi
I am so busy reading e mails and taking notes from DVD’s I seem to be lost in the Cyber Forest.
Some good advice i would really appreciate
would be a list of say 1-10 things i should do in sequence to literally get me out of the woods and into some action.
From- “my name is John and i am an information addict” “Hello John”
I know this is treading on the holy ground of free advice. But i am sure there are others who would find this very usefull.
Many Thanks
JOHN
I have Terry and Glenn’s system and I would say it’s not just for beginners. I make $25k per month online and I even learned things from them that no one else is teaching.
And anyone who’s been around internet marketing and researched Terry Dean or Glenn Livingston should know these guys aren’t like the rest.
In fact, just read the headline on their sales page and you’ll understand. They probably ticked off a lot of these gurus launching $2000 courses every week (and lost a lot of joint venture opportunities.) But they’d rather tell the truth about making money online.
I am trying to build up a customer base for an online children’s store. I can find a lot of advise for a marketing business but not a lot for this kind of endeavor. I would certainly appreciate any help or advise.
Perry,
Thanks for addressing these questions. I too have experienced the pitch and buy fatique described. What some people don’t experience is the doing fatique. It reminds me of your simple yet true comment; ‘find out out to make one dollar and do more of that’ simply profound. What I’ve done is to commit one hour of doing for every hour of learning.
Keep up the good work.
Dave
Fear / Enthusiasm / Hope / Uncertainty ….
YES, these are actually the feeling that we have when we start our business on the internet…
Many schemes and opportunity are available out there make us full of Hope and Enthusiasm, but at the other side we feel Fear & Uncertainty of the truth of ‘making money online’ schemes…
Don’t ya think so fellows?
Regards,
Lemy
AutopilotProfitsIncome.com
Your advice makes perfect sense. I’ve been studying the net for years and realized one important thing. Focus on one tactic and stick to it for the next few months. As a beginner, I bought your friend’s Chris Carpenter’s course and loving it. But I do know it will take months and some serious effort before I can actually make a living even just on the beginners level.
Awesome insights Perry and will be one of your proteges soon :-)
Hi Perry
Another great post. As a beginner I too suffer from the overload of information all promising riches. I have found if you take one system that you like and feels right and stick with it for a few months you start to see results.
For me the problems start when I jump around to different tactics without spending enough time to truely learn and use one system.
Thanks again.
For #1, the internet maybe 10 or 12 years old, and online marketing may have started on day one. But it’s hard to say it’s as deep as medicine or engineering. Those fields have been around much long and have establishes practices. You know the best way from point A to point B. For example, if you want to be a doctor, start by attending a medical school.
I think what makes internet marketing difficult is there is no establish best practices. The internet changes so fast what worked a couple years back no longer works. Remember when you could have adwords ads with direct links to the affiliate link, or use traffic hurricane websites? Doctors wouldn’t get very far if the prescriptions that worked a couple years ago no longer worked.
That said, I love your #7 comment.
Hey Perry,
I just wanted to post on here to voice my support. I’ve spent thousands and thousands on marketing information, coaching programs, and more. And 90% of it is crap, you’re one of the only marketing guru’s I now trust because you said the missing piece to my puzzle. Testing, no one else says it the way you do, and everyone else is just paying it lip service. Market research is the way to go into a market to make sure you make money from out of the gate whether that be the 3 Magic Questions (you’ve talked about in your R-Club, which I use) or Taguchi (in your M-Club, which I also use). In future, you’ll still be the only marketer I listen to, because you will talk yourself out of a job (as your Robin to your Batman says, Bryan Todd). You gotta love honesty, and there’s not a lot of it running around out there.