5 Reasons Why Most Internet Marketers Fail
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009

When it comes to starting any endeavor, whether it be
learning a new hobby or starting an online business, we all
have to start at ground zero. We all have to start at the
very beginning from the very same place. Granted, we each
bring different skills and backgrounds into the mix, but
for the most part we are all on equal footing at the
starting line.

If this is the case, then we really have to ponder why is
it only a choice few go on to succeed, while most people
don't. Just what are the reasons why most online marketers
fail? This is the core question that has to be answered if
you want to fully understand Internet marketing and how it
works.

What are these basic reasons?

What are the causes or stumbling blocks that hold many
marketers and webmasters from reaching their full online
potential? If we know these factors, we can learn how to
avoid them and even overcome them in our own online
marketing. These reasons can be a solid reference point or
even a source of inspiration for any online marketer just
starting out.

Speaking from the viewpoint of someone who has started from
the very beginning with little to no knowledge of computers
or even marketing for that matter, I can honestly relate to
the beginning marketer. I even had to learn HTML from
scratch in order to construct my own webpages. Probably my
only advantage, I did have a background in art but
designing webpages was completely different from anything I
had done previously to starting in online marketing.

But from my own experiences I have drawn some general
conclusions about Internet marketing and why some people
succeed while most people fail. So here in my honest
opinion, are some of the main reasons why many online
marketers fail:

1. Overwhelmed With Information

Perhaps, one of the biggest obstacles I faced when I first
started my website - I was bombarded with so much
information on how to proceed I didn't have a clue which
direction to take or who to believe. Thousands of different
info products telling you to do this, not to do that... so
much marketing information to absorb that you end up
scratching your head and looking like someone auditioning
for a zombie movie.

Completely overwhelmed with so much information, many
marketers or webmasters enter a state of paralysis where
nothing gets done. You go from one course to another or
from one method to another, without any real understanding
of how to proceed or how to get a detailed blueprint to
follow.

Information overflow can effectively crush all that novice
enthusiasm and literally kill even the most eager of
entrepreneurs. Anyone starting out must be aware of this
obvious but insidious pitfall you have to avoid at all
costs. One of the best remedies, simply try concentrating
on just one or two marketing plans/marketers for all your
information. Try to eliminate the clutter by just working
on one marketing system. Just have a few key marketing
resources you go to for information, not a hundred! And do
your homework, only pick marketers who can back up their
claims with observable results on the web. One obvious
checkmark - just see if those marketers have top rankings
for their sites for popular profitable keywords associated
with their sites or products.

2. Lack Of Key Marketing Basics

There are some key marketing basics or fundamentals you
must learn about marketing online. Internet marketing has
some key elements you must get right or you will have a
difficult task in succeeding on the web. Just simple
factors you must get right or it's game over before you
even get started.

Most marketers fail to realize the web is "information
driven" and you must supply quality information or content
in order to truly succeed. You must provide a valuable
service or function to your visitors. You must help solve
their problem. You must give them a solid reason to use
your site or product. Quality content is and always will be
King on the web.

You must also understand much of the web is "keyword
driven" and you must construct your webpages to take full
advantage of these keywords. You must have at least a
rudimentary understanding of SEO (Search Engine
Optimization) and how you can use it to get top rankings
for your keyword phrases.

3. Lack Of Time And Resources

Another major reason why many marketers fail is because
they simply can't afford the time to learn and build their
online business. Most people just can't stop everything and
work full time online because they have bills to pay and
families to support. It may take months, probably years,
before you can build up a successful online business that
gives you a comfortable living. The average person just
doesn't have the time or the resources to spend months
learning how all this works.

Keep in mind, getting a business or website going is
probably the most inexpensive way to start your own
business. Domains are cheap. Web hosting is cheap. Web
design is cheap if you can do it yourself... Compared to
starting a business in the "real" world, creating an online
business will only cost a faction of the normal expenses
connected with starting a business. But the main problem is
having the resources to pay your living expenses until your
online business is profitable. Many beginning online
marketers don't have these resources and the main complaint
from these marketers: "I Simply can't afford the time to
work at this online stuff."

One solution is to work at your online marketing in your
spare time and gradually build up your business until you
can afford to do it full time. It will obviously take
longer but you can still get to the same end goal.

4. Lack Of Necessary Skills

Actually, you don't need many skills to succeed online.
However, one of the major skills you must have or you must
learn is communication. You must learn how to communicate.
The web is all about communicating your points to your
visitors or viewers so you must acquire good communication
skills.

It really helps your marketing if you are a good writer
because you can easily get your points across with written
text or copy on your site. Writing skills can be learned
but many beginning marketers don't fully understand how
important their writing skills will be to their success.
You must be able to communicate on your site, in your
newsletters, with your customers... might sound a bit
obvious but you would be surprised at how many marketers
lack this simple, yet necessary skill.

But don't fret, because once upon a time, the written word
was king online - but not any more. Videos are rapidly
taking the place of the printed word so anyone with a
camera can now be a success online. Of course, you still
need good communication skills even using videos, but many
marketers have found this is a much easier way to
communicate information about their site or product.

5. Lack Of Persistence

For me, one the most significant reasons most online
marketers/webmasters fail, is because of a lack of
persistence. They simply give up too soon. They try
something for a few weeks, even for a few months and then
they conclude this is not working and they give up.

Building a solid online business or viable website takes
time, a lot of time. Just because your business is online,
doesn't mean everything will fall into place overnight, it
takes time to establish a customer base. It takes time to
build your business relationships with others in your field.

Sometimes, it may take years before you see some solid
returns. It was three years before I saw any significant
revenue coming from my online ventures, and another year
before I could summon enough courage to do this online
marketing full time. If I had given up and not persisted at
this web stuff, I would not be writing this article right
now.

Building top rankings for your keywords in the search
engines (especially Google) can take months, even years
before you see any results. The real key is to be
persistent and keep at it, day after day, until you get
those top rankings. You simply must be persistent or you
will fail.

In conclusion, having said all that, you must also realize
there are plenty of exceptions to all of the above. There
have been countless success stories on the web where
someone has come up with a novel idea or product and become
successful overnight. The web can offer immediate success
for some, but for most of us, it will take some time and
hard effort on our part to build a successful online
business. Just try to avoid many of the pitfalls or reasons
listed above and you will have a better chance of placing
yourself in the success column.
===========================================================
The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous
websites. For the latest web marketing tools try:
http://www.bizwaremagic.com .
If you liked the article above, why not try this Free 7 Day
Marketing Course here: http://www.marketingtoolguide.com
2009 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed
if this resource box stays attached.
===========================================================

Multiply Your Marketing Like a Virus
By Michel Fortin (c) 2009

In today's Internet, conversations are cropping up all over
the place. People are talking. They are talking about
products. They are talking about businesses. And they are
certainly talking about their experiences.

When you look at how blogs, forums and social networking
sites have exploded in the last few years, you can see how
powerful word-of-mouth is. But the question is, is it all
really important? Can it really help your business?

Yes.

And I'm not talking about traffic. And you don't need to be
controversial, either. I'm talking creating systems to
leverage, manage and profit from the "buzz."

Word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful lead and business
generation processes there is. Online, some people call it
"word-of-mouse." But we know it more as viral marketing.

Viral marketing is the process of implementing means or
tools through which the knowledge of your existence self-
propagates. Like a virus, your visibility spreads throughout
a network of people who refer you to each other.

Notwithstanding the power of backlinking, traffic and SEO,
viral marketing is key for a number of reasons. Success in
the offline world is "location, location, location." The
Internet is no different. Your success depends highly on the
number of locations you appear online - places on which your
site, link, company or product name exist.

In essence, to expand your reach, you need to be in as many
places as possible, talked about by as many people as
possible and be in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

With viral marketing, there are three ways of doing it:

Create content
Create applications
Create systems

The first is self-explanatory. Your content may be
controversial or buzzworthy. It may create raging fans - or
enraged enemies.

The second is simple: you create an application - whether
it's a video, audio, file, software, document, etc - that
people can pass around, and thus proliferates the knowledge
of your existence on the web through other people's efforts.

I might write about these two at a later time. But for now,
the one on which I want to focus is the third: creating a
system.

Before I give you some examples, let me explain why word-of-
mouth works wonders. Those who get to know you or to know
about you through a third party grant you a higher level of
confidence, credibility and loyalty. According to Dr. Robert
Cialdini in his amazing book, "Influence: The Psychology of
Persuasion," this is social proof in action.

Remember a dictum a mentor of mine once told me, which is:
"Implication is far more powerful than specification." In
other words, if you tell people you're the best, that you're
the leader in your field, or that your product is the best
solution to their needs, your self-serving promotional bias
makes it all suspect.

However, if someone other than you - whether it's on a blog,
in an email, on a social networking site or in person - says
to another that you are indeed the best or that you do have
the best solution to their problems, how much more
believable will that person's statement be? How much more
credible and trustworthy?

The answer is "definitely more."

Accordingly, word-of-mouth is not only important because it
creates an awareness of your business (let alone traffic),
but also it is important to the degree to which third party
marketing indirectly communicates greater credibility,
superiority and value of the products or services you offer.

In his book "The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding," Al Ries
stresses the importance of leadership and how that
leadership is communicated.

According to Ries, people never buy the best - they only
think they do. They usually buy the leader (or what they
perceive as being the best). And that perception is often
molded by what they are told and by what others do, not by
what is fact or by what is being advertised.

Coke, for example, outsells Pepsi. But according to Ries,
taste tests reveal that Pepsi is the better tasting brand.
So, why does Coke still beat Pepsi in sales? It is not
because it is the leader in the marketplace or promoted
itself as such but because it is known as the leader. And
the reason it is known as the leader is because Coke was the
first cola "in the mind" of the marketplace.

It is the one most talked about, even to this day. When a
person is introduced to cola for the first time, they are
often told to try Coke. Restaurant patrons still ask for
"coke," even when Pepsi is the only cola served. Why is
that? While other colas are bombarding them with marketing
messages, people have heard of Coke first, and most likely
from other people.

Consequently, if people hear about you from other people,
and not some advertisement or pitch, this social proof will
create not only a certain buzzworthiness about you but also
an almost instant trustworthiness.

How do you do that? The most significant method is to be the
first. If your business or website is unique, focuses on a
niche or is the first in some category, the knowledge of
your existence will spread quite naturally, almost like
wildfire. It becomes viral in and of itself, in other words.

Now, I'm not saying you need to be new. I'm only saying you
need to be unique. Or better yet, you need to be the first.
Whether it's catering an existing product to a new niche, or
adding a new twist to an existing product, you become the
first.

I said it before: don't be the best, be the first. But more
important, as Ries pointed out, "Don't be the first in the
marketplace, be the first in the MIND of the marketplace."

That said, there are ways to use systems that will leverage
the spreading of that message, on the other hand, which
helps to multiply your marketing punch. Such systems both
simulate and stimulate word-of-mouth advertising.

Networking systems, for example, include strategic marketing
alliances, joint ventures, and affiliate programs. And
unlike the more traditional traffic generators such as ads
and search engines, these specific tools are much more
effective since they are used by third parties and not by
the original advertiser.

===

In these cases, people don't find you. They are told where
you are because someone told them about you - especially if
that "someone" is a person whose opinion they value.

If you received a call, letter or email from someone you
know (and especially trust) referring you to a particular
company, how much more credible will that referral be when
compared to a blatant advertisement coming from the company
itself?

You got it. A lot more.

When we think of viruses, we remember when "Melissa" and "I
Love You" hit the scene in the late 90s and early 2000s. No,
they weren't some kind of adult-oriented websites, but
computer viruses (or is that virii?).

But here's why they were so effective: the devious (or
perhaps even brilliant) way these viruses worked was that,
after opening the email attachment, it sent more virus-
infected emails to the first fifty people in your address
book without your knowledge.

While we are bombarded with spam and phishing attempts, and
anti-virus warnings telling us to never open an attachment
from an unknown person, how can we resist doing so when the
email apparently comes from someone we actually do know
(since the virus uses address books to multiply itself and
even personalizes the email with that person's name)?

We can certainly learn the way viruses work - and, in the
same way, apply that process to online marketing.

How? Remember that good ol' fashion process called
"networking"? According to Jill Griffin's wonderful book
"Customer Loyalty: How to Earn it, How to Keep it," we are
more open, trusting and loyal when doing business with or
being marketed by people we know - and we certainly refer
them to others more often as well.

Networking grants you the ability to reach corners untapped
- areas that would have been unreachable otherwise. I
personally don't advocate traditional networking (the
simple, "I'm open for business" kind) because, in my
experience, it hasn't brought me anything substantial in
return. While it can be a fantastic marketing tool, the way
in which networking is conducted is often the reason why it
does not produce any favorable results.

When you're only networking, more often than not people will
want something in return - otherwise, they will lose
interest or stop sending referrals if you don't take the
time to recognize their efforts. A way to consistently
reward others is to turn your networking efforts into
systems - in other words, to develop strategic marketing
alliances.

There are many ways to accomplish this. But the most
effective forms of networking are those that are
systematized.

A traditional network is one in which qualified leads that
you can both share, or information about each other that is
promoted to each other's market, clientele or subscribers.
This way, you can effectively cross-promote or share markets
with each other. As long as your alliance logically shares a
same target market but without directly competing with you,
it could be potentially rewarding.

On the Internet, this technique is one in which a
systematized method of cross-promotion between you and your
alliance through a unique, joint marketing effort is
created. It is also often referred to as a "joint venture."

For example, this includes the coupling of complementary
products or services in a single offer that's exclusively
marketed to each other's market. While different, these
offers are combined and marketed under the banner of a
single promotion.

Whose product or offer can you bundle with yours to create
an entirely new and distinct package?

In its simplest form, if your alliance sells a product to a
market that matches yours, they can add to their offer
additional products, services or bonuses from you, which may
include an exclusive special offer for one of your products
as an upsell.

But the best method I've found is when you create an
entirely distinct product with those from two or more
strategic alliances, amalgamating existing products from all
companies into a single offer that's sold simultaneously
from your partners' sites.

For example, you sell cookware online. You can easily team
up with a publisher specializing in cookbooks and throw a
book in the mix. While you raise the price and split the
profits with the publisher, you instantly raise the
perceived value of the cookware through a co-branded
approach or a combined package of non-competing products or
services.

Best of all, each of you market the "new" product separately
while sharing in each other's traffic, market, lead-base and
referral-sources (i.e., your own respective networks,
including affiliates, "fans" and even suppliers) - thus
doubling the reach with the same marketing effort.

If they have their own distinct affiliate program, network
of affiliates and fan base, including their own blogs for
instance, they can leverage the knowledge of your existence
quite rapidly. And vice versa.

Ultimately, by leveraging the efforts of others you not only
propagate the knowledge of your existence on the web, but
also you create trust and credibility. And if you cater to a
new market, or offer a new product by taking an existing
product and giving it a new twist, you also give yourself an
extra dose of buzzworthiness, too.
===========================================================
Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, marketing
strategy consultant, and instrumental in some of the most
lucrative online businesses and wildly successful marketing
campaigns to ever hit the web. For more articles like this
one, please visit his blog at http://www.michelfortin.com/
and subscribe to his RSS feed.
===========================================================

Blog Flipping: 10 Important Factors When Selling Your Weblog Or Website
By Chuck Crawford © 2009

The market for blogs has exploded. Many companies do not want
to invest the time in developing a blog in their respective
niche, which has given rise to a whole new cottage industry,
blog flipping.

Blog flipping is done in a few different ways. Some flippers
buy an existing blog that has potential, but is not currently
producing. They take that blog and build the traffic and sales
up to a level productive enough to reap a profit from their
investment, and then sell it.

Or, more common in today's blog flipping market, is to research
a specific niche, develop a domain / blog, and then sell it.

But what does "developed" really mean? It depends on the
flipper. So buyers really need to do their homework (read due
diligence) before investing in an "established" blog or website.
Because "established" is in the eyes of the beholder, and means
many different things depending upon who you consult.

In my opinion, established means that the site, or blog, is
profitable. Now profitable can be defined very differently for
different companies. It doesn't mean that the site has to be
making money, though it does help justify the investment when
purchasing the blog. It can mean to a prospective company only
that the site has traffic that company believes it can convert
into sales. Not everyone can convert website traffic in the same
way. So there are companies out there looking to buy blogs that
have a certain, specific reader demographic that fits their
market. However, these types of sales are few and far between.
Companies that are buying blogs normally want to see one thing.

Profit.

Not just income, because a blog's gross monthly income and it's
actual profit margin can be two very different things as well.
We've all seen the advertisements screaming that you can make
ten thousand dollars a month blogging, or with Adsense, or
whatever. But the part usually left out is the investment it
takes to get that income. Sometimes the cost is far greater than
the income, making the blog or website a LOSER.

So what steps should you take to sell your blog if you are a
would be website flipper? Here are a few factors your blog or
website should have in order to get top dollar:

1. Real Web Property

Your blog needs to be a real web property. What I mean by this
is that it needs to be a real domain, on hosting you are paying
for. Free hosted blogs are not a viable investment for most
companies and corporations. There are exceptions to every rule
and I'm sure that there have been a few sales of extremely
popular Blogspot blogs, but unless you have a million visitors a
month, you're probably not going to sell a free hosted blog
anytime soon. Buy a domain, pay for some hosting, build
something that has value.

2. Professional Appearance

Your blog or website needs to have a professional appearance.
Custom design is always better, but at the very least, it needs
to have a template or layout that fits that blog's readership or
market. If you have poor graphics, even if your blog has monster
traffic, you'll sell it for much less than you could have if you
had professional web design. It's sort of like house flipping or
selling a used car. If you can afford it, a fresh coat of paint
usually brings the resell value up substantially.

3. Developed Traffic Sources

Potential buyers want to see traffic. Not just any traffic will
do for most serious investors. They want to see solid, search
engine traffic and a solid bookmarked reader base. StumbleUpon
and other social bookmarking websites are awesome traffic
sources, no doubt. But when it comes to someone buying your
blog, they want to see more than just a few traffic spikes from
a front page listing on Digg. They want to see that the traffic
is going to keep coming for months and years to come. Without a
lot of work if they can get it.

4. Documented Traffic Statistics

It is going to take more than just the summary of "hits" screen
capture from your webalizer stats to make the sale. You are
going to need at least three months history of actual traffic
statistics. Unique visitors, tracking cookie info if you have
it, Google Analytics, etc. Numbers, numbers, numbers.
Corporations want numbers in order to convince their board of
directors that your blog would be a sound investment. Private
investors are no different for the most part and they want to
know exactly what they are buying when it comes down the actual
traffic your blog has.

5. Profit and Loss

Lots of income statistics. If you are looking to sell your blog
or website for real money (read more than a few bucks nabbed on
EBAY) then you are going to need to show your buyer some stats
about money. P&L statements (Profit and Loss) for as far back as
you can go will help your buyer make his or her decision. It is
one thing to tell a potential buyer what the gross income per
month is, it's a completely different thing to show them exactly
what the net income is and how it is obtained each month. Keep
good records of your website expenditures and what the income
received from those investments are. Include every cost. Website
hosting, design, redesign, employee or outsourcing costs,
whatever. Include everything and show them the real bottom line.

6. Set a Fair Price

I know you love your site, I love all of mine too. So it's easy
to attach an emotional value to your blog and inflate the price.
It's also really easy to confuse a blog's actual value with your
vision of it's potential value. What you think the site will
make someday and what it's making now are two very different
things. Sorry, but what you think it will make someday has zero
value to a would be investor. They only want to know what the
net profit is, right now. Yes, you can take some long term
income growth statistics and make profit projections, but unless
you have these statistics going back a year or more, most buyers
are going to dismiss them entirely.

Set a real price. In the bricks and mortar world most companies
sell for 2 to 3 years of the total net income. Online, this
number is usually cut down to one year. So if your website is
netting $300 per month, the actual value of your blog is
probably somewhere around $3600. Once again, it's easy to add an
emotional price tag for all the hard work you've done to get
that blog making $300 clams a month, but your sweat equity
doesn't mean much to a buyer.

Neither do website values created with online calculators.
These sites are traffic magnets and are built totally to obtain
webmaster traffic. If you search long enough and hard enough,
you'll find a website value calculator that comes up with a
number you like. It still means nothing to a buyer. It's not
what your site is really worth and should have no bearing
whatsoever on your sale price.

7. Where to Sell your Website

Where and how you sell your website is super important. The
profit you make will be directly related. Try to stay away from
auction type formats if at all possible. If your site has some
real value, use a website broker. A broker will help you
determine the real value of your blog or website and then help
you find a qualified and interested buyer. You would call a real
estate agent (read professional) if you were selling your house,
right? So why would you rely on your "for sale by owner" plan
when it comes to your web property? Call a professional.

Sadly, one of the main reasons most flippers don't call in a
pro is because deep down they don't really want to know what the
site is worth. They want to live in their imaginary world where
their holdings are worth millions. They can put a site up for
sale on Sitepoint or Ebay for whatever price they want. Creating
the illusion that they are worth substantially more than they
really are.

8. Pie in the Sky Promises (magic beans)

Stay away from "Pie in the Sky" promises to potential buyers.
When it comes to buying a website or blog, 99% of the buyers out
there are from Missouri (the "Show Me" state) and only want to
see the cold hard facts. Offering to take them to some new level
of income at a later date is only going to make you look
unprofessional and like an amateur.

There are sales contracts that require you to assist the new
buyer for a set period of time. But these are normally for sites
that are currently making money and allow time for you to teach
the new owner just how that income is made. These clauses in
sales contracts are not designed for you to hatch your half
baked plans or for time to realize "what you think" the site's
potential might be someday.

9. Accessible Communication

You need to be extremely accessible to both your broker and
potential buyers. They are going to have questions. So you need
to have a cell phone number and an office number where they can
reach you. You need to check your email often and respond
quickly. Slow response can be a red flag signaling uncertainty,
and that's something an investor just does not want to see when
they are thinking about laying some cash on you. Be available to
talk to them.

10. Know the Details

Communication is only effective if you have answers. If you
have to stumble and stutter with your answers, it's going to
have impact on the sale. You need to have done your homework and
you need to know the answers to the questions in advance.

There you have the basics for flipping your blog or website. Of
course there are many more points that can increase the actual
dollar amount realized when you sell your blog, this only covers
some of them.

But if you follow these guidelines and are realistic with
yourself and your buyer, you can sell your website for a profit.
So take the time to prepare your web property for a real sale.
Writing a good sales pitch is fine, but it's not going to be
sufficient for most investors. You're going to need to have
these bases covered.

Good luck. I hope you sell your blog for what it's worth.
================================================================
Chuck Crawford is an established expert in web design, traffic
development and website financial analysis. He has been helping
people design and develop their internet business since 1995.
Visit http://www.business blogs.us/blog/
================================================================

Copyright © 2009 Jayde Online, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

Ewen Chia’s Book – How I Made My First Million On The Internet is Now Available at Amazon! First, here is the link to get your copy now!

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Tellman Knudsen Tells It As It Is!  It’s all in the “list”

Just wanted to take a minute and share this great video with you.  I have been doing the exact mistake he mentions in this video. And the reason I have been making this mistake, is I was suckered into a mentoring program with another “guru”, spent thousands of dollars, wasted countless hours, and have gotten no return.

Here is the Video:

Tellman is right, trying to make a product first is WRONG! I know from personal experience. I have found Tellman to be a true up front resource. My fault has been getting sidetracked away from his teachings. By the way you can find out more about Tellman’s teachings at:

http://www.CreateWealthOnTheInternet.com/listbuildingclub

Now go and make it a great day!

David