Notes From a Marketer Wannabe
I downloaded this wonderful blogging software yesterday. Priya Shah turned me on to it. Her newsletter is one of my “instant reads” whenever it appears in my inbox. I have quite a few of these and I have very many more that sit there for some time. But it’s 11AM right now and this is not the point I want to make.
My main point here is that I need to begin putting into action some of the principles I’ve garnered over the years from so many of these Internet marketers whose newsletters I’ve collected. I have a feeling many people are like me in this regard. That they haven’t a structure - no clearly-defined goals. As much as I KNOW about these success habits they all write about, I don’t put them into practice.
When I started up my computer today, much like just about every day, I checked my email first. (Keep in mind that I do not have an official mailing list yet, that I don’t even have a way to sign up for one, I don’t have content for anyone to read yet (in fact, this is supposed to be that content right here - I think you get the idea: that I’m doing it as I go along, with the hope that readers who find themselves in a similar situation will be interested enough in reading about my steps, and my progress, that they will follow along; and that somewhere down the line, I WILL have a sign-up, and they can opt-in, and I’ll get them hooked, and they’ll be my loyal subscribers. Yes, I’m talking to YOU.)
There just now, the bell went off on my email and I’m tempted to go over there and see what came in. Of course it’s probably spam, and I’ll get into this later; I have a convenient way to sort through this and delete the unwanted stuff. The point being that if I’m here writing, I should be applying the good principles of time management and resist that temptation just now.
I digress. This morning when I checked my email, the first thing I opened up was a follow-up from Michael Green and Peter Twist, asking if I’d gotten anything out of their talking e-book “10 Success Habits To Swell Your Bank Balance In 2005″. I had remembered that this was a free item I’d downloaded, placed into my huge collection of e-books I’ve never read, and allowed it to sit there, waiting for me to do something about it.
After some updating of my Adobe Acrobat, I was able to click the little arrow and follow along with this e-book; and I opened up Notepad to take notes while listening and reading. So at this time, the ‘pause’ button is keeping this gem open for me while I put together the logging of my actions here. Notice that while I could probably link these items I’m mentioning, and possibly earn some sort of commission by referring readers to them, there are no links here yet*. I haven’t quite got that down either.
I hope you see me as merely fledgling, but not necessarily stupid. I’m banking on the possibility, again, that you, the reader, are like me: the technical expertise and the planning and time management principles are still somewhat elusive in your sphere of knowledge. But like me, bottom line, you want to earn money online through various marketing strategies; and you just can’t seem to get started. So as tangential as this writing may be right now, I AM getting started.
Are you still with me? Great! Let’s see what I do next.
How did I get this far? Back in 2003, I began “kicking the tires” of approximately twenty marketing experts. I figured back then that you don’t really have to BUY all the stuff they’re selling. You just have to use their strategies as a model for your own enterprises. Over time, the number of newsletters I subscribed to exceeded a hundred, and particularly over the Christmas season, when they’re all giving things away, and so on. Well SOME of their products I found I just could not do without. I’ll get into these in future postings. Don’t worry. There’ll be plenty of stuff to buy later!
In the meantime, wanting to have my own websites and to be a web designer/webmaster, and continually coming up with what I thought were great ideas for websites I felt were appropriate for my particular areas of interest (3D, spiritual growth, making money online, researching my family history, selling local Laguna Beach artists’ wares), I bought into Stone Evans’ offer to build an Instant Money-Making Website et al (Sorry, Stone - I’m really not doing you much justice here), and I got an account with Host4Profit, became an Internet Warrior with Allen Says’ guidance, became an affiliate with Corey Rudl’s SFI, and downloaded all sorts of tools and resources, and quickly became overwhelmed with all the possibilities. I’m not saying you shouldn’t let this happen to you - in fact if I can ever sort it all out, these are the things I’m sure I’ll be using to create the income I’m looking for - I’m just saying that maybe you can take these experiences of mine, and accelerate your learning curve. Mine has been more than two years and look! I’m still not demonstrating implementation of these suggestions from all these sources. I’m not walking the walk, or talking the talk as they say in [you- know-where].
I’m just writing in this blog!
Stay with me here. We’ll be getting somewhere soon. The ‘pause’ button continues to hold Michael Green and Peter Twist on Habit Number 6, (Don’t Be a Perfectionist), while I write this; and my email bell just went off again, tempting me to see what came in. Again, I resist. Now, at 11:30AM, I’ve managed my time in this way - writing my thoughts - and I apologize for writing so tangentially, I just hope you “get it”, and continue to be curious about what I’m doing here.
Oh well, I fell into the temptation, went over to my inbox, and found Marc Grenier’s email, informing me of my Success Studios GoalPro affiliate commissions for January. They are 5 clicks, 0 sales. But of course. How could I possibly sell that product? I have a stupid, little slapped-up sales blurb for it which I implemented after signing up for InstantBuzz, then having my old computer fail, and after buying a new computer, not re-installing the InstantBuzz toolbar, (which I worried might have been part of the reason for the failure of my old computer), and besides, the only feature I use personally, of GoalPro, is the journal. As much as I’d like to really “work” that program and lay out my goals and objectives, it sometimes seems that writing about my goals is not DOING them. I think you know the dilemma. I do recommend GoalPro, however!
(*okay, so putting my reputation at stake and going back on my words above, there’s my first affiliate link right there! I edited this page after I figured out what to do. Go buy it and use it! Or don’t. It’s your life.)
Some of us can make use of it better than others. It kind of depends on the type of person you are. I fully intend to get better use of this program, but again, as the main point of this article comes back around, I must begin to put into action the principles I’ve learned from gathering all the marketing and self-help information which I have.
I think I’m going to cut off here, and continue listening to Michael and Peter. You can probably go get this book for free. Point your browser to http://www.howtocorp.com/success-habits/download/
That’s not an affiliate link (yet). Again, it’s just one of MANY helpful resources for Internet marketer wannabe’s, but it really is a very good one. And it’s nice to listen while reading for a change.
Peace out. Could you come back again? I had fun.
Mitch
If you’d like to contact me for ANY reason, please do so. I’ll respond very quickly.
mitch[~at~]powell3d.com
