Lessons From Internet Marketing

version 1.0

Proudly presented by www.Random-Snippets-Of-Thought.Com

Kang “Mr Kaizen”

contents
a short foreword (p 3)
what's this report going to be about? (p 4-5) the dip (p 6-7)
excuses (p 8-9)
the two types of internet marketers(p 10-11) information overload (p 12-13) managing it all (p 14-15)
the freedom of discipline (p 16-17) anti-guru sentiments (p 18-19) being pragmatic (p 20)
conclusion (p 21-23)
the end: what now? (p 24)
about the author (p 25)

a short foreword

 

I don't mean to sound like a drama mama, but my life has been absolutely transformed ever since I found internet marketing.

 

And it’s not just about the financial benefits, although that is one of the most desirable outcomes, for sure.

 

Well, 25^th June is 2007 is my 23^rd birthay, and I was planning to release my first WSO in the Warrior Forum, with the proceeds as a gift to myself!

 

I brainstormed for a long time, and considered the various things I could write about.

 

And then it just struck me.

 

On a significant day such as my birthday, what in the world am I doing, trying to earn a gift for myself amongst a community that has played such a vital role in my growth?

I then remembered reading this post about sharing information with each other amongst internet marketers, and then using the knowledge gained, to go out and conquer other markets, instead of fighting amongst ourselves. I like the way it sounds.

That's it.

 

There are still so many struggling internet marketers out there, just like myself months ago, struggling to make some decent income from the internet.

 

Instead of trying to earn a monetary gift for myself, I've decided to do something different; from there, this report was born.

 

It's time to give back.

 

what is this report going to be about?

it's going to be a mental diarrhoea of my experiences, the difficulties I have personally encountered, the mental obstacles with regards to the ugly side of the world, and how I overcame those to being able to finally pride myself as being an internet marketer.

At the time of writing this, I'll be 23 in two days' time.

 

I'm currently still schooling, pursuing my degree in Mechanical Engineering. I'm on vacation right now, so I have tons of time on hand to go after my internet marketing pursuits.

I've been hovering around the internet marketing scene for more than two years, but have only recently attained nirvana by being able to earn an income that will make my peers drop dead in envy. (Okay that was too strong, but you get the idea.)

I have two main sites.

At www.KangWeiAng.Com, I blog about my in-the-trenches internet marketing experience, from which readers can pick up a tip or two from. I also share product recommendations and reviews, and links to free reports/resources I find useful myself. Well, sounds like any other internet marketing blog, but hey, mine's different( I insist it's different!). While you're there, be sure to sign up for the RSS feeds and for my Kaizen Marketing Letter, which I send out once every two weeks.

Www.KangForHire.Com is where I promote my freelancing services, where I help my clients to produce high-quality content, and with websites/blog creation. I've been doing more of the former, and frankly, clients' satisfaction with the results have been so positive I was surprised as well. I didn't know I'm this good, but that's a story for another day.

One characteristic I found to be very useful in internet marketing is an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, an insatiable curiosity, and a violent drive to take action. I love reading. And and I often subconsciously relate the information I read in books to my internet marketing ventures. Which, very often, draws up new conclusions for me, and provide me with new inspiration and ideas.

Throughout this report, I'll be drawing references from books and how they apply to the business of internet marketing.

 

The content in this report will be pretty haphazard and without much of a logical order. Part of the reason is because the theme of this report is its randomness.

 

And part of it is because I'm working very hard to rush this thing out before the 25^th, and it's the 24^th right now!

And one hour later, I'll be going to school for basketball training, after which I'll be meeting up with my cousin and one of my best friends, who would be passing me my birthday present. (Geez, why am I talking about totally irrelevant stuff even though I know I have so little time left.)

I'll probably be home at like 11 p.m., and I expect to carry on rushing through this report until about 4 a.m. (hopefully I'll be done by then.)

This is a challenge by itself, as while I'm writing this in OpenOffice, I'm installing wordpress on Www.Random-Snippets-Of-Thought.Com, which I just registered the domain of, like hours ago.

This is probably the most hurried project I've ever undertaken, and I really hope the speed doesn't affect the quality of the content (too much).

With that, I hope you enjoy this baby, and be sure to read the entire report, as I'm sure you'll be able to benefit from it alot! I look forward to your feedback and to conversing with you in the near future.

Onwards!

 

the dip

 

Seth Godin is one of my favorite authors. And I find that the concept of The Dip really applies very aptly to Internet Marketing.

 

For the benefit of those who haven't read the book, here's a brief overview. I recommend you read it though; it's only 80 pages and can be finished easily in one sitting.

Brief overview courtesy of Amazon.Com:
========================================================= “The old saying is wrong-winners do quit, and quitters do win.

Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out exciting and fun. Then it gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point-really hard, and not much fun at all.

And then you find yourself asking if the goal is even worth the hassle. Maybe you're in a Dipa temporary setback that will get better if you keep pushing. But maybe it's really a Cul-deSac, which will never get better, no matter how hard you try.
According to bestselling author Seth Godin, what really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can become number one in your niche, you'll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security.

Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip-they get to the moment of truth and then give up-or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.

Whether you're a graphic designer, a sales rep, an athlete, or an aspiring CEO, this fun little book will help you figure out if you're in a Dip that's worthy of your time, effort, and talents. If you are, The Dip will inspire you to hang tough. If not, it will help you find the courage to quit-so you can be number one at something else.

Seth Godin doesn't claim to have all the answers. But he will teach you how to ask the right questions.

 

=========================================================

The internet marketing Dip is a very tough one to get across indeed. You're faced with tons of obstacles, but because everyone seems to be giving you different advice, you really don't know the right way to proceed.

And then there's a common fallacy to give up right before you hit the peak of the dip. Once you go past that, you would have made your first dollar, and everything would be smooth from then on.

Imagine giving up after all the hard work, just as you are about to succeed, if you'd just hang on just a little bit more!

If you understand the concept of the dip, you would be able to make wiser decisions on whether you should take on various tasks. And you'd also be mentally prepared to face difficult challenges knowing in your mind that the dip might just be over very soon.

excuses

 

Believe it or not, excuses can be made up by anybody, under any circumstances, to justify their inability to fulfil any task.

That's the reason why some folks rise from the very bottom all the way to the top, and others fall all the way from the top to the bottom. The reason why some 17 year-olds are deemed too young to have an online business, and why others are wildly successful.

There has even been a name given to this disease: excusitis.

I started internet markting when I was 21 years old, and gave myself a lot of leeway and excuses for failure. I blamed it all on my age. I must have been too young and inexperienced. I have lots of time to fail anyway. Just look at all the other internet marketers; they're much older than me!

And today? I'm already 23. And I've only just tasted success. If I had the right mindset in the past, I believe I would have succeeded much earlier.

Can you believe I even used to blame my own inability on my financial stability? I come from a fairly well-to-do family. But because I've seen so many success stories about people going from poverty to prosperity, I actually made myself believe that it's easier to rise when you have “nothing to lose.”

I had no momentum at all. And hence, I was at a disadvantage.

I'm Chinese. My full name is Ang Kang Wei. Ang is my surname, my family name. Kang Wei is my name. I always felt awkward telling people my name amongst the internet marketing community. I thought of using my English name, which I don't use much in real life, but it still felt weird. As a result, nobody really gets my name right. I didn't know what name to use in my special reports and websites, and I didn't want to use a pen name.
And then I deemed that a handicap as well.

It does sound like pure bullshit now, does it not? I'm sure it does to you. But I'm also sure that if you reflect upon your own thinking, you'll find traces of this too! It's simply too easy to blame external conditions than yourself. It's human nature.

Get over it. Conquer excusitis.

I conquered my age barrier when I thought about it and realized how irrational it is. And by seeing that there are marketers younger than me in the field. I realized that this is my golden age. Starting young is an advantage that I should make full use of; it's not for me to rest on my laurels!

My handicap of being “too rich to be rich” was full of holes, so that was pretty easy to overcome as well. I remembered making a post on the Warrior Forum about this phenomenon, stating that the more famous marketers all seemed to come from less-thandesirable backgrounds. It's just that marketers who didn't have financial problems don't publicize that fact, simply because it isn't significant!

Kevin Riley also mentioned that the rags-to-riches story sounds better than a riches-to-moreriches one. It's hard to imagine anyone saying “I used to earn $1,000,000” a month... Now I earn $5,872,864!”

I got over the name problem by realizing that it's my name and I should be proud of it. (Don't get me wrong, I've never felt ashamed of being Chinese!) At that moment, I decided to enter the game and brace myself for the dip. I braced myself and bought the domain www.KangWeiAng.Com. And it stayed dormant for a long time indeed.

How time flies. I've had it for about one year already. And I'm coming out of the dip. I've never looked back since.

Remember. Identify what's holding you back. Then try and rationalize your thinking. Don't be afraid. If you can't rationalize it and convince yourself, well, simply start thinking the other way, and try rationalizing in that direction. It works for me!

the two types of internet marketers

Granted, there are way more than just two types of internet marketers out there, but here, our focus is on two particular types. Understanding this difference may just be your key to attaining success in this field.

These two types are: Marketers marketing to non-internet-marketing-related markets and marketers marketing to the internet marketing community.

 

This distinction may seem very “duh” at first glance but is very important, because the nature of these two broad types of markets are vastly different.

Sure, there are many schools of thought regarding the path that beginning internet marketers should go, and sure, each has its own pros and cons, but hear me out and you decide yourself and see if my thoery makes sense.

I think beginners should definitely start out in a non-internet-marketing-related field.

 

Many reasons why I think so, but I will talk about only two of them, which will hopefully be more than sufficient for you to convince yourself.

 

ONE: Competitiveness.

I could write an entire ebook about evaluating competitiveness and the pros and cons of having competitiors and what types of competitors are good and which types are bad and so on and so forth, but again, we are trying to be simple here. I'm going to sum everything up into an experiment which I want you to follow along.

Step 1: Go to google.com and type in “viagra” without the quotes.

74,000,000 “competing” sites. For your information, the viagra niche is a very very competitive one, and there are tons of people resorting to blackhat methods to rank for the term. Getting on the first page of google for this term is next to impossible. Step 2: Go to google.com and type in “internet marketing” without the quotes.

If 74,000,000 was crazy competition, what is 414,000,000? Of course, people will come right up and tell me that they could try and rank for terms like “adwords” and “adsense” and “seo” and “blogging” or longtail keywords, but I hope you just keep your mind open, absorb what it is I'm talking about, and let's head on to the next point.

TWO: Credibility.

 

First will you agree with me that a person looking to try out internet marketing is generally more sophisticated than a person looking to buy viagra on the internet?

Now that we're on the same page, I believe that you will also agree that it takes much more reputation for you to be trusted as an “expert internet marketer” than “a merchant for the cheapest viagra in the world?”

If you seek to be trusted as an internet marketer, you need time; time for people to be familiar with your forte, time for other expert internet marketers to endorse you and vouch for your credibility, and so on.

Internet marketing-wise, would you trust someone who claims that he has an IQ of 250 more, or would you trust John Reese more? (Hey, I don't mean to say John Reese is stupid.)

 

Of course, there is only one John Reese and we shouldn't hope to be as successful as he is (but we can surely try).

But if you own a site that, for example, teaches people how to cook sausages, that is netting you a small amount of money each month consistently, and you demonstrate that expertise to the internet marketing crowd, do you think people will believe you more?

I'm sure they will.

 

Conclusion: Non-internet-marketing niche first, then internet-marketing niche, IF you wish.

 

information overload

 

Getting overloaded by tremendous amounts of information is part and parcel in the life of an internet marketer.

 

It is not a matter of opinion that there is too much information out there; it is a fact.

And it isn't a matter of “overcoming” the problem too. It's a matter of managing it. Establish your priorities. Only read materials that will advance you towards your goals, and leave aside any others for reading when you have surplus time.

But trust me, you will never have time even for reading the essential stuff. You have to learn to be hard-hearted enough to discard of unnecessary reading materials. It will be much more beneficial in the long run!

I've been advised umpteen times to be more prudent in choosing my reading materials because I always seem to be reading about and trying new stuff. That used to really be a problem for me, but I think I'm managing much better now because I always take action right after reading the material.

This is what you should do too. Success loves speed. (1) Read through your materials fast, (2) digest the information and see how it applies to your undertaking, and then (3) take action.

The entire process shouldn't last more than a few days to test if the concept works.

 

Now, what if the material isn't relevant to your undertaking? My reply to that would be, why then are you reading it?

 

Before I end this chapter, let me share with you a parable I found very interesting. It's about establishing your priorities, and it really struck a cord with me.

 

========================================================= The Parable of the Professor and the Bucket

 

A philosophy professor and his student stand in a warehouse. A large tin bucket and several boxes of stones and sand are in front of them.

The professor picks up a box that contains large rocks, each one about four inches in diameter, and pours them into a bucket. The stones reach the top of the bucket, and he asks the student it is full.

'It is,' the student replies.

The professor takes another box, this one containing stones about one inch in diameter, and pours them over the rocks in the bucket. The smaller stones fill in the spaces between the rocks. Again, he asks the student if the bucket is full.

The student looks and says, 'It is.'

 

The professor then pours in the contents of a third box, this one containing small pebbles. Again, the student looks in the bucket and agrees that it is full.

 

Finally, the professor then pours a box of sand on top of the rocks, stones, and pebbles – and once more, for the fourth time, the student as to acknowledge that the bucket is full.

'Do the most important things first,' the professor advises the student, 'and each lesser thing in order of its priority. In this way, you will be able to fill up your life four times, instead of just once. If you do the unimportant things first, you'll be filling your bucket with sand... and there won't be room for anything else.

=========================================================

 

managing!

 

What I'm going to share with you next is going to change the way you surf the net and manage your daily activities in a very big way, if it's new to you!

 

Introducing... Netvibes.com!

It's a truly spectacular web-based application, and it's free! I'm surprised not many people seem to be talking about it. It's a godsent tool for people who need to manage their daily activities rigorously and need tools on hand to help them take down notes. Once you've tried using it, you'd probably get hooked.

Basic usage is pretty idiot-proof, but the possibilities are endless, so let me just show you how I use it so you can probably do something similar.

 

This is basically what the interface of netvibes looks like. I've collapsed my to-do-lists and webnotes to avoid having it look too cluttered. Some things to take note... (1) The add/browse content sidebar can be closed to provide more on-screen real estate, as seen in the above screenshot. (2) Also, realize that you're able to open multiple tabs just like a web browser, and you get to name the tabs as well. Super handy!
Here are the two components that I use the most. The “Webnote” and the “to-do-list”.

After you finish reading a special report/ebook, (1) name the webnote after it, and then (2) type in the most important points you've learnt from it, and how it can be applied to your own situation. This not only forces you to actually think critically about what you have read, it also allows you to easily leave notes that will trigger off your memory when you read the webnotes again in future. It maximizes the utilization of the one-time reading in this way.

As the name implies, the to-do-list is used to log in the activities you wish to get done. I suggest naming your lists by date. You may also wish to label them by the nature of the activities, or the order of urgency.

Simply click “New To Do” and type in your task..

 

Once the task is done, just click the checkbox and the task will be struck off! I love the way it looks. Being able to strike stuff off a list gives me a perverse sense of satisfaction. And at the end of the day, seeing a neat list with tons of items struck out artfully, is very addictive indeed.

the freedom of discipline

I've recently started a little freelance sideline business. I'm doing unexpectedly well in it, and apart from the monetary compensation, I've picked up a few lessons from it, one of them being the importance of discipline in pursuing goals.

When you work your own business, there is the tendency to want to achieve perfection before you release your baby to the world, if you're a decent entrepeneur with decent goals and expectations

Sometimes you take too long to improvise it. Sometimes you know you can't improve it anymore, but still, fear holds you back, and you don't release it.

 

“What if people don't like it?” “What if it offends people?” “What if it's not spectacular enough?”

 

And then a potentially great idea is killed.

It's different when you're freelancing. Your client has a deadline for you and will hold no punches about telling you off if your work is done badly. When the deadline draws near, you have no choice but to work “overtime” while not sacrificing quality. It's a challenge, but one which gives you immense satisfaction at the end of the day.

Huh?

“But the only reason why I want an internet business is the freedom everyone's talking about! I thought all I had to do is to shoot out emails and money will start coming in?? What's all this talk about autopilot profits and handsfree income?”

Let me just tell you straight out that all that stuff is bullshit. At least at the start. The most fatal mindset that a beginning internet marketer can have is that internet marketing is easy. It is simple, yes, but definitely not easy. Many people are making money; a a lot of even managed to quit their day jobs. However, many, many, many, more have failed terribly and given up out of fustration!

Please.

The reason why so many marketers are telling you internet marketing is easy, is because they want you to buy their products, which makes them money. I'm not saying all of them are liars, because many of them aren't. But a much greater proportion of them is. What I'm saying is: Exercise due diligence before you believe anyone on the internet. I talk more about this in a coming chapter about being pragmatic.

Discipline is vital in internet marketing.

This doesn't mean you can't have fun. But you do need to put in extra effort at the beginning to get things going. In case you leave at this point feeling disillusioned, please wait. Discipline is merely part of the process. You need a certain amount of discipline if you desire true freedom.

Here's an excerpt from “Over The Top” by Zig Ziglar that illustrates the point beautifully: =========================================================

“The sailor only has the freedom of the seas, when he has become a slave to the compass. Until he is obedient to the compass, he must stay within sight of the shore. Once he is obedient, he can go anywhere a sailing vessel will take him. When you take the train off the tracks, it's free, but it can't go anywhere. Take the steering wheel out of the automobile and it's under the direction and control of no one, but it can't move. Man is very much the same way. Freedom - real freedom - comes only when discipline, undergirded by moral absolutes, becomes a way of life.”

=========================================================

 

anti-guru sentiments

 

At some point of time in your internet marketing journey, there is bound to arise in you, an animosity towards “gurus”.

 

The word “guru” now has a very negative connotation to it, simply because the way gurus make money just seems too easy.

 

“I just sent out an email, and there was $5000 in the bank!”

Newbies hear this and are so excited they purchase their products immediately, and then realize they don't even have people to send emails to. And when they finally build a miserably small list through means like traffic exchanges or purchased leads, which consists of unresponsive prospects anyway, they send out badly crafted emails that reek of spam. Without question, they don't make money.

And then they conclude that all internet marketers are liars.

The truth is that internet marketing isn't this easy. Cookie cutter methods don't work. especially in this age of Web 2.0, where user opinions are as important as, if not more important than, search engines' “opinions”.

And human users are much more difficult to manipulate than search engines.

Let's just get this clear. Your internet business is about providing value to the marketplace. To obtain this value you provide, your customers give you money in exchange. That's all there is!

Email marketing, SEO, affiliate marketing, bum marketing, whatever...

They are all nothing but a platform for you to provide value, and to give customers a way to benefit from that value.
Before I proceed, let me ad