Or, how to avoid driving your business off a cliff.
Poor, sweet, Thelma.
Little did she know that when she climbed into Louise’s 1966 Thunderbird that her road-trip companion was destined to drive that car straight off a cliff.
If only Thelma would have avoided that fated ’66 Thunderbird.
Just goes to show you: It’s not always smart to climb into a vehicle without first knowing its driver a little better, or without knowing the destination.
How about your Internet Income vehicle – have you chosen the right one to get you where you want to go?
Is the Internet Your Vehicle?
We’re all looking for ways to create internet income. Some of us have an existing business and are looking for ways to expand our reach and income through marketing online. Regardless of your goals, we find no shortage of people promising us the moon.
Can anyone make money online?
If so, then why do so many smart people with real business skills or good products get online only to spin their wheels?
Is making money online all just a bunch of hype? Can it really work? If so, how?
The Internet is just a vehicle. And a vehicle only takes you where you want to go if you have a map, know how to drive, and have the fuel to get where you are going.
First, what’s your map?
Your road map is a sound strategy that has the same three features any navigation requires:
1) Know where you’re coming from (your value, your purpose, your passion).
2) Know where you’re going (your audience, a market for your product or service).
3) Have a couple of ways to get there (the right tactics for your product and audience).
Then, what driving skills do you need?
You don’t have to be an Internet marketing expert or become a full time Internet marketer to make money online.
You do have to learn the most basic principles of relationship building that remain true, whether you’re marketing face-to-face, in print, or marketing online. These foundational principles transcend any opportunity and work in any medium.
And finally, what’s your fuel?
Preparation, motivation, effort, and persistence fuel your vehicle of choice.
The reason Internet Marketing has been so good for some people is that a lot of those people already had the traits that would have made them successful at just about anything they set their mind to.
The promises of making money online can be true. But the promises are misleading if they suggest that the Internet itself is going to be the source of your success.
The problem we see with most Internet Marketing ‘methods’ out there today is the same as any get-rich quick scheme. Most of the big Internet Marketers pitching “The Opportunity” are just selling an opportunity to sell others an opportunity to make money online.
And having success selling an opportunity is not the same as having success selling a product or a service of value. In fact, many of these “classic” Internet Marketing models will not work unless you’re selling the opportunity to make money. Most just don’t translate well to a product or service.
Your fuel or their fuel?
In fact, what makes a lot of those “Internet Success” methods run is the sheer star power of the guru. And when they offer us a “complete business blueprint with everything you’ll need to succeed,” they’re leaving out the biggest factor in their success: their own experience, skills, talents, and unique personality. Unless you already possess this same set of qualities, and want to go to the same destination, then their guru “map” just won’t work for you.
Sadly, some of these gurus honestly don’t know what those personal qualities and skills are that makes their chosen vehicle speed down the highway. To them, it just happens magically because they don’t have to think about it, it’s just who they are.
But it’s not magic.
And it’s not the vehicle itself.
This gives us a relatively easy way to list the differences between Internet opportunity promises that run on fumes, and those that can really get you somewhere.
The Internet Opportunity Checklist
1. Does the ‘method’ or ‘system’ make blanket promises – as if success is possible no matter who is driving the car? Or, does it mention specific traits or skills that you need to make this particular method work for you?”
2. Does the Guru provide information that helps you really determine where you are and where you want to go? Do they talk about the importance of doing real research to find a real market?
3. Does the Guru make promises about how much money you can make or how much time it will take to make it without considering who you are or what you have to offer?
4. Is the guru’s message, “You can do it because I have done it?” Is their proof their own experience? Because if it is, their map only goes to one destination, and their vehicle only runs on one type of fuel – theirs.
5. Are they promising you can do something part time or on the side, but they themselves are full-time, professional marketers? Can you easily fit into your schedule what they themselves are doing full-time – and still get the same results?
6. Has the guru’s model worked to sell anything other than the opportunity to make money? Selling pie-in-the-sky dreams of magical income is often very different than selling products of real value.
As a vehicle, the Internet can take you places you can only dream of. But no vehicle runs without you or your fuel. And, if you drive without a map, you are as likely to drive off a cliff as arrive somewhere worth being.
This is why we base our work with people on their fuel, the basic skills, and discovering their personal map. With these, you can get where you want to go with the Internet – or with just about any vehicle you choose.
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