One would think that Internet marketing has become saturated as thousands and thousands of people are joining in every single day in the hope of easy money...
Well, it soon turns out that it's not just quite so easy as they thought. Don't get me wrong... once you know what you're doing it actually is easy, but for a beginner it's -- in most cases -- an impossible task.
So... what makes the difference... what do the successful Internet marketers understand and what the unsuccessful ones don't?
Here are the three things that successful marketers do consistently:
1.) They sell their own quality products
Creating a quality product isn't very hard nowadays. In fact, almost all the gurus outsource 99% of all their work.
What can be considered a product?
Well, it can be anything. It can be an ebook, it can be software, can be a recording, a video, a membership site, etc.
If you're an expert in any field, then it's very advisable that you create your product around your area of expertise. If you aren't, you can still do your own research, or hire someone to do it for you. There are many places online that let you do just that very cheap.
Note that services from such successful marketers come very expensive, if you can even get them. All of them focus on creating an automatic stream of income and then move to creating the next and so on. Successful Internet marketers are really project managers. They direct the development and marketing of their product, but the actual work is usually done by people they hire...
Well, that's probably NOT what you wanted to read here, is it? Don't worry, not many of these marketers started like this. They got their initial funds from their off-line work or by creating and selling the products themselves. They educated themselves in the field of Internet marketing and almost all of them were furiously buying every single ebook, book, course and so on that they could get their hands on.
What discriminates them from the vast majority of other people is that they took action! They quickly understood that there's no such thing as easy money or free lunch -- you have to do something in order to get something. So, if you're guilty of chasing "the next opportunity", then stop it and start building an online business -- in the long run you'll be rewarded.
2.) They build huge lists of customers and prospects they can sell to again and again and again...
This is where these gurus use affiliate marketing. They sell their own product, have their own affiliates bringing them in new customers and leads and they are just sitting back and finding their lists get bigger and bigger every day...
And so they send emails to their customers and prospects with affiliate links to other people's products, earning a commission each time someone makes a purchase -- they can do this again and again and again... This is where affiliate marketing gets fun.
Why go through the trouble of finding new customers all the time when you can make more money with countless back-end sales? And gurus also realize this: "The moment you stop actually trying to help your customers to get what they want, you condemn yourself to failure!". It's not just me, me, me... you have to actually care!
To pull this off very successfully, you need to be consistent at quality of the products and support.
3.) They know that the crucial element online is trust...
What's the single most important reason people don't buy from you online?
You got it -- they don't trust you! Think about it. How many times you actually didn't have the money to buy something you wanted online? Sure, for a person to buy something, he or she must first want it (or be made aware that he/she wants it). And then, they have to have the money to buy it from you.
But guess what... the vast majority of targeted people that come to your web site want what you offer and have the money to buy it... only they don't trust your site enough to buy it.
So... the last thing gurus are very good at (or outsource the best people in this field) is marketing. Heck, it IS called Internet marketing, isn't it?
Marketing and copywriting are here to make the people feel trust and to be inclined to buy your product (or service for that matter). Gurus always pay professionals to do their web site graphics and usually overall design too (unless they are experts in graphics and design). Since they are marketers, many of them write their own web copy, but for the more important projects, they hire professional copywriters.
What are some ways to increase perceived credibility of the site?
a.) Get some seals (trust-e, better business bureau...). Associate your site with recognisable and trusted brands, such as Amazon.com, PayPal, Verisign... Make sure your site actually has something to do with those sites, though.
b.) Have your graphics and design look professional. You can have this done for $97, why not invest so little for such a great difference in sales?
c.) Avoid obvious hype. People are getting tired of it and frankly, when someone buys a hyped up product, they are usually disappointed and they don't buy from you again -- which violates the second thing gurus do to succeed!
Now... what did we learn through this article?
In order to be very successful online, it's important to sell your own products, build lists of customers and prospects that you can sell to again and again, and to be able to convey as much trustworthiness through your web site as possible. If you can get these three things done, I guarantee you'll soon be making thousands of dollars a month just from Internet marketing.
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