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“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” How many times have we heard that Golden Rule? And certainly it is golden, and a good rule to live by! But with all due respect, God never had to market on the Internet! And there are probably more than seven solid principles we should all be following, but these seven should get you well on your way down the “Golden Path to Prosperity.” So let’s get started!

Golden Rule Number One: Be willing to talk to “real” people.
Come on, now, what are you afraid of? Don’t you have a unique product with a large appeal? And didn’t you make sure and get something you’d be proud to have your name on? Then open your mouth! I’m not saying you should be obnoxious or pushy about it, but don’t be afraid to mention it, either. I guarantee you that one “yes” will make up for all of the “no”s that came before it. Tell your friends you’re trying something new, and wouldn’t they like to check it out just to be nice to you? Talk to telemarketers. Talk to wrong numbers. Talk to your mother. Ok, be careful about talking to your mother, but you should still consider it! Make up business cards and pass them out to people who smile and nod as they walk by. So what if they drop it as soon as you’re out of sight? Maybe someone else will pick it up and be interested.

Please allow me to get on a soap box for a minute. I am sick and tired of hearing “I don’t like to sell, I’m not good at selling, and I hate sales people!” Successful people in ANY field are people who realized early on that all of life is a sales pitch. When you apply for a job, you are selling yourself to the employer. Why do you think there’s such emphasis on a good resume and a well-groomed appearance? When you debate issues that you care deeply about, you’re making a sales pitch. You are doing your best to convince someone that you are right! Sales ability is something that everyone has to some extent. How convincing is your son/daughter or nephew/niece, when they want something you have? Do you think they went to school to learn that? NOPE, they were born with it!

So if you’ve used any negative phrases about your own ability or willingness to sell, I want you to give yourself a sharp slap on the hand and sternly say, “I am a natural at sales!” If you ever want to make money on the internet, you’re going to have to develop that ability. Period.

Golden Rule Number Two: Be willing to make use of free and paid advertising sources.
Advertising is the life-blood of the retailing world. Now YOU are a retailer. You have a product to sell! But nobody will ever know or care unless you advertise. On the internet, there are probably more free sources of advertising than there are paid sources. And when it comes to free advertising, the secret is quantity, not quality. If you want quality, pull out your wallet, and we’ll talk about that in a minute. (Just kidding!) But when it comes to free, all you have to do is pull up your favorite search engine and type in “free advertising.” More on that in another chapter.

Golden Rule Number Three: Be willing to invest a significant amount of time and effort.
Meaning, you are going to have to SWEAT! Oh no, you won’t be out digging ditches and getting sunburned, but by the time you’ve stared at a computer screen for eight or ten hours, you may wish you had. Marketing on the Internet takes work, commitment, and patience. It’s a shorter road to riches than some others, but it still isn’t a free ride by any means. If you want to make money on the Internet, be sure you’re prepared to spend almost as much time in front of your computer after work as you spent at work. It may pay off quickly, but then again it may not. Make sure you’re in it for the long haul, and you’ll be more likely to succeed early.

Golden Rule Number Four: Be willing to learn from your experiences.
Just as all of life is a sales pitch, every experience in life can be a lesson learned, if you’ll look at it that way. Never allow yourself to believe you’ve “arrived” and there’s no more left for you to learn. The world of technology is moving way too fast for anyone to ever be content without taking a class or two, but for those of us who can’t afford to stay in college, the next best thing is to glean lessons from your life experience. Listen to people who know. Read articles, read books, read sales solicitations. All these are sources of knowledge that will add to your ability to market your own product. Click your heels together three times and then repeat this to yourself over and over: “I WILL NEVER STOP LEARNING… I WILL NEVER STOP LEARNING… I WILL NEVER STOP LEARNING…”

Golden Rule Number Five: Be willing to form relationships with other marketers.
One thing I wish I had more time for, and probably should MAKE more time for, is the building of friendships with people who are
making money on the Internet. The reason is because I understand the principle of association. You tend to become like the people
you spend time with - not because you’re easily influenced, but simply because that’s how human beings are designed. Once in a while, I open my mouth and hear my father speaking. I HATE that! But I realize the simple truth, that we absorb the habits and attitudes of other people in our lives. SO, if you want to learn success in marketing, form a solid habit of association with successful marketers. Join and attend forums where these types of people hang out. Get access to phone numbers and conference calls where you can speak with these people and absorb their knowledge and experience. The fact is that you will not regret the time you spent “shooting the breeze” with someone who, without even realizing it, gave you secrets to success that you were able to put to work in your own life.

Golden Rule Number Six: Remember the principle of increasing returns.
In other words, what comes around, goes around. Or in more traditional words, you reap what you sow. How does this apply to
marketing, you ask? Let me explain. I believe that it is a basic law of the universe that you get back what you put into it. If you live your life with honesty and consideration, then it will pay off in dividends of trust and beneficial relationships. In the Internet, it’s a small world even though it’s a large universe. People who market tend to associate with other marketers. If you run your business with integrity, you will be known as such, and people who respect integrity will send business your way. But if you don’t, believe me it will get around, and your name will be mud. Unless it already is mud, and then it’ll be something worse. Just don’t do it. Remember that it all comes back to you one way or another, sooner or later.

Golden Rule Number Seven: Be willing to deal positively with disappointments.
This actually goes well with other Golden Rules, but I think it’s important enough to be discussed separately. Life is full of disappointments - if you’re over the age of 12, you should already understand that. But in the world of marketing, you may actually suffer quite a few failures before you succeed. But remember this - THE ONLY WAY TO TRULY FAIL IS TO FAIL TO TRY AGAIN.

There may come a point where you decide it simply isn’t what you want to do, and you’d rather pursue other possibilities. But unless or until you reach that point, don’t give up. Don’t give up. Don’t give up. And let me emphasize to you, DON’T GIVE UP! If you give up, you will never know whether you would one day have made it. So - don’t give up!

But it’s just as important that you determine to learn from your mistakes and disappointments. A lesson learned turns a failure into a success, because you actually gained something positive from the experience. Determine to come up fighting every time you fall, and then look at what made you fall so you can figure out how not to fall again. This is how we learn, and this is how we get strong - through falling and getting up, taking a hit and learning how to duck or block the next one. One more time, just so you can remember… DON’T GIVE UP!!!

This article excerpted from “Internet Marketing In A Nutshell”
The FREE course offered at http://www.fightforyourfreedom.net
By Gene Ballou

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Internet marketing is a numbers game, we all know that. Or is it not? Maybe we are all mistaken and chasing a white elephant. Internet marketing is a highly competitive market. If you ever used a pay-per-click search engine you know what I mean. Internet marketing is a tough market. You deal with all kind of people. Just skim your inbox. I’m sometimes amazed with the emails I’m getting. “need money now help make money fast” this is an evergreen from my collection of email responses to my newsletter.

Does this sound familiar? Well, I think it’s sad and embarrassing. We are doing everything a so called internet marketing guru told us to do and the responses are mostly from confused and poor people who have no clue what we are actually talking about. Now ask yourself again, is it really a numbers game or should you completely change directions.

One of the marketing systems I’m part of recently issued a statement that most of the new subscribers are from non English speaking countries. Keep in mind that the site is completely in English are geared towards English speaking audience. Just a few words of English won’t do it either. They are selling the service with the slogan “find 3 and it’s free”. This definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Ok, now what? How can you make a living or even more than living with an online business? Ask 10 internet marketing gurus and you get 11 different answers. The only thing I can say is to approach an online business the same way as you do with a traditional business. With traditional businesses nobody expects a profit in the first year of a brand new business. But on the internet everybody gets frustrated if they don’t make money in the first three days.

If everything would work like all the gurus make us believe there would be no more employment. The economy as we know it would seize to exist. Home businesses are by definition meant to be an income supplement. In some cases they become a full time income. On very rare occasions a home business can turn into a money maker. I heard of them, but I never actually met anybody that made it.

After reading all this you can understand that internet marketing is not always a pleasure. This is especially true if you are building a business with internet marketing. So, should you completely avoid internet marketing and focus on other business ventures? Well, it depends. If you can’t handle the competition and the negative image of this market segment, don’t do it.

On the other hand, if you are able to manage a small success in a highly competitive market, keep doing what you’re doing. Chances are that some of your competitors are giving up and you can fill the void in no time. Make no mistake it’s a dog eat dog environment and never ever expect a helping hand from a fellow marketer. Unless you made it into the “chosen few league”. The big guns are joining forces all the time to increase their market shares and profits. Hmm, this sounds like good old corporate America, doesn’t it?

As I said, treat your online business the same way you would treat a traditional brick and mortar business. Because the same principals apply to both types of businesses. Anybody who thinks they could push their business into profitable returns by maxing out their credit cards are missing the boat big time. Yes I admit it; in the beginning I spend way too much money on useless stuff because a guru told me so. Then I turned around and tried to convince others to spend too much money on useless stuff. Again a guru told me to do so.

Luckily I was able to break out of this death spiral and forced myself to analyze the situation. First, do I really want to continue with this internet thing? Second, do I really want to spend hours after hours everyday to chase something that might not exist? Yes I really want this internet thing to work and No I don’t want to chase wild goose. I needed to be smarter with my business decisions and more creative in my approaches. Ever since I changed the way I’m doing things my business is doing better every day. Like the real world businesses, it takes time to develop.

The bottom line of this little story is; never trust anybody’s advices blindly; don’t do exactly what you’ve told to do without researching the consequences. Although the consequences are most likely an empty bank account and maxed out credit cards. It will devastate your financial future. Remember, be smart, play smart and play the internet marketing numbers right.

Peter Dobler is an active real estate investor and successful internet business owner.
More information about home based internet businesses at:
http://www.mypluginhomebiz.com

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