Product launch - exploit experts.

If you on any list then you've encountered the power of this internet marketing technique. Experts bombard your in-box with emails everyday before they are about to stars selling their newest product. Surprisingly, most of these emails are good and provide well researched and well prepared content.

Surprisingly, because they usually do not care about you all that much most of the time. From time to time they make attempt to flog you some stuff. On the occasions they even will send you some useful tip, some valuable link, just because ... you are on their list.

But the product launches, man I do like them. Majority of the experts send you really good content in the prelaunch phrase. These few weeks before they will try to sell you their stuff, I mean ... you can learn their stuff. And there is plenty to learn.

If the expert is any good he has to give away his best stuff for free in order to prepare you to buy his other stuff. Now if you are smart you can learn 90-95 % of what will be included in their paid stuff for free. And that is to be smart.

You do not need to buy their paid stuff in order to benefit from their knowledge. That is if you are smart and you don't like part with your cash.

The stuff is for you to learn for free.

Consider it again. They have to give away their best stuff for free in order to persuade you to buy their "proper stuff". That means, if they are any good. The catch is that there is a "downhill road" beyond. I mean they are giving away their best stuff in order to persuade you to buy. That means, if you will buy their paid stuff you will only get the other, inferior stuff.

Good thing is you do not have to buy. Just use the good stuff from the prelaunch. That is if you need that knowledge and can apply it. Otherwise there's no point in learning stuff whatsoever either free or paid.
This is completely different from the freebies and bonuses which are offered after the launch just to prompt you to buy now. These kind of bonuses are most of the time useless and certainly confusing.

But the prelaunch stuff is usually really good so take advantage of it. Just beware, do not learn it just because it is for free. Learn it if you need it, if you can apply it and make money this way.

Now, this is purely opportunistic approach. If you like the guy, if you respect him/her go and buy the paid stuff. You may get some one on one coaching or something. Just remember most of the stuff if free to learn.

Why bonuses are useless to you?

Bonuses are part of every product we are offered nowadays. It used to be different, but now in order to stand out, in order to differentiate yourself you've got to add value. So they say.

So all the marketers online do it. It is especially common practice in the internet marketing world. A bit odd I would say. To do what others are doing and trying to differentiate yourself that way.

Of course, everybody offers different bonuses, ... in order to add value. So they say.

So, do the bonuses actually add value?
For me all they do, they actually add to the confusion. That's right, the bonuses add to the confusion and since I am confused internet marketer I don't like them. Period.

It actually makes me question the value of the primary offer in the first place. Is it any good? Will it solve my problem, or what?
I guess, ... the problem.

Unless of course, all they offer you is the hype, and then more hype (more bonuses for that matter) in order to make you buy. And these guys know their stuff. I mean, they know how to make you use you credit card.

This is not all bad. I mean there are plenty of useful information products that are sold by decent guys. The only question is: do I need it? Do I need it right now?
Can I use it?

Because it all looks attractive, it all looks like the real solution to ... , my problems? I don't know.

Let's say I buy some information stuff about seo and then I'm offered 10 other bonuses which will teach me even more about seo for that reason. Do I need it? I''m already overwhelmed with all this information. I want a simple solution. No, I do not mean a silver bullet, quick fix. I do mean: I need simple solution to my problem. And the only reason for paying for the information online is to pay for ready solution. I do not want to pay for more information. All stuff is out there for free anyway.

The only reason for paying for information is to save my time, to shorten the learning curve.

Therefore I do not need more products, bonuses. I need the answer. Is that right?

The guy who want me to buy his information on the basis of attractive bonuses does not help me. He does want to differentiate himself. And so he does. And I do not buy his stuff. I am confused marketer. I vote for simplification. That's it!

Why you should not listen to the gurus.

There is a problem with all the exerts, all the so called gurus on the internet, ... and in life generally for that matter.

They talk rubbish. No, not that their advice is rubbish, but it is generally useless. And it is so even when you exclude all these (which is majority of theme) who simply want to make money of you, these who know how to push your emotional buttons.

The story for theme goes like this: back in the old times I was like you struggling to find solution, to make any money on the internet, bla, bla, bla ...

Then they will offer you this simple solution, you only need to invest as little, as ..., that just for the start. As soon as you rise your hand they will flood you with other brilliant, must have solution. Soon enough you are more confused then ever before.

They will tell you the story trying to convince you that ... because they had to struggle you do not have to. That's all beautiful and still useless.

The trick is that they will tell you what has worked back in the old times, which on the internet could be ... very old by the time they are offering this "secret", "underground", whatever formula to you.

Or even worse, they will tell you what they would do if they were like you right now. This is even worse then the previous version of what has worked in the past. It is so useless to answer this question, that is down right harmful to these who take the advice.

The trick is that the thing: what would you do if ..., is so much different from what they actually do in the reality. Of course you can not do the same thing they do. Says who? Think about it.

First thing first, all of the so called expert had some kind of lucky break through. Some of them had to struggle longer, some of them ... got lucky almost straight from the beginning. That's right, they got lucky, no mystery about that.

Many of them actually admitted that they struggled like me and you, confused internet marketers, and they only broke free after they stopped listening to the gurus and experts themselves.

They only started to get traction the moment they started doing their own thing, whatever that happened to be.
Now they tell you that you do not have to struggle, you only have to listen to their advice. How useless is that?

They may tell you to find the niche, connect it with your passion, whatever that might be, but then you find out that they did not do the same thing. If you dig a bit, you might find out that they were not in any niche whatsoever, besides internet marketing niche.

So now these guys are trying to sell you the system, the turn key, ready to use system to make money online. Look how easy it is to build your list, to drive the traffic, etc. Is it so easy?

If you want to believe it ...

It is not actually as hard neither.

It is just that I personally find it so much more useful to learn what the so called guru or expert did at the beginning of their road to success then to listen to their advice. Simple because they are either trying to sell you the thing that has worked some times ago, but may not any more, or because they are answering the question: "what would you do", but they themselves are doing another thing. And that's down right harmful and confusing.

Beware of the experts and gurus. Study what they did, but do not necessary listen to their advice.

Confused Marketer on Twitter.

Here I am Confused Internet Marketer on Twitter.
Isn't that peculiar?
What the hell are you doing there man? Good question.

It's good and relevant question because Twitter is such an aggregation of information ... and a lot of rubbish too. I remember, I had this problem and I still have it occasionally, where I find my inbox email account with a messages from all these guys ... who try to sell me something and occasionally share some useful content.  That is what happens to you when you are signing up on too many lists, newsletters, etc..

I remember this good advice I've read last year: do you want to watch what other guys are doing or do you want to do your own thing and make some money. That puts the things in perspective!

But still I find myself signing up to a new lists.Then I have to get rid of most of them. Most recently I found myself in peculiar situation. All these smart headlines do not speak to me any more. And I do not open anything that has free offer in it. I learned my lessons.

But why I'm rumbling about all this?
Because I'm on Twitter and this can be too much for confused internet marketer like myself. There's just too much information, too much rubbish to. Of course you can sort it out, you can use a lists (that was actually one of the best improvements on Twitter), but still if you like consuming information, you can quickly get lost in this maze.

Of course, You can follow only a few people, but then you seriously limit your chances to market ... whatever  you want to market for that matter. Twitter is reciprocal tool and if you do not follow people they will most likely not follow you.

Here is a brief story of my time on Twitter. It's been a bit over a year now, I started my account in March 2009. By now I have acquired almost 4000 followers, respectable but not at all big number. How I got here?

For the first few months I had no idea what to do with my account so I did nothing. Then in the summer I started to connect to people and I started to learn about how it all works. I gained some followers fairly quickly although it was struggle to go through the 2000 threshold. That's where I had to use Twitter Karma (free software) to clean my account for the first time. I actually did it again a few weeks ago again. It's good to regain control.

I had a moments when ... it was intense and I followed new people every day, but for most of the time I haven't been nearly as much active.

What have I done with my account? I tried to share useful information mainly entrepreneurial stuff. I share also a lot of quotes and inspiration, I like that things. I have been experimenting with some affiliate product offers, but only with the stuff that I thought will really benefit people who will use it. And that pretty much all.

I  haven't use Twitter for lead generation which I think could be the best thing to do simply because it is not applicable in my case. I might however done the second best thing which I think is to concentrate only on one specific niche. Then I could have build a relationship and market some products that way. The only question is: is it viable business option? I mean, what is the trade off time for money. Or should I use one of these automation tools for building Twitter following?

I wonder how you use your Twitter account? Don't you find yourself occasionally sucked into all these information and ... confused a bit after a while?

David Ogilvy on direct response marketing.

I recently discovered that we are in direct response marketing. Don't laugh at me, I am confused internet marketer. I learn, but I learn fast. And I dare to say I am already way ahead of many so called gurus.

Why is it so?
Because I already am "getting to the meat". I am getting to the core, to the basics of this business.

There is little help for you if you only learn how to drive a traffic to your website. What matters is the conversion.

Do not bother to chase hundreds or thousands prospects if you do not know how to convert them. It is true that money are in the list, but there are guys who live quiet comfortable form a very small list. The trick is that theirs is very responsive list.

But then I do not want to bore you with my ramblings. What I wanted to share is this short video of David Ogilvy the master of advertising, the champion of direct response marketing.

Do you have a product?

Do you actually have a product?
Yes that's relevant question!
Do you?

I mean, it's important to have a product in order to market it. In order to make some money online.

I have to confess: as I took upon an internet marketing learning curve it was rare that any guru mentioned that. And that's really basic stuff.

We all try to learn the tricks. All marketing tactics and strategies to succeed in our online business, but the truth of the matter is that we cannot do much without actual product itself.

Now, your product can be anything. Preferably , it will be same kind of information product because you want to market in online. It takes a lot of hassle off your back if you just sell information instead of something else. That's what most people look for online anyway.

Of course you can market anything and be really successful. In the end it's up to you, it's up to the level of your commitment. I've heard about guy who was in the asphalt business and then he turned his knowledge, his contacts into very profitable online business. So if you are already in some kind of offline business you can transfer your knowledge your skills into online business as well.

There is probably no easier way to get started then Ebay, if you wish to do so. You can get some unused stuff you've got at home and put it on the auction. You will get the feel of the online business. You can then proceed into part time business flogging stuff on auction and using drop shipping as a fulfilment of the orders.

But to become a full fledged internet marketer you've got to move on up the leather. You've got to have your own website, you've got to drive traffic to this website, ... and you've got to actually sell something on this website of yours. You need a product.

Now again, you can become affiliate, you can go to the Clickbank and pick some of the popular products and start promote them through your website or anywhere else using affiliate links. You actually do not need your own website indeed. But it's helpful to have one as the matter of fact.

Most of the guru will advise you to to choose the niche, something you already know about, something you are passionate about, it may be your hobby if you wish. It's good advise. What I have to say however is this: be weary of the "gurus" that talk all about lifestyle, about freedom, and all that BS.

We all know about that, we all want that. That's not the reason for which you listen to the advice of the guru. But that's the way the "guru" pushes your emotional buttons and tricks you into buying his product without actually providing you with much of useful information.

That's why I said that on my journey of confused internet marketer I encountered only a handful of the people (not necessary the gurus) who will tell you straight in face: get the product and start promote it!

You will learn all the SEO ticks on the way as and when you need them. You will learn how to put together a decent copy as you will screw with a couple. You will build your list as soon as you will get the autoresponder account and put on your website the opt-in box. You will learn as you go. But you need to start.

So create product, put together half decent website and start driving some traffic to it. That's all.

Now, how you create a product. You already know that. Write an ebook, record some audio or video. DO anything, do something! I hear that - how to advices still sell pretty well.

Leo Burnett Human Kind Video.

What can we, Internet Marketers, learn from this short video?
After all we do advertise, we do promote, we do market .. to the market.

Leo Burnett presents as with a valuable insight. It's all about Humans now.
It's all about involvement.

There's actually quiet a lot we can learn. And it fits nicely with a social media craze.