BE YOURSELF

As a new internet marketer, it is tempting to present yourself as a Superstar or Overachiever.  What I’m about to say may go against the grain of what you’ve been led to believe but using this tactic is not only risky but dishonest.  It’s true that you are more likely to attract new members if they are impressed with your track record, but they will be very disappointed if they subsequently found out that you were lying.  You may recruit a lot of members initially, based on your disinformation but it is highly likely that the level of attrition in your business will be high as you lose the trust and confidence of your team members. 

The good news is that you can still market your business without using earnings as your unique selling proposition.  You can instead, focus on the lifestyle your business helps you to achieve.  Lifestyle is just as important as money, if not more.  Is not one of the reasons why you want to be rich to have a better lifestyle?  You could use how your business helps you to spend more time with your kids, helps you to pursue your hobbies, ensures you contribute better to your community and helps build your confidence as a person as examples.

You need to be yourself in your marketing activities and it will come across.  Lie or be economical with the truth and you will be quickly found out.

BE OPEN ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

A lot of internet marketers hide the true costs of their business opportunity to convince leads to become team members.  Yet, they profess to be focused on serving the interests of their team members.  This is not only a dishonest act but also a poor tactic.  It is better in the long run to recruit only the people who you are equipped to be in the business for a relatively long period of time.  This is how we make money as residual income.

If a prospect knows the true cost of the opportunity, he will have the option to join now, join later or not join at all.  That is entirely up to them.  An internet marketer should not be trying just to get them to join so their income may be boosted.  That is unethical and is the reason why the leaders in the industry are working so hard to change the negative perception influenced by some undesirable practices. 

What an internet marketer should be doing instead is advising prospects on the best way to build their businesses based on their budget.  If they do not have enough for the opportunity, tell them so.  They will respect you more and there is a good chance they will find more money to enrol as they gain your trust.

BE A LEADER  

The best way to be a success in internet marketer is to be a leader.  A leader serves the interests of his team and a successful one is one who has grown a team with relatively low level of attrition.  This success leads to wealth. 

The leader must lead by example, by following the marketing plan she is teaching.  Obviously, all team members will be at different stages of their development.  However, the marketing plans for each team member of a certain level should be consistent.  You need to demonstrate as openly and honestly as you can how successful your marketing strategies are.  When something doesn’t work for you, share it with your team.  This could serve as great motivation for some as they would realise that you do not have to be perfect to be successful in internet marketing.

It is advisable to let your team know your modus operandi as early as possible.  Successful leaders spend the majority of the time they allocate to team members, coaching and mentoring those who are showing the desire to succeed and taking action.  This should be independent of results to some extent.  This is because, even in the case where two internet marketers are taking the exact same actions, both businesses will grow at a different rate.  If the system is working as it should, then success will come.  Once your team knows how you operate, they will understand better that it is their efforts and not yours that will lead to their success.

Being a successful internet marketer does not require one to be economical with the truth.  Any successful entrepreneur will only want to work with people who are likely to succeed and not those who do not know what they are letting themselves in for.  By being you, being open and demonstrating good leadership, the chances of being successful is greatly enhanced because in internet marketing, honesty is the best policy.

Budget effectively

• Plan your budget over a period of say six months

• Depending on your funds available set your lead generation targets based on your budget and not the other way round initially

• In the first few months, plough back as close to 100% of your profits as possible – remember you are building a business

• As your business grows and you start to make excellent profits, reverse the strategy – now you can tailor your marketing budget based on the number of leads you wish to generate

Measure marketing efforts

• Identify the different marketing strategies you have adopted, e.g. pay-per-click (PPC), videos, social networking sites

• Measure conversion rates from leads to team member

• New starters should stay away from PPC initially as much as possible due to the high costs involved – unless you have a high budget, e.g. $1k a month or more

Increase your conversions

• By trying different marketing strategies, the aim is to choose the most effective ones over a given period

• For example, if PPC generates the most leads for you, as your marketing budget grows and you become successful you may want to focus entirely on PPC  

• By measuring marketing efforts you also know which of these strategies results in high conversions – you will need to focus your marketing on this too.  You will need to look at this in conjunction with number of leads as well.  For example if PPC leads is 200 per month with 10% conversion, which article marketing is 4 leads a month with 25% conversion, PPC is more attractive, especially to someone with a decent marketing budget as the number of team members gained are 20 and 1 respectively.

As a new starter the key is to cut your coat according to your size.  If you have a large marketing budget, it would help your business grow quicker.  Even with little or no marketing budget, you can succeed in the industry with a lot of effort and a targeted marketing strategy.  The key however is, whether the budget is large or small, it should be properly managed and not used recklessly.  Use business profits, as much as possible to plough back into the marketing budget.

Increasingly, being a successful leader in online marketing means understanding and mastering Web 2.0 and effectively implementing relevant strategies to gain and maintain competitive advantage.  Consequently, the marketing environment has changed over the Internet as savvy entrepreneurs look to online lead generation in favour of traditional multi-level marketing methods of cold calling and utilizing warm markets.

The use of social networking is on the increase with leaders utilising Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to name a few to build their online presence with a view of marketing through these media.  Apparently, Facebook has similar traffic to Google presently, so it comes as no surprise that entrepreneurs are exploiting the opportunities presented as a result.  Social networking is no longer the confines of teenagers willing to massage their egos publishing their status updates or current activities.

The use of videos to promote products is also on the increase with YouTube a particular favourite at the moment.  Internet marketers focus on the lifestyle benefits on these videos, aiming to entice prospects to join their programs on the back of their successes.  The videos range from a successful leader lounging on the beach somewhere to spending time at home with the family while most people are at work, while his automated system is making money for him in the background.

Web 2.0 leaders who love to write focus on article marketing and blogs, where they post on various topics, directly or indirectly related to their opportunity.  The aim here is to develop a loyal following over a period of time that may become customers or recommend their products or services to others when trust has been established.  Various sites publish these articles for free including Amazines, EzineArticles and GoArticles.  The two most popular blog sites are Blogger and WordPress.

The key to their success is not just confined to Web 2.0 leaders implementing these lead generation strategies for their own benefit.  They teach their team members to do the same thereby leveraging their efforts.  As they and their team members attract prospects to their business the potential upfront and residual income increases.  More importantly, these leads are targeted which implies that conversion rate to actual customers or team members is most likely to be higher than traditional MLM methods of cold calling and warm market, as these people may not have the remotest interest in the business opportunity.

Web 2.0 leaders currently have competitive advantage in terms of lead generation over the traditional MLM leaders as their strategy is based on effective targeting.  By utilising social networking, video marketing, article marketing and blogging, and teaching their downline to do the same, they are giving their businesses every change to grow and meet their objectives.

Below are just three of these habits or mindset.

Time is extremely precious to the millionaire online marketer

The millionaire online marketer is always guarded with the use of his time.  In almost every single activity that he is engaged in, he will analyse either deliberately or mentally how effectively he is using his time.  Many millionaires will have an estimate of how much they are worth per hour and set goals around increasing their value per hour.  This is the reason why successful internet marketing trainers, for example, charge high prices to deliver training.  As they get more successful and people make more demands on their time, they charge even higher prices.

They also split up their days into revenue and non-revenue producing times.  Non-revenue producing times are usually late at night, where they afford themselves the treat of actually watching television for example.  Revenue producing time is when they are hard at work, either growing their business or helping others do the same.  Even their personal development is undertaken in their non-revenue producing time.  This implies a high level of planning and organising on their part.  They are very consistent and persistent and in control of their actions and words.  If you ask an online marketing entrepreneur for help or have a chat with him, he is likely to bring time into your conversation.  Do not be surprised if he asked you something like, “what can I do for you in the next minute?”  He is probably in his revenue producing period and you are infringing on his time.

Making Money is not enough

The common mistake of new internet marketers is to be seduced by the amount of earnings they could potentially make with an online marketing business.  This is simply not good enough for the millionaires in the industry.  They are more interested in profits.  For them managing the money they make is what really counts.  They are always looking at ways of improving their returns for every $1 spent. 

Helping others make money is very important to them as well.  This is the reason they are likely to spend the bulk of their time with only relatively few members of their teams.  These are the members who they have identified as demonstrating the habits and mindset required to be successful.  In online marketing, the success of these team members means residual income for the millionaire, so that is all the justification they require.

They are psychologically unemployable

This is a very important mindset in online marketing.  The majority of the success stories in online marketing will tell you they fired their boss before striking it rich and spent the next couple of weeks or months questioning their own sanity.  However, they have the mindset that failure is not an option in their business and will do whatever it takes to succeed.  They use the fear of going back to work for somebody else as motivation to succeed.  In their minds, quitting and returning to work is one of the worst things that could happen to them.  The strength in potential adversity drives them on.

The millionaire habits and mindset can be developed but it requires a lot of focus and discipline.  Good planning and organising skills are also required as well as total respect for time and money.  They develop a loathing for working for someone else that drives their success.

In 2008, Forbes Magazine named Sir Richard among the 250 richest people in the world.  Born on July 18 1950, the young Branson suffered from dyslexia and consequently, struggled academically.  However, he identified his key strengths at a very early age.  That skill was his ability to relate to people effortlessly and genuinely.

Sir Richard came from a reputable family with both father and grandfather working in the judiciary.  That did not deter him from starting his entrepreneurship selling records out of the trunk of his car. 

With hard work and a good team around him, he soon graduated to owning a record store in Oxford Street, London.  He also co-owned the record label, Virgin Records which he sold in 1992 to grow his Virgin Airline business.  Subsequently, he has entered the railway industry and continues to grow his airline business.  For example, recently, the entrepreneur merged with SN Brussels Airline and has also formed a brand new national airline in Nigeria, Virgin Nigeria.

In 1992, Sir Richard demonstrated his people touch by splitting an out of court settlement of over £500k paid by British Airways for alleged libel, among his employees.

He received his knighthood in 1999 for his services to entrepreneurship.  A man who never rests on his laurels, he has been involved in several world record attempts, including crossing the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by sea and air and circumnavigating the globe.

Recently, he has worked with Nelson Mandela and musician Peter Gabriel to appoint prominent global leaders to form a group known as The Elders, tasked with finding solutions to some of the world’s long standing conflicts.

Several lessons can be learnt from the achievements of Sir Richard Branson.  Firstly, his lack of academic achievement shows that we all have weaknesses, even the most successful entrepreneurs.  However, we can overcome these weaknesses by focusing on our key strengths.  His was relating to people in a positive way, demonstrated by his tremendous generosity towards his employees mentioned above.  Secondly, the best entrepreneurs are those who demonstrate leadership – the better your leadership, the more likely you are to achieve results.  Thirdly, a successful entrepreneur does not sit back and admire his achievements but instead is always looking for new challenges.

Watch out for the next ‘Spotlight on a Millionaire’.

Being cool under pressure

There are two ways to behave when things are not going well in your Internet marketing business.  One way is to give up and tell yourself you were right all along and it was too good to be true and disappear back to the corporate world and all its frustrations.  The successful Internet marketer does not think like that. 

Instead, she is concerned about learning the lessons from her setbacks.  She is determined to know why the strategy she employed did not pay off with a view of putting remedial action in place to change around her fortunes for the better.  The successful Internet marketer is dedicated to using management information to drive her business.  For example, by knowing that her marketing expenditure in article marketing is not providing her anticipated number of leads, she may decide to allocate the article marketing budget to something that is delivering results like video marketing for example. 

This coolness under pressure comes from good planning, organisation and management of the business.  By understanding how her business works and how it is performing, she is able to take action to influence results in her favour.

Never resting on their laurels

The successful Internet market entrepreneur celebrates his successes hard but not for too long.  He is always thinking ahead as to how to replicate or better his current success.  He learns from his successes as much as he learns from his failures.  From every success, he looks at what he could have done better to have performed even better. 

They always love a challenge and would see the challenge of performing better exciting.  They are so competitive that they compete with themselves.  They look at success the same way they look at failure.  They build on their strengths and look to eliminate their weaknesses.

Pushing the Boat Out

Traditionally, we’ve been conditioned to believe that in business, we need to start small and grow the business gradually.  Not the Internet marketing entrepreneur.  They go for the jugular once they see an opportunity.  If for example, there are three entry levels into a business opportunity, they will go for the highest level entry, which although may cost the most will yield the highest in commission payments.  They do not believe they should enter at the least level and see whether the business opportunity is for them or not.

The reason they go in big is because they have self belief.  They believe an opportunity is as profitable or as good as the entrepreneur.  They are conditioned for success and will therefore do all it takes.  They are convinced that as long as the opportunity works for one person, it can work for them.

These three behaviour patterns are consistent to successful Internet market entrepreneurs.  Failure is not an option in their eyes as they have belief in their ability and will do whatever it takes to succeed.  It is no coincidence that successful entrepreneurs are consistently successful in different ventures they undertake.  It’s all to do with the mindset.

Your mindset determines your level of success.  If you fail for take responsibility for your actions, instead of doing whatever it takes to improve your business performance, you will instead focus on complaining about how unlucky you are or blaming others for your misfortunes.  By adopting a defeatist mentality, any project or activity you undertake is doomed to failure – this is also known as the law of attraction.

The law of attraction is a theory which argues that an individual can attract whatever it is she desires by thinking about it.  In other words, our thoughts have energy which attracts things into our lives.  The beauty about this is that we can control this energy by:

• Deciding what it is we want
• Asking for it mentality
• Behaving as if you have already achieved what it is we really want
• Being mentally prepared to receive what it is we desire

The law of attraction shows that we can will the good things but also unfortunately, the bad things into our lives.  If we consistently think of ourselves as failures and that nothing good happens to us, in all likelihood this is exactly what will happen.  Conversely, if we think we can achieve anything we set our mind to, then we are willing a winning mentality into our lives and no matter what we want to achieve, we are more than likely to succeed.

When we are faced with problems or challenges come our way, the successful internet entrepreneurs look for empowering ways to overcome them.  They switch straight into solution mode, finding answers to questions such as:

• What tools and resources can I use to overcome these challenges?
• Am I approaching things from the right perspective?
• Is this a challenge or actually an opportunity to learn something new?

These questions spur the top earners in the industry into action and more often than not, they come up with solutions and sometimes innovative ideas that will grow their businesses further.

Having a winning mentality also means taking appropriate steps to enhance your personal growth.  Your business grows faster the more you self develop as personal development helps you learn new ideas and techniques; overcome weaknesses; build on strengths; and exploit opportunities.  Self development is a personal thing.  Do only what works for you.  If you learn better by watching training videos, reading books or listening to conference calls, as long as you are getting value from it, that is all that matters. 

It is time to stop acting like the victim.  Be a winner and think like a champion.  Take steps to keep you ahead of the game and be responsible for your actions.  Growing your business should share top billing with your self development.  Developing a winning mentality is the most important factor required for success in the internet marketing industry.

The 80/20 rule also known as Pareto’s Principle insinuates that 20% of people achieve 80% of what they set out to do while 80% only achieve 20%.  This rule sheds light on why a lot of our ideas on intentions never seem to make it beyond inception stage, as soon as we share it with others.  There is a higher probability that you would run your idea past someone who achieves very little in life and have therefore developed a negative attitude towards getting out of their comfort zones and taking risks.

It is therefore, important we keep our ideas to ourselves or seek out people who could help us develop our ideas further or at least encourage us to pursue it instead of giving up without trying.  This is a common experience of a budding internet marketing entrepreneur who gets so much negative feedback from people who have little or no experience in internet marketing that they quit at the first sign of the going getting tough.

I had a funny experience while working for a financial institution in the UK during my corporate days.  In one of our management training sessions, the Personnel manager who was facilitating a session on innovation commented to a colleague that all the ideas she came up with were either tried and tested or seemed far fetched.  My colleague classically replied “You wouldn’t know innovation if it bit you in the leg.  You’d probably call it far-fetched”.

Due to my knowledge of the 80/20 rule, it would take someone of the calibre of Donald Trump or 50 Cent to knock my idea for it to have any effect.

As individuals, we are ultimately responsible for ourselves.  Therefore, we need to give ourselves highest regard in evaluating our ideas, more than anyone else.  It is better to try something and fail than not try at all, especially if someone convinced you it wasn’t a good idea.  Especially as there is a significant chance that the person belongs to the 80% of underachievers.  You wouldn’t want someone else’s take on life and their experiences to be the main determinant of how you live your life.

Therefore, if I was given one shot at advising anyone I know, it would be to keep your ideas to yourself and only share them with those who have a track record of achievement.  So, if you do not succeed, you’d know it’s not because you gave up on your stool.

• Visual – an individual learns best by sight, e.g. watching demos, videos and pictures;  and reading books and articles
• Auditory – an individual learns best by sound, e.g. listening to audio tapes and conference calls and participating in conference calls
• Kinesthetic – an individual learns best by physical activities, e.g. touching, feeling, rehearsing scripts

It is important to note at this point that an individual may have a strong preference for one learning style or a combination of learning styles.  Increasingly, online marketing businesses offer various training options to assist their entrepreneurs, e.g. conference calls, articles, webinars and videos.  By knowing her preferred learning style, an entrepreneur could then decide which training methods to prioritise.  She does not need to do all training as it would be a waste of time.

Here’s a simple method to determine your learning style.  Below is a list of questions with three possible answers to each question.  Choose the answer which closely resembles you for each question.  All A answers are visual, B, auditory and C kinaesthetic.  At the end add up the scores.  The highest score is your preferred learning style.  If the scores are similar or the same it indicates that you have a near perfect mix of learning styles and you may wish to use all training methods.  If you have one clear winner that’s your preferred learning style and so on. 

My favourite way of teaching someone something new is to:

1. Write them a step by step guide
2. Teach them orally
3. Show them how it’s done

My best way of learning a new skill is by:

1. Watching a demonstration
2. Seeking clarification of what I am required to do
3. Practising or rehearsing the skill until it is perfect

The easiest way I can remember something is by:

1. Making notes
2. Reciting
3. Practising or rehearsing

My favourite revision technique is:

1. Making revision notes
2. Recording my notes and playing them over and over
3. Doing mock exams

 My favourite pastimes include:

1. Watching television
2. Talking on the phone
3. Cleaning the house or playing sports

I concentrate best by:

1. Focusing on objects
2. Talking through issues
3. Pacing up and down

This is just a simple technique.  There are more advanced techniques.  One example, is to rate each answer by order of preference instead of just picking the favourite one.  Either way, it is important for the entrepreneur to identify his learning style as this will ensure he picks the right training methods to drive his business forward.

The question does remain whether generally, an internet marketing business is better at satisfying the needs of individuals than a 9-5 job.  If we look at Abraham Maslow’s motivation theory to understand what motivates employees, he developed a five stage model needed to be satisfied in order, beginning with the lower order needs.  The five needs are:

1. Physiological needs – need for food, air and water
2. Security – need for safe living environment, job security
3. Social Needs – belonging, family, love, work groups
4. Self esteem – the need for achievement, status and recognition
5. Self actualisation – achieving one’s true potential

According to Maslow, Physiological needs must be satisfied, before security needs.  Security needs must be satisfied before social needs and so on.

Maslow’s theory cannot be confined to an individual’s place of work alone.  His theory was focused on how employers can motivate their employees in the workplace by identifying their motivational needs that need to be satisfied.  However, these needs cannot always be satisfied in the corporate world.

For example, it would be very difficult for a manager to motivate an individual to improve on his sales figures (Esteem needs) if he is worrying about his marriage collapsing (Social needs).  Although the manager can demonstrate some understanding up to a point and give the employee time off, this cannot continue indefinitely.  Perhaps, the nature of the job demands the employee work unsociable hours and this could be the main reason for the marital problems.  Moving to another job is not easy and may not solve the problem.

However, an online marketing entrepreneur has control of his time and could adjust accordingly to meet the demands of his family.  Perhaps their problems are exacerbated by the husband not having enough time to spend with the kids.  As a work from home dad, he would have the time to take his kids to school and attend school functions as often as required.

Realistically, most of the needs of people are satisfied outside the work environment.  However, the work environment does impose constraints on people in terms of time and money.  In the case of internet marketing, although monetary success is not guaranteed, the internet entrepreneur does have the time to do as he pleases, which makes it a better bet than the corporate world.  Having said that, money, although not a motivator per se, is just as important as time as a means to an end.  An individual who is the sole breadwinner may need job security (Security needs) for obvious reasons.   No amount of promise of high achievement (Esteem) will entice him to pack up his job for an online marketing business.  Not at that point in time anyway.  The security needs will need to be addressed before he starts thinking about achievement. 

As a compromise, he may decide to start the internet business part time.  The main motivation here will not be Esteem but Security still as the extra income from the part-time online business opportunity will help his household financially.

However, if looked at from the context of a successful internet business and a successful corporate job, there can only be one winner.  In terms of time and money, a successful internet business gives the entrepreneur a good standard of living and a lot of free time to do as he pleases and live a high quality of life.  A successful corporate job could be a brilliant standard of living but a lot of time constraints which could affect the quality of life.

Individuals increasingly satisfy their needs outside their work environment.  Therefore, the more time they spend at work, the less they are working towards satisfying their needs.   Although the road to success in an online marketing business may be a slow and painful one the rewards in terms of quality of life and satisfying needs seem to be higher than a successful corporate job.