March 21, 2005

Internet Marketing: Be realistic

Well its Monday again and true to my last post this one is not about horses :) I can't promise I will keep this trend going though!

I had an email over the weekend that is quite sad. Here it is

"I am a failed businessman. I have very little money to spare and so I can't afford to pay you anything at this time, but I do love your products. Please could you send me a couple of your courses free of charge, and then when I get rich I'll send you via paypal double the cost of the material with a healthy bonus! You can then feel free to add me to your list of success stories."

No disrespect to this guy but...

1. You can't start a business with nothing.

Don't misunderstand me here. Many businesses can be started on a shoestring. My Adwords course is just one such business but even that requires some money to run. If you try to start a business while living on $150 a week and with no other money behind you, you're heading for trouble. The slightest hiccup is going to put you out of business fast.

To be honest this is the biggest myth with internet related business in general. That it's easy and can be done with little to no money when you start out! All types of people with little to no experience wake up everyday and think for some strange reason they are going to become millionaires with an internet business! Yes it can be done. Hell even I started out with no experience. But it does take money and it does take time and it does take a lot of hard work too.

I could give this guy a couple of my courses BUT. Nobody ever values what they get for free!

This is very important. We place a value on things, roughly corresponding to the amount of the hard earned cash we've had to pay for them. If you pay £5,000 for a wristwatch, you're going to look after it. If you paid £5, you probably won't care nearly as much. The same goes for information. The faith you have in information, and the use to which you put it, will vary in direct proportion to what you've paid for it. So even if, out of the goodness of my heart, I decided to send this gentleman the information he'd requested, he wouldn't have valued it, and therefore wouldn't have acted upon it.

Mark...

Posted by Mark at March 21, 2005 2:27 PM

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Comments

Posted by: Hugh Ardon at March 24, 2005 9:02 AM

Posted by: Mark.. at March 24, 2005 1:27 PM

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