Posted by: Daniel Levis
April 2, 2008
Issue #387

Why Neophyte Web Marketers Fail …

In this issue:

• The “build it and they will buy” trap …
• Claude Hopkins, rolling over in his grave …
• The secret to online marketing nirvana …
• And much more!

Dear Web Business Builder,

Whoever said knowledge is power, was wrong …

Web marketing junkies desperate to break into the biz are buying the latest, greatest info-products like they’re going out of style … reading the manuals … listening to the CDs … watching the DVDs.

But few actually do much with the knowledge.

Why do you suppose that is?

In one word, FEAR!

See most people just can’t stand failure, abhor risk, and are petrified of losing the security blanket today’s soft, undisciplined society has handed them.

And Internet business — like any other business — demands you face down these demons and wrestle them to the ground. Most people just don’t have the guts to do it.

Of course, FEAR comes in the guise of all sorts of denial …

The “build it and they will buy” trap …

Just the other day, I had the pleasure of sitting down to lunch with a few people I met at a local conference. Two of them happened to be on my list. While we were waiting for our food to come along, I asked one of them what she was doing with the information I had been providing.

I listened attentively as this person (let’s call her Sally, not her real name) told me about all of the different information she’d been consuming from various people … all of the different courses she’d bought … and how she’d spent the last 18 months or so creating a membership site to help other entrepreneurial women.

So I asked her encouragingly, “How are you marketing your business?” Sally told me she was blogging … and micro blogging on all of the social networking sites … and submitting articles to different e-zines in an effort to build “buzz.” And with great pride she told me about all of the incoming links she’d been able to generate, and how well she was beginning to rank in the search engines. Her speech was peppered with so many buzzwords I’m sure my eyes were beginning to glaze over.

And then she leaned in a little and said, “I’m having a great time getting to know people and I’m learning so much, and I really love what I’m doing, but I’m not getting many paid subscribers.”

Can anyone spot Sally’s problem?

Claude Hopkins, rolling over in his grave …

Sally is drinking the Web 2.0 Kool-Aid. She’s lost sight of the prime marketing directive — selling stuff — and is focusing exclusively on building community and relationships and optimizing her site for the search engines.

She believes that in this brave new world people will stumble upon your site, go gaga over your free content, sign up for your feed, and eventually buy from you just because you’re their online pal. Somehow, it’s become impolite to ask for their money. Now you just sign up on the social networks, make “friends,” and sooner or later you can become a “maven” and people will buy from you.

Of course, all of this “busy work” fits in perfectly with her FEAR-based mentality. By avoiding actions that tie too directly to the ultimate test of her business, Sally’s self-esteem is protected, and her pride is immune to the stinging pain of failure. At least for the time being …

See, it’s one thing stringing your spouse along, telling him or her you’re making progress in the search engines and so on, continually pushing off the only real measurement that counts into the sunset. It’s another thing entirely to admit you took a chance on something and lost. But that’s exactly the mentality of a winner.

Neophyte online entrepreneurs fail because they shrink from risking their time, energy, money, and ego on activities that are expected to yield an immediate return on investment. They figure if they can just hitch their wagon to the latest “Internet revolution,” everything will be OK.

They measure things that are as many steps removed from making sales as possible. And they avoid activities that could lead to unmistakable failure, such as actually buying some traffic (oh my God) to see if their web site converts.

So I turned to the other subscriber, and I asked him the same question. “What about you Tom (not his real name), how do you market your business?” He told me he’s not interested in spending months developing a product … blogging incessantly … or schmoozing on the social networks. Instead, he’s busy buying traffic, making joint venture offers, building his e-mail lists, and selling stuff — often before that stuff is even created! 

Who do you think is making more money, Sally or Tom?

Now don’t get me wrong. Long range planning, building community, relationships, and brand are all fine, but when you’re just starting out, you need immediate results. You need to be able to expend resources to put your sales message in front of potential buyers today, and see the results later this week, knowing full well those results may not be the ones you want. You’ve got to fail fast, not slow.

The secret to online marketing nirvana …

Success is a matter of getting your sales message out there for better or worse and tweaking it as you go, knowing full well you’ll get your teeth kicked in a few times. Try something that bombs, great, you’ve just learned something — don’t do it again. Pick yourself up. Dust yourself off. And keep trying until you find something that works. Then keep doing it until it no longer works.

It’s these short term, “repeat or don’t repeat” sales experiments that will lead you to online marketing nirvana. Gradually the successes pile up and your profitability soars!

Hey, maybe I’m a freakin’ pre-Neanderthal, I don’t know. I’ve got all of these invites to join twitter and fritter and Facespace and Mybook piling up on my computer. I just don’t have time to look away from operation money suck long enough to even log in.

Is it really possible a new Internet revolution can come along every couple of months?

Do things really change that quickly?

Perhaps, but you can bet your bottom dollar it’s the sly fox who finds a way to spend a dollar today and see that dollar coming back to him or her in multiples next week who’ll win the prize. Not the crybabies who go running from one new fad to another …

People have been saying opt-in rates are down, click through rates are down, and that e-mail marketing is dead for years. But my list is growing faster than ever, my conversion rates are higher than ever, and I’m making more money than ever doing the same old things I’ve always done. I’m just doing them better.

If you’re just starting out online, keep your eyes open, learn as much as you can, but remember this: The only metric that really matters is the money that’s flowing into your merchant account. If what you’re doing today doesn’t promise to make you more money next week, why are you doing it?

I’m serious. I’ve seen far too many people spend months and even years burrowing their way down one rabbit hole after another, simply because they’re afraid to step out of their comfort zone and try things that might lead to obvious failure.

They refuse to set aggressive, “do or die” product development deadlines out of a misguided desire for perfection. They won’t reach out and make partnerships with the people who can help them for risk of rejection. They don’t advertise, or test their sales copy, because they don’t want to lose money. And on and on the excuses go.

The cure is simple. Take actions that are immediately measurable in dollars and cents. You can always twitter yourself in the off hours.

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
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Related posts

• Psst … Can You Keep a Secret?
• How Do I Love Marketing With E-mail? Let Me Count the Ways …
• Internet Marketing … So Many Opportunities … So Little Time!
• My Excellent Offline to Online Adventure … and How So Many E-commerce Sites Are Blowing It …
• Zen Master Secrets for Faster, More Profitable Web Copywriting!

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9 Comments »

1. Comment by Larry Foster — April 2, 2008 @ 10:21 am

   Good one, Daniel.
   I’m still trying to figure out the point of all this Web 2.0 stuff.
   It seems like it takes a lot of time and not sure about results.
   To me Twitter is the dumbest thing I’ve seen.
   Larry Foster

2. Comment by Nathan — April 2, 2008 @ 10:46 am

   Wise words Daniel… in the modern 2.0 of the web it seems that everyone is caught up in trying to build community and links etc - and forgetting that without sales - there is no purpose in being in business - unless you are a charity.  With sites out there with millions of visitors (and obscene corporate valuations) and no revenue - i say - watch for Bubble 2.0 - but the great thing is - all the hype attracting the foolish is just another step in the evolution of the internet - survival of the fittest sales machine… So let all those people keep chasing community and users - and the canny among us can be out there snatching potential sales from them - cause we have something to sell.

3. Comment by Brian — April 2, 2008 @ 10:48 am

   Another great article, Daniel! Let me ask you a neophyte question: If there’s just one program/resource/book that Sally could have read to give her just the minimal information she needed to get there and start selling stuff, what would it have been?

4. Comment by Daniel Levis — April 2, 2008 @ 11:39 am

   Hi Brian,
   Claude Hopkins book Scientific Advertising would be a good start.

5. Comment by Tommy — April 2, 2008 @ 11:43 am

   I can spot her problem…she is a shovel salesman who has no business selling marketing advice.

   Why is it everyone thinks there’s no ethical problem with selling to people who know less that you?

   My daughter is in the 5th grade and would get straight A’s if put back in the 1st grade…does that mean she is qualified to teach the 1st grade

   The internet is full of pretenders. Talking the talk is not walking the walk.

6. Comment by Colin — April 2, 2008 @ 1:33 pm

   Brilliant comparison Daniel!
   In the complimentary book The Constant Conversation downloadable at no charge from http://www.constantconversation.com, the author shows exactly how to bridge the Web 2.0 promotional tactics with a sales angle similar to what you have so wonderfully observed in your article.
   Thanks for inspiration
   Colin Arthur

7. Comment by Lori Snyder — April 3, 2008 @ 12:03 pm

   Colin,
   Could you check that link in your post? I clicked it and got a "sorry" page.
   Thanks,
   Lori Snyder

8. Comment by Troy — April 7, 2008 @ 8:22 am

   Great article.

   That is probably the best description and explanation of people using ‘busyness’ to avoid fear that I’ve read!

   "yes, but is it measurably adding to the bottom line?" should be asked of almost everything we do.

9. Comment by Andrew Cavanagh — May 31, 2008 @ 3:34 am

   Great post Daniel

   Many online marketers and offline business people fail to take two simple steps:

   1. Deciding exactly how much money they want to make and how many hours they want to work to make it.

   2. Taking action that will realistically take them towards that income goal.

   You have to take measurable, real action, track your results and then do what works and dump what doesn’t work.

   Kindest regards,
   Andrew Cavanagh