Internet Marketing - Selling the Selling

Are You Following The Herd?

There’s an old saying “if you want to get rich, sell shovels to the miners”.

At one time the World Wide Web was gold rush territory, those people who got in early made fortunes, and quite often, fairly easily.  To sellers and buyers alike it was something new, exciting, and convenient.  But as always, when there is competition for the almighty dollar, there are abuses, and so new rules and regulations had to be put into place.

Google as the Sheriff

Part of the genius of Google is that they took a bit of control of the Wild West aspect of the internet, and to continue the analogy, tamed it somewhat.  Nothing is perfect however, and when people are obsessed with getting money they always find loopholes they can exploit.  Some of these loopholes are legitimate; hence, there is White Hat, or Grey Hat Techniques.  Then there are other methods called Black Hat where they basically try, and often succeed for awhile, in finding ways to trick the search engines.  If that was all Black Hatters did I would say “more power to em”.

That has always been the game between those who want to make rules and enforce them, and those who feel the rules infringe on their ‘rights’ to do whatever, in this case, make money.  But there are also many BH techniques that come down to outright fraud.

Internet Guru’s

The real idea of a Guru is that one was a self realized being.  They were more than just a teacher and more importantly didn’t need to sell the sizzle.  What they had to offer the student was something real and genuine. The information that they have to share has remained basically unchanged, even though entire world maps and cultures have changed and evolved.

Now I don’t want to paint the entire race of internet Guru’s with one brush stroke, but the fact is, many have just found a loophole or two, they profit by it, and in the ever changing internet landscape, when they sense the sheriff is tightening the noose on their technique, put together a package and sell it.  In my opinion, even though this is legal, this is just as bad and damaging to people, as any outright BH fraud.

But even those Guru’s who claim to be sincere and just want to help people “make a living, just like me”,  also sell their strategies and techniques to the miners.  But what happens in either case, is that the techniques quickly becomes saturated with miners who smell the sizzle, are enticed by the latest ‘gold rush’, and then pay outrageous amounts of money to get in ‘before the door closes’.

As always, just as there are people who do win the lottery, there are always a few students who do succeed and get what they paid for.  Of course, in the standard disclaimer, it is basically the student’s fault if they don’t succeed.

Shovel Fundamentals

There will always be new tools and methods created to automate and improve certain internet functions, and thank goodness for that!  Often, these are tools and techniques are worth paying for.  Even if they do just work for a short period of time.

The fundamental secret to success is this: Creating Quality Content.

In other words, you don’t find the gold, you don’t dig for the gold, you create the gold.

In whatever you do, do your best.  Your only chance at continued success is in creating content that not only does your potential audience finds substantial enough to keep coming back for, so does the search engines.

Be Fearless

Billy Ojai