One of the main tenets of internet affiliate marketing is
the belief that all you have to do is offer your downline an
easily duplicated system, and they too can be successful.
I'm asking you to climb out of that box and offering you
another one to think in for a while.
What's wrong with the easily duplicated system? First of
all, the word "easy". My experience with using the words
easy, computer, and internet in the same sentence is that
whatever the sentence expresses will be true until it isn't.
In other words, your statement will sooner or later prove
false.
Case in point: I went to my bank yesterday, to make a
"simple" deposit. It's always very simple because all I
have to do is approach the teller, tell her what I want to
do, give her my bank card and the cash, and she does the
rest. Easy.
Enter the computer and the internet. Turns out that
yesterday the computer system was down. Not only that, but
it was nationwide. Not only that, but it wasn't just my
bank, other banks were experiencing the same problem. Can
you spell "hacker"?...what was easy the day before was still
easy, but the big unknown was when the system would "know"
that my money was there and send it where I wanted it to go.
Easy to deposit, not so easy to pay the rent.
A few days before that, it was a hacker into my website's
server...no website for a couple days...you get the idea
here. No guarantees.
Now for "easily duplicated system". The word easy is
subjective, what's easy for you may not be easy for me. I
can't argue with a system being duplicated...but the ease
and success rate cannot be guaranteed. Not only that, but
the element of serendipity is in there also, which is
basically being in the right place at the right time, and
that quality is immeasurable. It can change at any time.
There is absolutely no way of knowing until you aim and fire
whether you will hit that target or not.
There are so many variables that it boggles the mind. So
basically what you are left with is Russian roulette: the
system will work, until it doesn't.
The new box I'm offering you is empty. First we're going to
fill it with a few babies.
Babies?? you say. What the...??
You've heard the term "don't throw the baby out with the
bathwater". Babies and bathwater is what I call all the
advice you get from the experts, the mentors, those who have
gone before and accomplished wondrous things. I'm asking
you to think of what they offer not as The Gospel According
to Joe Blow, but as babies and bathwater. You have to sort
out the keepers from the disposables.
If you read the advice of many many many "gurus" you will
hear a few things said over and over...the value of
developing and marketing your own (often information)
product; developing an opt-in list; marketing via
autoresponder to this list; identifying a niche market;
aligning yourself with one, then another, ultimately a few
good affiliate programs that fill the needs of your niche
market; building a website that offers information and
affiliate links to this market...and then the big
unknown...staying on top of trends, learning to identify
what the next big trend or product or service or tool will
be and getting in on the ground floor...maybe creating that
floor.
A big part of the serendipity is actually sensing where you
want to be in the near future and getting there before the
crowd arrives. Following your intuition, based on knowledge
from studying, asking, listening, evaluating and making an
educated guess, may be your most important business tools,
and this is not easily duplicated. Once you receive a
message from your intuition, you set yourself a goal, decide
on a series of objectives that will culminate in reaching
your goal, develop action plans to reach each objective, and
then get started.
Once you reach your goal, you say aha! Success! (if you're
lucky) Now I have a duplicatable system I can market to
wannabees.
Only problem is, there are no guarantees. The crowd can get
there faster than a speeding bullet. Someone can move the
target.
Duplicatable systems have their uses. They help newbies get
their feet wet, provide the guidance needed until there is a
sense of "how things work." It's this "sense", intuition
based on knowledge, that is really what an affiliate
marketer wants to develop. No one can give this to you, but
a good teacher can give you a baby or two to put in your
box.
My elderly father talks of life before refrigerators; as a
boy he watched ice blocks being delivered by horse-drawn
wagons. His older brother was born the same year (1903)that
the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane (the longest
flight was 59 seconds.)
My mind is boggled by the changes my father has seen in his
lifetime. "Progress" has progressed at an incredible rate
of speed. What will we see before we are elderly?
Obviously the key here is imagination...
The mark of a true mentor is being able to nurture the
apprentice's ability to study, ask, listen, evaluate,
interpret, and hear and listen to his OWN inner voice. A
true mentor builds courage and stimulates imagination and
creativity. A true mentor walks his talk...he just keeps
going and growing.
A pretty interesting box we've created for ourselves, eh?
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About the author:
Glenn Beach is a poet, writer and home business entrepreneur in Nova Scotia, Canada. Free newsletter, more articles, and business start-up info at: http://www.work-at-home-business-opportunity-canada.com
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