blinkers My latest thinking? Do yourself a favour, get some blinkers and focus. At least I need them – or I need to unsubscribe from the numerous mailing lists I have joined or better still NOT to sign up in the first place. You know what it’s like – you start this work online journey and then you become exposed to offers and you sign up for mailing lists. They are all offering great freebies – so why not right? WRONG! They entice you onto lists with ‘freebies’ to sell you things later on.

Not only are the lists about selling  but they are also a major source of distraction. And if you are anything like me – well lets just say I can allow myself to be distracted…very distracted. And distraction is one thing we don’t need when we are trying to work, often alone, from home… it kind of reminds me of uni essay time. We had had the cleanest cupboards and bathrooms right? Well those latest offers are the work online equivalent of cleaning the bathroom. Actually we would be better off cleaning the bathroom…

I started this post after un-subscribing from another list… it has become part of my daily ‘ablutions‘… and it is painful. Why? Because they all market as though this is the breakthrough product. The emails are well written, enticing even, AND we want it to be the breakthrough product. I remember listening to a well known Internet marketing guru talking about how he develops a product campaign.  His mantras are:

  1. The money is in the list and
  2. consumers are lazy – and they want the easy way out… like weight loss.
  3. Become a reliable and authoritative source.

Therefore he develops a list with freebies and then after a while sends out email ‘info’ on affordable products (his or others) that offer a happy ever after and he has a winner. He wins every time because he sells more kits products at a lower priced thus off setting possible earnings with sales volume and/or he gets a kick back for marketing friends products. You know how it goes – “THIS is the deal that will change your life“. Bollocks. You have the power to change your life.  So do it and unsubscribe from lists!

It’s all about the possibility right? The possibility that this product might change our life – might pay all our bills, might… you fill in the blanks. I think the key to breaking free of this loop is to identify our drivers. What are we motivated by? Desperation? Fear? Anxiety? Are we able to see and be grateful for what we have? Are we operating out of a poverty mentality? Another guru talked about having spent a veritable fortune on product before he made a commitment to one and so made money. By the way – most of the products he bought were never used… sound familiar? Actually it sounds more and more like the weight loss industry. Is there a pattern here about taking control of our lives?

As I said, I have just unsubscribed from three sites this morning alone – it’s beginning to feel like a detox. Every day the in box gets smaller – which is a HUGE relief because I don’t feel like I have to ‘stay on top‘ of everything that comes in. That was very onerous – trying to keep up with everything and it’s an illusion. When you think about it,we are not staying on top of anything other than marketing hype by joining lists. It’s a fine line between staying in the loop and being strangled by an ever tightening loop of unread emails and sense of lost possibilities. And can we ‘keep up‘ with everything – is it realistic? We have to deal with the fear that we might miss the opportunity that could change our lives. I sometimes get a gnawing in the pit of my (your?) gut – this could be it – THE one… that explodes and delivers… and gives me (you) the power to make the kinds of choices I (you) want to make. Hmmn – of course the missing piece of that fantasy is the person who makes it happen – she types sheepishly…

While we were overseas we started an SBI site (Site Build It Site). The SBI philosophy is simple, start a site on a topic you like/know something about/have something to offer and then create content. In fact create heaps of content and give folks what they need/want. The aim is to become such an useful site that folks will keep coming back. Then, after a while you add various income generating strategies to the site; it might be selling a product,  building a list, affiliate marketing – any number of strategies. The logic is simple – give folks what they want – be an authority, be generous and later monetise the site. Thereafter maintain the commitment to quality information and keep developing the site. Makes sense right? We signed up with SBI over a year ago and we started – but we didn’t follow through. We started the site – and got side tracked. The SBI mantra is simple

“when is doubt create more content – content is king – focus”

and that can be hard when you are tired, the kids are screaming and you’ve got all these unread emails and then there it is… the offer of the goose that lays the golden egg. We bought into a goose that does lay golden eggs (with a bot of help) and we turned managed to turn it into a lemon Why? Because we didn’t follow through – we did not stay focused.

We tried a lot of things since then and so we have some experience in Internet marketing and are able to look behind what and how we are being sold.  Most Internet marketers are doing what SBI has been espousing forever – give folks quality… over deliver and then folks will come back for more. We are talking about customer service on the net – customer ‘over service’ if you like. And that’ s what these guys are wanting to be seen to do with the free offers and inexpensive products they offer. They want to be seen to be over servicing. They want to be seen to giving you the tickets to the Merc – they want you to feel they are generous, trustworthy… worth doing business with. The truth is they want you to buy into the list so they can sell to you later.

So do yourself a favour – get off the list, get focused and when in doubt create more content!

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