Someone just mentioned in a forum that I’m in “Daily post builds a habit! I’ve found I get better over time – and faster.”
Habits can work for or against us.
We do things habitually and can even get to the stage of not noticing what we’re doing. If you’ve ever been around someone with an annoying habit you’ll know that they’re the last person in the world to know or admit they’ve got it but everyone who comes into contact with them spots it almost immediately.
If you’re like me, your to-do list seems to grow faster than you can ever hope to complete even a fraction of the items on it.
It gets more like a bucket list of those 101 things to do before some significant age or date or whatever. You know the ones – they’re the books you get for someone else’s birthday or Christmas and there’s maybe 2 or 3 things that you can relate to and the rest fall into the “that’s nice” category but never make it any further.
The weird thing is that I know that’s happening but that doesn’t seem to stop me from adding stuff to it. Kind of a good idea because items on a list are better than items buzzing around my head, waiting to be overlooked or to pop up at the least convenient moments like waking up in the middle of the night. If you’ve ever spent a restless night with ideas keeping you awake, that’s probably a good signal that you need to put them onto paper so your mind can relax.
Because they’re quite similar, the two names (Warrior Forum and Warrior Plus) can and do get confused but they’re different companies.
Years ago, the Warrior Forum was run by a guy called Alan Says but he sold out to Freelancer for a very nice sum of money and they’ve taken over the running of the forum. As with any change, it’s not been totally smooth. The general consensus is that the Warrior Forum is still probably the biggest internet marketing forum and tends to attract a lot of newbies. A lot of the older members have dropped out and at the time of writing there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of replacements for the more experienced members so it can sometimes be a case of the blind leading the blind.
Lots of former members have changed where they are most active – Facebook groups seem to be taking over at least some of the former functions of forums, not just in internet marketing.
If you’ve got a “real” job, unless you’re on a zero hour contract then there’s a good chance that being consistent is part of the package.
Fixed working hours, fixed days off, things to do in the working hours, targets to meet, that kind of thing.
But when you’re your own boss, those kind of niceties suddenly vanish.
It’s up to you what happens and when it happens.
Which – especially when you’re starting out – can lead to things happening in a haphazard fashion. If they happen at all.
I recently wrote an email about not ignoring the obvious.
It’s so easy to get bogged down in technical detail or be forever searching for the next latest and greatest thing.
Because, almost all the time, the answer you’re looking for is hiding in plain sight, staring you in the face or maybe even (metaphorically) waving its arms and trying to attract your attention.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know most of the things that are hidden behind hyped up sales letters:
In internet marketing there’s often a marked difference between the number of email subscribers on your list and the number who actually read your emails.
You can see this over and over again on the leaderboards for offers – very often it’s people with relatively small lists but where the emails are read regularly who end up making the most sales.
The size of your list is often less important than the engagement you have with your readers.
But once they’ve signed up, how can you keep your email subscribers reading your emails rather than unsubscribing or (more likely) ignoring your messages or pressing the delete key when they arrive?
Knowing where to go next in internet marketing can be tricky.
It’s like being at a junction on a country road where the destinations are either unmarked or places you’ve never heard of.
The map you thought you were following isn’t much use, so you have to make your best guess.
Or – like a lot of people – you hesitate and procrastinate or go round in what seem to be ever decreasing circles.
And, unfortunately, that’s perfectly normal.
In internet marketing, much like anywhere else, it’s easy to follow the crowd. You’ve only got to look at the queues when there’s a new iPhone launched or, a few years ago, when a new Harry Potter book came out.
Deep down, we’re herd creatures.
But I rather like the quote from Earl Nightingale: “Look at what the majority of people are doing, and do the exact opposite, and you’ll probably never go wrong for as long as you live”.
One thing that’s been bugging me for a while now is the samey nature of most of the internet markets I’m in – and probably that you’re in.
We see those everywhere, so we figure that’s what we should be doing. And, yes, to an extent, they do still work.
But I think their effectiveness is wearing off – the more people become used to them, the more outrageous we have to be to stand out.
But we copy these techniques and expect to be able to stand out from the crowd by doing the same as everyone else.
Hmm.
Maybe there’s a disconnect there.
Actually quite a big disconnect.
A bit like Asda (owned by Walmart) positioning itself as a discount supermarket here in the UK and then being surprised when new discounters (Aldi and Lidl) undercut them and Asda lost market share. If you compete on price,. it can be a race to the bottom with the deepest pockets winning.
Earl Nightingale said “Look at what the majority of people are doing, and do the exact opposite, and you’ll probably never go wrong for as long as you live”.
And I think it’s about time we did that.
I’m currently looking for some ways to break through the “me too” atmosphere that’s far too common.
NLP calls it a pattern interrupt – much like this Dalek meditation in the self help niche
Daleks aren’t exactly relaxing and whoever created or uploaded that has attracted 1.6 million views at the time of writing but they’re not monetising it (there might be some YouTube ads but since I’ve got an Ad Blocker I wouldn’t know).
And that’s a contradiction as well – I’m a marketer but I don’t like adverts.
I watch most TV on a Sky (Tivo) box so I fast forward through adverts – the better advertisers (usually programs that are run in the day time) know this and make sure their ads work at 12 times speed with no sound as well as at regular speed. Most of those are direct response ads with the bottom part of the screen having a permanent phone number displayed.
What can we do to stand out?
Sales letters are one way – most of mine aren’t the pushy, hype laden offers.
They’re closer to the old style advertorial sales letters that took up a whole page in a publication and were designed to look as though they were part of the main newspaper or magazine.
That worked so well that the adverts now have to state that they’re an advert.
And since print advertisers know that we tend to skim over reversed out text (usually white writing on a black background) they minimised the effect of having to tell people that it was an advert by reversing out that declaration.
Advertorials still work nicely but print is in decline so their effectiveness is in decline. To the extent that in some of the print magazines I still buy, the previously regular advertorial companies have stopped advertising. So obviously it’s not paying any longer.
Review pages and long content pages have taken the place of advertorials and the web is moving towards longer and longer content.
That works – but it doesn’t get people on your email list.
So it’s basically a one shot technique,
I get regular sales for that meditation (not the dalek one) from a review page. But I don’t get people I can market to over and over again until they stop reading my emails.
For sales that are likely to be one off, long content is probably the best option. Because despite Amazon’s tracking pixel, it’s highly unlikely that someone will want to buy another lawnmower this time tomorrow.
Keep in mind that these are thoughts at the moment – not tested but I think there’s a good chance they’d work.
And probably work a lot better than those 591 ebooks that are cluttering up my download folder (and that’s after I had a clearout!) and that I’ll never go back to.
NLP (neuro linguistic programming) calls this kind of thinking a pattern interrupt.
We’re bombarded with messages and other media messages – figures vary but whatever the true number is, it’s big.
My monitor has the brand on it for me to see every time I glance near the bottom of the screen. The pen I used to use (Pentel) has the brand on it. Clothing often has the brand exposed. My phone has the brand on it. Shop fronts, adverts on the side of a bus or train, posters at bus stops and on hoardings. Even for a media recluse it’s not possible to escape the messages.
And we’re getting more media aware – my friend’s three year old daughter already knows which are the programs and which are the adverts.
So this is an experiment that needs to happen.
If you’re on my email list, I’ll keep you updated on what I do and what does (and doesn’t) work.
If you’re not currently on my list, somewhere on this page there will be a standard email opt-in box that will get you on it.
This could flop – it could be that the standard, everyone else is doing it, stuff is still the most effective.
But my gut reaction is that it could lead off in a new and nicely profitable direction.
Feel free to add your thoughts and the results of your own experiments in the comments box.
I’m intrigued and hope you are!
If you’ve been following a niche for long enough, you’ll know that most web sites and marketing begin to look very samey.
Weight loss has before and after photos, so does fitness. Internet marketing has pictures of fast cars, yachts and beaches. Plus probably a rags to riches story or some information about how the product creator took forever and a day to discover the one secret that made all the difference and that they’re now going to share with you for just $7.
There’s a crowd or herd instinct in almost every market online. Partly because (deep down) we’re herd creatures.
Very few of us are loners. And very few of us are comfortable enough to do anything other than blend in with the crowd. Even if that means we don’t sell as much of whatever it is we’re promoting.