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Internet Marketing - The Seven Ages Of Internet Marketers - Part Two

In the first article in this pair we saw how some people managed to get their websites off the ground. Now let's look at the dangers that come packaged with internet success.

The fifth stage is where most internet marketers who get this far, usually get stuck. It isn't a on-line phenomenon. I came across this many years ago in off-line marketing, when I noticed a pattern emerge in the sales team I was leading, and it's this.

Pretty much each sales person had "their" particular sales figures, which they produced with uncanny regularity every month. Some were high and some were low - but the common thread was the personal continuity. The reason was simple: each had an idea of what they felt they could achieve and none would not budge out of their comfort zone.

Internet marketers can easily fall into the same trap. Once they have set up their web site, got a regular amount of traffic and it's all working like clockwork, they ease up. Great! Isn't that what we all want: a web site or two that works on autopilot bring in the money whilst we do something more interesting?

Up to a point, it is. But, like the mythical perpetual motion machine, your automatic web site will start to lose momentum and slowly run down to a standstill, unless you do some work to keep the content up to date, get fresh blood onto your subscriber lists and keep mailing that list. Even so, once you reach this level of maturity, you can make a very nice full time income from just part time attendance.

But don't let your hard won knowledge and skills fossilize. Use your imagination to see how you can monetize them further. Consider giving seminars, so others can benefit from your experience. It will be a new avenue for your talents and I bet it will spark new ambition within you. Then you'll be ready to become a black belt webmaster.

A black belt in internet marketing is what we should all strive for (and then some). Because, once you reach that level of expertise, you will cease working in your business and start working on your business.

The distinction is subtle, but vital. 

By using the internet as your main marketing medium, you have already taken a dramatic step towards being a smart business owner. Of course, you can sell anything on the internet, because it's not a business as such -- simply  the best marketing medium ever devised. However, if your product is information, delivered digitally, you are even further along that sweet road to freedom. Now you need to make that final upward shift from handling any of the day to day stuff -- with to sole exception of the most important part of any business -- the marketing.

Every other function must be ruthlessly delegated or outsource to reliable people. Your time is too valuable to waste on trivia, but you must make sure they are utterly reliable, else your time will be spent firefighting. Finally you are ready to move up to the true freedom owning a money making asset of a business that looks after you, rather than the other way round.

Once you get to this stage you will ready to be a black belt Seventh Dan in internet marketing.

To a certain extent, the seeds of getting to this highest level of maturity should have been planted at the very start of your journey. Right from the start, you should have formed a clear, long term plan for your business. One of the notable traits of all successful people is they have a clear long term vision for the business, broken down into clear short term goals. You should not be an exception.

What this means for you, when you reach the seventh age of greatest maturity on the internet, is being in a position to sell your business as a going concern, complete with the diamond mine of a happy and active subscriber list, for anything up to ten times the annual profit. You've already seen it happen with MySite and YouTube, so why not your site? So, if you are making a million bucks a year profit, you can expect to walk away with a check for up to $10,000,000.  Put that in high yielding bonds, sail off into the sunset and you will finally know true financial and personal freedom, which is surely the real purpose of this.

© Copyright 2006 Paul Hooper-Kelly and InternetMarketingMagician.com

KEYWORDS:using the internet as your main marketing medium, black belt in internet marketing, long term plan for your business, traits of successful people, clear long term vision for the business, sell your business as a going concern, finally know true financial and personal freedom, paul hooper-kelly, internet marketing magician
 
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SUMMARY: In the first article in this pair we saw how some people managed to get their websites off the ground. Now let's look at the dangers that come packaged with internet success. The fifth stage is where most internet marketers who get this far, usually get stuck.

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