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Been There; Done That
© 2004 By Jo McNamara
"There are no secrets to success. It is the result
of preparation, hard work and learning from
failure."
General Colin L. Powell
In October 2000, I bought my first Internet
marketing
program to promote. I paid $20.00 for the
program;
$179.40 for an autoresponder for one year;
$64.99 to
be able to accept credit cards and checks on my
website; $15.00 for monthly web hosting; and
$29.95
for membership to another club to help me
advertise.
I was so naive; I didn't really know what I was
paying for. I just knew that the creator of this
program said I HAD to have all this stuff to be
successful on the Net.
I just knew I had found (or bought) my way to
Internet marketing riches! Like the happy idiot
I was,
I started to advertise online. Never mind that I
didn't know HOW to advertise. All I had to do
was use
the headlines and ad copy that came with the
program.
Gems like, "How to quickly generate a steady
steam of
$20 checks into your mailbox!" Or, "How to make
$200-300 a day!"
I started advertising using FFA's. I did follow
the
suggestion to open up a throw-away email
account.
Actually, I would open up ten at a time because
every
two days, the one I was using would fill up.
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Using the advertising club I had paid $29.95 to become
a member of, I started placing ads at the classified
sites. This club had a list of sites from A to Z. I
would start with all the listings under "A" and about
a week later finally get to "Z." Of course, then it
was time to go back to "A" and start the process all
over again.
Then the creative genius inside of me decided I could
come up with my own headlines and ad copy. Believe me,
they weren't any better than the ones I was copying. I
remember one that to this day turns my face red with
embarrassment. "GROW YOUR OWN $20 MONEY TREE! How
would YOU like YOUR very own $20 money tree and be able
to pluck cash from it every day when YOU want to?" Gee,
how do you spell H-Y-P-E?
After a while, not content to promote just one program,
I started signing up for other FREE! affiliate programs.
That word "FREE" would get me every time. Put an
exclamation point behind it and I can be had (cheap).
Before long, I had signed up for 20+ affiliate programs.
I couldn't be bothered with creating new headlines and
ad copy. I would just use the ones that came with each
program. I had the time, so I spent eight hours a day
promoting my programs to FFA's and classified sites. But
first I had to open up 20 throw-away email accounts at a
time to handle ALL the traffic I would be receiving.
Then I learned about surf-for-credit programs.
Guaranteed traffic! If I stay on a site for 30 seconds,
I would get one visitor to my website. Now I'm an
all-or-nothing kind of person. So I paid $50 to triple my
credits for one month. Instead of one credit, I would get
three. I figured if I spent three and a half hours surfing,
I could rack up 1000 credits a day! Who cares if it's not
targeted traffic it's traffic to my website. I decided I'd
better start getting up at 4 a.m. so that I could do that
AND still place ads in FFA's and classified sites.
At some point in my online journey, I discovered something
called "ezines." I thought, "What the heck. Might as well
subscribe. After all, they're FREE" (I told you I love that
word). I was fortunate because I started out with some very
good ones. I began to read the articles and after a while I
was printing some of them for reference.
BEAT the Cold Winter of 2007 ARIZONA'S NEWEST WONDER
Kartchner Caverns State Park opened in 1999. This stunning limestone cave system is one of the top in the world. Visit Sunny Southwest this cold winter |
That's when things started to change for me. Through the
articles in ezines, I learned about writing effective
headlines and ad copy. By applying what I was learning,
I
started to make some sales.
Gradually, I dropped the other affiliate programs to
concentrate on the original one I had purchased in
October.
As I became more involved with ezines and learning about
online promotion, I lost quite a bit of my naiveti. It's
hard to learn and still stay ignorant. I came to the
conclusion that the program I was promoting had too many
hidden costs and I was becoming uneasy about that fact.
I had learned a good lesson. Only promote products and
programs I used and more importantly, believed in. I
eventually found a program that I felt offered excellent
value to my customers and I was comfortable promoting it
because it came with a solid money-back guarantee.
It's been a little over a year since I first ventured
into
the world of CyberMarketing. As you can see, I made
quite
a few mistakes. None of them are unique; all of us go
through this. I don't think that's a bad thing as long
as
we learn from our mistakes. However, I suspect most
people
don't. They just figure the program sucks and wander off
searching for another one that guarantees instant Net
"success." Continually disappointed, they come to the
conclusion that they can't make money online and give up
completely. They deny themselves the opportunity to
fulfill
their dreams.
BEAT the Cold Winter of 2007 ARIZONA'S NEWEST WONDER
Kartchner Caverns State Park opened in 1999. This stunning limestone cave system is one of the top in the world. Visit Sunny Southwest this cold winter |
I still have a long way to go. The problem
with learning is
you feel obliged to apply the knowledge you now
have. I
have many areas I know I need to deal with. But
one of the
best things about Internet marketing is that it
allows you
to grow at your own pace and do what you feel
you can in
your own time.
As long as the passion, the desire and
willingness to learn
is within you; as long as you don't fall victim
to the
get-rich-quick mentality; as long as you focus
on long-term,
rock-solid "success" there's a very good
likelihood that you
will reach your goals. You'll stumble; you'll
scrape up your
knees. But if you pick yourself up and keep on
moving, no
matter how unsteady; you'll eventually be living
a life your
imagination could only have conceived of.
"I know the price of success: dedication, hard
work and an
unremitting devotion to the things you want to
see happen."
Frank Lloyd Wright
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jo McNamara lives in Orlando, FL, with 8 cats
and 1 husband.
To receive all other articles written by Jo:
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"I wish I had discovered the Internet Marketing Success
Arsenal when I got started in Net marketing. I would have
saved countless wasted, frustrating hours and more money
than I care to think about."
http://www.what-works-online.net
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