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making money online

The biggest myth of “making money online”

By Christian

I don't mean to disappoint, but there are some "internet marketing" myths that really need to be cleared up 🙂

Do you want to “make money online”? Do you want to “make money blogging”? Do you want to “build an internet business”? Well, forget about it. This article describes why the whole “make money online” thing is completely misunderstood by most business owners!

I’ve spent some time thinking about the whole “internet business” thing lately, and this is part of what originally caused me to start this Dangerous Tactics blog. I’ve read articles recently like this one from David Risley, where he talks about his feelings on why some people make money online…and why most people don’t. Derek Jensen unloads on us here on why people need to stop talking about how to make money online. Sonia Simone has also shared some awesome thoughts with us about why you can’t make money blogging…ironically enough, her post appears on one of the most profitable blogs in existence. Bottom line, the internet is a misunderstood place. It’s a new frontier, and there’s a lot of opportunity here, but let’s not lose track of what the internet is…and what it is not.

The biggest myth of “making money online” is that the internet has somehow changed how business works. It hasn’t. Here’s the truth:

The internet is a place, not a tactic. The internet has changed HOW people buy, not WHY they buy.

On the surface, this may seem like a minor difference, but the difference has massive ramifications. If you take some time to absorb this truth, it will affect how you approach your business on many levels. It will make you more profitable, because you’ll realize all the flash-bang, snazzy products and courses on “how to make money online” are built on a false premise. They are built on the premise that the internet is some magical place that YOU don’t understand. And of course once you “get it”, you’ll be able to “leverage the internet” and make millions.

How to really make money online

To be completely fair, there ARE some things you need to learn about marketing online. There’s some jargon and some moderately techy stuff that you need to learn, but once you “get it”, you’ll realize the internet is just another place where people hang out. You’ll realize that technology has changed…quite a bit. But people…haven’t changed a bit. Most of us are a bit crazy, mixed up, emotional, awesome, a lot of fun…and we buy LOTS of stuff, spend TONS of money on things, and we buy things for the EXACT same reasons as we did a million years ago.

This is what we need to learn how to do: we need to learn dangerous ninja selling tactics, so we can be highly effective and sell lots of our stuff. And yes, we’re going to do it online. We’re going to run blogs and squeeze pages, and we’re going to build email lists and sell things on the internet, and I’m going to show you how to do it. But we’re NOT building an “internet business”. We’re building a “real” business. Does that make sense?

Real Tactics for Selling to Real People

On this blog I share with you many of the ways I’ve made money…both online and offline for the past decade or so. The tactics are solid. They work on the internet. They work off the internet too. How could it be the case that these tactics are so powerful? One reason: people buy for the same reasons, both online and offline. At the end of the day, you’re either running a real business or you’re not.

If you’re running a real business, you will make money. If you’re not, you can use all the blog formulas, make money online formulas, launch formulas or any other type of formulas, and it won’t matter. Formulas don’t make money. Businesses make money.

Now you can choose to market your business online, and that would be a smart decision, seeing as how so many people are here. But don’t think of your business as an “internet business”, and don’t think of your marketing as “internet marketing”. It’s business. And it’s marketing. Just plain old business and marketing.

Screw the internet

The internet could implode tomorrow, and I’d still be rockin, because I don’t run an internet business. I run a business that I happen to market exclusively online right now. If something happened to the interwebz, I would just change my marketing plan. Problem solved. I bet the chances are good that you want that type of flexibility and security in your business as well, no?

If you think of yourself as an “internet entrepreneur” or a “social media marketer” or whatever, then go visit your local shopping mall and try to find a business that considers itself a “mall business”. Try to find a “how to launch a mall business” ebook somewhere. Yeah. Just because a business is located at the mall doesn’t mean it’s a “mall business”, and just because your business is engaged primarily in marketing online shouldn’t define you either. Most internet-based businesses have a LOT more in common with their brick and mortar counterparts than they realize. Figure out your business, and I bet you will see you’re not an “internet entrepreneur” after all. You’re simply an entrepreneur. That’s pretty liberating, no?

How to Not Suck at Business Blogging

By Christian

This is a post I wrote a while ago, and I’ve decided to share it on Next Level Blogger for this reason…I believe everyone reading this blog is concerned with truly doing what’s necessary to be effective at marketing themselves online. This means different things to different people, but the one thing it means to all business people is that we need to make money blogging. In business, if it’s not profitable, it’s not sustainable. We need to be efficient, and we need to be good.

I maintain regularly in this blog that being successful at making money online requires embracing the salesman we all have inside of us. The topic of sales is always volatile. Most people do not want to be salespeople, but I argue you are a salesperson whether you want to be or not. It’s not a matter of whether you are or not…it’s only a matter of whether you’re good or not. My goal is to help all readers of Next Level Blogger to truly excel in this area and to be successful at making their business all it can be through blogging, social networking and internet marketing. That said, here are some of my thoughts on salesmanship. I’d love to hear your comments…

“Salesman” is a dirty word. It’s one of the reasons I’m attracted to the profession and why I consider myself a salesman. It’s a massively misunderstood profession. It’s also a massively abused and poorly executed profession. There are good salespeople out there, but there are very few. I am one of the good ones. It’s my mission to teach others that salesmanship is not dead but more vital and needed than ever. It’s good salesmanship that will make or break your business. It’s good salesmanship that will make or break your life. It’s good salesmanship (not money) that makes the world go round…

A good sales experience can profoundly change your opinion about something. It can make you a fan for life. It can affect your decisions in a fundamental way. Believe it or not, everyone is in sales. It’s not a matter of debate. You want stuff. Other people have what you want. You want them to give it to you. That makes you a salesperson. Look, this doesn’t mean you’re a GOOD salesperson. You’re probably not. You’re probably a bad salesperson. You’re probably ineffective and inept at sales. But there’s a good reason for that. The reason is you’ve never focused on your sales skills. You’re never sat down to make a plan to systematically improve your sales skills. Probably because you don’t consider yourself a salesman. That’s fine. It’s your choice. But I’m telling you, the sooner you accept the fact that you’re a salesperson, the sooner you can get down to work and finally start getting what you want out of life.

You Have Ethical Responsibilities

Here’s a real key to success in sales. And it’s one of the reasons so many salespeople are bad at what they do. You have ethical responsibilities. It is your right to live how you choose, but it is your ethical mandate to live in a way that is mutually beneficial. Most salespeople just want the close, and that is where they screw it up. The largest most important thing you can do to greatly improve the quality of your life in sales is to answer the question of “why”.

Why do you want what you want? Why do you want your boss to give you more money? Why do you want this person to buy from you? Why do you want more vacation time? Why do you want that new car? Why are you willing to work late and sacrifice time with your family in order to get these things? See, you better have good answers to these questions, and they better be answers you’d be happy to share with your mother. If not, you need to own up to the fact that maybe, just maybe that new car just isn’t worth working for. Maybe you want it for the wrong reasons. Follow?

If you want good things, for mutually beneficial reasons, that is the first and more fundamental step towards becoming a good salesperson. See, if you know why your goal is mutually beneficial, all you have to do is explain it well to your customer, your boss or whoever you’re selling to. With good communication skills, the rest is a piece of cake. It’s when we try to use good communication skills to our customers’ peril…that’s when we give salesmanship a bad name. When we have a goal which is not in our customers’ best interest, but we try to acheive the goal anyway…that’s when we’ve violated our ethical responsibilities. That’s not success, my friend, even if you DO have your dream car.

How to Rock

When you’ve aligned your goals with a healthy concern for others, you will ultimately find that what Zig Ziglar says is true, “You can have anything you want in life, if you can just help enough other people get what they want.” There is no better way to achieve your goals! Now that your goals are simply to help others, you will find that this one factor alone will affect your entire approach to building your business. Instead of just trying to close the deal, you’ll investigate the customer’s motives, needs and wants, and you’ll work to find a way to help and add value. This is true salesmanship. This is where you find common ground and develop a mutually beneficial relationship that lasts. This is how you REALLY reach your long term goals.

And that is why I’m in sales. I know that when I sell a product or a service, I’ve made a friend. I would honestly do whatever I can to help them out, and guess what…I get paid too. A nice little bonus.