An exception to the rule
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I almost never publish other people’s articles on this blog. Today I am going to make an exception. This was an article from Marlon Sander’s that struck a chord with me and I am sure it will with others.
“The Basic Dilemma Of Internet Marketers That You’re Probably Struggling With Also — And What To Do About It” By Marlon Sanders
There’s a basic dilemma all Internet marketers face:
Learn the new methods that get better results
Versus –
Do the basics that you know work.
If you want to make maximum profits, then you need to learn and use the latest methods on the one hand.
On the other hand, if you want to make maximum profits, you have to DO things and FOCUS. You can’t learn everything and do everything.
It’s a classic double bind.
If you spend all your money and time learning new things to get better results, then you don’t have time to DO the things you know work.
At the same time, if you spend all your time DOING, you often miss out on the easy profits created by newer, more state-of-the- art methods.
This puts internet marketers in a real time crunch because a person can’t do both — learn all the new methods hitting the market practically weekly AND also DO what needs to be done to make a profit.
What’s the solution?
I call it breathing. It’s a natural rhythm. You learn. Then you do. You learn. Then you do.
If you get stuck in learning and don’t do, you won’t make the most you can. And vice versa, if you DO but don’t learn, you’ll spin your wheels and quite possibly not succeed.
In my case, I’m devoting this whole entire year to implementing just one new SYSTEM of thinking in my business.
I started on this system one year ago. And I let myself get quickly sidetracked last year. I decided that this year, I want to take the one concept and fully and completely implement it.
I talk to some marketers who just don’t know what they’re doing. They REALLY need to learn more. They need to learn about writing copy, graphics, doing surveys, finding markets and product creation.
On the other hand, there are MANY marketers who HAVE been in this business 3-5 years and know all the basics and some of the advanced stuff.
Yet, they just don’t get products out. They don’t get promos done. They get caught up in the paralysis of analysis and don’t do ANYTHING.
That’s why the natural rhythm of money is to learn and do.
Learn and do. If what you DO doesn’t work, it’s time to LEARN some more. But if you haven’t DONE what you’ve LEARNED, it’s time you focus on DOING for awhile.
A lot of people get stuck on that point because DOING is a pain in the tail end a lot of days. You ALWAYS are going to be afraid of making mistakes. You are ALWAYS going to run into frustrations and things that don’t work right.
It’s ALWAYS going to take longer and be harder than you THOUGHT.
But the people who succeed can tolerate the PAIN OF ACTION. It’s easy to sit back and learn. I love it. But DOING means you run into obstacles and things that don’t work right.
It means you’re confronted with the details of learning programs. It means you’ll screw up and make mistakes. Worse than that, it means you’ll DO things that don’t work!
For every 1 thing that WORKS, you’ll likely try TEN that don’t. And I don’t care WHO you are. If someone denies that, they either don’t have much experience, they’re lying or they aren’t honest with themselves.
I remember discussing this whole topic with Cory Rudl in times past. I would think I was the only one who had such and so thing not work right. I’d talk to Cory and find out that he’d had the same exact issues.
It made me feel a little better that I wasn’t the only one in the world who had things that didn’t work as I anticipated.
I hope this article gives you a little more clarity on the fundamental dilemma of Internet marketers and puts you on the path to greater profits.
Marlon Sanders
Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy.” If you’d like to get on his mailing list and receive tips, articles and information about online marketing, visit: The Amazing Formula.
Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
January 26th, 2007 at 6:41 am
Great article, thanks for putting this up Mike.
I love Marlins little golden nuggets like “analysis paralysis” and ” learn and do, learn and do”
I would add to the learn and do though and say “learn and do until complete”
When I say complete I dont mean finish and move on, I mean taking a project from an idea to a working model, and then improve on.
We can all do that while we learn more, so I guess the saying would go “learn and do and complete and improve and do and learn”.
Ah, there seems to be a marketing circle of life forming.
Without going into a novel sized post I have found that almost everything that I do that is successful online incorporates some type of one of these marketing circles of life.
That is, projects become successfull once the circle is complete.
There cant be any open ends in my circles where any goodies can leak out.
Oh well, something to think about anyway.
January 26th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Yep I agree RC. Funny plugging leaks will be my article in the next Opt In Master Course newsletter.All those little pieces can make the difference between success and failure.