What do you want?
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Mike Filsaime had a very interesting article on his blog a few days ago. It was titled Fish, Poles, Boxes, and Buttons… WTC?
It brings up a great question. What do you want?
He tells the old tale of give a man a fish feed him for a day - teach a man to fish feed him for a lifetime.
His conclusion is that people don’t want either. They want to quote him “But they do not just want the fish, but they want it cooked, served right out of the oven, with a great white wine, butter and lemon on to baste it, and some nice rice and vegetables on the side.
And… They want it in a nice environment, and they want pay someone to do it right for them!”
He makes a great point that I have seen. People will gladly pay me twice as much to install a blog for them as what I charge for a course that will teach them to do it for themselves over and over again.
Now the question to consider for me as a marketer is do I create the fish dinner and charge more or do I work with people that want to learn and be able to feed themselves?
Which are you? You want a fish. You want to learn to fish. You want the fish dinner all served up and will pay accordingly.
Please leave your comments. Should be interesting.
September 11th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
i want to learn how to fish and work onthe internet ?have been very unsuccessful so far ? just starting to change my host to host gator , would like to learn how to be successful?
September 11th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Hi Mike
I would be one of the one’s that want to learn to fish. I have always been one to learn all I can about what I am doing and as much as I can about what everybody else is doing. Its hard for me to ask others all the time what and how to do next.
Have a good day
William
September 11th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Mike,
Interesting article. Personally I don’t fall in either category. I’m a self-taught fisherman. I’ve taught myself everything from setting a web server, dns, email, user accounts which led me to a hosting business. I have several blogs setup using WP. My main personal blog about me, Jon Molesa, and most recently my recent further study of PHP Programming and a news site that I’ve put together for Wilkes County, North Carolina.
I do agree with you that most people would rather pay someone else to do something for them rather than do it themselves. But most have a hard time producing the necessary cheddar. Then the question becomes does my intended market have the capital and lack of desire to pay me to do things for them? It’s a good question. And one worth answering. But another approach may be deciding to offer the fish dinner in addition to teaching people to fish. Put a value on it and market it. Marketing one service shouldn’t be any more expensive than another service.
You’d still be in a niche. For those that can and want to pay someone to do it they can now contact you. The hard part is coming up with a value. That’s just my two cents worth. I hope it helps ya out a bit. And if you find some time head over to my blog. I could use some comments too.
September 11th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Hello Mike
Its very difficoult to say 1 or 2.
But for a newuocommer the easists way is to get the fish ready to eat.
But for also a newcommer who wants to learn, i think i would chose mayking the fish.
I have now tried in over a year, and it has only cost money, becouse i still is a newcombaby in this busines
Yours
Ole
ole.chris@mail.dk
September 11th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Mike, I am so happy that I found the Internet.
It the opprtunity to meet people of your ilk and wisdom that alows me to enjoy every day even more.
Regarding the analogy, even though I “used your Service”, I am continuing to learn how to become more a “fisherman”, which wasa daily (yes daily event) when my children were home.
There is a time when the choice to get a “finished Horse” or “start one from Scratch” become one of priority….
If I need one in a Hurry I buy the BEST…
It is a Tool….
But I always kept a few around in the Training pen…
It takes focus, time and energy to get the finished product.
And the One you “start” is always better than someone elses.
No reflection on your superb performance on my Blog
Some changes have occured, thanks to you guidance
and the program.
http:/www.news.beginnersmarketingclass.com
Thank you good Friend
September 11th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Hey Mike,
I get it! I really get!
You see, I am actively involved in the Spiritual Consultation business and I see clients all the time who want direction and guidance in everyday, common sense areas of their lives. It is one thing to advise a person to seek within and all the answers they will ever need will be revealed. Rather they would have me to TELL them what is best for them or not. I find that they already know the true answer but would rather have someone else tell them what’s best for them than to DO what is best for them.
I decided to create my websites around self improvement with a bit of internet marketing thrown in. I want people to seek for themselves and I will guide them to the information and tools that will assist them on their journey.
And remember it’s similar to “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”
Warmly,
SilverStreak
September 11th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
I would like to say I am self taught, but I am learning WordPress from you so we both know where I stand, but obviously my blog is better for it. Keep up the good work.
Chris
September 11th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Chris
A big difference between getting training like you have to do something better. The fish with rice etc is having someone create the blog, post the content and do everything for you.
You just pay for it all.
Then if you want to duplicate it you pay again.
September 11th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Which am I?
I want to learn to fish so well that I can teach others to how to succeed online too. So after I learn to fish I can then serve an excellent dish with wine and the veggie side dish in a nice enviroment and have members pay me accordingly. So a variation on teach a man to fish - help enough people get what they want, and then I can get what I want. Dont just love marketing? lol
September 11th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
This interesting. I am sure most people will say that they want to learn to fish, (present company excluded), but the reality is they want the meal ready made for them and then think they are actually fishing.
So setting people up who want the setting up is fine, and is probably a good thing, but not everything, maybe leave out a few things for the person to do themselves, to give them a feeling of ownership of what they doing.
You know the old balancing act, do most of it, but not to much…..
September 11th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Mike,
I hope you keep teaching people to FISH
Sooner or later, people might ‘get it’ - once they’ve either used up all that is in their pockets - or once they’ve had enough failures to LEARN to try something different than they’ve been doing (expecting everything for free with NO WORK attached). Sooner or later, people will have to learn to fish, I think. OR they’ll go away, go back to their day jobs, be unrewarded by that, and leave you alone so you can finish teaching ME TO FISH…
Got my tacklebox ready, Mike - what time does the bait store open up?
I’ll be there first thing in the mornin’, whether you show up or not. I’ll save you a spot.
teeray~~
September 11th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Hi, Mike
Whilst there are many, many people that do just want the easy option of everything to be up, running and productive for them. I am one of those people that believe it is better to learn how to do things for themselves.
Please don’t get me wrong when i say that if all things were done and dusted for us all, we would all end up as non thinking zombies. We already live in a world where a lot of the manual skills have been taken over by machinery etc, but what happens in a time when something like a major catastrophe happens. We end up with no one knowing how these fundamental elements fit side by side to make the whole.
Here’s an instance to consider! I took my young son fishing, along with some friends. I set up his equipment and showed him how to bait his hook and cast his line. I decided to move further up stream to a spot just round a bend that i liked to fish. I had a great time and about an hour later i went to check on how my son was doing. When i got there, he was sat on his basket, looking really bored and unhappy. When i asked what was wrong, he stated that just after i had moved to my favorite spot, he got snagged and lost his hook and float. I had not shown him how to set up his equipment, i had done it for him and he did not know how to do it himself. He did not enjoy his day fishing and never went with me again, because he said that it was boring.
Maybe if i had shown him how to do things instead of doing the setting up for him, he would have put another float and hook on his line and enjoyed his first catch and the passion that builds from it.
The moral is: When things go wrong, if there is no one to fix it, it stays broken?