Internet Marketing In A Room FULL Of Naked Men!

Internet Marketing In A Room FULL Of Naked Men!
By Willie
Crawford

NO, that`s not one of my secret dreams :-) It`s an observation
that you need to make. Years ago, I read Harvey MacKay`s
fantastic best-seller, Beware The Naked Man Who Offers You His
Shirt. I really enjoyed the book and even sent Harvey a note.
He sent me an autographed copy of his book "Swim With The
Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive." It`s one of my most prized
possessions - but back to the naked man...

When you surf the various websites offering advice and
information products teaching you how to earn an online
income, it becomes glaringly obvious that many people who
created these products haven`t done what they teach! They are
in effect, "naked men offering you their shirts."

Anyone just starting out online can understand why this happens.
If you put up a website on making money online, and you admit
that you haven`t made any yet, people will realize that you
have no useful advice to pass on. To avoid this consequence,
beginners often "fake it, until they make it."

One of the reasons many online marketers never "make it" in the
first place is because they ARE following the advice of "naked
men." They are absorbing, believing, and then re-teaching the
conventional wisdom so prevalently shared in the internet
marketing arena. The consequence is that not only does the
creator of the info product fail, but so do all of his mislead
followers.

We have two problems within this situation. The first is, "How
does a beginner establish himself as an expert if he has
achieved no major online marketing success?" The answer is
that he creates a product in an area that he IS an expert in
or that he has very thoroughly researched.

The beginner can also very easily create a product by
interviewing or partnering with someone possessing the
knowledge or skills he lacks. I sort of touched upon this in
another article I wrote entitled, "Don`t Pretend To Be An
Expert, Become One." That article is available on my website
at: http://williecrawford.com/articles.html (http://
williecrawford.com/articles.html)

The second problem is in knowing who is genuine and who hasn`t
really learned the ropes yet. My advice to many of my clients
is to fully check out anyone before following their advice.
Simply go to any major search engine and enter their domain or
their name. Visit many, MANY of the sites that are listed as
featuring something related to this so-called expert. This
will give you a very good feel for who you are really dealing
with.

If sites about them contain testimonials, contact some of the
people providing the testimonial... especially if something
doesn`t quite "feel right." That`s right... I`m advising you
to trust your instincts.

Another way to easily check out someone is by using a website
called "The Way Back Machine." This website visits sites
scattered across the internet and takes a snapshot of them. So
if someone tells you that they`ve been in business for 5 years
and you see that their only website is barely a year old, run
away very fast - and don`t look back!

The way back machine can be found at: http://www.archive.org/
web/web.php (http://www.archive.org/web/web.php)

If you enter my url, http://williecrawford.com (http://
williecrawford.com) in the search box, you will see that it
offers snapshots of how sad this website looked beginning in
1998. Prior to that time, all of my websites were self-
replicated websites offered by various affiliates programs,
and websites built on free hosts such as FreeYellow,
Angelfire, Hypermart, Webspawner, and about 30 others :-)

To digress just a little, I purchased my own domain name when
someone responded to one of my posts in Links Exchange Digest
insisting that I would have a lot more credibility if I got my
own domain name AND ditched the Hotmail account. I kept
websites on free hosts for several more years, but finally
started really listening. People were telling me that using a
free hosting company... building and promoting their domain,
was just bad business. When I listened and took their advice,
that`s when things REALLY took off for me.

I`ve just pointed out to you a way to avoid the naked man look.
If you are a beginner, get you own domain... one with a url
that is easy to remember and that suggests what your business
is all about. My domain name, WillieCrawford.com (http://
WillieCrawford.com) was a poor choice in many ways, but over
the years it has developed a very strong brand. My second flag-
ship domain, Chitterlings.com (http://Chitterlings.com), was a
better choice since it centered around "soul food" and the
name was easy to remember to anyone familiar with that
category of cooking.

Another way for beginners to avoid pretending to be something
that you are not, and build online credibility, is simply to
market other people`s products. If you want a higher than
normal commission either approach them about joint ventures,
or obtain reprint rights to in-demand products. Don`t waste
your time and resources promoting products that there is no
demand for. Many reprint rights that are offered for free are
priced that way because the owner of the product couldn`t sell
them :-)

The benefit of obtaining products that are proven sellers
through reprint rights is that you often get a tested website
that will generate a steady income for you if you just drive
traffic to it. It`s really easy, but again, you have to make
sure that the product is one that is worth the effort. The
criteria that I use and suggest you use is, ask yourself if
you would purchase the product at the price you plan on
offering it for. Also read the template website being offered
and notice whether or not it gets you really pumped up. If
not, look elsewhere.

I do recommend that you eventually develop your own product or
service. However, that may take some time. In the interim you
need to establish a professional business that`s built on
quality and integrity. Avoid coming across as a fake or "naked
man." Also beware of those who have to fake it until they make
it. You know and appreciate that we all had to start somewhere.
Most of us could not afford to buy a huge, thriving web
business, so we had to start from meager beginning. Just look
at my websites in The Way Back Machine for proof of that :-)

Copyright 2004 Willie Crawford

Paul White is a 42 year old former teacher. He now helps people
all around the world to become wealthy online. Whatever you
are selling, visit the popular site: http://www.profitmountain.
com (http://www.profitmountain.com) and if you subscribe to
Profit Mountain`s FREE wealth building newsletter, you will
also receive FREE advertising for the next 12 months! (Worth
$200!) as well as loads of other things!