Do you see columns or people? Optical illusion ...
If you ever had the chance to sit in my office and watch me do online MLM, you’d walk away with the impression that I don’t know what I’m doing. You’d run screaming for the hills, and never sign up in my downline. You’d look for someone who definitely KNOWS what they are doing. In reality, I have a successful online MLM business, but it’s a good thing you never sit in my office and watch me work.
It’s a good think you don’t sit and watch most online marketers work because they only LOOK like they know what they are doing. It’s an optical illusion (like this picture: do you see people or columns?). In reality, they are groping around in the dark, punching this and doing that, hoping it all works. Now don’t get me wrong, I have the greatest admiration for online gurus like Brian Clark, Chris Brogan, Michael Lemm, and a dozen others. I’m not demeaning their skills at all.
What I am saying, though, is that they, like all online marketers, are on a journey of exploration. The online world is huge, and no one, not even the savviest online marketer, knows what’s going on half the time. They take their best guess and then they take the plunge with the strategy that they think is going to get them the furthest.
So What Do Online Marketers Really Know?
If you think I’m kidding, go and read some of the blogs from the people I mention above. Go way back on those blogs (a few years) and read what those people were suggesting back then. Then move forward in time through their posts, reading a post from every 3 month period, and see how their proposed strategies change. You then see that even the best online marketers will tell you what’s working for them at that point in time.
This is key, so pay attention. What they are suggesting works for THEM. It may or may not work for you. It’s also what works for them AT THAT TIME. The web changes faster than you can blink, so what works today won’t work for too many tomorrows.
So what does this tell us? It tells us that online marketers follow the same strategy as every other computer geek: they sit there and punch every button until something good happens. They make it look effortless because all of that button-punching happens behind the scenes — you don’t get to see it all the sweat, blood, and tears. But it’s how they figure things out.
No Really, Just Keep Punching Buttons
The same method is how I have figured out most of what I know about computers, online marketing, and online MLM. My family and friends think I’m really smart about computers and electronics. I’m not. I am, however, very persistent and I do not give up. I can fix most computer-related problems, but I only end up looking like a genius if no one watches me do the fixing. If you don’t watch me fix a problem, then it seems like you bring me a problem … I do some stuff … voila, the problem is fixed. I look like a genius.
On the other hand, if you watch me work or, worse yet, if you want me to walk you through the steps of how to fix the problem, I look like an idiot. I suggest 38 steps for you to do that don’t work. I’ll have you punch every button. Some of the buttons make the problem worse, which means you have to back track and fix some stuff that got screwed up along the way. What a bummer. But, if you hang in there with me long enough, I’ll eventually get the problem fixed. I just look like a moron instead of a genius at the end of the process.
How Online Marketers Punch Every Button
So online marketers don’t actually punch a lot of buttons, but they do a lot of experimenting to see what works. They get on Twitter and they develop close relationships with 5,000 people. If they are Chris Brogan, they do this very well. Most people love Chris because Chris has the ability to like and relate to a huge group of people in a very intimate and friendly way. The rest of the world? Well, we’re not so much like Chris, so while a lot of Chris’ tactics will work for us, his basic premise of really connecting, dude, with skads of people won’t work for us. Even Chris is starting to realize what a special guy he is in that respect, and that not everyone can do what he does.
Then there are the professional bloggers, who put out quality content 7 days a week. Yes, I said 7 days a week. Wow, if you are doing online MLM part time while you are still working your day job, that 7 day a week schedule totally isn’t going to work for you. You’ll have to find some other way to build a successful online MLM business. Or, maybe it will work for you but you’ll end up with divorce and living at the internet café. Not so good. Again, while the professional bloggers have some really great tips, when they say you have to put out quality in-depth blog posts that are researched to death 7 days a week, just know that they are busy punching buttons. Wait until they reach a more reasonable solution that you can actually execute in your life on a consistent basis.
How You Can Punch Every Button for Yourself
OK, so you have the best online marketers out there punching every button and trying to figure out what works. Great. While they are figuring it out, I suggest you take the best of what they have to offer (meaning what actually fits realistically into your life) and trash the rest.
Then, I suggest you start punching some buttons of your own. Pick a form of online marketing and start punching some buttons. Think Twitter is your cup of tea? Then get an account and start doing some stuff with it. Put up your profile. Follow some people. Put out some tweets. Lose a few lifetimes in Twitterville. Pretty soon you’ll figure out that you can’t spend your entire life on Twitter. That means you’ve punched a few buttons that don’t work.
Now you start getting smarter. You get some software that helps you sort through your Tweet-stream more efficiently (can you say TweetDeck?). You get some other software to help you find the right people to follow, who will likely follow you back. You hook up your blog feed to your Twitter account so you don’t have to tweet so much manually. You figure out how to search with keywords for tweets worth retweeting. You use some stats to track which of your tweets is being read and what’s being lost on the static. You learn to integrate some soft-sell MLM messages that are wrapped in intriguing useful information. You learn to find and connect with people who really want to know you.
Now you are pushing some buttons that are moving you forward. Now you are getting some results on Twitter. Are you going to make mistakes along the way? Lots of ‘em. Are people going to yell at you? Yup, be prepared and don’t take it personally. Are you going to become the kind of Twitterer that some people can’t stand? Absolutely. But remember, there’s only one Chris Brogan in the world and it ain’t you. Don’t try to be.
If you go a ways and punch some buttons to no avail (meaning that no one notices you or all you get is hate mail), then back off and find some other online marketing method to play with. It’s the only way I’ve found to figure what works and what doesn’t for my online MLM business. The parts that work I keep … the rest are already in the trash. You jive?
Got any tips for me? I’m always groping in the dark so any flashes of online insight would be great. Drop me a line, leave me a comment, leave me some hate mail, whatever. I’ll take it all!
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