No matter how long you have been doing online MLM marketing, screwups are bound to occur. And if you are anything like me, they seem to occur all bunched together, so that you end up feeling like a complete idiot with no knowledge whatsoever about marketing online.
Yup, it happens to the best of us … just read online super-guru Chris Brogan’s blog to learn that.
So what do you do when you screw up somewhere in your online MLM marketing program and someone calls you on it rudely? You do what MLMers, online or offline, have been doing for decades: you develop a thick skin. Does a rhinoceros come to mind?
How to Develop a Thick Skin in Online MLM
No one ever said that building an MLM business was easy, and that’s true whether you are delving into your warm market or you are going into a cold online market. And in the end, I’m not really sure which is worse: a close friend squirming uncomfortably while trying to tell you that they don’t want t join your downline or a total stranger slamming you online for screwing up. Either way, you’re going to need to grow some thick skin to keep going.
In the last few weeks I’ve gotten slammed on a couple of my blogs for making online gaffes. Needless to say, I didn’t know I was screwing up … but then again, I rarely know when I’ve got my foot in my mouth so that’s not unusual. My first reaction was to get angry. My second was to realize the benefits of getting slammed, and realizing the benefits has helped me grower a little more tough skin over my tender (hah!) personality.
Ready? Here are the three benefits of getting slammed in online MLM marketing.
#1: I Learn Something Without Having to Research It
I’m big into learning for sure, but there are not enough hours in the day for me to read every online marketing blog, ebook, and article I really want to read. If I could spend hours doing just that, I’d be way ahead of the curve, but alas, it’s not gonna happen. So when someone slams me, I learn something about the netiquette of online marketing that I didn’t previously know.
Here’s an example: I’d been searching through some Creative Commons images from Flickr. Creative Commons is a place where people post their photographs online and you can use them, as long as you correctly attribute their images and respect their reserved rights.
Somehow during my search, I wandered out of the Creative Commons area and ended up in the “all rights protected” zone, where photos are not allowed to reused. Unknowingly, I posted this picture on a blog and gave credit. The photographer eventually found the picture and sent me a nasty email.
Hmmm, not pleasant, but then again, it probably wasn’t pleasant for her to find her “protected” photo posted on a blog, either. So I sent her an apologetic email and asked her how to correctly handle the situation. She ended up being very nice and giving me some great info on netiquette. I now know something that I would never have thought to research, nor would have had time to research. This also gave me the motivation to find some other free photo sites. Lately I’ve been use Free Digital Photos, which has a very clear attribution policy.
Lesson Learned: If someone is cranky with you for good reason, there’s no need to take it personally. In this case, the artist had every right to be rude and to slam me because I had violated her rights. Knowing she was well within her rights helped me be thick-skinned about this experience and let it go.
#2: I Don’t Have to Be All Things to All People
If you have been in MLM for any length of time, then you know your approach is going to attract a certain niche market and totally repel other people. Not too long ago, I wrote a blog post about how I try to avoid being like infomercial guru Billy Mays in my online MLM marketing approach. Someone who really liked and respected Billy Mays left me a comment that I should not use Billy Mays, who was very successful and hard-working, as an icon for my pet peeve.
I left that comment alone for a few days while I thought about. Then I went back and read my post and read the person’s comment. I realized that online marketing world is huge enough to accommodate both people who love and hate Billy Mays, plus all the people who don’t have a clue who he is. I responded with a thoughtful comment where I agreed to disagree with the chap who left the comment. There will always be people, lots of them, who don’t like me or my approach. No problem … I don’t think they will be joining my group. But there will also be tons of people who love what I do … and they will join my group or buy product from me.
Lesson Learned: Not everyone is going to like you and some people will hate you. If those people leave you nasty comments, just know that your online presence is being noticed, which is a good thing. And hey, someone cared enough to write something … that’s a compliment in itself. No need to get offended.
#3: Screwups Reaffirm the Adventurous Spirit
As Chris Brogan recently pointed out in his “Rules of the Pool” post, there is no standard when it comes to online marketing. The so-called experts and gurus cannot agree on whether you should follow everyone who follows you on Twitter. They can’t decide whether all comments on blogs should receive a reply. They don’t agree on whether you should use multiple social media platforms, and if so, which ones. So forget standards.
Having been freed from standards, you are free to be an adventurous spirit in your online MLM marketing approach. There’s room for everyone. Obviously, being adventurous in a non “white hat” way, like hiding code on your web page to try to fool the search engines, is fine to do, but you’ll quickly get banned. That’s OK, too. If you have to get banned to learn something, then you have just learned the way that most adventurers learn: by screwing up. At least it’s only screwing up online. You aren’t at risk of drowning, like the Spanish sailors seeking the “New World” were. And you can always start over … that’s the beauty of the virtual world.
Lesson Learned: Standards in online marketing will always be in flux, so if you screw up because you weren’t aware of a new rule or guideline, just swallow hard, take a break, then start over. There’s no point in getting offended at Google, Digg, Twitter, or anyone else who slams or bans you. As the internet world grows, more rules will come into play. If you can learn them ahead of time and avoid getting banned, so much the better. But don’t waste your time battling the search engines or social media platforms. Don’t get offended. Just know that getting banned is part of the deal (even Seth Godin was banned from certain social media sites for a while, for Heaven’s sake!).
I hope these three “lessons learned” give you some perspective about online MLM marketing and help you develop a thick skin about screwing up. It’s bound to happen, and more often than you might think. The more you interact with the online world, the more it’s going to happen. It’s hardly ever personal (how can it be when the people slamming you don’t even know you?) so don’t take it personally. It’s not worth your time. Really, you’ve got better things to do with your online MLM business!
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/http2007/ / CC BY 2.0
{ 0 comments… add one now }