Ask Laura About Learning Marketing
Some would tell you that online promotion and marketing is easy, common sense, or that a successful online business can be established overnight. Others will tell you to buy their ebook or home study course where in 2 days, 3 audio files and 40 pages you can begin raking in big fat world wide web checks.
Learn to Market and Promote in 40 Pages or Less - Ask Laura (July 20/06)
“Ha!,” I say!
Internet marketing, website promotion, online business building is indeed very easy - to those that know the game or have already established a presence. But to the un-initiated, the un-taught, and sadly the opportunists who believe it can happen overnight - well, that’s a different story.
Just yesterday I received an email from a very smart and university educated friend of mine. He’s been relying, for the past two months, on someone else to create, maintain, and manage his new dream business for him and it’s not going as quickly as planned.
(Odd about that.)
But my friend has integrity and strengths and he’s wondering how he can learn what he needs to know so that he can step in and help out. The only trouble is, he thinks that one product, ebook, or training series is going to give him the online marketing education required…
Here we go. Laura, again, bursting bubbles of belief.
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Dear Laura:
Do you or anyone you can recommend sell any reports or ebooks on the A to Z of internet marketing - particularly with a product and service (editor note: hardcover book and professional consultation service) such as what I have?
The reason I’m asking is that *edited* has been quite busy lately and, frankly, we thought it would be helpful for him if we had a better over all understanding of what he needs to do and how we should be assisting him from our end. The *url deleted* website project we will be developing is large and we’d like to help him as much as possible. We have a general idea but would like to get more specifics on what needs to be done from day to day…
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My recommendation is, and likely always would be, if you’re going to run a business online then run it.
Know what it takes, make the decisions, learn how to manage it, promote it, repair it, brand it, sell it. You can’t have a business - without any knowledge of the business - and just farm out all the tasks.
Let’s be clear: You can own a business and not work it personally, hiring others to do all the grunt work. But you must know first what is involved so that you can choose and hire the best, as well as provide direction to, staff or associates performing that grunt work.
Plus, learning the business isn’t going to happen in any A to Z - I know, I’ve read a pile of them. Internet business management, promotion and techniques are in nuggets and on bread crumb trails scattered all around the web. And, what works for one business may not work for another. Each online business needs a leader at the helm that has a marketing strategy in mind.
At any rate, here’s my reply…
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A little pressed for time but wanted to send you a quick note…
Any A-Z won’t help you, only confuse and slow you down in your efforts.
Online business is a series of steps.
Create the site, get the traffic, brand your business/self, monetize the traffic, grow a subscriber list so that you can lather/rinse/repeat the process.
You are in site creation stage. *Name edited* is a traffic master (among other things).
If you want to learn the things that will help him in his efforts to help you, then you need to learn about getting your own content (so that the site is created), and the ways to get traffic to your site (#1 way is to have content for the search engines).
Now, since *name edited* is at the helm, your questions are better posed to him and his recommendations followed. His methods and strategy for your site may differ from the methods and strategy I use. You don’t want to follow my recommendations in case it clashes with the current marketing method and strategy he has planned for your site.
At this stage, it’s all about focus, taking one step at a time, and a targeted approach. Too many cooks…
So drop *edited* a note. Ask him what you could and should be doing.
If it was my ‘place’ to offer a suggestion I’d tell you to save your money on marketing products and ebooks right now. Invest in a satellite hookup or high speed connection (ed. n.b.: my friend is currently surfing at 28.8) and make the effort to learn site creation as *edited* teaches it. You could easily spend $1,000 in marketing products or ebooks (the extensive ones anyway) or $1,000 on a satellite system which would serve you well to gain the knowledge required; as well as moving quicker online after the learning process.
Laura Childs
The ‘Ask Laura’ series is published solely to assist you with questions and resolutions to making your online business profitable. Names are never disclosed on this website unless approved or requested. Proof of all email communication between Laura Childs and her contacts can be provided upon request.
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