I met someone offline who actually knows …
Internet Marketing!!!
I couldn’t believe it!
Okay, I don’t know if anyone else feels the way I do but I know NOONE who knows anything about online marketing, internet marketing, online sales, yadda, yadda, yadda … none of it.
I used to get a little excited if I heard of someone who had a paypal account but everybody and their brother has at least bought something from Ebay and they’re all pretty familiar with Paypal. Heck, my MIL even got a Paypal account a few years ago, lol.
We have a Sunday school that sits in front of our house - actually the yards connect. So, there’s a lot of what we call our “neighbors” who are in and out of there on a regular basis. But our “neighbor” spans probably about 5 or 6 miles, lol! (Everybody here goes to this Sunday School except for us - we were members of another church before we moved here.)
Anyway, hubby was out in the yard trying to once again get our pool “un-green” and someone was at the Sunday School. He come over and was talking with him about this new system they put in that requires no chemicals and all that stuff. He said he had tons of stuff at home that he no longer uses and wanted to give it to us.
So eventually they started chit chatting (you know, the thing “guys” don’t do but do it for hours …) Anyway, they start talking about what they do for a living yadda, yadda, yadda … and this gentleman says he and his wife just started their own home based business online.
(They sell Shaklee - which is pronounced with a short “A” not a long “A” like I thought, rofl!)
My husband gives the normal response as in yeah, my wife does something online. She works with work at home moms … lol. He really doesn’t have a clue. (Although, he’s getting a real lesson in affiliate marketing lately, lol!)
In the meantime I come home from the grocery store and they call me over. Next thing I know, we’re sitting across from each other talking about internet marketing and John Reese, auto-responders and lead generators and websites .. and Oh my gosh I was so excited!! (How pathetic is that? LOL!)
Turns out - unfortunately he’s “fallen” for quite a few “newbie mistakes” and has lost a good bit of money. He’s only been in business for about 5 months now but has lost a good bit of money with almost nothing in return.
He ended up getting signed up to a company that gives him something like 40,000 leads a month for something like $70 a month. Ouch! Then he paid for an automated process that sends out his message automatically to these 40,000 leads. (No offense to him - especially if he reads this - I invited him and his wife over, lol) but we wonder where all this spam comes from? From these companies that sell this crap to poor suspecting newbies that just want to build their business - that’s where!!
I mean really - where does this company get 40,000 leads a MONTH!?? And they have how many customers? How many other people are they sending these same leads out to?
Did you ever get a rush of the same spam message from three different people at one time? Yep - there ya go!
He’s been sending out these messages for five months now. Yes it takes time for a business to grow but what kind of leads are these that he can send out 40,000 messages a month to supposed “leads” and not get a single visit to his website from it? That’s 200,000 supposed people who should be interested in getting something like this AND nothing? Not even one visit???
I was so excited to share my knowledge with him … mainly to help but also because I’m excited to share something with someone offline - kind of to show “what I’ve accomplished” and “what I know”. Know what I mean? If I show any of my friends or family any ebooks I’ve written or websites that I’ve built. Sure, they’re nice and say ‘hey, that’s great’ but they don’t really “get it”. Ya know?
So in return for the chemicals, I gave him a couple of my ebooks to help get him started plus threw out a few tips. (Okay - a lot of tips.) I overwhelmed him a bit a couple of times, lol! But he’ll get it - just needs to take it one step at a time. I keep telling him - if I can learn it, anyone can.
But I couldn’t allow him to continue to waste his precious money on this stuff! So, I had to share some of the RIGHT and EFFECTIVE way to build his online business. And of course - since it was perfect for where he and his wife are, I had to give him a copy of Kickstart Your Online Business which will give him a really quick boost without overwhelming him too much.
It actually worked out to be a good thing for the two of us. This morning he was so surprised at all the information I had given him about building a website that he replied with a “hope you’re keeping a tab because I know mentors aren’t cheap!” Oops - guess that IS what I’m doing, isn’t it? I AM being a mentor! lol!
I’ve been a mentor to many people over the years - especially here but don’t usually get paid for it. Although, I have made a few bucks here and there because they usually end up buying some advertising from me or some of the things that I recommended were using an affiliate link to it wasn’t all for free (but certainly no where what a mentor gets paid, lol!)
Anyway … back to whats being good for the two of us. I told him nope, no tab … I enjoy doing it. Besides, I can’t just sit here and say nothing, ya know? Especially when I know he’s loosing money. But, I told him that if he wants someone to take care of his website later, I’d be happy to “be for hire”. And he replied that if he goes with one of the ideas I gave him - he will certainly be putting me on his “payroll”! Definitely works for me!
Sooo, I just had to share this. Anyone else know anyone offlline who “gets it”?
Increasing in Him,
Anita
Topics: Affiliate Marketing, Business Stuff, Internet Marketing, Resources for Your Business |