Are you chasing your tail?
December 12th, 2008 by 
John Dilbeck
Introduction: The purpose of this post is to get all of us thinking about what we’re doing to build our businesses and what we’re doing that is just a complete waste of time. Caution, this post rambles even more than most of the other things I write. I want to solicit your opinions and hear about your experiences. I’ll ask more questions than I’ll answer. I hope you’ll think seriously about the questions I raise and join the conversation.
Now, on to the questions of the day…
If you look back on the last year - assuming you’ve been building your online business that long - have you been making progress or just chasing your tail?
You know what I mean.
We all love to watch a kitten or puppy chase its tail and run in circles until it falls over. It’s entertaining. It’s amusing. To us.
To the kitten or puppy, it’s frustrating.
If they don’t catch their tail, they get tired and quit. If they do catch it, they learn not to bite so hard the next time.
You’ve seen this and laughed. If not, do a search on YouTube. I’m sure you’ll find many hours of interesting pet videos that illustrate the point I’m making.
In fact, the very act of searching on YouTube and watching these videos is a good example of chasing your own tail. After spending minutes, or hours, doing this, what do you have to show for your time and effort? Not much.
The same principle applies to building your home business.
Are you making progress, or are you simply chasing your tail?
Are you running off, hither and yon, looking for the secret to Internet marketing success? How many websites have you visited? How many newsletters have you subscribed to? How many gurus have you followed? How many ebooks have you bought and downloaded? How many of those ebooks have you read? How many affiliate marketing programs have you joined? How many social networks have you joined? How often do you tweet on Twitter? How many friends are you trying to keep up with? How much email have you read?
Or, are you spending your time developing and promoting your marketing business?
If you’ve done your basic homework, you probably already know all you need to know to begin building your online business. There are no secrets. Much of what you need to know is available to you for free. For example, read Ken Evoy’s free ebooks, the Affiliate Masters Course or his best selling Make Your Site Sell!, which is now free to download.
But, if you don’t plan to study those books - or whatever guides you prefer - and put into action what you learn, what’s the point? If you don’t learn and act on what you learn, you’ll never build a business, no matter how busy you are.
Are you building your business or are you simply chasing your tail?
If you intend to earn a living from marketing, don’t you think it is time to learn how to build a marketing system that will work for you? A system that will help you focus on what works best and do more of it?
There are so many distractions and so many things are promoted as the best way to become successful with your online business, but most of them don’t work for most of us.
How do we stop chasing our tail and focus on what works best when we don’t yet know what works best for us?
It is especially frustrating when what works well for me may not work well for you, and vice versa.
Still, there have to be some basic marketing fundamentals that will apply to all of us, don’t you think?
Which is better? (A) Posting free classified ads on a dozen sites or (B) building your own focused marketing blog or website?
Which is better? (A) making 100 Squidoo lenses on assorted topics or (B) making 100 Squidoo lenses on different topics related to your marketing niche?
Which is better? (A) promoting a hundred different products and services or (B) promoting the top ten products for your particular niche?
Which is better? (A) talking about everything you think about or (B) focusing on your particular niche and branding yourself so others will think of you when that topic comes to mind?
Which is better? (A) promoting hither and yon hoping for one-time sales or (B) building a marketing funnel (or funnels) for your business and each of the products and services you recommend to your readers?
Which is better? (A) spending hours a day clicking on a traffic exchange or (B) spending a few days creating a new marketing funnel for a particular product, including writing a benefits-laden report about the product, creating an autoresponder series for it, writing a page about it on your website, blogging about it, creating a Squidoo lens about it, tweeting about it, and promoting everywhere that is appropriate, with the goal to get your readers to join your list and download the report you wrote.
I’m asking these questions just to get you to think about this. There are no right or wrong answers. Well, maybe some choices are more right than others, especially if you’re serious about building your online affiliate marketing business.
What do you want to accomplish at the end of the day, week, month, or next year? Do you want lots of visitors to your sites? Do you want good ratings on your lenses? Do you want lots of comments on your blog posts? Do you want lots of people to subscribe to your list(s) and download your report(s)? Do you want larger commission checks every month? What do you want to accomplish with the time, effort, and money you invest into your business?
Are you just chasing your own tail?
I’ve done a lot of that and I’m starting to realize how much time I’ve wasted, and time is much more valuable than money.
What do you want to earn as payment for the effort you put into your marketing efforts? Enough for a movie and dinner? Maybe make a car payment? Pay your rent or mortgage every month? Earn enough to quit your job? Build a business that enables you to thrive and not just survive? What is your time and effort worth?
I hope this post sparks a good conversation. What are we doing that gets us nowhere and how can we substitute better methods to build our businesses?
I know which way I’ll be going in 2009. Have you thought about what you are going to do?
What do you think will work best - for you - in 2009 as you work hard to define your niche, target your best customers, promote the best products and services they need, and increase your revenue?
I’m all ears.
Act on your dream!
JD
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This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 6:24 pm and is filed under Affiliate Marketing, Marketing, Poll, Success and Failure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 13th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Damn John, how many days sis this post take.
Considering some serious offline hurdles, I’m quite proud of all I’ve accomplished this year.
Dennis Edells last blog post..How To: Evaluating Competition For New Site Niches
December 13th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Good evening, Dennis.
(grin) Not days, just hours.
I can relate to overcoming serious offline hurdles this year.
Congratulations on accomplishing what you have.
Any thoughts on what not to do, or what to do more of, in 2009?
Act on your dream!
JD
December 15th, 2008 at 2:09 am
Well, this is one that makes one think, isn’t it? Truthfully, I think I’ve done fairly well as far as building up the prominence of the blog, but I certainly haven’t done as well with the marketing. Course, I was gone for awhile, and I’ve had other offline projects that take up my time here and there, including now, so I’ve stuck to the core of what I’m good at, that being the writing part.
I do have the Ken Evoy book, but I haven’t had time to view it yet. When I get some time, I plan on going through it.
Then, to answer your questions above:
1) It’s better building your own focused marketing blog or website, which I’ve done.
2) I don’t have any Squidoo lenses, but I know B is the proper answer; I’m good at taking tests
3) I know promoting the top 10 is the better answer, but I haven’t gone that route, probably because of the focus of my blog. Yes, it’s focus is to make money, but it’s focus is also to inform people about different things I try, and if I’m not going to do that they I might as well write my blog like Willie Crawford’s, which, in my mind, gets boring after awhile: http://www.williecrawford.com
4) Building a marketing funnel is better, but I’m not sure I’m not kind of doing that. Sure, I pop many different things on my site, but I also review many of the affiliate programs I try. If I happen to recommend something that I eventually like, people may sign up under me, and that’s not so bad, plus it may be a continuing thing. Or maybe not; right now, though, I don’t mind either way.
5) As you know, I hate traffic exchanges, so it’s obviously better for someone to spend more time working on their own blog or website. However, we can’t negate working the network, which obviously means you have to spend quality time writing quality posts on other blogs, and finding other ways to encourage people to stop by for a quick look-see.
Wow, what a long comment by me; I think you’re rubbing off on me. LOL
Mitchs last blog post..Top Finance Blog
December 15th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Actually John, that list of questions would make an awesome viral meme.
Thoughts? You’re kidding right? LOL PLENTY of them!
1st is stepping up promotion on what is now 3 blogs, since I know a lot more of what I’m doing. More focus on the 2 new ones though (starting with the contest you see below), since DSWM is running pretty smoothly.
Next is getting closer to full swing on both affiliate marketing and social networking. I know that sounds big, but if i find a schedule of some sort it should be ok.
Dennis Edells last blog post..It’s Contest Time! The *Best Blog Review Contest* Is In Full Effect!
December 15th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Good evening, Mitch.
I didn’t really mean those questions as real questions with right and wrong answers. That was just a way of putting a lot of different approaches up to make myself and my friends think about what they’re doing.
You see, I’ve been thinking a lot about all the things that I’ve done that were complete wastes of time versus what I’ve done that has really helped grow my business and increase my income.
More and more, I’m seeing us get caught up in things that make a lot of money for a very few people, but which leave the rest of us chasing our tails.
I don’t know exactly when most of this started, but I’m thinking it got worse when people started using firesales, following launch formulas, and trying butterfly marketing approaches.
I’m not going to link to actual people and products, because I don’t want to promote them and increase the problem.
Then, over the last year, it seems like there was a new traffic exchange opening every week or two and all the other traffic exchange owners and many of their members would launch into a flurry of recommendations and promotions before the exchange even opened.
How can you truthfully and ethically promote a new site before it even starts producing results?
Yes, I know that an exchange needs lots of members to make it work, and this launch strategy generally creates a flood of new members, but how many exchanges can we join and work effectively?
I’m a member of dozens, at least fifty or more, and I finally said, “That’s it. No more.” a few months ago.
Then, I started paring down the number of exchanges where I was active until I got down to less than a dozen. I can comfortably handle that many, especially since they produce results for me month after month.
For the last two months, I’ve been mostly away from the exchanges as real life became more important, but I’ll get back next month and renew my promotions.
So, part of my thinking was that we’re not only chasing our own tails, we’re chasing everyone else’s tails, too. How long will it be before we all fall over exhausted. Some will be exhausted with larger incomes, and some will be exhausted with little income or even losses.
I just don’t see it as a sustainable approach to business, except for a very few.
The people who do well on the traffic exchanges are the ones who have built a funnel. They look for people to download free reports, sign up for their lists, and then promote to them over and over.
I don’t have any problem with that. They’re using the exchanges as lead sources and then they use automation to follow up with their leads and move them down the funnel from prospects to customers to repeat customers.
If they’re offering good advice and information, we’ll buy their products and subscribe to their services.
Unfortunately, the people who suffer are the ones who join a traffic exchange in the hopes of getting more visitors to their sites to read and buy their offers. This may have worked several years ago, but no longer. View times have decreased from 30 seconds to sub-10 second times. Most sites and blogs won’t load in that much time.
So, what to do?
Switch to splash pages and squeeze pages.
You need a billboard, not an article, on the traffic exchanges.
It has to load fast, cover one point, offer several short benefits, and a call to action.
Most call to actions - the ones that are more successful - offer something in exchange for you to subscribe to their mailing list. Why is this more successful? Because it is much more likely that you’ll make a sale with multiple email contacts over time than with a 10-second view on a traffic exchange.
The losers are the ones who don’t study the vehicle and spend the time to learn what works and what doesn’t.
This applies to lots of other things, too.
If a group of people get together in a joint venture and provide all kinds of free software, ebooks, and memberships, it isn’t because they just want to give you something. It’s because each of the participants wants to get you to sign up for their mailing list and then give you the freebie or loss-leader. After that, you’re in their marketing funnels and you’ll continue to receive emails from them indefinitely.
Now, lots of folks, especially newbies, don’t understand how this works. They want the freebies, but complain about the follow-ups.
Always remember, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Somewhere, somehow, you have to pay for your freebies.
I don’t think it’s unethical, but it can certainly be misleading.
Now, I have to admit that I’ve learned a lot from participating in some of this and examining how it works.
It’s going to make a big difference in how I approach marketing in the coming months. I’m definitely going to be more systematic in my approach, but I don’t plan to join in any of these joint-ventures.
I think blogs can be effective, but it does take more work than a website. One of the beauties of a blog is that you can start a conversation - such as we’re doing here - and we can learn from each other.
Plus, it’s all out here in the open and many others can come and read what they want and leave when they’re ready. They can learn from our conversations, even if they don’t participate.
And, by the way, all visitors and lurkers are welcome and encouraged to participate!
So, all of this is leading to wondering why we would spend 100 hours chasing our tail when we can spend 50 hours producing something of value and then promote it over and over and over.
One of the great values of the traffic exchanges is learning who is successful and watching what they do to market their products, services, and sites. It has been a valuable education for me and has been worth every hour and every dollar I’ve invested over the last couple of years.
Okay, I guess that’s enough ranting in one comment!
Sorry, Mitch, I hope my long-winded replies don’t continue to rub off on you!
Act on your dream!
JD
December 15th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Good evening, Dennis.
You make some good points. As you learn more, you can do more, if you manage your time. Partly, this is due to becoming more effective because of additional experience. Partly, it’s because your efforts are leveraged more because of additional contacts and readers.
Managing multiple blogs, learning and updating your affiliate marketing efforts, participating in social networking, and promoting your platforms is a lot of work, but it can produce very good results.
Of course, work is relative.
It’s a lot easier doing all of these things than it is to pour curbs, gutters and sidewalks all day in the winter cold and summer heat.
It’s definitely a lot easier than climbing power poles in thunderstorms or ice storms and restoring electricity for the rest of us.
All those things need to be done, of course.
I did the concrete pouring and finishing about 40 years ago when I was young and strong. These days, I prefer sitting here in a comfortable cabin in the mountains and talking to people around the world - sharing what we learn and helping each other do better.
At this stage of my life, I much prefer being warm and dry. I know I prefer being my own boss!
I think you’ll also find that promoting three blogs isn’t a whole lot more work than just one. There is a synergy between multiple sites and it won’t be three times as much work. At least, that’s been my experience.
Act on your dream!
JD
December 15th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
I have an offline business that really takes up most of my time. I actually use blogging to relax. My only way of promoting it is through visiting and commenting on other peoples blogs.
I You may remember I started a Squidoo lense awhile back? Well I still haven’t completed it yet. Pretty slack huh?
As for the question about chasing my tail, nope I’m more like the carrot on the stick in front of the donkey.
Sires last blog post..Wassup Blog’s Mean Woman Blues
December 16th, 2008 at 2:20 am
Hi Sire,
I didn’t know that blogging was a part-time way for you to relax. With all you’re doing, I thought it was your full-time business. I can see how visiting other blogs and communities and participating in the discussions is an important way for you to promote your business.
As far as Squidoo lenses go, I started three of them about the time we were discussing it, and all of them are sitting there, stubbed-out and partially completed at this point, but nowhere near ready to publish. I would delete them, but I got the perfect address for them, so I’ll hang on until I have the time to finish and publish them.
All things in their own time.
We will serve no lens before its time.
Etc.
You’ll get it done when you’re ready. Then you’ll be hooked. Bwaa haa haa!
Be sure to keep your carrot just out of reach of that donkey’s teeth.
Act on your dream!
JD
December 16th, 2008 at 2:34 am
You kidding, at my age I am very attached to my rear end so there is no way I am letting that ass get his teeth into it.
As for blogging, originally it was an SEO strategy for my website and then it took over my spare time. Perhaps I should not finish Sqidoo, especially after that evil laugh.
Sires last blog post..Does My Bum Look Big In This?
December 16th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Evil laughs never stop intrepid bloggers!
JD
December 16th, 2008 at 5:44 am
John, what is happening to you? I must be rubbing off on you mate, that must be the shortest comment you’ve made yet.
Sires last blog post..Wassup Blog’s Mean Woman Blues
December 16th, 2008 at 6:25 am
Sire, you may be. That may be the shortest thing I’ve ever written, anywhere.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:49 am
I can add one more question:
Are you promoting the top 10 books in a wide topic (that everybody else is also promoting) or are you promoting the top 10 books in a small hidden niche few people have written about yet?
I think the main point is that to make money long term, you need to become a destination for traffic short term. Be unique in what you do, and offer real value.
katinka - spirituals last blog post..Activity & passivity - the value of ‘meditation’
December 16th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
“comfortable cabin in the mountains”
My ultimate goal!
Dennis Edells last blog post..$100 First Prize! The *Best Blog Review Contest* Is In Full Effect!
December 16th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Good evening, Katinka.
I agree. That’s a good question.
If we don’t define who we are and what we’re doing, how do we expect anyone to find us in the first place, or think about us later?
I see a gazillion sites where someone is promoting everything. There’s no reason I would bookmark them, try to become their friend, or remember them later. There’s no distinction, no specialty, no personality.
I didn’t know that when I started a few years ago. I generally like to spread a wide net and then narrow my focus as I learn what works and what doesn’t. I have a lot of narrowing to do!
I learned who I liked, what I enjoyed talking about, what I could recommend with enthusiasm, and what I hated doing. It took awhile, but it’s been worth the effort.
It’s also going to get easier as I do more in smaller niches. I’ve picked some difficult niches, but they work for me.
Unique and value are certainly two of the keys to succeeding. Thanks for your thoughts.
Act on your dream!
JD
December 16th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Good evening, Dennis. I understand your goal. I live nearer the Smoky Mountains National Park than I do to the nearest traffic jam. That’s the way I like it.
December 17th, 2008 at 1:01 am
I afraid that unless I get rid of my wife I will never live in the countryside. She is too much a city girl.
Sires last blog post..Wassup Blog’s Mean Woman Blues
December 17th, 2008 at 9:21 am
I just now noticed that Mike Paetzold is starting a new series on his blog to Outline together for year end planning.
Perhaps, if you’re following this discussion, you’d like to read what he’s going to be writing over the next few days.
Act on your dream!
JD