I think they are missing the boat to make it cheap and easy (and entrench themselves forever in the content delivery world for bloggers and others)…$12.50 for excerpting 5 words????

Check out the story over at PC World…

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007126.html

“Don’t waste time calculating your chances of success and failure. Just fix your aim and begin.” - Guan Yin Tzu

I’ve seen it over and over, and made the mistake myself. I think of a product idea and go “cool, I think people will want this”, then I build it, and then I try to sell it.

What’s wrong with that? We’ll I’ve found it’s harder to convince people they want a product I have, than to convince myself to have/create a product people want.

Imagine a plane full of 300 people who have been sitting on the runway for 2 hours, without air conditioning, waiting to take off for a 5 hour flight.

Let’s say in your carry on bag, you have the worlds most amazing accounting software. In an odd twist the captain says it’s okay for you to try to use the PA system to make a 4 minute pitch about your software to all the passengers, so you do.

Let’s pretend for the sake of numbers 3 people want to buy your amazing software. This would be a 1% conversion rate.

Now, let’s pretend instead that your carry on bag was full of bottles of vitamin water, healthy, refreshing and moderately priced.

I don’t know for certain, but I would be willing to bet big that your 4 minute pitch about selling those bottles of cool refreshing vitamin water would meet with a better response and conversion rate than 1%.

Makes sense right?

You might be saying to yourself “of course it makes sense, you set up the scenario so that the passengers would be more interested in the bottled vitamin water”. You would be right, but I did it to prove a point.

How many scenarios are out there with “groups of people with an urgent need” just waiting for someone to bring them their “cool refreshing vitamin water”?

Instead of creating products and trying to sell them to people more interested in vitamin water, how about finding what different groups of people want, and selling them what they want or need?

For some, especially geek types, this thinking might seem backwards. But, just try it and see how well it works for you.

I’ll bet you’ll be surprised.

After seeing this, I adopted the thinking that people first connect with your product, then “maybe” with your company

An easy way to see the difference in this type of thinking is to use movies as an example.

How many people say “Cool, I’m so excited because New Line Cinema is coming out with a new movie”?

Now compare that with the number of people who say “cool, the new Lord Of the Rings movie is coming out.”.

I think you can see what I mean.

It seems to be easier for most people, including myself, to connect with a cool product or service we like than it is to get excited about the company behind that cool product or service.

Don’t get me wrong, I think branding for a company is important, but it’s cerebral.

If you only have time to do one thing, getting people excited about great products is easier to do…and once you have a series of great products to use as a base, building a meaningful company brand is much easier.

So far I’ve talked about the first 4 categories on the list below:

1. Gold Miner - Novice Class
2. Shovel Sellers
3. The Digging Crew
4. Gold Miner - Master Class
5. Gold Miner - Expert Class

And now we’re onto the 5th and final group (for now), the category I call “Gold Miner - Expert Class”.

It would be easy to point out that “how can a member of the Novice Class accurately describe a member of the Expert Class?”. From one perspective, that’s true but I would answer that in saying “I don’t need to know how to fly a plane in order to describe what I would call and expert pilot”.

In my experience, members of what the group I call “Gold Miner - Expert Class” appear to be as diverse as all the other classes put together.

Some of these experts have moved into being “Shovel Sellers” from the perspective that they sell tools, information and mentoring on how to duplicate their own success at being in the Internet Marketing business.

Others are so busy at growing their business, all they have time to do is focus on their business. This subgroup of people may or may not show up regularly for seminars and classes, but they are always active in learning and growing their businesses to be even more profitable.

The other thing that sets this expert group apart from the others is their laser like focus on getting things done quickly. They skip and avoid spending time on work related activities that won’t help grow their business.

If a member of this group hasn’t transitioned into being a “Shovel Seller”, they may be flying completely under the radar with their business(es) and their success. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t happy or that they don’t enjoy talking to other like minded people about what they do, it’s more that they fall into the category of what I call “the millionaire next door”. In other words, someone who has had great success, but don’t feel compelled to let the world know about it.

I’ve also seen two seemingly different strategies for wealth building by “Gold Miner - Expert Class” people. The first one seems to be to go for a few “large” product launches which pulling significant cash in short periods of time.

The second strategy appears to be “build a huge number of small sources of passive cash flows” that then add up to a large and continually growing steady influx of cash.

I’m sure there’s more to it than these two strategies, but these are what I’ve seen so far.

Granted, I’m not a member of this “expert class” (yet), so I can at best, only look in from the outside. Even so, there’s something very human about looking up to the experts in your field and wondering “will I ever be even just as good as they are now?”.

This wraps up my series of posts about the different categories of people I’ve run into during my short time so far in the Internet Marketing business. Whether I got things right or I’m off base, hopefully, some people will be able to gain some value from what I’ve learned so far.

As a quick recap, here are the rough and general categories I’ve seen so far:

1. Gold Miner - Novice Class
2. Shovel Sellers
3. The Digging Crew
4. Gold Miner - Master Class
5. Gold Miner - Expert Class

As new members of the “Internet Gold Rush Community” grow and improve their skills, some move into the category I call “Gold Miner - Master Class”.

To me, members of the “Gold Miner - Master Class” are people who are making money through their work on the Internet, having been around long enough to learn some of the “hidden rules of success” that go along with any business and also have a few battle scars from the lessons they’ve learned and the mistakes they’ve made.

When I run into these folk, they are generally less “loud” about being in the Internet Marketing business than the folks in the novice class. These masters are also very aware of what’s going on and keenly interested in any information that will help grow their business.

Of course there are all types of temperament in this category as well as the others, but the one common characteristic is that, when faced with the pitch by a “Shovel Seller”, this “master” category of people, have a much better idea on the value of the “shovels” being sold and how a particular shovel may or may not help grow their business.

Suffice to say, the masters are out there “doing” and likely have a very good understanding of the work, skill development and expertise necessary to be successful in this business. Some that I have met know the “long and hard way” getting things done and are quick to offer advice or guidance about how to do things easier and more quickly. Others might only know the quick and easy way to get things done, but are just as willing to share with people they know and like.

To me the members of the category I call “Gold Miner - Master Class” are some of the unsung hero’s in the business and are positioning themselves to be an “over night success” that was built step by step over a long period of learning, experience and relationship building.

The future for some of these masters is to transition into “shovel sellers” or to become part of “The Digging Crew” while their business grows. For others, their future lies in becoming part of the category I call “Gold Miner - Expert Class”.

We’ll talk about the expert group in the next post.

This post talks about the 3rd category of people, the category I call the “The Digging Crew”.

As a quick reminder, here’s my current roughly hewn thinking about the different categories I see:
1. Gold Miner - Novice Class
2. Shovel Sellers
3. The Digging Crew
4. Gold Miner - Master Class
5. Gold Miner - Expert Class

I was tempted to call the “The Digging Crew” people the “Gold Diggers”, but that phrase has such strong negative connotations that I decided to pass.

As I see it “The Digging Crew” category includes people who, for a fee, will help you do the actual work of gold mining, whether it’s building a website for you, writing the sales copy, creating graphics, creating marketing plans, etc. Basically, they are “guns for hire” you can bring on board to get the job done faster, better, and easier than you can do it yourself.

Setting themselves up with a “Digging Crew” can greatly accelerate your gold mining activities of the “Gold Miner - Novice Class” in exchange for the cash outlay to pay the members of your digging crew.

For some gold miners, hiring a digging crew is the only way they’ll ever be able to effectively participate in the Internet Gold Rush. Whether it’s due to time, or expertise, for some, hiring a digging crew is the only answer. It can also be their best answer overall because if you have money to pay others a wage to build your business for you, you win by having a business built and the time to spend on other opportunities.

For other gold miners, with skill, expertise (or desire to grow their own expertise) or lack of funds, hiring a digging crew is not their first choice. Whatever the reason, this end of the spectrum is all about the “I’ll build it myself” and start doing that. My suggestion to these people is to read “E-Myth” right away to make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.

Putting yourself in the category of “Digging Crew” means developing a business to help other people “dig for gold”. If you’re an HTML expert, you can help that way. If you’re a people coordinator, you can sell your skills at hiring others to do the work for your customer. Whatever the situation, being part of “The Digging Crew” means that you help others do their gold mining in exchange for a fee.

Being a expert member of “The Digging Crew” can earn you a good living, better even than some of the gold miners who hire you. To help cover retirement, I’ve even seen some members of “The Digging Crew”, copy writers come to mind, who negotiate a percentage of sales deal above and beyond their normal fees.

One last note, members of what I call the “The Digging Crew” have a certain hard to describe aura about them. These are the expert craftsmen, who have typically found their area of passion, whether it’s creating audio or video content or putting all the pieces together as webmaster, and are making their living doing what they love every day. The fact that they are living their passion, makes it fun to meet this category of people.

Next post, we’ll talk about “Gold Miner - Master Class”.

This is my current rough thinking on what the different categories are:

1. Gold Miner - Novice Class
2. Shovel Sellers
3. The Digging Crew
4. Gold Miner - Master Class
5. Gold Miner - Expert Class

We’ve talked about the “Gold Miner - Novice Class” group already and now we’ll talk about the “Shovel Seller”.

The “people who sold the shovels during the California Gold Rush” sometimes seem to get the short end of the history stick. I think this might be because there were so many frustrated gold miners and fortune seekers who didn’t make any money while they saw the “shovel sellers” prospering. Looking for a vent for their frustrations, the gold miners could easily focus their negativity on the shovel sellers.

Without judgement from me, “Shovel Sellers” definitely exist in the Internet Marketing business. All you need to do is Google for “make money internet” and you’ll find an avalanche of results.

Having heard a number of these people speak and pitch their wares, I can tell you that some are masters at their craft of selling; so good that the phrase “selling ice cubes to Eskimos” comes to mind. Regardless of what type of shovel they sell, these folks have learned their craft, studied psychology, persuasion and crafting a finely tuned sales pitch directly targeted at getting “Gold Miner - Novice Class” people to “buy, buy buy!”.

Some shovel sellers take the time to understand their customers needs and even guide beyond “which shovel to buy” into a “monthly mentoring program” that will help them improve their “gold mining” skills. Others simply want people to buy their wares and them move to the side so that a new customer can get to the register.

It’s up to each individual gold miner to determine the value and benefits of what the shovel sellers are selling and whether or not a purchase should be made. What’s good for one gold miner, might not be good for another.

One last thing to note about the “shovel sellers”. It’s a crowded and competitive market for them too. They are constantly competing with each other for new customers. The top “shovel sellers” can make a mint, while the least successful ones are often pushed to mostly watching from the sideline. I’ve seen some “Gold Miner - Novice Class” people get interested in becoming a “Shovel Seller”. I have no real advice for them other than the same advice I offer for others, “look before you leap”.

In the next post, we’ll talk about the category I call “The Digging Crew”.

I keep thinking about that analogy the more I learn about Internet marketing and this thinking is leading me to, for better or for worse, begin to group people and opportunities into categories.

1. Gold Miner - Novice Class
2. Shovel Sellers
3. Gold Diggers
4. Gold Miner - Master Class
5. Gold Miner - Expert Class

Let me say first off that I could be 1000% wrong in my current thinking, and that I have no prejudice against any of the people that seem to fall easily into these barely formed categories in my mind.

The first category I see, are people like me, and I’ll call them the “Gold Miner - Novice Class”. As a general group, we’ve heard about the “gold buried in the Internet hills” and we’re interested in finding some of that gold for ourselves.

Of course, there are subcategories in this group as well as all the rest, but since everyone is so new to the game, we’ll keep everyone lumped together for now.

Beyond the hopes and dreams of “instant internet wealth”, this group of Internet gold seekers tends to have money they’re willing and able to spend on buying the tools of the trade, or “shovels” to help them on their way.

Unfortunately, given their novice classification, knowing which shovel(s) to buy can be a challenge. There are so many to choose from, and so many different “Shovel Sellers” it can make your head spin.

After that too, there’s still the matter of knowing how to actually mine for gold. Having the latest and greatest wiz-bang shovel is one thing, knowing where to dig(and where not to dig), how to dig using that new shovel and then how to manage your digging business are all additional (and sometimes overlooked) skills that need to be developed.

My experience is that I’ve seen a few novice class gold miners with a closet or shelf full of shovels, some of them (all of them?) still in their wrappers waiting to be used for the first time. Rather than start digging for gold, this group of novices, keeps buying new shovels and “how to guides” for some reason.

On the other extreme, I’ve seen a few novices who start digging with only a proverbial “garden shovel”. For whatever reason, this group hasn’t purchased the latest tools of the trade or invested in educating themselves and they just start digging away.

In between the two extremes is everyone else that’s just getting started.

I guess the question I have for all the “Gold Miner - Novice Class” people is “Do you need another new shovel right now? Or, should you be practicing and learning how to be a better gold miner with the tools you already have?”.

One of the other defining characteristics of the “Gold Miner - Novice Class” group is that they are the target market for the “Shovel Sellers” selling their wares.

We’ll talk more about the “Shovel Sellers” in the next post.

The true geek part of me marveled at all the details to be attended to during a CRO makeover. Talk about Geek Heaven.

Eric’s Site is here: The Conversion Doctor.

He lives in the world of 10%+ conversion rates, while most people are happy with 1% or 2%.

Sounds similar to how investment bankers and stock brokers live in the world of 10%+ return on investment while most of the rest of the world eeks out just a few % from their savings accounts.

Especially fun was the fact that Eric wasn’t even scheduled to appear.