Online Marketing: Are You a Better Marketer than My Cat?

I certainly hope you're a better online marketer than my cat is. I realized recently, though, that my cat has a lot in common with many online marketers I meet on Internet marketing forums.

The marketers I mean are noticeable chiefly for their tendency to complain bitterly over every obstacle that sits in their path. Google doesn't rank them high enough. Visitors aren't buying. It's too hard to do this. It's too hard to do that.

They find that Internet marketing isn't the no-effort pot of gold they dreamed it was when they first started their business. So they complain.

Those indignant yowls, though, remind me a lot of my cat. Yep, good old Rusty lives his life wandering from one comfortable nap spot to another. What does he contribute? He contributes nothing, unless you have a weird fondness for hairballs.

And when something doesn't go exactly as he thinks it should, you definitely hear about it. YOWL! (feed me). YOWL! (pick me up). YOWL! (play with me). YOWL! (scratch my ears).

In Rusty's eyes, the world owes him everything he wants whenever he wants it. At least he's cute. And he purrs. That means he provides some kind of value for what he gets.

Many new business owners aren't even willing to provide that much. Too many go into business with the same, me-first philosophy. They think the world owes them everything they want. They think the world should require nothing from them in return. They think the world is stacked against them when it doesn't behave exactly as they want it to.

People like that will always exist. Some of them will mistakenly wander into Internet marketing. After all, the hype about Internet marketing would lead you to believe that it's a place that's obligated to reward you handsomely just for showing up there.

Are you a better marketer than my cat? I certainly hope so. You don't have to fall into the same trap of self-absorption.

Business is and always has been about solving others' problems. No, business is not totally altruistic. You are allowed to make a profit. You absolutely need to make a profit in order to stay in business.

A good business finds ways to solve people's problems, though. It simply finds a way to do so in way that leads people to reward you for your solutions.

Ultimately, running a business is about solving other people's problems. If you're not solving somebody's problem, nobody has any reason to pay you for the solution.

Next time you're ready to yowl over how things aren't going the way you expected them, think instead, "How can I enrich others? And how can I do it so well that they're happy to reward me for my efforts?"

You'll get much better results than a yowling cat would.