Which Stage of Internet Marketing Are You In?

After having been marketing on the Internet for over a year, and
having been turning a profit for a while now, I've come to realize
something.

Each new person as they get involved in Internet marketing goes
through certain stages. Naturally, there are those that bow out of
the game at each stage and those that persevere. Plus, there are those
lucky few that run into the right piece of advice at the right time and
are able to catapult ahead, skipping some of the non-profitable early
stages.

Today is your chance to hear that right piece of advice. It's up to you
to take it and move yourself ahead. As you read through the stages
listed below, I'm sure you'll identify with them. Try to picture where
you are now, and then you'll be able to see your way further ahead.

To make it more personable, I'll use the term I.M (internet marketer)
as a name in the following descriptions.

STAGE 1 -- Wow!

Getting on the Internet in the first place is like opening a great big new
door to another world. Couple that with the fact that money can be
made simply by working the Internet, and a typical, brand new I.M.
can be seen floating through cyber la-la land for quite some time.

During this stage, I.M. is a reader. As a reader, I.M. see countless
ads describing how easy it is to gain riches by working at home simply
because of the huge numbers of people flocking to every bit of
information the Internet provides. This is easy to believe at this point
because I.M. is indeed constantly looking for information himself.

STAGE 2 -- I Want In!

Having believed in the ideal of selling information to a waiting public,
I.M. finds a good piece of sales copy and buys in. Notice I said finds
a good piece of 'sales copy'. In other words, I.M. buys in to the
possibility of selling information, based on the sales pitch he reads,
and NOT into the idea of providing a valuable service or product.
Expecting immediate results, I.M. blasts out ads similar to those he
read as a STAGE 1 individual.

STAGE 3 -- So Where's All The Money?!

At this point, I.M. is upset. He's been promised instant wealth, and
easy profits, but they just aren't happening. He's promoting an affiliate
program just like the affiliate program tells him to, but nothing is
resulting from it. Disgusted, I.M. either blames the advertising
services he's used, which at this point most likely include free
classified sites, ffa pages, and banner sites, OR he blames the affiliate
program he joined.

Many people are lost at this stage because they are offended and
feeling misled.

STAGE 4 -- Discovery of Ezines (content that is)

I.M. has bopped from classified ad to web site to super promoter to
email, and has read a 1000 things, BUT he has never really bothered
to really READ any decent ezines. Up until now, I.M. has been too
focused on headlines such as "Profit INSTANTLY from the
Information Super Age!" and completely ignored seemingly
complicated topics such as "How To Properly Use Ezine
Advertising".

However, eventually a more sensible article title, not ad title, will seem
to hint at an answer to the current problem he is having and he will read
it. And I mean REALLY read it! From here one of three things will
happen. Either I.M will start to glimpse what is really needed to
succeed on the Internet and he will start to search for more on real
topics that he needs real help with. OR he will decide the whole thing
is way more complicated than he first imagined and quit. OR he will
sense there has to be real work involved and recoil in fear to the more
easily digested topics claiming big, instant riches and try it again that
way.

STAGE 5 -- Rekindling

If at this point, after realizing there will be more work involved than he
first thought, I.M decides to continue, he has just tripled his chances
of actually making money online all the way up to about 5%.
However, if I.M decides to continue learning, be patient, and find out
what it really takes to succeed, his odds continue to improve from
here on out.

STAGE 6 -- Well, Duh!

This is where I.M starts to see things in a different light. He's been
around a while to where he starts to recognize the names of some of
the more successful authors, marketers, and business owners. Then,
not only does I.M start to listen more to their words than others, he
also starts to watch their actions and analyze what it is they are
actually doing.

Now simple things that should have been clear to anyone wanting to
start their own business begin popping out at him left and right.

*You MUST sell items of value, not just the dream of riches.
*You HAVE to create your own Internet presence and differentiate
yourself among all the others blindly promoting the same things.
*You NEED to build a solid reputation and as many working
relationships with others as possible.
*You MUST promote continually and consistently, not hit and miss.
*You WILL NOT succeed in competition with 2 million other
affiliates by using the same promotion methods, ads, and sites.
*You NEED a unique product or service of your own, or a unique
presentation of other's products or services.
*You HAVE to promote using methods that actually get your ad in
front of real people that are engaged in actual reading.

And most importantly...

*You MUST realize it will take WORK and will not happen
instantly.

STAGE 7 -- Ok, But Now I How Do I Do It?

It's one thing to realize what needs done, but quite another to actually
accomplish it. This is where it gets difficult as well because the
answers are different for everyone. A good writer can promote
through submitting his articles around, but not everyone is a good
writer. Someone who learns and is persistent can work the search
engines, but others may become too easily frustrated with the system.
If investing money is not a problem, I.M. can hire the services of other
professionals or buy needed software, however, for many that's not
feasible.

I.M now has to answer certain questions for himself.

What product or service will be my main focus?
What other affiliate programs can I correlate to my main product or
service to use as secondary income streams?
What promotion methods am I interested in and comfortable doing?
How much do I have to invest?
How much time do I have to invest?

>From here, I.M. finds the best sources of continual education for
himself and constructs a legitimate business plan for the first time. He
sets goals, identifies the way he wants to proceed and begins.

STAGE 8 -- Slow But Steady

I.M. gets his plan underway and proceeds. It takes time, but his
business relationships start to grow, he learns more, he gets things
running as planned, and slowly but steadily he starts to see his income
rise. Naturally, there are problems and setbacks, but I.M. now
knows what he needs to do so it's simply a matter of getting things
done and giving them time to bear fruit.

STAGE 9 -- Continuing

Even at this stage I.M. may decide to quit, it's happened before.
There are no guaranteed results, no sure-fire methods that always
work, and no reason that I.M. may not just up and change his mind as
to what he wants to do.

It takes effort to continue and keep your business growing. You will
continually have to learn and adjust to your market, and it will take
continual promotion.

Determination is an easily disgruntled human trait. However, if you
can keep it alive and continue to work, THEN and only then is the
potential of building a sizeable income and even a lifetime residual
income a real possibility.

These stages are not absolute, nor does everyone move smoothly
from one to the next, nor does everyone go through each and every
stage. There's nothing to stop people from going back and forth
between them either.

However, the sooner you realize the cold, hard facts of the latter
stages, the sooner you can start to realize the goals you originally set.

It only takes minutes to imagine the world you want to be living in, but
that doesn't mean it can be made a reality just as quickly.

You can't escape reality by entering into your own.
Dreams bring forth images, persistence brings them home.