Play the Internet Marketing Video Game and Win $1000 a

Here's the thing.

I've been playing computer games since the very beginning.
I'm talkin' Pac-man, Pong, Asteroids...I'm sure this was
before some of you were born. My wife says she thinks now
that we had children just so I could have an excuse to keep
playing video games.

The thing about computer games is that your opponent is
always available whenever you feel like playing, it never
teases you when it kicks your butt and doesn't make excuses
when you kick it's.

You know how all the self help writers are always going on
about doing what you love and the money will follow? Yeah
right...if you know anyone willing to pay a grown man for
going to movies, eating pizza, or playing video
games...please...email me.

But like so many of us these days I do love the Internet.
Isn't this like a computer game? Yes and no.

Some Differences

When you sit down to play a game, any game, you expect
certain things. Mostly you expect to have fun. Although
some aspects of Internet marketing can be considered fun
maybe even most, some things can become drudgery. But
that's OK because there can be long stretches of drudgery,
frustration, and even boredom in some computer games so this
isn't what makes the difference.

Of course with computer gaming you expect to feel safe.
This is such an expectation that you don't even think about
it. You don't expect to lose money ( not counting the $55
you paid for the game ). There is a risk of emotional hurt
with Internet marketing. You could possibly be accused of
spamming or told you don't know what your talking about.
Of course you could be unsuccessful and feel hurt.

That is a negative that would never happen in a computer
game.
Emotional pain however slight. As far as losing
money...well money can be an emotional issue in almost any
circumstance. The issue of money can be easily controlled
while playing the Internet Marketing Computer Game ( IMCG ),
but there is always the fear of losing money investing in
programs, tools, hosting, advertising, training and such.

Also with a video or computer game you don't really think
it's all that important. Of course you naturally want to
win, but more importantly you want to have fun. But with
Internet Marketing (IM ) winning ( making money ) can be or
at least seem very important.

After all we think, "I hate my job. I've got to make this
Internet thing work and soon!" There's no pressure like
this in playing games or we wouldn't play!

Another characteristic that video/computer games have that
Internet Marketing doesn't is :

Clearly Identifiable Enemies
And instant rewards on killing monsters

Whether you're playing a battle hardened warrior in a
fantasy role playing game fighting against monsters from
another dimension or a street thug running from the law it's
easy to know who is trying to sabotage your plans. IT'S
WHOEVER OR WHATEVER IS TRYING TO KILL YOU!

Now if you 're thinking that you don't have any enemies in
the IMCG then keep reading. They may not be trying to kill
you but they are certainly trying to sabotage your plans.
No I'm not talking about your competition. Your competition
has the same enemies. You will beat your competition in
direct proportion to how well you recognize and defeat your
enemies.

Monsters to watch out for

I've identified several enemies that you need to recognize
if you intend to win the Internet marketing computer game.
Though not completely identified and studied, I can tell you
that these monsters definitely use magic against you. Most
of the time they use spells to take over your mind and
pretend to be YOU!

I'll call them :

The Overwhelm Monster
The Fear Monster
The Doubt Monster and
The Procrastination Monster

Here are some characteristics of each and some of the tricks
they play.

The Overwhelm Monster specializes in confusion, indecision
and overwhelm.

This monster loves the Internet as much as you do. It knows
that to keep you off balance and not focusing on one thing
long enough to succeed it just needs to give you too many
choices. No sooner than you get going on something you'll
soon here it's voice in your head pretending to be you.

It'll say things like,
"Wow, I could make even more money faster with..."
"What if I could've picked a better program?"
"I just need to get XYZ and I'll be ready."
"I better change programs now before I get too involved in
this one."

If you listen carefully you'll easily learn to recognize
this monster.

The Fear Monster

This ruthless creature loves pretending to be you and saying
things like:

"I don't like posting to forums everyone there seems to have
more experience than me."
"What if I do a lot of work and don't make any sales?"
"What if I don't even make my investment back"
"What if people steal my affiliate commissions?"
"If I put my idea in a free book or report someone might
write an ebook before me using my idea."

Again just listen and you'll see this dude is very active.


The Doubt Monster

No doubt you've heard the doubt monster:

"I don't have enough experience"
"Everyone will know I'm a fake"
"I can't compare or compete with those gurus"
"What if my ads suck?"
"Everyone in the forums seems to know more than me."
"I won't be able to fill a whole book on that subject."
I can't organize my thoughts on paper."

The Procrastination Monster is especially devious

It promises something that doesn't exist. It says that you
can put off until later what you know you should do today.
But unfortunately the rest of the world does not stop just
because you do. The ezine publisher may be doing something
else tomorrow. The opportunity seeker may have a doctors
appointment tomorrow and not see your ad.

And what about those things that you already had planned for
the time slot you call tomorrow? Now you'll have to yet
push them further into the future.. Before you know it this
behavior has been pushing things on top of each other for
years and there isn't enough lifetime to do all the things
that this monster has tricked and lied to get you to put
off.

Tomorrow’s time slot is already full of tomorrow’s things.
A decision to procrastinate is in fact a decision to NOT do
what you know is important! And you thought you didn't have
any enemies!

Some Other Important Gameplay Hints And Tactics

Where monsters hang out:

You' ll find that there are certain places where you are
likely to be attacked. Your inbox is notorious for creature
attacks.
Any hyperlink is as likely as not to lead to a monsters
lair.

Look for monster attacks whenever you read ads, listen to
seminars or any time you are "pitched" a monster may try to
get you to change your plans. Realize that if you change
your plan, you have been successfully attacked!

In computer games we get immediate rewards throughout. When
we defeat an enemy, solve a puzzle, complete a task we get
immediate positive feedback. We may get rewarded with
money, gold, gems, treasure, armor, weapons and so on. We
also get immediately stronger, smarter, faster etc through a
system of levels and points.

With marketing rewards are often in the distance and many
times we don't even last long enough to ever receive them so
we are always frustrated. We need to build some rewards
into our marketing so that we get immediate positive
feedback.

For those of you that have never played video or computer
games,
( you should probably seek help :-) ) there are
particularly difficult enemies at strategic locations know
as "bosses". These confrontations can take a looooong time
and many tries to win.

Beating these guys is usually accompanied by positive
feelings like
power, relief, triumph, victory, success, and generally "I
finally got you, you *&^%)#@$!% ". It helps to remember to
pat yourself on the back when you beat marketing monsters.


You can design a point system for tasks that you do so that
you can see just how much progress you' re making even
before you start going to the bank. For instance a good
Game Point System is as follows:

These can be done in any order:

Create your own website...100pts.
Create an original content ezine...100pts.
Write 50+ articles...5pts per article.
Write 1 or more ebooks...400pts each.
Submit your ezine to 100+ ezine directories...2pt each.
Create 200+ links back to your site...2pts each.
Submit your articles to 25+ directories...4pts each.
Frequent 3-5 discussion boards 3-5 times a week...5pts each.

Learn and practice ad tracking...10pts per ad.
Determine a budget for ezine and ppc ads...10pts per ad.

This is just to get you thinking, there are many more
activities that I haven 't listed and the values that I have
given are surely not written in stone.

Like with a good computer Role Playing Game, you ALWAYS WIN
UNLESS YOU QUIT! Aim for a couple hundred points and feel
the success. When you get to 1000-1200 or more you'll begin
to feel great because you' ll have the experience,
knowledge, a growing optin list and income.

You won't always be able to stop a monster attack just
because you recognize it. It may last for a few minutes,
hours, days, or months.
But when you look back on it and see that you have been
under it's evil spell you will gain power and mastery.
While under it's influence you 'll swear that changing your
plans is the right thing to do and it makes perfect sense,
but when you recover you'll think, WOW I'm finally getting
it!

Monster Hunting

Step one: Write down your plans for marketing both
immediate for today and tommorrow and for the next weeks and
months.

Step Two: Notice whenever you change your plans. Why did
you change when you knew so strongly when you wrote your
plans that it was the right thing to do. It's likely that
you have been successfully attacked.

Learning and Automation

Finally, some major differences in computer marketing and
computer gaming exist in the areas of learning and
automation.

There are few video games that take longer than an hour or
so to be able to play well enough to have fun and win. Yet
it can take many hours over weeks and months to reach this
level of expertise in the marketing game.

Of course video games have repetitive actions that involve
mostly pointing and clicking with the mouse where as
marketing tends to involve more keyboarding. There are
probably equal amounts of problem solving and marketing can
be somewhat easier in this respect because rarely is one
required to do it without a complete roadmap. This roadmap
is typically known in the gaming world as a "walkthrough".


Using a "walkthrough" is considered cheating by some die
hard gamers but it is expected and reasonable with internet
marketing. Fortunately there are some very good
"walkthroughs" available for new marketers designed by
experienced "adventurers" who have been there and done that.


The absolute best internet marketing "walkthrough" is
by a guy you've probably heard of named
Marlon Sanders. He's very well known on the net.

What it is, is a Marketing Dashboard. The concept
is you point, click and follow the steps. So it's
literally "point and click marketing".

The Marketing Dashboard is divided into 6 steps,
with 6 steps each, which makes it a 6 week program
with actions you take -- 6 days per week. The best
thing is to see a screen capture of the marketing
dashboard, and you'll instantly understand how it
will help you.