The Seduction of Internet Marketing Newbies

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If you got behind the wheel of a car without knowing how to drive, chances are, you'd crash. Yet, every single day on the Internet, thousands of newbies are performing the equivalent of the aforementioned driving analogy, by putting up a website without having the slightest idea how to promote it. And guess what happens - they crash!

In my opinion, starting a business - any business without having even basic marketing skills is not only putting the proverbial cart before the horse - it's downright foolish!

Now some might argue that a business plan is more important than marketing ability. And others might argue that knowing how to manage a business is more important than having a marketing acumen.

Well, I agree with the former argument. A good business plan is like a GPS system. It will keep you on course, and headed in the right direction. A business plan is an absolute must, and you should definitely develop one before you start any business.

However, I reject the latter argument. Why? Because you can be the greatest manager in the world, but if you don't know how to market your wares, your business will fail - I don't care what you're selling.

That's why I consider competency in marketing the most important business skill that you can have. If you become proficient in the art of marketing, it will allow you to become profitable that much quicker. Then you can afford to either hire a manager, or take a business management course.

A Simple Classified Ad

How important is it to acquire marketing proficiency? Believe it or not, writing a simple classified ad is considered both an art and a science, seriously! Publisher and mail order legend, Melvin Powers actually wrote an entire 240 page book about classified advertising titled, "Making Money with Classified Ads." In an advertisement for the book Powers writes:

"I've run thousands upon thousands of ads, month after month, year after year and have made millions doing it. I've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. I found that, as with most things, making money with classified ads is easy when you know how."

Author and master copywriter, Robert Boduch also wrote a book about classified advertising titled "Classified Magic ...How To Make Your Small Ads Pay Off BIG!" In an advertisement for his book, Boduch wrote:

"After years of running ads -- trying out various approaches -- I began to collect the key ideas that worked. I wanted to figure out what made some classified ads so successful. And I kept testing new approaches until ...I finally figured out ...what works and what doesn’t."

By the way, while we're on the subject of writing ads, do yourself a favor and start reading Brian Clark's outstanding copywriting blog, CopyBlogger. You won't get a better ad writing education anywhere on the Internet - and it's free! You can thank me later.

How Do I Get Free Traffic to My Website?

I'm a member of several small business forums, and without fail, whenever newbies visit the forums, the two questions they ask most often are:

"How do I promote my website?" or, "How do I get free traffic to my website?" Those two basic questions get asked by newbies every single day.

Newbies, are you starting to see my point about the importance of acquiring marketing skills? You need to know the answer to those questions, before you build a website. As I demonstrated a moment ago, even writing something as simple as a classified ad requires a certain degree of competency.

The Seduction of Internet Marketing Newbies

In his book "Seduction," author and social theorist Jean Baudrillard writes:

"Many social behavior theorists classify seduction as a specialized form of persuasion. Seduction can also be viewed as a form of power that relies on psychological mastery rather than the use of coercive power, money, or intellectual appeals."

I couldn't agree more. Seduction is indeed a "specialized form of persuasion that relies on psychological mastery." That's one of the reasons why so many newbies come online believing that they can succeed without any type of training - without any marketing knowledge whatsoever. They've been psychologically seduced - mentally manipulated into believing that they can - much like gamblers are seduced by the dream of striking it rich in Las Vegas casinos.

Allow me to elaborate: Naive and highly impressionable newbies see stories on tv about ordinary people getting rich on ebay. They see the slickly produced "get rich quick on the Internet" infomercials. They read the newspaper and magazine articles about people starting an online business with little or no money, and seemingly making millions overnight.

In addition, brilliantly composed and ultra persuasive get-rich-quick ads literally saturate the Internet. They're everywhere! At virtually every turn, newbies are bombarded and seduced with stories, and images of ordinary people making extraordinary amounts of money on the Internet. And as is human nature, they want to get in on the action too. In essence, newbies are being seduced with unrealistic visions of the "pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

And because the seduction methods being perpetrated are so powerful and effective, they almost have a brainwashing effect. Most newbies are incapable of determining for themselves what's true and what isn't. They can't comprehend that the "flavor of the month" success stories they see in the media and on the Internet are the exception, rather than the rule.

Now many of you reading this may erroneously come to the conclusion that I'm against capitalism, and free enterprise. I can assure you, I'm not.

I'm all for everyone making as much money as they possibly can. After all, that's the American way. That being said, I also think it's important that newbies coming online be told the "truth" about Internet Marketing - that it's not nearly as easy as it's being presented. Click here to continue reading this article.

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