In September, 1830 the Right Honorable William Huskisson,
M.P., a fast-rising English politician, turned up at the
opening of the Manchester Railroad, to see The Future.
Somehow, a man who many thought would end up Prime Minister,
couldn't figure out how to get off the track, so that
when the first train started towards him he stood there
and got run over, thereby becoming the first well-known
person to succumb to the dawning Railway Age.
Predictably there was an uproar with hotter heads
feeling sure that banning railroads was the only solution
to such fatalities. The fact that Huskisson was notoriously
near-sighted was lost sight of. The fact that the casualty was
himself responsible for the result wasn't nearly as good copy
as calling for a ban on the hottest transportation
development of the 19th century.
Hmmm. It all looks familiar to me, as daily more members
of the Chicken Little League cackle to high heaven that
the e-commerce sky is falling.
My, my how they cluck. But you know, two centuries
from now the Internet will still be here, working its
wonders, just as (the last time I checked) there were
trains.
The real issue is keeping your head while all about you
people are losing theirs. Hence these recommendations on
how you can profit in the current uncertain Web environment
and position yourself for the absolutely certain
future profit to come.
Recommendation #1: You're Going To Have To Work Hard To
Achieve Online Success
Far too many people on the Internet still have the crazy
idea that success online is inevitable, effortless,
thoughtless, casual. It's not. Far from it. Because the
Internet is a new environment, it demands extra attention
and more work than you'd have to perform if, say, you
opened a standard retail shop.
Thus, you must make how to succeed online a subject of
continual study. The 'net is still, after all, to a
considerable degree a trial and error environment. That's
good for people who like to use their wits to solve problems;
not so good for people whose goal is to perfect their
skills as Couch Potatoes.
The people who will succeed in the next phase will be, to a
person, energetic go-getters, thinkers, and experimenters.
The Internet is a gigantic laboratory, where millions of
people are trying this and that. The people who approach
the task as WORK and not a day in the park, are the ones
who stand the best chance of success.
Frankly, I'm appaled by the habits of most Internet
"marketers" and "business people." Probably because
such well-publicized success came to a few online
marketers so early (usually through inflated stock
prices), the idea took root that all you had to do was
turn-up to grab your own brass ring.
This comfortable idea, so in tune with the prevailing
"Take it easy" culture that most people find so appealing,
is slow to die. But if YOU want success, you've got to
kill it, root and branch. Can you do it?
Recommendation #2: Get The Tools You Need
The sad fact is that millions of people are trying to
profit online without having the tools they need to
do so. It's nuts! These tools include
your own domain, so you have your own property to
develop
a listserver, so you can send unlimited non-spam
email to your prospects, customers and subscribers
a sales manager, so you can follow up all your
leads personally, automatically
professional website design
guaranteed traffic devices.
Without these absolutely must-have elements, you're
toast.
Take a look at the tools you're working with now.
Have you got each and one of the ones you need?
Or are you just fooling yourself? The people who
make it to the next phase of online profit will
have these tools, no ifs, ands, or buts. The
ones who don't will get the Huskisson Award for
worst response to new technology.
Recommendation #3: Focus On Value
As I've said often enough, lots of what people are
trying to profit from online is stuff nobody will
ever need. In a word, they're trying to get rich
selling junk. Friend, it ain't gonna happen.
If you want to make money online, you must offer
VALUE online. Do you?
Now I realize that people have an unlimited ability
to delude themselves about what they're doing, so
it may take you a while to be honest with yourself
about what you're selling. But PLEASE try!
Ask yourself these key questions:
Do people really need what you're selling?
Is the price fair?
Can they get it elsewhere for less?
Are you offering VALUE, or are you just trying to
make a big score off junk, so you can loll on a
beach somewhere? Caveat emptor!
The companies which succeed online are the companies
which offer online value. There's no future for you
unless you offer value, too.
Recommendation #4: Learn how to write and present
customer-center copy
The Internet is a communications medium. For business
people it's a sales medium. That's it. There ain't
no more.
Thus, you must learn how to present the VALUE you
sell in a way that's appealing, motivating, exciting
to the maximum number of people in the shortest
amount of time and space. This is both an art and a
science.
Problem is, far too many online sellers know nothing
about human motivation and how to select and
manipulate the words which get people to MOVE.
Sadly, you're probably one of them.
How do you move people online? The answer is found
in four simple words
YOU GET BENEFIT NOW!
People don't want to make you rich. They want to make
themselves better off. Thus, they want benefits and
they want them NOW!
Your job is to present your value in such a way that
people easily understand just what you've got for
them.
These benefits must be simply, effectively presented
in words and pictures; the overall design of your
website needs to accentuate the positive and get
people to LOOK AT what you've got and STAY long enough
to respond.
Can you do this? Again, I say: probably not!
This key to online success then means either that you
must study hard to achieve these skills. Or you must
hire professionals who can deliver these results for
you. It's one or the other or both!
Recommendation #5: Don't Get Distracted
As William Huskisson proved, getting distracted can be
fatal. Staying focused is vital.
If Mr. Huskisson had just focused on getting off the
track, he wouldn't have become a celebrated statistic.
I trust the obvious moral sinks in with you!
Every day, indeed virtually every hour of every day,
I am assaulted with offers from people who assure me
that if I will only stop what I'm doing and do what
they recommend all the delights of an Islamic paradise
will be open to me.
I'm not tempted.
You see, I've already got an online company that works.
Why, in the words of the t.v. commercial, would anyone
need another?
The key to profiting is focus. Lots of people who read
this report need to have that single word FOCUS
posted where they can see it every minute of every day.
Running around chasing the elusive dream of success
isn't how success is achieved. Success comes about
through unrelenting study, work, perfection of products
and presentation, and FOCUS.
Focus isn't easy. Not by a long shot. It's tiresome,
tedious, often dull and sometimes excruciatingly boring
to stay focused all the time. But, as Mr. Huskisson
could testify, it certainly has its rewards. Indeed,
without such focus the rewards will never be achieved.
Never! Never! Never!
Recommendation #6: Don't expect overnight success
Because a handful of people in the early days of the
Internet achieved spectacular success (only to see it
evaporate so very soon), the idea got around that the
'net was an emporium where to wish was to have.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Success online demands an arduous commitment to success.
Sadly, in our "be cool, man" culture, millions do
everything they can to avoid that commitment. Don't
YOU make this mistake.
Ask yourself this question: am I willing to do today
the work that will ensure the success of my online
enterprise in a year, three years, five years from
now? Or am I nothing more than a gambler, throwing
the dice, hoping, expecting, needing to win NOW
because I'm not willing to do what's necessary to
WIN SURE? If that's you, there's absolutely no online
success or probably any other success in your
future.
Last Words
The great age of online wealth is before us.
More and more people will study the medium and learn
what it takes to succeed. The results promise to be
spectacular.
The question is not whether the Internet will flourish
but whether you will flourish on the Internet.
Or will you adopt either one of these futile
positions? Will you, like William Huskisson, get
unfocused and go down because you didn't bother to learn
what you need to do and when you need to do it?
Or will you, like the people responding to this freak
accident, draw the conclusion that because one person
failed to act properly, the medium is at fault and should
be damned forever?
Neither of these responses is correct. What is correct
is hunkering down for the long haul and doing what's
necessary to use the glorious benefits and economies
of the Web to profit, now and for years to come. But,
friend, WILL YOU DO IT?
About the Author
Check out Dr. Lant's online Sure-Fire Business Success
Catalog and get a free subscription to his "Marketing Hot
Tips" Newsletter at http://www.worldprofit.com/ezines
To contact Dr. Lant personally for assistance,
mailto:drjlant@worldprofit.com