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Is it Real or is it Memorex? | By Dave Cottrell |
The commercials were for high quality (according to the ad) blank audio cassette tapes. The main selling feature of the tapes was their exceptional sound quality. The memorable ads showed people trying to figure out if the sound they were hearing was a live or a recording. The sound quality was so good, the ad ran, that it was impossible to tell if it was real (live) or Memorex.
What a memorable ad. That simple line, "Is it Real or is it Memorex?" is still being used today, jokingly, in conversations everywhere. So while my point today is NOT about great copy, I will say that many of the so-called marketing gurus of today could learn a lot from the tried and true methods of yesterday.
Anyway, let's get back to the topic today. And it is.....
(Drumroll, please......... :-)
REAL products!
The Internet age came in only a few short years ago. Originally, it was simply a medium used mainly by universities and large institutions to share ideas and information.
Then, a few smart people saw a huge untapped opportunity and the e-commerce explosion began. As the incredible momentum of the new industry gathered strength, many new millionaires were made. At the beginning, getting recognition and traffic online was relatively simple.
As more and more people began to realise the amazing wealth being generated online, the Internet started to explode. In a very short time, millions of people were going online to make their fortune.
In that respect, things have not changed over the last few years. People are still going online with the idea that they will soon be rich. However, with the massive increase in online entrepeneurs, getting seen is becoming very difficult, and actually selling anything is becoming next to impossible for most people.
Why is this so?
One word. Trust.
For every good product available online, there are thousands of worthless ones. Virtual products have become the product of choice for thousands of merchants. They require no inventory, no shipping, and very little capital. The problem is, they only exist in cyberspace, and most of them are worthless. Many people are trying to sell them, not realizing that they are worthless.
As people buy one Get-Rich-Quick website or eBook after another only to find they can't sell it themselves and they're getting poorer, they begin to stop trusting anyone. This creates a growing problem as more and more people come online only to get burnt the same way.
What then is the answer?
The answer is to build trust. Look at the product YOU are trying to market. Is it REAL or is it Memorex? I don't care what anyone says; the real thing is better than the best copy. (No pun intended!) Even if you close your eyes, listening to a recorded concert will never beat the real thing! You still miss the smells, the feeling of excitement in the air, the presence of other people enjoying the concert with you. The real thing is always better.
Just as you would not be willing to pay nearly as much for a recording as you would for tickets to your favorite performance, so you would not want to pay good money for a poor imitation of a good product.
If you want to find a good virtual product to buy and sell, find someone with online experience you can trust. This takes time, but it is time WELL SPENT! It will save you thousands of dollars. There are lots of good people online who would love to help you. It makes them feel good to help, and if they have any worthwhile experience, they know it is in their best interest to help you. Take the time to get to know them, and find out what they use and would recommend. There are excellent virtual products out there.
A very good place to start is online communities. They are a great place to meet people who already have strong marketing and interpersonal skills and who love working with and helping others. Most likely, they joined the community to meet other people and develop further working relationships while building their own business. They have learned that the way to get ahead themselves is to help others get ahead, whether it directly builds their own business or not.
The other way to make money on the internet is to sell what I call hard products. These are products that you can actually hold in your hands. The ones I recommend must have a proven track record, be needed by everybody, be sold and delivered for you, and be used up every month. They must also have a 100% money-back satisfaction guarantee.
"Wait a minute!" you're saying. "How can I do THAT online?"
It's not hard. Build trust. Don't spend hours and hours trying to sell "stuff". Spend hours and hours building trust. Make yourself available. Join online communities. Answer some of those thousands and thousands of emails you get from posting to FFAs. Get to know people. Dump the banner ads off your website and put up an article about yourself, your interests, where you live, etc.
The people that you build relationships with, online or off, are the people that are going to do business with you. It won't happen overnight, but if you work at it consistantly, you will succeed.
"But I'll have to get to know thousands and thousands of people!!" I can almost hear you shout.
If you're selling info products, then you are going to have to get to know a lot of people, because you can only sell an info product to somebody once; then you have to come up with a new one they need and want, or another new customer.
With high quality, well-priced hard products that people need and want and use up every month, you don't have to get to know nearly as many people to start achieving real success in a much shorter time. Furthermore, you can achieve success much faster, because you can use the power of the Internet to generate a steady flow of new leads, PLUS you can work offline at the same time, greatly increasing your efficiency.
"Well, OK, if you say so," you're saying, "but where am I going to find something like that?"
Once again, I strongly recommend online communities. Join these communities with the idea that you're going to meet people who know what they're doing, learn from them, and find out who has both something to offer that you're really interested in and who is willing to dedicate themselves to helping you succeed. Don't start off by trying to flog your own products or programs; instead, just sit back, pay attention, and learn. If you exercise a little patience in the beginning, the rewards in the end will be beyond your wildest dreams!
Dave Cottrell is opinionated, compassionate, and passionate about people, marketing and online business. He does a lot of digging, experimenting and research, and writes like crazy about a wide variety
of topics and subjects. He is the owner of many websites and blogs; you can read his rants and find out more about him at http://davecottrell.com/blog.html
This article can be shared freely as long as this box remains intact.
Copyright © 2006 David H. Cottrell. All rights reserved.
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