Funny how followers follow

You know the advice you've heard from other marketers including me that says... "Sometimes, you'll learn more by observing what they're doing than listening to what they teaching"?

I think I have to take back that piece of advice because it can be misinterpreted. That piece of advice only works if you know what you're doing.

I realized this after I saw what 'followers' are doing.

Now- I want to make it clear you that I'm not intending any negativity on 'followers' in my examples below. It's just a way how I can describe today's marketing lesson and share with you some good points to take hme. So if you happen to be a 'follower' in one form or another, be smart and take this constructively to help you to grow. Successful people became successful because they're willing to learn and don't let their ego to eat them up.

Examples I've seen:

My blog domain name is 'ugly' – www.internetmarketing-tactics.com/blog. What kind of stupid domain name is that anyway? :-)

But followers might think that this is the RIGHT way of buying a domain name by using a hyphen (-) and choosing a long domain name.

Bzzz. Wrong.

The reality is, that's the second domain name I bought back in 2003 or 2004(I've got hundreds of them today) when I first started in internet marketing niche. The first one was automateinternetmarketing.com (another lousy domain name). That time, I ended up buying a long domain name like this is because I wasn't internet marketing savvy and now I'm 'stuck' with it. Then I started doing blogging back in 2004 with blogger.com and I just got lazy to transfer the whole blog to other domain names.

THAT'S THE TRUTH.

Second example - I use blogger.com for my internet marketing blog. Followers might just follow that but the REAL REASON why I use this is because blogger.com was 'hot' when blogging starts and besides, I don't even know how to install Wordpress (WP) at that time. Then I never bother to move it to WP, which I might in the future, because I'm not using this blog for blogging purpose (RSS feeds, social bookmarking, search engine ranking and so on) or branding (look at the blog's design - it's not even unique!).

Final example - I use 3 variations of subject lines for the same email that I send out to you and my other subscribers. So followers would think that I'm up to something and they will ALSO have variations because they THINK it'll increase conversion, open rate or something. What they did not see is the technology we're doing at the back - to track and so on.

I could go on and on with examples how followers follow my stuff and I would chuckle because I know they don't get the whole picture and worse still, leading them to the wrong thing.

Okay, one more example (you can tell I'm sort of liking this) - If a follower copy my stuff and thinking that THIS IS IT, they're in for a big treat. For instance, one of my niche websites is www.boxerdogtips.com. Yeah, that's still making money today after 4 years (or 5 years?).

The thing is, I created that not to make money online. If it does, that's great, woo hoo. I did that because I wanted to prove to my customers at that time that it's POSSIBLE to make money online without being an expert or JV partners in a competitive niche market (dog training's competition is pretty fierce). Secondly, I need something to show as a credibility builder than revealing my long-term internet businesses that I want to keep it hush hush.

And lastly, it's a case study that I use for a product I've created many years ago called, The Online Niche Secrets Audio Course, OnlineNicheSecrets.com. (Don't buy, it's not update.)

To the extreme, I don't even mail to the thousands of subscribers I've built in that dog training list at all!

SO – if you're following that, you might make some money online but you're going to be misleaded big time and wonder why you cannot break your income ceiling.

In my case, what works are what I teach in my courses, coaching program and so on. Am I asking to buy my course? Do I have any order links here? No, right? Point stressed.

Most people try to be cheap and try to figure out on themselves- especially if they think they 'know' it all.

I've seen so many followers copying other guru's squeeze page, video style, etc - but do they really know what is going on?

Heck, maybe that Guru is just playing around and testing some stuff. It's not even the real thing.

Like now you can see doubleyourdating.com is not using a squeeze page anymore. So the followers will rush to start creating a 'content' style page for the main page but do they know what is this $20 million business latest strategy?

You see a world-class copywriter writes a salesletter and you copy that because you think it'll convert like crazy. But do you know what is the actual hook for the entire copy? And more importantly - how sure are you that it wasn't a flop salesletter?

You saw some great gurus launching their products and you follow their product launch. Are you sure you're getting the WHOLE PICTURE?

If there's a lesson to take away from today's sharing is don't assume in marketing – make sure you get the right source of information before you think it'll be a good idea to 'copy' or not.

And yes, COPY is a smart way of working less. I don't deny that. But there's a huge distinction in terms of copy and rip off. (smile)

When I say 'copy', I'm referring to market intelligence - know what your competitors are doing and how they do it to become so successful. Then see if you can do better or along that kind of line.

If you want to create the next Facebok, wouldn't it easier to 'spy' and 'copy' that concept than thinking a new idea? Unless you're Twitter, then I rest my case.

If you've find value in what you read today, please leave a Comment or feedback? Needless to say, I will definitely appreciate it because I read all Comments personally and gotten the chance to know you at the same time.

Patric Chan



-----