Ask Gina Gaudio-Graves’ … About Internet Marketing & Strategic Alliances

I’m writing this at 4:10 am on Sunday morning.  I just woke up and realized that I hadn’t posted to my blog once since I’d gotten to Big Seminar on Thursday.  There goes my goal of a post per day!

What woke me up, though, wasn’t the thought of my blog.  What really woke me up was thinking about a man that I had met at the seminar.

Now, I’m not going to use his real name here as I don’t want to embarrass him.  So instead, let’s call him “John Newbie”. 

“John Newbie” is no different than about 90% of my subscribers:  he is dooming himself to failure in his business without even realizing it!  If only he’d take the RIGHT action, his failure could be avoided and he could see the success he desires!

What could be dooming John to failure?

As I share the following story of John Newbie, see if you can spot the two gigantic mistakes that John is making.  At the end of the story, I’ll share the advice that I gave to him.

The Story of “John Newbie”

I met John Newbie while sitting outside Of Big Seminar X in Atlanta, having a cigarette. 

I introduced myself to John and said, “I see that Big Seminar name tag you’re wearing and it tells me that you have some interest in Internet marketing.  So tell me what you do!”

John explained that he currently works full time as an Engineer at a large Fortune 500 company.  He is exploring Internet marketing as a way of making a living once he retires.

He went on to say that with all the down sizing occurring in his company, his “retirement” could come any day, even though he was nowhere near retirement age.

Does this sound familiar?  (According to IDC, a top national research firm, there are between 34.3 million and 36.6 million home office households in the United States alone.)

John then told me that although he had been “dabbling” in Internet marketing for almost a year, he hadn’t found exactly what he wanted to do yet.  He had so many varied interests like “photography, health & wellness, engineering, computers” and a ton of others, but he hadn’t come up with the “right one” yet.

He told me that he was involved in a coaching program with Armand Morin that was helping him explore this right now.

I started to give John my lesson about finding a profitable passion by looking at what people are already BUYING, when he interrupted. 

John explained that he had done the keyword research and tons of people were searching for keywords in all the areas he was interested in, so he figured he could pick any one of them and make money.

John had learned to pick a market by finding out what people are searching for from yet another coaching program he was involved in with yet another guru.

At one point in the conversation, John commented, “Wasn’t that last speaker great?  I almost bought his $7,000 coaching program.”

I couldn’t resist asking John which coaching programs he was already involved in.  I expected him to say 1 or 2.

Instead, he rattled off a laundry list of about 4 or 5 programs, all totaling well over $30,000!

I gave him a few words of advice, he thanked me and walked inside.  Although all my alarm bells were going off for this guy, I didn’t want to push my lessons on him, so I stayed quite.

A few hours later, I saw him outside again.  I jokingly asked, “So, have you purchased any more coaching programs?” expecting him to say no.

Much to my surprise, he said, “Yes, I got that copywriting program with [so-and-so].”

Finally, I couldn’t keep quiet any longer.  I just had to help John! 

Did you spot the two big mistakes John is making?

I always like to start off with telling people what they are doing right.  So let me start by saying that John is doing one thing right.

John realized early on that having a coach or mentor is critical to your success, especially if you want to make progress fast. 

Having a coach or mentor allows you to duplicate their success rather than have to struggle by reinventing the wheel.  Enrolling in a single coaching program can save you hundreds of frustrated hours of work and tens of thousands of dollars in lost profits as well as added costs.

BUT …

Problem #1 – Lack of Focus

Having multiple coaches (especially having 4 or 5 or more coaches, like John) will only make things even worse for you!

If you realize that having a coach or mentor will improve the likelihood of your success, then you need to spend some time finding the right program for you rather than jumping from one coach to the next. 

If you don’t, you’ll only wind up distracted by all of the different programs and unable to focus on the methods of any individual coach.

The biggest problem with having multiple coaches like John is that each one will have their own unique system and strategy for getting results.  Often times, these systems and strategies conflict with one another.

For example, with one coach, your focus may be on selling info products that you create.  Another coach may focus on selling affiliate products.  Sure, you could use these two methods in conjunction with one another, but only if you listen to the advice of a third coach will you learn HOW to combine the two methods.

What would happen with this example is that you’d get started creating your info product as instructed by the first coach, you’d move on to the lesson with coach #2 and realize that you need to build a second site for your affiliate sales, and you’d put project #1 on hold to do so.

In the end, you don’t end up getting results from either method.  Instead, you simply bounce back and forth between the two models, never managing to make any forward movement.

Do you see how easy it is to lose your focus and become distracted?

It can sometimes make sense to take multiple coaching programs if they are all specialized programs that cover different aspects of building a business.  For example, in internet marketing, it could make sense to take one program on building a list, one program on driving traffic, and yet another on copywriting.

BUT … wouldn’t it make more sense to do that only AFTER you first take a single program that covers building a business using the power of the internet generally? 

And then, AFTER you know how to build the entire business, you can go out and supplement your knowledge by taking programs in the areas you are still weakest on.

(NOTE:  This is the exact reason that I am currently building The IM University that opens it’s doors later this month.  It will be a general overview program that teaches you how to build a business using the power of the internet.  But other specialty courses will be offered as well for those who already know how to build a business and want to supplement their skills in some way.)

Problem #2 – Do NOT Look Searches to Choose a Target Market

Because John is involved in so many coaching programs, it’s causing him to make a HUGE mistake in selecting his target market.

Whenever you’re looking for a target market to go after, there are several requirements. 

1. You’ve got to find a HUNGRY MARKET
2. You’ll need that market to be willing to open their wallets

Who cares what people are already searching for?  That only helps you make money if you are making it on AdSense.  In other words, it only tells you if there is a HUNGRY MARKET.

Never forget the importance of requirement #2:  That market MUST be willing to open their wallets!  In other words …

If you’re monetizing through any other channel (ie products, services, ebooks, etc.), then you’ve got to know what people are BUYING to make money!

So, how can you avoid making these same mistakes as John Newbie?  What can you do to ensure your success?

In building a business, take things in the following order:

1. Get a success mindset
2. Learn the systems and strategies that you’ll need to succeed
3. Educate yourself on any areas of specialized knowledge where your skills are lacking

I’m holding a FREE teleconference with my co-host, Harrison Klein, on Monday, October 8^th, 2007 at 9:00 pm EST / 6:00 pm PST.  Our guest that night is Mark Joyner, the founder of Simpleology.

Mark will be talking about things you can do to focus and keep from becoming distracted as well as on the success mindset.

Details for the call are at:

http://www.abundancegroup.com/mj

That call will help you to get your mindset straight so that you’ll be ready for The IM University when it launches later this month!

In the meantime … I’d like to make sure that The IM University addresses as many of your issues as possible.  Please leave a comment and tell me what your greatest challenges are in building your business.

To Your Abundant Success!

Gina Gaudio-Graves