There are three stages of Internet marketing consciousness. Outlined below.

1. It’s All Bullshit
This is the stage where you don’t believe that anyone makes money online, and every “guru” is a scam-artist.

2. It’s Not For Me, But I Wish I Could Do It
This is the stage where you finally realize that not every “guru” is a scam-artist, and that they do in fact make a ton of money and help people. This is also the stage where you wish you could do what they do, but you can’t bring yourself to do it.

3. Let’s Just Make Some Money
This is the stage where you say to yourself… “My ego is stopping me from being successful.” You finally realize that most of your “organic” efforts to monetize have failed completely and you need to make some cash. So you start buying into the system. You create products, you start teaching, you put ads on your blog, etc… You “sell out” per say, and you realize it’s not a big deal because you’re helping people AND making money at the same time.

Sound familiar? Which stage are you in? And how long did it take you to get through each stage?

It’s interesting that this post from Copyblogger came out today about the ‘3 fatal diseases that kill good blogs‘. Why? Because I’m currently writing a book right now called ‘Attention!’ and one of the themes I’m working on in the book is…

This is a business, not a hobby.

Social media, blogging, email marketing, affiliate marketing, online PR, you name it… This is a business. We’re doing this to make money, or leads, or get publicity. Not for fun. Not for “friends”. Until you flip that switch in your head where you understand this, you’re going to continue to find it very hard to find success on the Internet.

From the Copyblogger post…

If you are serious about blogging, you need to treat your blog like a business. You are the CEO of You Inc., and you’ve got to weigh every single decision as if there were millions of dollars on the line. Yeah, it would be great to blog in your underwear and sleep in every morning, but the reality is that most of us can’t afford to do that.

Measure the day’s work in results, not in hours spent typing on Facebook or Twitter. Absolutely, fostering relationships is important, but every action needs to be treated as an investment of your time.

This is especially important if you are a solo blogger, as there is only so much work that you can get done in a day. You’ve got to be efficient with your time. This means measured action and measured results — not just going with the flow.

I wrote the first eBook about how to make money from blogging back in 2004 called Blogs To Riches. When I wrote it and released it, I was getting hate mail from people saying things like “You shouldn’t use blogs to make money you jerk” and “You’re ruining the Internet, F#$% you”. These people didn’t believe that blogging was a business, or could be.

Of course, a few years later people like Problogger came on the scene and proved that you could buy a house with the money you make blogging. Now, today, we all realize that blogging is in fact a great way to do business. Yet, still so many of us treat it as a hobby still.

Here’s why. Because “regular people” are the people who start blogs. They’re not marketers. They’re not entrepreneurs. They are people who have a passion about something and they want to share that passion with the rest of the world without having a gatekeeper tell them they can’t.

But things are changing, yes they are. We’re no longer bloggers anymore, we’re “publishers”. The majority of people don’t start blogs anymore just to waste time. They want something out of it. It may not be money they want. It may be fame. Whatever it is, they want something for their effort, and that makes them a publisher.

What happened to me in 2004 is the same thing that is happening now to social media. We’re all being told we shouldn’t try to make money with social media. It’s pure, they say. Leave it alone, you’ll ruin it.

This is ALL a business, not a hobby.

In my presentation called “Beyond the Website” I cover my mantra of “Why We Use the Internet”. It’s one of the main things that we all need to understand before we can be successful online.

You MUST understand why people come online. If you dont, how can you sell to them? How can you create products and services and tools that they want? You can’t.

Here’s quick little snippet of me talking about why we use the Web. Do you think simple like this? Do you solve problems? You should.

I love talking about future stuff. Especially when it comes to Internet marketing, which is near and dear to my heart. So I’m very pleased, and proud, to say that I’ll be joining some of the Web’s heaviest hitters this Thursday on a free teleseminar called What’s Next in Internet Marketing.

The internet has become the essential hub for all business and personal communications. Join Internet Marketing Experts Jay Berkowitz, Rohit Bhargava, Maria Harrison, Jim Kukral, Joe Laratro, David McInnis, Mari Smith and Richard Stanton, to find out what is coming next in marketing online.

The All-Star Panel will include the following Internet Marketing Gurus:
- Jay Berkowitz, Keynote Speaker and Author of the Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing
- Rohit Bhargava, Marketing Blogger and Author of “Personality Not Included”
- Maria Harrison, Interactive Marketing Genius
- Jim Kukral, The Biz Web Coach
- Search expert Joe Laratro
- Multi-Million dollar internet entrepreneur David McInnis Founder of PRWeb and People Pond
- Facebook Goddess Mari Smith
- Web Semantics expert Richard Stanton, CEO of Bintro.com

Look at that lineup! I hope you’ll join us for the call. I hope to learn a lot from the others. I’ll be covering some issues on mobile as well as something new that everyone will be doing in the next few years that will create an entire new revenue stream for regular (that means non-Internet geek) people.

You don’t want to miss this. Sign up for free now.

The Perfection of Marketing puts you in the room with James Connor, a leading brand expert to hear the exact advice he’s given to over 200 CEOs on the most efficient methods to build their brand and increase marketing ROI. Culminating from 12 years of work, these best practices are battle tested for small and midsized businesses. This practical guide gives you the detailed playbook run by The James Group, a brand strategy and full-service advertising agency in New York City, which has made more money for 95% of their clients. Skillfully written in narrative style, this book is a must have for any CEO who wants to grow a company through marketing. With a summary and key questions at the end of each chapter, The Perfection of Marketing provides a clear path to marketing success.

The Perfection of Marketing

I wanted to start doing a weekly Web show, so I put out a call for a co-host in Cleveland and got Jeremy Borger to show up. Below is the live on tape (recording) of the show we did earlier today. We talk about Twitter, and the Superbowl trends and other geeky related things on the Internets.

The reason I’m showing you this is to inspire you. It’s literally this easy to do. No script, no fancy lights, no fancy equipment. I took my Mac laptop and put it on a stool. Started Ustream.tv, clicked “start broadcast” and that’s it. Live to the Internet, and it records too.

You can be doing this. You SHOULD be doing this. Do something, anything! If you know a lot about Tikis, well, then get your tiki collection out and talk about them on camera. Then put that video recording on your tiki blog, and then send a message out to your Twitter friends you have a new video about antique tikis. Then announce it on Facebook, etc…

I could go on and on. The point is. If you don’t try it… your competitor will. Just try it. When you do, send me your video so I can check it out.

Note: This post was written for a friend of mine who wishes to remain nameless. It’s my pick me up to that person. You can do it! These thoughts accurately represent how I have felt in the past. I hope you find it helpful and inspirational on your journey to success.

What if you could make a ton of money being somebody who you’re not? Would you still do it?

Tough question, yet a question that we all must answer. If you’re like me, you struggle with these types of issues. An example perhaps.

I know that if I wanted to make a ton of money, I could become someone I am not. I could build products and services that I don’t want to build.

But I don’t, and here’s why. It’s more important to me to sell things I believe in. It’s more important for me to have the brand I want to have… that I’ve envisioned for myself long term.

Do I lose out on TONS of money because I have this attitude. Yes. Do I sometimes consider “selling out” and just doing what I know will make me a ton of bank? Yes.

Your decisions may be different. You may not have the same, perhaps stupid, limitations on your brand/business.

I’ll be honest. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have those feelings. I’d be richer for sure. But would I be happier? I don’t think so.

The point is. Do what you need to do and don’t apologize for it. If you have to “sell out” to pay your bills. Do it. If you can get by by not compromising your vision then do that too. Make a decision, but don’t feel bad about it, and don’t let your friends or peers make you feel bad about it either.

In the end… this is business. But you’re going to have to live with what you’ve done. Decide now. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck in the middle, which isn’t a good place to be if you want to meet your goals.

I keep bringing expert self-publishing and book marketing people on because, well, it’s relevant to me and I like to educate people about how it can be done. So here’s another interview with a person who wants to help you promote your book. Penny from http://www.amarketingexpert.com/.

Penny gives some amazing information and tips about book marketing. We talk specifically about what authors can do to begin to promote their books. We also talk about the future importance of web video when trying to promote your book.

If you’re writing a book, self-published, or not, and even an ebook, you need to listen to this podcast.

Here are the show notes.

What are the most important things an author needs to do to promote their book?
Gotta start with a website at least. Talking about what the book can do for the reader, not about the book.
Start navigating social networking sites like Facebook and make a Squidoo profile.
You’ll be surprised at online networking opportunities.
It’s like moving into a new neighborhood. Find out who is there and where stuff is. Explore.
Never try to do it all at once. Start somewhere.
99% of media finds their experts online. Is your book online?
You can’t just build a website or social profile and forget about it. It’s work.
You should have a blog. It’s a great way to express thoughts about your book and let the community know about you. Also a great thing for the search engines.
It’s much easier to sell something to somebody who’s already interested. That’s what a blog and website can do for you.
One the secrets of getting your website better exposure is to have high-quality, high-traffic incoming links.
It’s a lot of work, but the payoff can be enormous.
Future books in your niche are easy to sell in your community.
Should authors experiment with web video? It has a huge stickiness factor.

Shmuly gets it. He’s taken a traditional piece of Jewish headdress called the Kippah and combined it with current trends, in this case the Presidential election here in the USA. Check out his product at VanityKippah.com. Pretty smart.

In this video I talk more about how smart marketers like Shmuly know to take their product or service and combine it with current events or trends to make more sales and get publicity. It works. You can do it too.

Take a moment and think about how your product or service relates to what’s hot right now. Sports (the Olympics?), entertainment, politics? You get the point. Now make the connection and do something creative. The press will eat it up.

Click To Play

Music on video from http://cantorgottesman.com/chazzan-first-cd.htm

Nina Frye had an idea one day to create an ecommerce store (LTDChix.com).

The problem was, she was a mom who had never done it before and had zero idea how to get it done. Fast forward now to years later and now Nina has a fully-functional, successful store. So, how did she get there? What lessons did she learn along the way?

If you’ve ever thought about starting up your own online store, you MUST listen to this podcast of me talking to LTDChix.com. Nina gives all of her lessons and advice on how she got started, as well as mistakes made and tips. She dishes it all. GREAT interview and you will learn a lot. Please leave feedback in the comments.

Here are the show notes:

The story of how we got started. Moms overwhelmed!
Target a niche!
How did you start the site? Steep learning curve.
Worked with Score. Did a test market first. Found local place to print, spent $2500. Took to a local fair and test marketed to moms. Sold out!
Sent out press release to local newspaper. Simple news release.
Signed up to mom blogs and pitched them. Giveaways work! 2 or 3 or month.
It’s expensive to run a website. Find a good local web guy/gal who you can trust.
Startupnation.com helped a lot. Gave me media lists, help me find a pr person. Got on MSN.com through contest.
Go to retail stores. Promote that on your site. Cold call them. Looked to see where your competitors are, and called the stores they are at one by one.
Setup a wholesale price. Setup a sales sheet, not your website, an order sheet they can fill out and send back.
Use coupon codes. Make shopping cart easy to buy. Use authorize.net for merchant account.
Google Adwords and converting at 60% sometimes.
Learned how to be an ecommerce expert by reading.
Cafepress.com is a great place to try out custom artwork sales.
Going to license artwork for overseas sales. Mom humor on all kinds of products.
We went to show in NYC and found licensing companies to approach. Pitched them. Got a lot of no’s.
What would you do differently now two years later? Spent too much doing website the wrong way first time.
We copyrighted the images using us trademark government.