Perhaps I’m simply becoming more mellow in my old age. I like to think that I’m finally learning that I have a lot of growing to do in the Wisdom Department. Perhaps the real reason lies even deeper, buried in the depths of my subconscious to the point that only an expert psychiatrist can coax it out of its hiding place.
Or perhaps it’s because I installed this blog using Fantastico, many years ago, and haven’t updated it via the Fantastico interface since WordPress starting offering a convenient update link inside the admin panel — and I’m tired of getting automated notices to update my blog software from version 1.5.1 (current version is 3.2.1 and yes, I’m using it…).
But whatever the reason, I’m going to be totally deleting this blog. Soon.
This may be your last chance to read some of the “nuggets” (or “droppings”, depending on your perspective; if you hate what I write, I encourage you to “move on” and not waste your time hating any more) that I’ve posted here over the years.
Quite simply, I want to make this a personal blog — a “journal”, if I may be so bold as to say so. A place where I can talk about Whatever It Is That I Want To Talk About.
I’m also not satisfied with a lot of what’s here. I’m finally learning Who I Want To Be On The Internet, but the road to get to where I am today took some detours through some rather shady places that I’d just as soon forget.
Early Steps
When I first started with Internet Marketing (this was one of my first websites), I just followed the crowd. The Internet Marketing Crowd leaves a lot to be desired in many instances. Regardless, many of my early posts were of the “me, too!” hypey affiliate promotion types. They made some money but I’m embarrassed to read them now.
I then started “following” somebody who turned out to be a total psychopath. After dropping a couple thousand dollars with him for a year’s worth of coaching, he then proceeded to publicly humiliate a colleague and friend on his blog. I called him on it. He cut me off without a refund. May God be his judge; I’ve forgiven him (which is solely for my benefit; it was wasting MY time to hold a grudge).
But that kind of led me into a “ripoff behind every rock” phase where I was spending more time criticizing the work of others than I was in building my own business. Only recently have I realized the futility of this. I know what needs to be done and have a vision that it can be done, and by focusing on, and perfecting, the “right” way to do stuff, I can lead and serve in an industry that has a horrible reputation (which is a real shame because, done right, you can use Internet Marketing to really help others while personally prospering).
Starting To “Get It Right”
I then met up with some good people (my current favorite crowd hangs out at the Earn 1k A Day Membership Site) (affiliate link) and slowly began to realize that the business rules for an Internet Marketing business really weren’t any different than the rules for any other business. IMers like to SCREAM about how “everything has changed”. For a long time, I believed it. I no longer do.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin talks about this in his book, “Thou Shall Prosper”. Some things change, like technology, and we need to embrace this kind of change. Typewriters were everywhere 30 years ago, but just try to find one today! An essential business tool was wiped out by the computer, and those whose living depended on typewriters either adapted or found themselves out of work. So technology changes, and if your business depends on technology, it’s “adapt or die” as technology changes.
Other things are rock-solid and should never change, like your core values (yeah, I slipped a bit here for a while). Suffice it to say that I’ve gotten off the “product launch” bandwagon insofar as promoting others’ offers. Yes, this is going to hurt me; a lot of marketers are of the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” type and want you to promote their offer solely because they promoted yours. That’s fine if the product is high quality, overdelivers on value, and is a good fit for my audience, but I won’t promise it.
So the technology and marketing tactics will change as time marches on, but core values will never change (unless you have horrible core values and decide to change them for the better). I even followed some people in the personal development industry who I thought were good, but in the end, all they did were take some of my core values and dismiss them as “growth limiting”. After that, they proceeded to violate those values, not to promote growth, but simply so that they could go out and do whatever their selfish selves wanted to do — all in the name of “personal growth”, of course…
But as we live — and hopefully learn — we change. We adapt. And while I certainly hope that I’m not done growing and changing personally, I’ve come to the point where I’m really trying to align my personal core values with my online (and offline) business activities.
Where I’m Going (For Now)
I don’t just want “customers”; my goal is to create “friendships” that enable me to communicate and be in touch with those who choose to entrust me with their money and time. I’m still not 100% sure about how to do this via the Internet but I do have some ideas that I’ll be exploring in the months to come.
One other foundational value that does not change is profit. A business has to make money to survive; if you don’t agree with me, then go back 10-11 years and look at the .com bust. People thought that raising money was enough; those companies are long gone. The ones that survived were those that sought to turn a profit. Always has been this way, always will be.
So my offerings are going to focus on products that will help you develop systems that will either make you money or save you money. Computer security will help you save money and preserve your business. The rest — the “make money” type of stuff — is going to focus on systems which, if implemented properly, have the potential to make money.
I’m getting away from the “push button riches” and “this system made me a billion dollars in 2.7 weeks” type of stuff. It’s not realistic and a lot of it is designed to expertly extract money from your bank account — and nothing more. In most cases, the system either no longer works or would involve violating the terms of service of some other company — neither of which is something that I want to do, nor is it something that I want to promote to my audience.
For all these reasons (and many more), this blog has become a bit of an inconvenience. It’s like trying to swim with a cement overcoat; instead of going forward, it’s dragging me down.
So it’s going away just as soon as I get my new template ready.
And I’m pretty sure that I won’t be the only person who will be happy to see it go — and its replacement rise from the ashes.
P.S. — I may resurrect this post as the first post of my new blog. I need the reminder!
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