As a user of Google Mail, I have a Spam folder. Google does a pretty good job of putting the spam there while delivering the good stuff to the right place. They are also constantly tweaking it and do make the occasional goof, but tend to learn very quickly. As an example, an email that Mike Filsaime sent to his lists recently went into the Spam folder, but a simple click on the “Not Spam” button took care of that (and presumably let Google know that I asked for email from Mike).
One quick side note: If you asked for email from somebody, it’s not spam. If you no longer want email from that person, click on the unsubscribe link or follow the instructions to be removed from the list. If they refuse to honor your request, THEN it is spam.
But back to the topic at hand… The Profit Prophecy.
Another email just popped into my spam box that was entitled, “Dear Fellow Profit Seeker”.
That person isn’t going to be around for long in this business, and it’s EXACTLY that kind of attitude that will ensure your eventual failure in business.
First, it’s spam, plain and simple. That person did not have permission to email me; in fact, I think I feel like doing a spam slap today…! That person either scraped my email address somewhere along the line or some unscrupulous marketer violated their own terms of service by selling my email address as a “verified opt in” or some such nonsense. I know of at least one person who does this and it’s in his terms that he does this; however, when I signed up for his list, it wasn’t.
Read those terms of service. I even go so far as to save a copy and have pulled them out to complain before. There was even one case (Dr. Andy Williams) where I said that I wanted to purchase something from him but wouldn’t because his terms were too one-sided — and he changed his terms. I’m now his customer (and he makes some great stuff, too… Look him up sometime!). On the other hand, I’m in the midst of another situation right now where an individual whom I respected and admired has chosen to use some very sharp terms on one of his sites and is now using them to slap me in the face when I need help. The result? He’s no longer allowed in my Inbox and I’ve also canceled another membership site of his that had decent Terms. And I’ll be talking about that once the situation is cleared and I have the final word.
So the first problem with this spammer was the fact that it was spam. But the second reason was even more insidious…
“Dear Fellow Profit Seeker”. THAT is a sure road to business failure.
Your goal in business shouldn’t be to solely get profits. In fact, I’m of the opinion that you shouldn’t SEEK profits at all.
So what should you be doing? You should be seeking to provide value, and in the process exchange value for value.
In in Internet-based business that sells digital products, this is extremely easy. For example, let’s say that I create a video course that shows you how to back up your WordPress blog’s database automatically and how to upgrade WordPress software in less than a minute. If you were to hire a consultant to set this up and teach you how to do it, you’d probably be facing at least a $200 fee (for two hours of service).
Would a video like that be worth, say, $25 of your cash?
You get the information for 12.5% of what it would otherwise cost you (IF the consultant knows my system; otherwise it might cost you more for fancy software). You get at least $200 worth of value for a fraction of the cost. And because I can sell it to more than one person, I’ll also win because I delivered value. And instead of having to perform $200 installs until the cows come home, I can do the video course once and sell it many times, freeing my time to do other things.
Will I profit? Yes. So will you if you choose to purchase the course (incidentally, this isn’t a hypothetical exercise; I will be releasing such a course soon). But my goal isn’t JUST to make a profit; my goal is to provide an incredible value to you that will help you protect your blog, your website, and your business.
My purpose is to help you succeed by protecting what you’ve worked hard to build. In the course of doing so, I can make a profit. But simply seeking a profit isn’t looking out for you, and those who get into the “make money online” racket without understanding that you MUST offer something of value in exchange for value aren’t going anywhere. Instead, they’ll just find their wallets being sucked dry by others who are better at it than they.
So that’s my Profit Prophecy: If you’re just after profits in your online activities, you aren’t going to go anywhere but down. Instead, offer value so that you’ll get value in return.
Thanks for listening,
Tom
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