Aaron Hoos

Since 2000, I’ve worked with countless new entrepreneurs to help them get their businesses started and online. In spite of the years, the lies that entrepreneurs are told about internet marketing remain basically unchanged.

Here are 9 of them:

LIE #1: KEYWORD RANKING IS CRITICAL

When people believe this, they pour a lot of time, money, and effort into keywords, and many even use lesser-value techniques (like keyword-stuffed articles written by software) or even blackhat techniques.

Truth: Keyword ranking is only important if it fits into your strategy. If you want people to find you through the search engines, keyword ranking is important. But there are plenty of other ways to get traffic online that are just as effective, just as profitable, and don’t require keywords. To name a few: AdWords, freelancing or outsourcing sites, social media, and content marketing. Domination in any of those areas can drive loads of targeted traffic to your site without ever having to consider keywords.

LIE #2: CONTENT MARKETING IS THE MOST AFFORDABLE TYPE OF MARKETING

When people believe this, they visit a site like Guru or Elance, ask for projects like “500 words of content for $1. Articles must contain 4% keyword density. English as a first language is not important because these are written for search engine ranking”. With a meager budget, they hire unqualified writers to jam out barely legible content. They get exactly what they paid for: Words that are nearly worthless. It fills the web, wastes everyone’s time, and doesn’t contribute to their bottom line.

Truth: The affordability of any marketing is relative to its effectiveness in compelling a sale. New entrepreneurs make the mistake of looking at their budget and the basic cost of a single “unit” of marketing (like an article or a pay-per-click ad, for example). What they don’t consider is the cost of a single “unit” of marketing relative to its role in closing a deal. Given the choice between a $25 marketing technique and a $100 marketing technique, the new entrepreneur takes the $25 one. However, a closer look at all the information reveals that the $25 marketing technique results in $50 of business while the $100 marketing technique results in $2,500 in business. In a situation like that, doesn’t it make much more sense to spend slightly more?

LIE #3: SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE NEW MARKETING METHOD

When people believe this, they treat social media like other marketing and they outsource it. They create corporate standards around it and review every outgoing message (i.e., tweet, Facebook status, Quora answer, etc.) before it goes live… essentially deflating its effectiveness.

Truth: Social media is about engaging with people. Social media is a place where humans share and listen. The results can still be positive and profitable to your business, and in that way, social media is related to marketing… but social media is about engagement. It’s about being real. It’s about open dialogue. It’s about responding. For that reason, it gets messy. It’s imperfect. The companies that are most successful at social media are the ones that put aside the corporate-speak and have real people engaging with the real people in their target market. (Read an answer I gave to the question: “What social networks are you using?”).

LIE #4: ANY ATTENTION IS GOOD

When people believe this, they do silly things. Marketing becomes a series of publicity stunts that may or may not have anything to do with the business.

Truth: It’s not about attention. It’s about moving people forward in your sales funnel. Publicity stunts can be fun, attention-getting ways to promote your business. But they don’t sell goods. (Sure there might be a blip, but it’s not sustainable). Your marketing plan should include more than “Step 1: Dress up as a human fly and scale a building. Step 2: Repeat as necessary.” Instead, high quality marketing should move people step-by-step through your sales funnel toward a sales. And yeah, if you want to do something zany once in a while, that’s cool and can help your business, but it is not a marketing plan (unless you’re Lindsay Lohan).

LIE #5: THE MORE TWITTER FOLLOWERS AND FACEBOOK FANS I HAVE, THE BETTER

When people believe this, then end up with a big list of Twitter followers and Facebook fans, but no one who will take action and buy. (And then they scratch their heads and wonder why no one is buying from them). This is because the number of people who are actually potential buyers is MUCH smaller and this group feeling lost amongst the tweets and Facebook postings that are meant to attract more followers or fans.

Truth: A targeted followerbase/fanbase requires less work and is more profitable. When you clearly define who you are and what you stand for, and your other marketing efforts are consistent with that, you’ll build up a followerbase/fanbase that is almost entirely made up of your target market… people who will actually move through your sales funnel and buy from you! (Read about why I just reduced the number of people I follow on Twitter).

LIE #6: THE FIRST THING I NEED TO DO IS BUILD A LIST. THEN THE MONEY COMES AFTER THAT

When people believe this, they start list-building too early. Then they quickly discover that there is a significant cost to list-building and their small (albeit growing) list isn’t profitable enough yet to sustain the effort.

Truth: A list is important, but be prepared for the effort. I don’t mean to suggest that the list itself is the lie. A list of prospects who want to hear more from you is very important. However, setting up a list on day one when you have little or no traffic, and burning through all of your “A” material in the first six months of ezines will set you up to fail very quickly. I would advise waiting, even just a few weeks or months. Make sure that the other aspects of your business are operational; make sure that you are marketing your business; and make sure that you have lots of ideas for ezines (and probably a good number of those ezines written!)

LIE #7: I NEED TO HAVE A BLOG/ARTICLE/PRESS RELEASE/WHATEVER. BECAUSE I DON’T, I’M LESS SUCCESSFUL

People who believe this work very, very hard and spend a lot of money and time trying to do it all. Every time a new social media site comes out (which is like everyday, it seems), they’re on it. And if success eludes these people, there is a feeling that they are missing the ONE key that will totally unlock a Niagara Falls of buyers.

Truth: Achieving excellence in a few well-chosen channels will consistently outperform ubiquity. An unfocused “shotgun” approach to internet marketing reduces the impact of every effort. Rather than whispering across hundreds of sites, focus instead on a few sites (sites where your target market is hanging out!) and build a voice and an audience. (Read about what I think is the entrepreneur’s REAL silver bullet).

LIE #8: THE MORE SUCCESSFUL I AM AT INTERNET MARKETING, THE MORE SUCCESSFUL MY BUSINESS WILL BE

When people believe this, business success is eclipsed by internet marketing success. Cash flow becomes a mildly annoying byproduct of big traffic.

Truth: You’re in business to earn a profit. Period. That might take a while, so until you get there, you’re in business to generate revenue. Period. Everything else you do (from marketing to sales to administration to inventory to mopping the floors before you go home for the night) is meant to push people forward in the sales funnel. Success at internet marketing is great — and should be a goal. But it is only a means to an end. Internet marketing is only meant to fill your sales funnel full of people so they buy from you.

Read about a business owner who kicking ass at internet marketing. He’s been in business for only 1 year and has achieved so much in that time because he knows how to focus on the right things!

In a previous blog post, I listed 99 ways to optimize your sales funnel and grow your business. One of the tips I gave was to “Look at businesses you’ve bought from who share a similar business model. Map out their business plan to see how it compares to yours.”

Here’s how to do that:

STEP 1: KNOW YOUR BUSINESS MODEL
First, you need to know what kind of business model you have. If you already know your business model, you can skip this step. However, it might be useful to do it anyway. Although there are different ways to define a business model, here’s a few ways that you can narrow down the search:

• Do you sell products and or services?
• Do you sell something you, yourself, provide or are you a broker/agent/affiliate?
• Do you sell a one-time purchase (i.e. an ebook) or an on-going purchase (i.e. a subscription)?
• Do you sell primarily to consumers or businesses?
• What problems does your product/service solve or what needs does your product/service fulfill?
• What does your target market look like? What does it NOT look like? (i.e. who do you sell to versus who don’t you sell to?)

STEP 2: FIND OTHER COMPANIES THAT YOU’VE BOUGHT FROM
Now that you have some notes about your business model, think about other companies you’ve bought from in the past that are similar. You’ve defined a sort-of “mosaic” and you probably won’t find a company that is exactly the same. Try to find a company that fits parts of this model. In fact, try to find a few companies like this.

And, I’m advising that these be companies you’ve bought from, simply because you’ll have gained a great view into their sales funnel – you’ll have seen every step of their sales funnel from the “inside” of their sales funnel!

STEP 3: COMPARE SALES FUNNELS AND TAKE NOTES
Now, compare their sales funnel with yours and take notes. Use the Sales Funnel Worksheet to track how you entered their sales funnel as an Audience member, how you moved through the Lead and Prospect stage, and finally how you became a Customer. And, if you became one of their Evangelists, track that, too. In particular, take note of:

• How you entered their sales funnel as an Audience member.
• What they said or did that convinced you to listen to them as a Lead.
• What sales techniques and marketing collateral they used to sell you as a Prospect.
• What objections you had and how they overcame those objections.
• How long it took you to go through each stage.
• What actions (“triggers”) you performed to move from one stage to the next.
• How you responded to the product/service when it was delivered. (Was it quick? Did you sense the value you hoped would be present?)

STEP 4: MODIFY YOUR SALES FUNNEL
Draw inspiration from the successful ideas that worked on you – the techniques that moved you through their sales funnel from their Audience stage to their Customer stage – and apply them to your own sales funnel.

If your sales funnel is completely different, consider setting up and testing a sales funnel that is very similar to theirs to test against your existing sales funnel.

Or, start smaller by integrating some of the more successful tactics on a regular basis.

STEP 5: REPEAT
This is one of those exercises where it doesn’t hurt to do it again from time to time. Depending on how often you buy, consider doing this at least once a quarter or even as often as once a month. You’ll progressively improve your sales funnel!

A friend of mine wants to start blogging — specifically to become an affiliate marketer — and he asked for some tips to successful (monetized) blogging. I started writing an email to him and then realized that I answer this question for people quite frequently so I’m posting the answer here and I’ll link to it whenever I’m asked. (#lazy)

Here’s a list of my top tips for becoming a successful monetized blogger (in no particular order):

1. Pick a niche. If you want to monetize your blog, choose a target market and write for them. It’s okay to weave in other topics (I primarily write about sales funnels and related topics, but I’m also an amateur economist and write occasionally about the economy, which is probably interesting only to me). And it’s okay to share some of your own personal life (I’m sure your kid’s first words are fascinating to every imaginable niche) but try to keep the majority of your posts relevant to your niche. And it *almost* goes without saying that your affiliate offerings should be related to your niche.
2. Add value. If you want people to come to your site, give them a reason. If they can get the same information anywhere else there’s not much reason to read your blog. Add value and have a point of difference compared to your competition. (Oh, which reminds me, you’ll probably want to do some competitive research at some point — get a feel for what other people are doing in the same space and figure out why you’re unique).
3. Add value first. I get that you want to monetize your blog. But add value first. Don’t stuff your blog so full of “monetizationness” that the good content is hard to find because there are too many shimmery, flashy ads. It’s like the seedy side of downtown: There might be a cool little bar, but it’s hard to find because there are so many skanky bars and hotel signs offering rooms for rent by the quarter-hour. Post good content. Make it central. Then integrate your ads and affiliates. Once you’ve build up some credibility as a quality blogger, you can integrate blogs that are specifically about an affiliate product. But it shouldn’t be your first blog post and it shouldn’t be the only thing you blog about. (“That hilarious story about my puppy driving my car reminds me of this fabulous network marketing opportunity that you’ll want to get in on the ground floor right now!”)
4. Be business-minded. Treat your blog like a business. Take it seriously. Be customer-service oriented. Be fair. Offer value. Think strategically. Most importantly, keep focused on why you’re doing this and remember that your up-front time writing good content is an investment into a payoff that will happen later. I say that because you’ll grow tired of blogging in a few months. You might even give it up for a while. And then you’ll write a post that says “I haven’t updated in a while”. Check out this blog post (from waaaay back in the day) about some ideas for a variety of different kinds of blog posts to write. So it’s important that you always keep reminding yourself why you’re doing it. Oh, and this might be helpful: Here are some ideas to monetize your content if you ever want to move beyond affiliates.
5. Write for the long-haul. Monetizing a blog is a long-term effort so don’t start rubbing sun tan lotion on yourself just yet. You can eventually enjoy a drunken week on the beach while your bank account rings like a cash register, but it won’t happen tomorrow.
6. Plan the hell out of your subject matter. I’ve seen want-to-be bloggers with dollar signs in their eyes burn out in a week. They write a bunch of stuff — maybe material for a week or two — then stare blankly at their monitor. It feels like writer’s block but it’s not. It’s horrible planning. Whenever I work with a client to help them develop a sales funnel that includes blogging, I typically create at least 3 months of blog post topics. For myself, I usually have a year’s worth of blog topics on paper, I prefer to have 1-3 months of blog posts scheduled (i.e., I know what I’m going to post 1-3 months in advance) and I try to have 1-4 weeks of blog posts pre-written. Of course, if I need to move them around, I can, but I want a rolling batch of pre-written work. You’ll be amazed at how fast you go through them if you don’t! (How do I know that? I’m writing this the night before I want to publish it… #failtofollowmyownadvice).
7. It’s a sales funnel. It shouldn’t surprise you that I’m mentioning this. Your awesome blog that is stuffed with high-value content and insanely compelling affiliate links will earn you a big fat $0.00 if you don’t get people to visit your site. There isn’t a magical genie that tells people to go to your site. (Well, there is, and his name is Guy Kawasaki but you have to leave more than a measely quarter under your pillow for him to send people to your site). So market your site like crazy: Twitter, articles, press releases, guest blogs. At some point, you might even want to experiment with advertising (like Google AdWords).

There are other things you can do, too: Build a list and send out emails. That’s big, but I think that’s “step 2″. Step 1 should be: Just get your blog up and running and follow these tips to get started.

Oh, and while I’m dishing out free advice like a late-night buffet, here’s another blog post that you might find useful: “The Entrepreneur’s Silver Bullet“.