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Tomas Loden · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 1:26 pm Post subject: What are your thoughts?

Hi there

I'm curious.. what are your thoughts on the future of internet marketing?

Will the "games" get tougher?

Will there be less free advertising?

Will markets become even more defined

Will only REAL gurus be able to beat the odds and make Good money in the future?

/ Tomas

Timothy Warnock · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 2:10 pm Post subject:

Hi Tomas,

You pose some interesting questions.

I don't have a crystal ball, but I think some common sense answers can be applied from the past to the future.

Individuals that succeed in any environment have A LOT of perseverance and creativity. They are usually individuals willing to go that extra mile, work a little harder than the others, and be humble enough to listen carefully to those with more experience (but not be necessarily limited to these suggestions).

I don't think anyone really knows how the internet is going to evolve, and the fact that it IS constantly evolving keeps opening up new doors and possibilities.

Sure, in time, natural selection will start being an ever greater influence as the competition gets more and more intense - the novelty factor WILL wear off, it has to, the internet is BIG, but not infinite.

One thing is for sure, if one gives up now, they won't find success. I am a believer in our capacity to create our own reality, thus our own success. It takes a force of will and determination to see it through, but it is our God given right.

A great spiritual Master that I respect tremendously said, "A saint is a sinner who never gave up."

This is the maximum expression of a concept that can be applied to anything in life. It is up to us to embrace it or give up, a simple matter of choice.

I'll get off of my portable soap box now...

I hope this helps answer your question.

Tim
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Phil CA · Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 10:23 pm Post subject:

Tomas,

Even though this relates to much more than just internet marketing...

For those answers and more, keep a very close eye on proven futurists and make sure to watch all the trends very closely. Wink

There are many good ones but a few of my favorites are...

Frank Feather http://www.future-trends.com/

Have your speakers up for...
Jim Carroll http://www.jimcarroll.com/home.htm

and Ken Evoy. Wink

Tim,
I enjoyed your excellent article in Allan's newsletter and started a thread regarding a few things but so far nobody's talking. Wink

All the best
Phil

AllanGardyne · Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 1:48 am Post subject:

I think in a few years we'll look back on the present time as a golden age of Internet marketing. Make the most of it!

We're so fortunate, for example, to be able to build content sites on subjects that interest us, paste in a bit of AdSense code and earn money without even having to make a sale.

It scares me a bit to think of large companies moving into this field. I picture companies in Third World countries hiring low-paid English, French and German speaking writers to churn out articles by the millions on hundreds of thousands of topics.

I picture an Internet absolutely swamped with "content" sites, and all sorts of tricky schemes to try to link thousands of sites together in ways that hide ownership and try to fool the search engines.

I think the best defence against this, for long-term success, is build the highest quality sites you possibly can - sites that are worth linking to.

That way, as search engines continue to get smarter, you'll continue to give them exactly what they want.
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JP Sauve · **Joined**: 16 Sep 2003 **Posts**: 50

My forecast isn't so great for the affiliate webmaster as is.

Still tons of money to be made, more than the previous years, but I think as it becomes increasingly difficult for large emailers to make the BIG money they are used to, and the cost of CPC SE clicks goes up for everyone else, more people will switch to adware/spyware as their method of advertising income. First to supplement their income, then maybe to replace it.

Everybody and their grandmother will have a toolbar of sorts to download, which on it's own isn't bad if it's not coupled with spyware, but I'm sure there'll be lots of deceit too. It's bound to happen.

My crystal ball says that just like now, where there are some webmasters who send traffic to sponsors via on-site web links, and another class of webmaster publishers who use newsletters to drive ads, the new downloadable-application-adware webmaster will be a new and common source of traffic for sponsorship. It happens now, but it'll start to be more common, and once common I sadly think it'll be accepted... and Microsoft's move to put a pop-up killer in the next version of Internet Explorer will just compound the problem. As pops become more scarce, pop-up advertising seekers will look elsewhere to buy their spots.... and adware/spyware will be pretty much the only place left to get them, fueling the need for more adware affiliates.
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Phil Tanny · Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2004 2:28 am Post subject:

Hey, somebody kick Tim off the portable soap box, that's my seat! Smile

Tim's right of course, whatever the field, not giving up is most of the battle.

I regret to say I share much of Allan's vision of the future. We're all very exposed to cheap labor.

AllanGardyne · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 6:11 am Post subject:

Phil Tanny · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 12:04 pm Post subject:

Allan, thanks for your reply post. Yes, lifetime
commissions, I thank you for bringing that up, as you often
do. I need to refocus on that.

Personally I'm very drawn to your approach, for the same
freedom based reasons you are. And I plan to follow
your guidance, and that of other members here, to as
much success as possible in the affiliate arena. Full
speed ahead!

What I'm trying to learn to do though, is to push forward
vigorously on a strategy, while at the same time keeping in
mind that any particular net biz strategy can vanish at
any time.

I guess my interest in trying to look around corners comes
from my experience in email marketing, which has changed
pretty drastically over the last five years.

I just closed my own affiliate program for buying
subscribers because in the business model I was pursuing
they are now close to worthless. When I started that
venture in 1999 they were worth $2.50/sub/year. Excellent!
After the bubble burst they were worth $1/sub/year, still a
solid income. Now they are worth 5 cents/sub/year. Even if
we discount the bubble years, this particular market has
dropped 95% in 3 years. Game over.

Of course, there are other models in the email business, but
they are all much changed over just a few years as well. I
used to sell ezine ads for $20 CPM and more, what are they
worth now, a buck or two? Shoot, it's almost to the point
where you really don't know if even your personal emails to
folks have been delivered or not.

Anyway, this may be an extreme example. Or maybe not.
Who knows.

I'm just trying to learn to make peace with both edges of
the sword I'm handling. On one edge, rapid change in our
culture and on the Net opens lots of new opportunities. On
the other edge, that same rapid change means I can't afford
to get too attached, ego-wise or income-wise, to whatever
I'm learning right now, because the shelf life of that info
may be short.

If this is true, and we see it coming, then we're less likely
to be surprised and deflated when change happens.

Thus, I feel it's constructive to grasp current
opportunities energetically, and learn as much as we can
about affiliate marketing, while at the same time asking,

"What am I going to do next, when this is over?"

My hope is that we don't gradually all have to become Terry
Dean disciples cranking out screen after screen after screen
of AMAZING ALL CAPS DIRECT RESPONSE COPY!!!! every day,
because that's a job I'm not very well suited for.

Will Bontrager, the coding guru, is one of my role models as
he has developed his own products and services, and sells
them in a low key way I really respect and enjoy. As many
of you know, he and his wife now wander the west as digital
nomads in their RV, so he seems to be having some real
success.

One of the plans for my current project is to develop a line
of my own media products and sell them offline through
local distributors. Hopefully this will begin to insulate
me against future changes in the Net arena.

Thanks for the thread!
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Timothy Warnock · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 12:47 pm Post subject:

Hi guys,

Happy Easter!

I like this thread, it is interesting for me to get a glimpse into the minds of some people here that I really respect, and catch a part of their reflections...

My partners and I are also looking to ways to develop residual, lifetime income, it really is the way to go.

One challenge that hasn't been addressed here though, and something that Phil has touched upon when he talked about email marketing, is the fact that people are going to become more savvy, overwhelmed with choice and trash, and quicker to move on from site to site as time goes ahead. Just as emails easily get ignored and trashed, and, generally speaking, much less effective than they were a few years ago.

I think Shel Horowitz, a copywriter friend of mine, has anticipated the future by producing a common sense marketing book (that isn't really so common unfortunately) entitled, Principled Profit - Marketing That Puts People First.

I think this concept is the key towards final lasting success.

Enthusiastic content that is benefit oriented towards your visitor, real, sincere integrity with a helpful approach and attitude, and general compassion towards others = winning people's trust and loyalty and setting yourself apart from the outrageously overpopulated virtual world of junk, cold, boring, lifeless online content.

AND PHIL, IT IS POSSIBLE TO WRITE POTENT COPY WITHOUT ALL CAPS AND A ZILLION EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'LL SHOW YOU HOW IN EXACTLY 3.5 SECONDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wink

And no Phil, you can't have my portable soapbox, I like pretending to feel taller every now and again! Very Happy

I think if we stick to people oriented and a giving, helpful attitude, it will carry us through most changes, plus we will simply feel better.

All the best,

Tim
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Copywriter

speedguide · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 8:04 pm Post subject:

Timothy,

ekalski · **Joined**: 02 Jan 2004 **Posts**: 329

I think the key is to keep adding value to your site. People will pay for products and services of value. The trouble with the net is that there is so much garbage because so many people want to make "easy" money. Perhaps some people made easy money without providing value years ago. But those days are practically gone. And those kinds of people will find it harder and harder to do so. (There will always be people who will succeed at scamming, but most will be weeked out and find the going tough.)

Why? Because people are a lot more knowledgeable today than they use to be and they have been burned too many times.

Because Capitalism and making money is based on bringing value to the marketplace, you might have to be ready to change when change occurs. That's true. But doing so means you are willing to continue to bring value to the marketplace.

Ed
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Phil Tanny · Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2004 12:33 am Post subject:

Great thread guys.

Tim's "putting people first" points are so appropriate to the
Easter holiday now being celebrated.

We can probably all agree that basing our businesses on serving
others is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition of success.

If I've been selflessly serving the public with Perl programming
for years, and then the Net abandons Perl for Java, my very well
intended services no longer have value to others. Being a good
guy doesn't insulate me from the challenges presented by change,
though I would surely agree that being at peace with oneself
would certainly be an asset in facing those challenges.

Tim takes the thread in to interesting territory with his
references to Shel Horowitz and copywriting.

Whatever is happening in the market at any point in time I'll
have to have a method for presenting myself and my services in an
effective manner.

So here's a skill we probably can take from one marketplace to
another. Good!

If we want to continue with Tim's Easter Day points, we can
theorize that good copywriting will be based more on serving the
reader than the writer. We might argue that therefore
copywriting should be about informing, not persuading.

This sounds simple enough, except that human beings are
multidimensional. There are a number of different me's in here,
the emotional side, the logic side etc. The various me's within
each of us all want to be served.

It's fair to say that if the copywriter serves the emotional side
of me, and then a sale results, that is a fair bargain made in
the real world of a free marketplace.

The problem I see is that while the emotional side has indeed
received a benefit it is willing to pay for, the overall big
picture me is often not well served by a transaction conducted
by my emotional side.

Our emotional sides (psychology calls this the "id" I think) are
based on fantasies such as, "I am the center of the universe."

We are all susceptible to one degree or another to messages
that imply we can have something for nothing, because that
message lines up nicely with the id logic creeping around deep in
all of our souls, which sees us as the only thing that really
matters.

Is a copywriter really serving the best interests of a reader if
the writer addresses their message to this member of the inner
congregation?

Isn't that sort of like pitching someone's kids, instead of the
adult in the family, because you know you can sell the kids more
than you can sell the adults?

This is the kind of question I imagine having to confront if the
preselling world of affiliate marketing is someday made
unattractive by cheap labor etc.

Tim, well OK, I guess I've lost the portable soapbox to you, but
I've just copyrighted the title Professor Cosmo Blowhard so I
don't have to worry about you taking that from me too. Smile

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