This Pays Bills

I’ve been making (and losing) money online for a few years. I’ve probably tried about everything one can do with the Internet to make a few bucks. On the way, I’ve tried to learn about making money online the same way the majority of folks seem to, at least initially. I read the blogs, the forums, and the occasional book, the occasional download, even a couple mentoring programs.

What did I learn? Cynicism.

Not every tale of Diogenes is veridical, but they’re certainly instructive. “I am Alexander the Great,” says Alexander. “I am Diogenes the Cynic,” says Diogenes.

When you embark on a quest to make money online, you need to be Diogenes. Generally, the gurus, super affiliates, experts, and others who offer advice on the subject are not emperors, certainly not in the sense of Alexander. More often, they’re emperors like Hans Christian Andersen’s. However they style themselves, I learned the hard way the first questions should not be “why should I pay $47 for this,” or “why should I sign up for this newsletter.” The first question should be “why is this person publishing?” Cui bono?

“And what about you!” demands the reader at this point. “Why are you publishing?” I was overwhelmed at the amount of time, energy, and effort I spent “learning” this “internet marketing” thing, and overwhelmed with the sheer volume of noise proffered on the blogs, the newsletters, and the forums. I wished there had been some reality check somewhere I had seen that made me take stock of what I was seeing, and what I was thinking.

I got dazzled, somewhere, with all the promises, premises, and the stories of vast riches and easy wealth the false prophets spread on the subject. An analogy occurred to me, along these lines:

You can buy hundreds of products if you want to learn to play the guitar. Many products suggest they’ll help you learn to play the guitar faster, or better. Many have celebrity endorsements, but most of those “celebrities” are people you’ve never heard of until you research “learn to play guitar” products. You can devote a lot of energy to these products, and never learn to play a guitar.

That’s not to say all those products are bogus, but many are gimmicky, and few if any will help you become a musician. Few if any help you become a composer. None turn you into a luthier, with maybe one exception to prove the rule.

A guitar is a tool for somebody in the music business. There’s little room in the music business for someone who learns to play a few tunes by rote from a book or DVD.

Likewise, PPC campaigns are a tool for someone in the internet marketing business. There’s little room for someone who learns how to run a few affiliate campaigns on a particular ad platform. One guy’s guide, or ebook, or mentoring program will probably make you a one-trick pony at best. Worse still, you get to compete with everybody else who’s seen that guide, ebook, or mentoring program. And absolute worst of all, the guide, ebook or mentoring program might just plain suck.

So that was my revelation. I didn’t clean house as some have when they had similar revelations and stop reading the forums, unsubscribe from all my newsletters, delete my twitter account. I just became cynical, and at the same time realized there’s nothing special about “internet marketing” that differentiates it from marketing via any other medium. You need to start with basics, and the theory, and use the tools (such as the internet) available.