My Losing ASW Essay…

January 9, 2007

Although I lost the contest, I thought this would make an interesting read for those of you wondering a little more about who I am. If you really like my essay, maybe you’ll donate a few bucks so I can pay to get to Affiliate Summit West! Otherwise, I’ll have to make a fortune in 2007 and see you in 2008… (I’ll pay you back in 2008 after I make my fortune anyway!)

MY WICKEDFIRE ASW ESSAY
I’m an Account Executive (Sales) for one of the largest “traditional” Advertising companies in the United States. It’s funny how with sales, the more time you put into your work the more (commissions) you get out of it. The same slogan rings true for Affiliate Marketers. So, spending an 11am - 4pm lunch break building my portfolio of websites probably isn’t the best career move… I can’t help it.

Since grade school I’ve had that “tick” inside of me. That entrepreneurial bug that begs to push the limits. Dozens of ideas boiling at the brim with one simple factor holding me back: financing. I like to think big.

Welcome to the Internet. Where else can you spend only a few bucks (on a dot info and cheap hosting) and start a legitimate business? Nowhere. Affiliate Marketing has the potential to help me capture my dreams of owning my own business, being my own boss, building a successful business empire and loving every second of hard work along the way.

One reason I’m particularly enthralled with the Internet Marketing industry is my direct experience with Advertising in general. In Television, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines Billboards, you name it… the same complaint haunts me over and over and over again. Clients spend tens of thousands of dollars in a couple months and can’t attribute their success or failures to these sources. When they are doing well they have no evidence to give you credit. When they’re tanking, it’s “look how much money I spent and business is terrible.”

My company has rolled out several internet based advertising solutions that I simply don’t understand. Clients will ask me, “Hey, I heard about these great new Internet opportunities you have, can you tell me about them?” And my response is, “I’ll tell you so long as you promise not to buy them.” At this point, I explain our advertising opportunity. Then, I introduce them to Adwords and show them, “look, for such a small weekly price I could get X amount of visitors to their site.” At this point, they want to know more about Adwords.

In sales, most people make the big bucks by selling whatever garbage they can to clients. I can’t do that – often to my loss – but doing so would make me feel like a bad person. I tell my clients the truth, and in turn, they value my opinion and suggestions. If I were them would I want to be lied to? No. In the long run, I get more sales because I’m looking out for the best interest of my clients, and they know it, because most salesmen don’t tell their clients, “I’ll kill you if you buy this!” I’m an analytical numbers guy and both my clients and Internet Marketing eat, sleep and breath ROI.

Compared to other industries, Internet Marketing has relatively few barriers to entry. If you’ve got the drive and desire, some smarts and wits and the ability to fall down and get back up, you can make it work. Personally, I’m convinced that it’s only a matter of time before I make it work. I demand that of myself. Still, I’m doing everything I can to speed up the process because I want to make it work yesterday.

With rent, car payments, Christmas gifts, groceries, credit card debt and every other bill in the box it’s tough to invest money in my personal ‘business’. Ironically, it’s even tougher not to. The countless hours of reading books, blogs and forums have given me a great depth of knowledge, but my lack of designing/coding skills often prevent a professional execution of my plans. Big ideas and marketing concepts are my strengths so I focus on these; designing and coding are my weaknesses so they are outsourced. This way, everything gets done to the best of its ability.

To outsource, I dug deeper into debt and spent a few thousand dollars to have a couple forums and websites developed and promoted. One is up and the rest are “up and coming”. In the meantime, I’m grinding out Wordpress blogs, MFA mini-sites and PPC to the best of my ability. I guess you could say I’m “diversifying my portfolio”.

As of now, my success hasn’t been tremendous monetary gain but in huge knowledge growth. My payout hasn’t been in dollars and cents but in architecture and infrastructure. I’m in this for the long haul and that’s how I’m preparing.

I’m very competitive. I want to win this contest. I want to make earn lots of money. To get to my destination, I’ll probably need a few ‘breaks’ along the way. This is one I’m hoping to get. Right now all I really give out is a few newb tips on WickedFire, a few bucks to homeless guys and a few hours/week of community service.

So what will I give back to the Internet Marketing community when I make it big? I guess it all goes back to that word community. The biggest assets of any communities are its citizens. Being a good citizen doesn’t come with a quota or list of requirements. It can’t be measured in dollars or descriptions. In this community, it’s about realizing that behind computers sit real people – people who need breaks and people who have given breaks (and often both). So maybe you’re a novice whose only resource to share is a smile. Maybe you’re a big earner and experienced veteran with tools to share and wisdom to spread. Being a good citizen is about helping people, giving “breaks” just because you can. Giving them breaks because, without other people giving you breaks, you wouldn’t be where you are. Without this dynamic of open dialogue and giving there would be Internet Marketing but no Internet Marketing Community.

The Internet is young and has tremendous growth potential. I feel the same about my position within the Internet Marketing Community. Hopefully we’ll fulfill our potential together and I’ll meet some great friends along the way!

EDIT (Case and Point): I just finished this essay and was checking WickedFire and signing up for Copeac so I could submit this entry. I posted a “Cool Wordpress Plugins” thread and someone was having the same trouble with the Lightbox Plugin that I had earlier in the day. I’m pretty sure I solved the problem (link: http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/6214-cool-wordpress-plugins.html ). Let alone the fact that it’s now about 3:30am EST and I’ve got to get up for my “salary” job in three hours! It’s pretty obvious that this “hobby” takes precedence over my career. I want it to be the other way around, and the only way to make that happen is to make it big… here goes nothing!

Comments

One Response to “My Losing ASW Essay…”

  1. thistransition on February 15th, 2007 4:14 pm

    wow, that was “quality”

    you are awesome

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