There are 2 main types of ‘intelligence’ in my book: intellectual ‘intelligence (the concept we’re familiar with), known as IQ.

And the other factor that women are generally more adept at EQ (emotional quotient).

How’s this tie in to Internet Marketing?

Lots actually.

A friend Amos introduced this concept to me a long time ago which he applies in his brick-and-mortar business dealings.

It’s equally applicable in the online world.

Imagine you have an ‘goodwill bank’. (where goodwill or ill will towards you is stored)
You’d usually start out with an empty bank every time you initiate a new business relationship.

It doesn’t necessarily needs to involve a purchase or sale.

The ‘transaction’ or ‘relationship’ (both are interchangable in my book) starts the moment you do something that triggers it.

It could be:

• Visiting a blog
• Visiting a forum
• Visiting a website

The relationship deepens as you bring it to a new level, perhaps by leaving a blog comment. Posting on the forum. Buying something on the website.

Each time you do something, it will either:

• Add something to the emotional bank
• Take something away from the goodwill bank

What’s this mean?

For example, if you post quality information on a forum, you’d be recognized for it.

Your peers might learn something from you, and in so doing, their respect for you grows.

Your balance in the goodwill bank grows from your altruistic action.

You help someone on the forum configure their email account. Again the balance grows.

There are many things you can do to build the relationship.

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On the other hand, there are several things you can do to ‘take away’ from the emotional bank too.

One is to promise to do something and not do it.

It can be something simple, like promising to email someone. But then not following through on it.

Someone might forgive you the first time, and maybe the second. But establishing a pattern of promising and not delivering is a surefire way to bring down your credibility, lower your reputation, and lower your ’emotional bank’.

Other ways to lower your credibility include:

• Starting flame wars
• Disrupting conversations by inserting irrelevant comments
• Incessantly trying to sell something

And generally making a nusiance of yourself.

I’m a moderator at the Internet Marketing Singapore forums and we see many new users join the board and start posting ‘buy this now’ or ‘great deal for a limited time only’ type posts.

It’s almost hysterical how an Internet Marketing Singapore newbie is trying to promote something in this thread: Get Paid for Blogging and also get free backlinks to your blog
We delete these threads almost immediately.

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But you can still sell things on a forum, or a blog.

Provided you have sufficient cachet and credibility to pull it off.

If you’ve established a pattern of giving useful and constructive advice.

If you’ve given of your time freely to help someone out.

And if the product or service will help the person out AND as a side benefit, you’re able to earn an affiliate commission, all the power to you.

I’d gladly buy the product from you and help you earning your affiliate income too!

But if you come across as a ‘fly-by-night’ or ‘hit-and-run’ salesperson, you’d not affect me.

The Internet world is a small one. You’d hurt yourself.

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I’ve always found it easy to start new businesses because my priority is always to see how I can help people.

If grabbing the greenbacks is your top priority, you won’t go far.

Whatever you do, consider how it’d affect your goodwill bank.