Category Archives: Internet Marketing

When Is A Joint Venture, Not A Joint Venture…

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…when it’s abused by uninformed marketers.

Here’s a tip: If you’re recruiting partners for a product launch, or you want to invite me to join your affiliate program, you just want to ask for help in marketing and promotion. That’s not a “joint venture”.

A joint venture is where 2 individuals or business entities are going to a deeper level of cooperation and collaboration – a prime example is my buddies Amit Mehta and Zac Johnson‘s newly-launched Magnetic Poetry Facebook Application.

There’s joint sharing and investment in product development and marketing, the partners might even form a new business entity to manage the business.

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On the other hand, if you’re looking for affiliates, you’re recruiting affiliates.

If you drop the term “joint venture” and misuse it, you lose a number of points right off the bat.

If in doubt, check out the Wikipedia definition of “joint venture“

Can Microsoft Get Its Social Media Game Together?

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In the aftermath of an aborted takeover of Yahoo!, Microsoft continues to remain the 800 lb gorilla in the tech industry. The question is where does it go from here?

There’s still talk about Microsoft working with Yahoo! on a collaboration for its search services, but really to leapfrog search engine leader Google, requires a paradigm shift. One possible avenue? The social media game.

Witness the fact that Google hasn’t done much with Blogspot/blogger in the last couple of years.
Services like Google’s Blog Search seemed like a half-hearted implementation.

That’s not to say that Microsoft and Yahoo! are exactly leading the field either.
The Web 2.0 space is still littered with their dying or dead blog services and communities.
A search at Microsoft’s Social Computing Group shows a number of interesting projects, but none really earth shattering to shift the field.

microsoft wallop
A couple of years ago, Microsoft spun off its own social network Wallop, to fanfare from Mashable and TechCrunch.
So what happened?

For sure, “cloud computing” still seems a distant reality, hobbled by a lack of compelling applications (in contrast, the Japanese with NTT Docomo’s I-Mode service do just about everything with their 3G phones which fold origami-like into small objects of art. Elsewhere in the world, cell phone users rejoice when they get restaurant recommendations or proximity locaters on their phones…).

It could be a good couple of years till Continue reading →

BizOp Reality Check: Is The Reverse Funnel System A Scam?

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Here’s one of the downsides of having a widely read blog – you get many calls from BizOp promoters.

I’ve had called from boiler room operators offering to sell me some “hot” over-the-counter stocks that are supposedly going to hit the big time (interpretation: some offshore stock brokerage somewhere bought a whole bunch of dead stock and are looking for investors/suckers to buy it in the hopes that it might go up because of some “hot” tip or impending news). -> scam.

I was just contacted regarding a “joint venture” to promote something called the “Reverse Funnel System” developed by Ty Coughlin.

It’s masked in internet marketing talk, with jargon like copywriting experts paid $20,000 to come up with the sales copy, and terms like landing pages, sales conversion, autoresponders thrown in for good measure to appeal to internet marketers.

Heck, the system is so “exclusive” that you have to pay $50 just to see the thing, without any idea of what it is…

Once you get in, you’ve offered an options to pay $2,995, which looks like it will go towards some type of timeshare membership (you get to stay in timeshare units) and there’re a bunch of endorsements from members who claim to be generating $30,000 per month.

[If you’re wondering why I’m not linking to the Reverse Funnel System website, that might give you an indication of what I think of the scheme…]

Here’s my assessment of business opportunities, especially on the Internet.

  • Risk Vs Reward: Does it sound too good to be true? Do you really think there’s a business out there which allows you to earn five figures per month, sitting in your pajamas at home, playing xbox360 all day, without lifting a finger to do much work, or little work? I’ve been blogging for the past 2 years and although it doesn’t take much time now, I had to invest quite a bit of effort in the beginning. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
  • “Quick Cash” Dream: Anything worth working on is going to take time to master. If you are going to earn huge cash in a short amount of time, I don’t think the cash is going to be long term, expect the bottom to fall out at any moment.
  • The Internet is your friend, use it: Yes, quick cash is always tempting, but as Jason Bailey would say, “Use your noodle”, more importantly, use your friend, Google.com, do a search, look at some of the scambuster sites. If in doubt, head over to Ask.com or Yahoo! Answers, put in a question “Is (name of scheme) a scam? Has anyone had experience with it?”
  • Skepticism can protect your savings: The internet is rife with opportunists, some much less ethical than others. Beware of the “paypal account verification” scam from China, beware of the “Google Adwords account verification” scam, you need to be responsible for your finances.

If you’re still wondering about the Reverse Funnel System or RFS, check out Gator Byte’s Reverse Funnel System post.

Is It Better To Be An Affiliate Marketer, Work In An Affiliate Network Or Be A Merchant?

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There’s a pretty active discussion on Jeremy Palmer’s Quit Your Day Job forums about whether its better to be an affiliate or a merchant. (I’m paraphrasing the intent somewhat).

I’d expand it to encompass taking on a network role in the merchant-affiliate equation too.

I don’t think any of the roles are necessarily “better”, because all the parts help to complete the system.

Trying to come to the conclusion that one is “better” than the other is like saying a car engine is more important than the tires. In that case, take off one of the tires and try driving off.

I’ve had the opportunity to take up roles in all 3 positions, and its been an educational experience.

I identify with the points several of the affiliates raised about not having to deal with customers, refunds, frustration, etc. At the same time too, once you have several products development cycles and product launches under your belt, and you create systems to deal with not only problems, but solutions at enhancing your business competitiveness, you bring your business to a new level.

I personally like being in the product owner/merchant role, because Continue reading →

Structured Procrastination = Loss In Your Income

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You might already be familiar with the survivability stats for new start-ups that are commonly cited by entrepreneurship evangelists…

Out of every 10 new start-ups every year, 5 of them will go belly-up in the first year.

Out of the survivors making it past year 1, another 50% of them will cease operations at the end of year 2.

And so on, until only the top 1% make it at the end of year 5.

[The stats are across all industries and according to the company registrars that help these companies and sole proprietorships incorporate]

I don’t exactly know the stats for individuals coming into internet marketing, but I think it could be something similar.

A case in point, I’ve helped sell coaching programs, where we work 1-on-1 with new internet marketers, or people who say they want to make a living on the internet. These guys shell out close to $10,000 a head to enroll in these programs. They’re all fired up in week 1, just raring to go.

You ask them to research 5 websites, they research 50. But somehow when it comes to implementing the project later in the program, there’s some resistance and inertia to getting started.

Some may blame “affluenza” or middle class syndrome. If there Continue reading →

Is Your Internet Business Going To Be Around 5 Years From Today?

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If you’ve been to Greenland or the Antartica (especially around the North Pole), you’d have seen numerous icebergs, some as big as a house, and many that are many times the size of an apartment complex or even bigger.

That’s your internet business. Get it?

iceberg

Picture if you will your internet business as represented by the iceberg.

It could be huge. It could be imposing.

Or it could be just a couple of ice cubes floating about in the water, blown all over the place by the wind.

Here’s the kicker.

Ice is about 90% of the density of water. So what you see is the “tip of the iceberg”. There’s another 90% of ice attached to what you see above the surface of the water.

Or is there?

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Here is the problem facing 90% or more of pure-play Internet marketing efforts today…

They’re focused solely on lead generation, and often there is little longterm viability built into the business.

Some may say that CPA affiliates are pretty short-sighted because they’re selling leads (the majority who fill in email and zip submits and sell them to CPA networks for between $1 – $5 a lead).

But are affiliate marketers much better?

In most cases, affiliate marketers are only paid on the initial sales. Eg: a lead buys $200 worth of merchandise from Amazon or Overstock or Buy.com, and the affiliate earns from 2% to 10% of the sale value (depending on whether you’re getting bumped up payouts/are a top performer, etc).

In many cases, once Continue reading →