In “Easy method of gaining quality backlinks and building a database of users” Keiron has bypassed the traditional strategy of asking webmasters for backlinks or a link exchange, in favor of a premium giveaway.

The pens costing 20 pence (or about $0.41) each are a viral and guerilla method to gain a backlink.

He’s also engaged in using press releases to distribute his message/content and some viral marketing on forums has occured.

As the marketing is done partially offline (through the delivery of the pens), you’ll get the link love from a backlink, compared to a 2-way link.

At this point, some readers might be thinking “why didn’t I think of that?”

A key reason is many Internet Marketers are overly focused on:

1. Technology: Trying to signup for some automated bookmarking/viral software that’s just been released.
2. Following the advice of a guru who’s had a successful campaign (Note: once something has been done successfully once, it’s difficult to repeat it verbatim with the same level of success. Those familiar with Economics will know it as the law of diminishing utility).

Likewise, “value creation” is a buzzword in corporate circles, but to get more out of it requires people to do more than sit in a circle on Friday afternoons, chomping on doughnuts, sipping cappucinos, talking about improving work processes, but never doing anything about it.

I used to conduct entrepreneurship training focused on business building skills in the Singapore schools. It was particularly frustrating to sit in on meetings where it’d take 2 weeks to figure out who’d be a project manager and who’d form the team.

Then they’d be offer to conduct “research” for a couple of weeks and finally decided that there were too many obstacles, so they needed to find some other project (or niche in Internet Marketing speak).

They’d then bang into some other challenges in the midst of their “research” and give that up too.

Which kind of reminds me of what many new Internet Marketers do.

They start out with AdSense publishing, then maybe make a switch to eBay auctions. Then they decide it doesn’t work, and before you know it, they’d made a full circle of adsense publishing, affiliate marketing, product creation, online auctions, PPC arbitrage, CPA marketing, and somehow come to the conclusion that “nothing works”.

Is it due to the “Honeymoon effect“?

Maybe.

And it feels like old ground is being covered, like in “Why 90% of Internet Marketers Fail” and “Facing the Internet Marketing Failure”

Lest you think it’s some isolated example, take a look at Amit Mehta’s “One Thing I Learned at the Affiliate Summit”

So the takeaway from all of this?

Buy pens and get backlinks?

Not exactly.

Think a little deeper, go beyond the “honeymoon effect” and you’ll start to see a little Internet Marketing fireworks.

People keep asking me why I say that 90% of Internet Marketers drop out of the industry within 6 months.

The truth is I don’t have a fixed answer, but on bad days, it seems like everyone else who started out about the same time as me has moved on to:

• Network marketing
• Taken up a 9-to-5 job somewhere
• Doing the “financial trading cycle” which typically involves day trading or forex or options trading

The sad part is that they inevitably hit a brick wall, then look at what I’ve achieved in the last year and comment “Gee, you’re lucky”.

That kind of stings, considering the amount of effort I’ve spent in Internet Marketing, determining a path, building bridges to other Internet Marketers (sometimes taking a 20 hour flight each way) and taking on more than what others would normally do because I want to move along the road further.

So when I hear about the aspiring Internet Marketer who hasn’t taken action because he bought a new laptop and couldn’t figure out how to use it, and didn’t know how to configure his email, it makes me sad. Very sad.

In 2 minutes I informed him that he ought to call Dell and his ISP’s toll-free number and get his problems fixed by the next day.

Allaying blame on an inanimate laptop is tantamount to scolding the gas in your car because you got into an accident. It doesn’t quite add up.

Is it a catchall and a generalization to say marketers fail because they are lazy?

I think it’s more than just laziness, however, it’s a fundamental disconnect between your current reality and your long term goal.

If you knew you were destined for greatness, and you spent the day futzing around (maybe playing online chess, or IMing your friends), who’s to blame?

And if you have $127.05 in your affiliate marketing commission account, can you truly blame the ‘system’ because it’s rigged?

Why not start looking into the mirror, and take a cold hard look.

If you’re truly doing your best and your best isn’t good enough, it might be time to consider other options.

But if you’re putting in 30 minutes a week, and loudly yelling that the system doesn’t work, then you might eventually become part of that 90% dropout statistic.

Should it be time to kick your Internet Marketing efforts up a notch?

Like they say: “Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.”