Should you "Fake it till you make it"?

This will look back to a very important point about Internet Marketing, so stick with me.

I met a girl during the time I was sick. I was not looking for a relationship because the doctors all expected me to die, but we got along great. So many times I felt like a person who was just waiting to die, and I'd talk to her on the phone or she would come over to see me and I'd have a glimpse of happyness and my old self. She was with me when I had to move back in with my mom and dad because I'd spent seven figures on my medical bills, she was with me when I almost lost my leg to an infection. When I spent over 200 days in the hospital, 90 of it in isolation she was the only person who consistantly drove the two hours to come spend the allowed 10 minutes with me.

Because I was supposed to be dying I didnt ever tell her how I felt about her. I fell in love, but I felt it would be unfair of me to get her involved in a relationship with a guy who had an 80% chance of dying, and 100% chance of doing so flat broke. It just seemed like a selfish thing to do. What I failed to see is that she'd already bought herself a ticket, and I'd just not ever bothered to invite her to sit next to me, which made her feel terrible.

Anyway, about a month ago I finally broke down and told her how I felt, and I was more scared doing that then I've been in a long time. She felt the same way, and we've been having a great time. I trust her because she's been through the worst of times with me, and the way she treats me has not changed at all as I've started to become successful again. It's really nice.

This weekend is her birthday, and I have to be in away. I tried to change my calender, but it was impossible to do. For a long time her friends have been planning a big party for her (it's her 30th), and so she couldnt come with me. To try to make up for it I sent her over $200 in flowers, and a diamond bracelette. The dumb a$$es at the flower shop gave her my card, but did not put my dang name on it! Who in the heck sends a diamond bracelette and $200 in flowers, with a card but no name I don't know, but it sure as hell ain't me!

So when the flowers show up she was very excited and took a picture of them and sent me a text message to ask if I'd gotten them for me. I did not respond right away, and so she started to wonder. There is another guy that has liked her since HS, I kind of feel bad for him because according to a lot of her friends when I was sick and she was feeling bad about it, and also that I was too stupid to express how I felt, he was the “nice guy” who gave her a shoulder to cry on hoping it might turn into something more. She started to wonder if maybe he was the one who'd sent them, so she sent him the picture and texted him to ask if he had. The stupid SOB tried to take credit for it and said that yes, he was the mystery man!

Well then she sent me a text saying nevermind, it was Mr Nice. Of course it took me about 3/10ths of a nanosecond to reply back that it was not! I told her exactly what brand of bracelette I'd sent, plus told her word for word what the card said, and so she knew Mr Nice Guy was also a liar.

He's now been told to lose her number, that she think's he is rather creepy and to never ever call her again.

This is pretty extreme, but I see people do the same thing in IM all the time! “Fake it till you make it” they say, and it's advice that a lot of people follow. The result is that the IM space has a glut of horrible info, products created by people who have never made a nickle trying to teach other people who havent made any money how to make money. Basically they build their business on a big lie, and even if they eventually do “make it”, the foundation is still a big lie. What happens if that lie gets found out? It just seems so short sighted to me, because if/when people find out, your toast. Word travels fast on the 'net, and a reputation that you build over years can be destroyed in a single moment.

Let me offer you a suggestion: If IM is your “thing”, you know more about marketing then 90% of the executives at top tier marketing firms do, and more then 99% of the people selling products on the 'net. There are SO DAMN MANY NICHE MARKETS OUT THERE dying to have a good marketer selling to them. You can easily pay someone on CL a few hundred $$ and have a great product. Look at the site “How to build a chicken coop” on Clickbank. Let me say this again, HOW TO BUILD A FRIGGIN CHICKEN COOP!, and I'm guessing by the number of affiliates they have that they bring in six figures with it!

If you want to break into IM, do it the right way, which is to actually become a good marketer first. Look, this is the toughest niche out there because everyone has seen everything. You can go into some of these other markets and just kill it. You don't have to be 20% as good and you can still kill it. Even very competative niche's like Forex and stock market trading, while very lucrative and hyper competative, are not anywhere near as difficult to break into and succeed at as IM.

Seriously if you want to break into IM, create some products in other, easier markets. You can easily clear six figures, and then you will be doing something that 90% of the “how to make money from home on the internet” guru's are not even doing...and you can use that to actually have something worthwhile to offer the IM market.

You don't have to set your dreams of getting into the IM market aside. I've thought off and on about getting into it since 2004 and I'm finally doing it. And the thing is, it's not been horribly difficult for me as it is for a lot of people, because I can actually come to the conversation with something to offer.

Hey Brandon,

That's a pretty personal story...thanks for sharing it :)

And yeah, I think you're absolutely right about how niche markets are so much easier to break into. There are so many reasons why selling in other markets is easier: more opportunities, less marketers to deal with :P etc etc.

Another thing is that the crowds in non-IM niches are generally easier to please. Many people in the IM niche are extremely sceptical, have a strong sense of entitlement, and have overly strong BS detectors which filter out some of the non-BS too :P People in our industry are so used to being marketed to that not seeing an OTO after a purchase (for example) would be a shock.

Niche marketing is so much simpler: find a problem, solve the problem, and voila! You've got a big happy list of customers (not to mention a nice paycheque).

Curtis

Thanks for the insight there. That info was well taken, believe me, I am also glad that things worked out for you and your girl friend. That "Mr. Nice" is a real idiot.

Thanks again for the info,

Ray

Hi Brandon,

I've just logged on, and this is the second post I have read from you. You are really adding value to this forum, so thanks for that.

This post in particular really resonated with me. Fake it till you make it is not always a bad thing, but when you are charging people money to teach them something that you don't know, I equate this to theft. Not only that, but the story you told to get your point across was very engaging. I am sure you must be a great copywriter amongst other thing.

Thanks for a great post

Great story as well.....yeah I think your advice about the IM thing was quite handy.....i have been getting some JVnotify mail , saw a lot those juicy product launches but when i checked it out on Google ,alas the whole place was swamped with hard core IM pros.....
I kind of have a can do spirit and usually feel with hard work i can do just as well as the next cool guy....but man there were a lot seasoned pros hooked onto those Jv notifications ......

So if iam getting you right , the best thing for a rising newbie should be to flex their muscles in the niche market, build some strength and stamina and then gradually inch into the IM big leagues ....right?


One observation though was when i did some keyword research on the JV notications prelauanches it seemed that most of the data were focused in the USA, now i live in the UK , and i am wondering if getting to promote the Pro launches elsewhere say in english speaking europe or australia might jsut be a great idea......what do you think ....??? ;)

I thought about this post some more after I read it, and I think it's worth adding this. Although you shouldn't try to teach people IM if you haven't done it, I think it is fine to sell software that you have developed for IM, as long as it does what you say it does... just thought I'd add my 2 cents.

Brandon-

You're right on the money here dude- as always ;D

When I first got into marketing I was completely
shocked at the amount of people who operate on
this basis...

And as a copywriter, I see a staggering amount of
these guys. They come to me with a product on SEO
or PPC, and they ask me if I can help them get traffic
to it after I write the copy.

Or they'll say they've got some six figure affiliate blueprint,
but they can't afford to pay my fee.

The worst thing is that most of them can't see the
irony of this...

Whats up everyone?

My name is Kevin and new to the forum.

Brandon, Dude Awesome Story! I think that is the most I have EVER read without skipping ahead.. lol Yeah not just ADD but I have ADHD.

Your story is right on the money. This is something I battled with for a while because you have all these "gurus" saying the "easiest" thing to do is to make a "info product." Problem is I believe its the hardest.

You don't just need to make the product but you need to be a writer, copywriter, marketer, SEO/Adwords specialist, know about running a Affiliate Program and so many other things to start selling your own product from scratch. Unless of course if you have the money to outsource then your set.

Now if all you do is buy and study "IM" then the only logical thing you can think of to write about or teach is IM.

And for anyone facing this dilemma now, then here's a few suggestions that really changed things for me..

1. Go to elance.com or Guru.com and start "freelancing" your services. If you are a true IM'er then you know EXACTLY what to do BUT you don't have a product to start promoting. So do it for other people. And if your like me and like helping others more than doing for yourself then this is a great fit. And you can make A LOT OF MONEY DOING IT!

2. Start promoting "Affiliate Products" in any Niche (even one you know NOTHING about).

I started off with a niche I knew nothing about... "child behavior problems". And it was hard at 1st because I don't even have kids.

BUT I get a check every 2 weeks from Clickbank from a "Video promotion" I did on that product 2 years ago. ALL I DID WAS MAKE A CAMTASIA VIDEO OF A POWERPOINT I MADE POINTING OUT STUFF FROM THE SALESLETTER. I couldn't even tell you where the videos are or where the traffic comes from because all i did was blast the video out using Traffic Geyser.

** Yeah I know now its called "Video Skinning" (I missed that opportunity... lol) but I did 2 years ago when I knew NOTHING and I still get checks weekly until today.

3. Get use to writing articles about stuff. Find someone else's articles and re-word it with a few sentences of your own and BOOM... Its Unique!


Basically start doing stuff and stuff will happen.

And believe it or not...

When you realize that IM is the last niche you want to be in that...

IS THE DAY YOU GRADUATE from being an "IM Newbie".

We all go through it and after struggling for a year (or more), that day comes when you realize there is so much more money to be made by using what you know to sell other people's stuff and letting them (product owners) struggle to make one product and you get to blast out some articles and make 50-75% of the sales price.

Then when your ready, step up and make your own product. And after a few months of doing some of the things listed above, while you make your product, you will have plenty of checks coming in to get you by...

I hope this makes sense and helps out.

Kindest Regards,
Kevin

Kevin - What you discussed is pretty much why I have started to do launches and marketing for other people. I really haven't had much of a desire to create my own product (although an opportunity just came up and so I probably will be).

I love the idea that I have 6 different business, and I own between 10% and 50% of each one of them. They are in a couple of different niche's, so all of my eggs are not in one basket.

I think that people just don't realize how much money can be out there. I mean if you look at the gravity, ranking etc of "How to Build a Chicken Coop", an info product about, you guessed it, making a chicken coop, they are making six figures. If you can do that with chicken coops, you can do it with darn near anything.

Brandon

I just had a thought about all this. IMer that sell IM products... it's really a self policing thing. If they are good marketers, they will make a lot of money (because they marketed well), and they deserve money (because they are selling something they actually know something about).

If they are poor marketers, they will not make much money (because they market poorly), and don't deserve the money (because they are selling info on something they know nothing about).

I guess that doesn't help if you are one of the 5 people they managed to sell though. Also, there are so many of them, that combined they do a lot of sales, hence a lot of people get fleeced... at least it makes me feel better that they will only do well if they deserve it basically.

Interesting personal story, Brandon.

Yes, you could say the IM market is overcrowded, and a small player really has very little chance of making it.
However, the beauty of it all is that even within the IM niche you can create a sub-niche for yourself. For example, let's take a look at the highly competitive niche of "make money online". Did you know that a lot of people have been making a killing by sub-niching that even further , for example consider the niche "how to make money as a student working just 7 hours a week". Now, I don't know if that is a profitable niche, but if it proves viable, you can make money with much less competition... So the trick is as a newbie, stay away from the brutal competition of the big niches. Try to sub-niche the big niche further, and you can hone your marketing skills and make money in the process.

You can certainly drill down. I've spent the week in LA @ Jeff Walkers $25,000 Product Launch Manager event, and when Eben Pagan came to talk he spoke about that. You can take the 80/20 principle, then drill down even further, meaning go to the 20% of the 20%, and then see if you can find the 20% even in that. If you can drill down that deeply you can create something where a person actually feels as if you are speaking to them directly.
That all said, IM is far from the best, or even most profitable, niche to be involved in. So why am I doing it? Ego :) Seriously, I want to prove that I can sell stuff in the hardest market to sell in, and i know that if I can sell in the IM niche, I can sell anyplace. I've done Day Trading, Real Estate and Forex for a long time and have done well, but if I had to start all over, id probably sell things to people with zits, yeast infections, trouble with girls etc. It's a lot easier.

Brandon

I agree with Fimihan, there are sub-niches within IM niche where you can be giving some very good tested info and yet you may not have to face a stiff competition.