Brett McEllhiney
Lonnie Minton
Earl Netwal« Keywords are important but… | Home | Are you using affiliate landmines? »
Are You Gonna Produce Or Are You Gonna Consume?
By admin | September 2, 2009
The turtles are primarily consumers. They don’t produce much of value although they are quite good at turning food into something else and messing up the tank.
Watching their actions though does teach lessons and that allows me to produce good content here. This past week end I got my Saturday missive from Marlon Sanders, something I always look forward to because he always has great actionable information. The key is to take action on it and with permission I will be adding it here because the turtles liked it too. (Well at least they did not fall asleep while I read it 
)
Are You Gonna Produce Or Are You Gonna Consume?
Subtitle: The real answer to why only 3% succeed and how to know if YOU will be part of the 3% or the 97%.
Are You Gonna Produce Or Consume?
Let’s get it straight.
All the money in this business is made by being a producer, not a consumer. Now, being a consumer is NOT bad or wrong.
But here’s the secret: You consume to produce.
Let me share a fact: It’s been estimated that 97% of customers of info products don’t make anything. Why? Because the never produce and promote.
They just consume and make up reasons why they can’t do it, why it won’t work for them, why they are different, why their situation is different, and why later not now is the time to start.
True story.
This fact is true of ANY info product business where you are teaching people how to do things. Whether it’s how to invest in stocks, real estate or anything else.
So realize this happens in EVERY industry, not just mine.
It’s really crucial that you get this straight in your head. For one thing, in the U.S., you are supposed to publish “typical results.” No one does. Why?
Because the typical result is 3%. Now, colleges do fair slightly better. 80% of the people who graduate with a degree NEVER work in the field they got their degree in.
So if 4 years of college and $50,000 or $100,000 can’t get people a $30,000 a year entry level job, why is it that a small minority of people with a chip on their shoulder, think they can buy a $97 course and with almost NO effort grab six figures?
Why is that? It makes no sense. That a human being with intelligence could think that baffles me. People want something where someone else gives them a defined set of instructions, they do it with no risk, and they get a check.
THAT is called a “job,” not a business.
You don’t push a few buttons and money magically appears — NOT until you have a list or form agreements with people who DO have lists. Then, yeah, you push a few buttons and money appears.
This is not a job. It’s a business. And by nature, business is volatile, uncertain and there is risk involved and no guarantees. If you can’t deal with that fact, keep your day job. Honestly.
If you’re lazy and think you’ll make 100 g’s a year by being dumb, stupid, in-informed and uneducated, keep your day job. But you’re about to be fired from there — so you better have a check up from the neck up.
There IS no room in the world for people who cannot produce and promote, even if all you’re promoting is yourself at your job.
On the flip side, if you take the number of people who product and promote at least 3 products with a degree of intelligence, diligence and effort, I imagine the results are pretty good, if not really good.
The reason 97% don’t get results is 90% or more didn’t REALLY give it their best shot. They stuck a toe in the water and “tried” just to see if “this thing is real.”
Well guess what?
That isn’t how it works.
You don’t read one book on chess, and enter a chess tournament to see “if this book is worth anything.” It’s a skill that takes practice and repetition.
“Yeah, but Marlon, all the sales letters say it’s easy.”
Actually, a few do but most by respected, legitimate marketers don’t. They promise to show you how THEY and maybe a few customers have gotten great results far above average (remember, the average result is nothing because people don’t implement at all or precious little).
Now, I LOVE being a consumer. I have vast libraries in my home because I love to read and learn new, exciting things. And when I speak, I speak from experience. I prefer consuming to producing.
Why?
1. Things go wrong when you produce.
The software doesn’t work, you can’t figure this or that out. Something doesn’t work right. That can lead to feelings of frustration or even feelings that somehow something is wrong with YOU that you can’t figure this out.
But follow me on this: Your FEARS of your own stupid feelings of failure or frustration. NOT of what it takes to get things done.
Murphy (Murphy’s law…look it up) is a part of any business.
2. Nothing works the first time
Write it down.
It never works out the way you want the first time. If that wasn’t true, then sports teams would only hold ONE practice session before they played games that counted.
Think about it.
Even the great Tiger Woods and the greatest athletes in the world practice over and over. Yet, to my absolute mystery, somehow a few people think they can have the Internet lifestyle by reading one ebook and working 15 minutes a day.
Please. Get real.
There IS an Internet lifestyle. But you pay your dues first. You learn, you practice, you test, you tweak and you learn some more. Now, I’ve seen that compressed into literally very short time frames.
My friend Jason Fladlien is 20 months into the Game and bringing in $30,000 to $50,000 a month BUT he has PRODUCED dozens of products in that time span and promoted them to a small list of only a few thousand names (but a list growing rapidly now).
Doesn’t matter you have a small list. THAT is how you start out. You start out, you produce and you hit singles or bunts to start with NOT grand slams.
If someone DOES hit a grand slam their first time at bat at product creation, THAT isn’t typical. Typical is like me — my first products hardly sold. Like
my one on how to avoid TV Repair Ripoff that I advertised in the TV Guide. If your TV was broke, would you be READING the TV Guide? Those are the dumb mistakes beginners make.It’s part of the normal learning process.
Are you a NEWBIE? If you are, you can STILL produce $10 reports, little pdf’s or audios you sell, simple things.
Get in the HABIT of producing and promoting and not just consuming info until you are a bloated info glut.
I got a real problem with people who want and expect something for nothing. For people who think an ebook or even a coaching program will magically open the doors to the Internet lifestyle.
You produce and promote.
Like breathing.
Do it over and over and sooner or later you’ll pretty good at it and that’s when your luck finds you.
That’s when your money finds you.
That’s when success happens overnight.
Now it helps if you produce and promote things with the perception of value that people want to pay for. That helps a lot.
=================== So What DOES Work? ===================
What works is to produce while you consume. Start building your list, creating and promoting products.
THIS is what works.
Even if you’re not competent, even if you make mistakes, even if you get frustrated, even if you don’t feel you have the right to create a product, even if your web page is kinda ugly, even if you aren’t confident in what you’re doing, even if you don’t know everything, even if you aren’t a good writer, even if you sound less than perfect on audio.
NO EXCUSES.
You get your assets busy and you produce and promote.
Produce and promote.
Produce and promote.
Repeat after me.
Produce and promote.
Produce and promote.
It’s a mantra.
Say it now. Produce and promote. Produce and promote.
Stop over analyzing.
Stop your second guessing.
Stop making excuses.
This is the ONLY mantra that virtually guarantees your success….I say “virtually” because not everyone succeeds — at anything. Not everyone succeeds at golf, tennis or chess. Business is no different.
But as a general rule, if you persistently and relentlessly create, produce and promote products that are wanted and needed to audiences known to be passionate about buying and spending money, it’ll be hard for you to NOT succeed.
This is the straight and narrow path to success — the one I have been teaching and preaching since 1998 and before.
This is the EVERGREEN path to success. The money you spend to learn it won’t be wasted because it’s a skill. Producing and promoting never “stops working.”
Back in 0 B.C. people were producing crops and promoting or selling them. They were producing cows or donkeys or whatever and promoting and selling them.
This is evergreen.
It’s not as sexy or exciting as sending one email and having 100 g’s come in the door. The most read email I’ve had recently was the Terry Dean report I gave away about how he brought in 100 g’s by sending 1 email.
Which is all true.
But he had a list of qualified prospects to send that email to. But it shows that even on my list of people who hopefully read this ezine every week, people are entranced with the idea of pushing a button and having their bills paid for the year.
Get real. Honestly. Aren’t we both adults here? Aren’t you aware that the path to success lies in producing and promoting and not magic. Cavemen believed in magic. In third world countries where books and education are lacking, people believe in magic.
But you aren’t a caveman, you have books and the Internet and you’re in charge of educating yourself.
So cut the crap, forget the magic and get your assets busy producing and promoting. And if you don’t want to do that, keep your day job and seduce yourself into believing that your job is about something OTHER than producing and promoting, which of course it isn’t.
You just don’t have responsibility for the ultimate product and the exchange obtained for it. It’s a matter of what you FEEL you’re responsible for.
Those people who go in forms and complain that they “tried Internet marketing” and it didn’t work.
Did they produce and promote? Produce and promote?
No. They tried promoting affiliate products to a really low quality list they built using questionable, unproven methods because they wanted to “try it and see if it works” instead of committing to do it.
So someday when the NEWS hits the fan that “97% don’t make it in Internet marketing,” ask yourself out of those 97%, how many do you REALLY think followed the mantra 3, 4 or 5 times?
You know why people have jobs?
Because they are comfortable letting someone else do the hard work of producing and promoting, and they just want to be a cog in the wheel without much responsibility for producing and promoting the thing that is actually sold to the end buyer.
You STILL produce and promote on a job. But you have defined steps with a known outcome. That’s called a job.
An entrepreneur lives in changing markets and an uncertain world where any one product may or may not sell jack.
That’s life. That’s marketing.
You can do surveys and market research to put the odds in your favor. But it’s STILL uncertain. They cure is to produce and promote a LOT! Not a little.
So I got a question for you.
This next week are you ONLY consuming?
Are you ONLY reading my ezine?
Are you making excuses for all the reasons producing and promoting won’t work for you and how you need to wait for some reason, and why your equipment isn’t good enough, your voice isn’t good enough, your writing isn’t good enough, you don’t have the confidence and you aren’t sure it’ll work.
Or are you going to shut the muck up and produce and promote?
Really, this choice is yours.
Do you want a job?
Or do you want the Internet lifestyle?
If it’s the latter, start producing and promoting.
Marlon Sanders
The King of Step-By-Step Internet Marketing———————————————————–
Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy and the KING of Step-By-Step Internet Marketing.”To get on his killer ezine list, to get cheat sheets and all kinds of other goodies every Saturday and during the week, to get simple, to-the-point Internet marketing know that works real world without all the hype, go to: http://www.marlonsnews.com and subscribe
Hope you enjoyed this and if you are just starting you really should check out Marlon’s Promo Dashboard to have a perfect step by step plan ot start promoting.
The Turtle Dad
Related posts
Disclaimer: Some of the links mentioned within this post or posts it may lead to are my affiliate links and in such case I will get compensated for recommending those products. However, I will never recommend something that I don’t personally believe in and I welcome your questions and feedback.
Topics: lessons | 7 Comments »
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:14 am
As always, Marlon is right on with that post, Mike, although my own personal experience shows it’s less than 3% who put in the effort required to make and maintain a living online. Thanks for sharing that great article!
Doug Champigny´s last blog ..Downloaded Your Free ClickBank Commissions Blueprint Yet?
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Produce and Promote, I got the picture. The few 3% likely starts with consuming as well but be able to produce rapidly from it. Still have hope to make it into the 3%, I certainly did well in the consuming portion but now making progress into the producing and promoting. It can’t be repeated enough to help to stay focused: consume, produce and promote….
Fred
Fred Lotgering´s last blog ..Secrets of Using Twitter to Develop a Massive Niche Following
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Really heavy duty and truly drives the point home. Would like to be in that 3% because it does offer a pretty good lifestyle. Now again what were those words? Ah, Produce and Promote. Words to remember.
Andre Arnett´s last blog ..Ordinary to ‘Extraordinary’ (stories revealed!)
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Wow!
That was a very powerful letter that Marlon sent. Have not been on his list before, but am signing up right now.
While I may not be in that 3% yet, I am working my way in that direction.
Today I have setup a new blog, got a new product online and setup in my affiliate program, made a post on one of my blogs, setup 3 posts on the new blog from one of the older ones that I was creating the posts for the new blog on, and got out my email for the day. Not to mention still show up for my full time job.
Amazing what a little coffee can do!
Brett McEllhiney´s last blog ..Why all the hype about Secret Affiliate Weapon 2?
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:37 am
Soon after Marlon posted that on his site, I saw all kinds of other marketers passing it along… it’s good to see sharing without restraints for other good information they find. Thanks Mike!
Joel Osborne´s last blog ..Edit Your PLR Sales Page
September 12th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Marlon produces a great newsletter. When he publishes an article as a part of his newsletter, you can bet that it will be worth reading and a benefit to your efforts in internet marketing.
Lonnie Minton´s last blog ..Stop Promoting Uninteresting Products