Show Me the Money

Written by Jim Allen III on Jan 3, 2008 9:32 pm

Show Me The Money!

By: Lyndell (Jerry) Miller

http://www.jerrysplantsonline.comPresented By: Jim Allen

http://www.jerrysplantsonline.com

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

Presented by:jimallen

CMU7.Com

http://ULearn2Earn.us

It is never my intention to drive anyone away from community involvement, but I have found that a person needs to be involved for the right reasons. I would also never attempt to discourage one from following their dream but many enter and many leave with few
remaining for long.

Many will fall for many schemes, many will loose the shirt off their back and many will try many approaches to making their dreams work. For some it will be to do the PPC thing and spend a lot of money with little or no return, some will plaster adds everywhere and some will try to twist as many arms as possible in business communities thinking they will make a lot of money from "being involved" and badger folks into buying into their program (spam).

When it comes to business communities, they are in business to make money the same as anyone else. I haven't come across any business community where the owners have deep pockets and do it simply out of the goodness of their hearts. They must make money or they can't exist and one of their means of making money is through the paid subscriptions and efforts of others. Much of the internet revolves around prying money from others for one reason or another and often to make someone else's dream of becoming rich a reality.

When it comes to business communities, I believe the secret is to align ones self to be able to use them to your advantage (leveraging your efforts) and ultimately receive at least as much as one puts in and preferably make a profit. If one puts 100 hours per month into any community (and many put this much or more into them) and receives back a mere $10.00 in gratuity, that translates to a mere $.10 per hour. How many would take a job for those wages? Yet many enter into communities with this type of attitude of making substantial money for themselves and are ultimately disillusioned and often leave with a bad taste in their mouths.

I'm not going to pull any punches here. If you are in business and are serious, you must change your way of thinking to one of potential for profit verses investment. If not, you will be greatly disappointed and ultimately quit or jump into something else and be just as disappointed. Yes, it can be argued that in communities you are building relationships that will translate to sales later. But what is the potential for future sales within that community?

This the question that every business owner must wrestle with. For the majority of the products, services and programs currently being promoted within communities, the potential is extremely low. and therefore the return will also be low. In my case, I deal with physical products and information. Products that are of interest outside of the internet for folks.

Gardening, outdoor living and holiday items are products that folks turn to in order to escape the everyday pressures of their lives. Therefore, the potential is much higher for me than say someone promoting weight-loss products or insurance. For most these are examples of products that remind them of things they do not wish to be reminded of and therefore no escape. So choose your products or programs well and with much consideration.

Business programs are also things that are of interest mainly only to those already involved with them, desperate to escape an uncomfortable situation in their own lives (and probably flat broke to boot) or they are naive and gullible and probably will fall away at the drop of a hat. Therefore you must keep on recruiting one after another, after another, after another in order to keep an income coming in. And all the while, many of these programs are making the owners of the programs filthy rich in the process while you are beating yourself to death, just trying to keep your nose above water. Does this mean they are bad products or programs? Possibly but not necessarily, but it does probably mean that to much effort is being spent on your part at promoting in the wrong places and to the wrong audience.

Sometimes seeking your money is to receive a product in return as with an online store where folks are shopping for something in particular. Sometimes it is to receive services. But communities all know they must allow a certain amount of free participation in order to draw in members for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is to allow the member a test drive and then they must upgrade later in order to be able to do anything (like DirectMatches) otherwise they might as well not be a member and sometimes it is to increase activity.

Increased activity draws advertising. In any case it is our involvement and money that makes any community successful from a business perspective. But remember, it is someone else's business that is being made successful and in many cases not yours unless you use it for that purpose.

When it comes to our involvement, it is for us as business people to decide why and to what extent we are involved. If it is to make money, normally we will be disappointed, if it is to draw attention to our other endeavors, we also could be disappointed unless we choose the community and our product carefully and have the right attitude toward our involvement.

Here again, if we are selling another program like so many others online, we will probably be disappointed. This is because most on-line business people are not buyers. most don't have the money anyway or they've realized this is not how you make money on-line and if they do buy into our programs, they often become what I call "circle money". This one buys from you, you buy from someone else and on and on until it comes back to you. With no one making any money. Each one just passes the same money from one hand to another.

MLM's often rely on this as a means of keeping fresh faces in their programs. I know this may anger some, but it doesn't matter. See if the MLM program will let you see a roster of all of their participants and then check it again in 6 months or a year. Few, if any of the original faces will still be there for most of the programs and they know this. That's why they generally will not divulge that information and they rely on your efforts to continually bring in fresh faces.

I have slowly and painstakingly learned that the ones who are successful are those who find one or two niches that are not mainstream and stick with them and them alone. They have learned not to jump into every program that comes along and to avoid them. They also find ways to move out of the mainstream of communities and take their product and/or service outside of communities to the web surfers who are looking for their product. But in any case, they find a way to get outside of the community main stream to generate the bulk of their income.

The successful on-line business person finds the time to get around to many places and gets their name in front of as many faces as possible. This is now called "Branding". The old timers used to call this "Name Recognition". It is a fact that it still is necessary to generate about 100 hits to generate 1 sale. This translates to to roughly 200 to 300 views or more to get 1 hit on average (you can do the math from here).

This is why it may be necessary to get outside of the mainstream community traffic and make your presence know to folks who are already potential buyers and not "curiosity lookers". Here your percentages of views to hits usually drops and in communities it generally rises.

Traffic exchanges and any other form of reciprocating programs are, in my opinion even worse because while you may see an increase in traffic, the traffic is not there to buy, but rather to fill an obligation in order to receive a small gratuity at your expense and large volumes of traffic without conversions can also work against you and get you a "low-conversion" label.

On-line community owners also know this and thus they know they must give you some form of token thanks for giving them at least some of your time, but it is a token at best, otherwise they themselves make no money. But it is more than you had and if you have had fun in the process, it may be worth it to you. Just be aware that you may be trading promotion for your fun and this usually translates to fewer sales for you.

I personally look at it from a more pragmatic and business-minded approach. I weigh the amount of time needed to be active, versus the potential for sales. In my case, the potential is fair to moderate at best, therefore I am resolved to spend more time outside of business communities this next year and spend more time in areas of specialized interest (my niche market area). It is good if you resolve to spend more time on-line at promoting.

Please remember that your true success will be to push yourself to levels that are seemingly out of reach. And when you reach those goals, set a new goal even higher. This is what will make anyone successful in any business, whether on-line or in a brick and mortar business. If we only give that which is easy and convenient, that is what we will receive in return and end updisillusioned. If you give that which you do not believe is in your ability, your return is multiplied and you become able to do that which you thought you could not do.

If you have a product or service that is viable, then at some point sales will begin if you invest in the right manner and right places. As you drive yourself harder and harder to get that name recognition and promote your product properly, then your sales will begin to rise. Continued efforts on your part, if done correctly will continue to raise your sales to a point where eventually the sales will parallel and equal your efforts. But this all takes time and often a lot of time, both in promotion and in growth. It is as much a fact now as it always has been, that to realize a profit in less than 3 to 5 years is a prodigy and oddity. And then only through extraordinary efforts on an individuals time and skills.

This is a fact that has not changed since the dawn of business dealings and one that I personally often have lost sight of. No amount of creative advertising, deception and manipulation has changed this and never will because the nature of man has not changed and is not likely to do so in the future. It is as much a fact now as it ever was that "A fool and his money are soon parted". "Plan your work and work your plan", "Stay the course", "The man at the top didn't just fall there" - these are all catching cliques that are rooted in foundational truths. Mark your target well, evaluate often and weigh the outcomes, then make your choices of time and talents based on these things. When it comes to communities or offers alike - "Trust, but verify" then choose accordingly and you increase your chances of being happy without surprises and being successful.

the "Hillbilly Gardener"

Lyndell (Jerry) Miller

(417) 777-2285

plantman.ozarks@yahoo.com

www.jerrysplantsonline.com

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