• I didn’t do it on purpose.

    I didn’t have a 4 year plan, anticipate my next move, or really… have any choice. I was under a spell.

    It started out very innocently. In 1999 I learned some HTML. In 2000 I was hired to work on some websites, and their affiliate links (whatever the heck that meant). A short while after that (and a lot of riduculously interesting information that I am omitting for effect) :

    make money online, get rich quick

    I joined an email list.
    Then another.
    Then another.
    Then I bought an ebook. or two. or three. or ten.
    Then I signed up with Site Build it.
    Then I stayed awake for 8 pm Eastern time (3 am here) to listen to a teleseminar. again. and again. and again.
    Then I was on 30 mailing lists.
    Then I bought a coaching program. or two
    Then I joined a membership or four.

    I witnessed more urgency in a stream of ‘if you dont buy / use this / know this then you will NOT be able to succeed online’ pitches than an Emergency Room MD. Trauma care patients don’t know copywriting like these guys. I wonder if the survival rate would increase if John Carlton was pitching each patients case.

    The IM’er (as it is labeled for short) Experience.

    Lately I have been ‘hanging around’ (in the Social Media sense) a different online crowd. These people may refer to themselves as Internet Marketers, but many don’t know who Mike Filsaime is, or perhaps even John Reese!

    While we are always reinventing ourselves, the IM path may sound something like this.. rich jerk, niche marketing, resale rights, PLR, Warrior Forum, Earn $100 a day, list building secrets, social media domination, adsense is not dead, blah blah blah. A more traditional marketer may have their success tied more to scalability, building relationships, and clients. Their means to an end is to create a self sustaining line of work, and yes, a nice revenue stream. (which could actual happen accidentally rather then intentionally - almost never in the IM’er space)

    Life is a series of experiences that mold us into who we are. We are the products of our own ‘choose your own adventure’. I dont mean to sound so holistic here, but I feel I owe respect to the experience I had, even if I am prepared to question the fuel that drives it. I also have more leeway to do such since I am partially responsible for supporting it.

    Last week I wrote about the surprise I had attending the Mashable Tel Aviv Event to discover so few marketers were aware of web concepts I have been embracing for so long. I also wrote that I had a half written post to dust off about the subject. Here is that post. Partially.. some of the work was done for me in the meantime:

    businessmen having it out

    A few days ago the debate was on full steam, ironically, starring.. John Reese and Mark Hopkins from Mashable..

    I don’t see that John has anything he needs to defend. Its like a local musician being accused of ’selling out’ since he wrote a song that became a top 10 single and made him famous. Yes, you owe a lot to your fans, but it helps to have a lot more of them, and it helps to be able to afford to keep doing what they like you for ;) .

    Next the advent of the e-book, while not making many people at home millionaires, due to it’s ‘mass production’ is able to share golden nuggets of how to take advantage of the web for a much lower price tag than hiring consultants. I haven’t earned from each e-book, but I have learned from each one.

    Mark - it is simply that as an outsider to an experience you didn’t have, the vision from where you are sitting allows you to see this for what it actually is. Well, what it is to YOU. A survival of the fittest, MLM style society. Hey I hear you - when my friends start pitching AGEL and NuSkin to me (actual network marketing companies) I laugh and roll my eyes in ridicule - and think they are on crack. However, to them its a very real adventure, they love the products, and its potentially lucrative, so who are we to judge? Maybe more people are losing money than earning, but the same 80/20 rule applies to this as with any other industry. Or the more realistic 95/5 - it CAN be done. You CAN become famous in Hollywood. You can get rich online. Just not many will. Should they stop making movies since it fuels others desires to have what they most likely can’t?

    For me? It is directly as a result of this experience, one that caused me to part with so much of my hard earned money, and take time away from my family, that I am able to claim what I can today. I may not be able to drink Pina Coladas all day while the money racks up in my account, no Ferrari in the garage, or a house in the Hamptons (as we have been so frequently pitched).. but I most certainly could get a sick paying job in a big firm, could consult with the best.

    How?

    Because I DIDN’T learn what they teach new college graduates, because I DIDN’T learn traditional marketing. I learned how to market in a way that turns the web into our own personal ATM’s. I learned marketing the Rich Dad way. I am too wise to go back and relive it, but I cant change what I know, and yes.. I actually make money online.

    Internet Marketing is definitely poised for a ‘face lift’, I expect a lot more crossover between the two different arenas. However, as long as people wake up and type in ‘make money online from home’ on Google, there will be products created to cater to them.

    Not that there’s anything wrong with that.


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