Co-opertate And Graduate

by Willie Crawford

When I first started flight training in the US Air Force over a decade ago, one of the first expressions I learned was "co-operate and graduate." What the expression meant was that the way to make it through the highly competitive and very demanding course was by helping your fellow students. I regularly apply the lessons learned from that program to other areas of my life.

The secret I've now discovered in marketing on the internet is that you will succeed a lot faster if you also "CO-OPERATE AND GRADUATE." What does this mean.

Well, the thing that attracts many people to starting up a business on the internet instead of a traditional store front business is the low startup cost. You can get a free webpage, get a free email address, place free classifieds and free links on a variety of sites, find product to sell and join programs free.

Heck, you can even go to the local public library in many cities and use their free computers and internet access. So it's very easy to get started. Since it is so easy to get started, many people do throw together a quick web page, sign up for a dozen different reseller programs, place a few ads, list with a few search engines and wait for the orders to flow in.

But the orders don't usually flow as fast as they'd like - for a variety of reasons that many people discover too late. Let's look at those reasons first and then let's look at how you can successfully parlay the assets you have into a marketing machine that produces real results.

First - the reasons for slow growth. They usually boil down to professional image and product choice. Since many people are leary about ordering products and services over the internet, you must come across as professionally as possible. If you don't, you've willingly reduced your chances at success to zero. That's a fact! You will get a trickle of orders but not the steady flow that you need to make it worthwhile for most business people. A professional image in this business means:

(1) your own domain name,

(2) a well thought out focused website,

(3) a mailing list that you keep in contact with and

(4) a primary product.

It's ok to have a variety of items you offer but you must have at least one product that the prospect associates with you in his mind. As with me, that product may very well be information - even FREE information. Without this professional image, your only customers will probably be those who have been on your mailing list for a very long time, and finally see something you feature that they can use.

With this professional image, many prospects will order the first time they see your ad or visit your website. I said many, not most. It will still take the repeat contacts to sell the majority of prospects with certain products, but without the right image you kill the impulse sales.

As you begin to cultivate that professional image also cultivate personal and professional contacts. Most likely your biggest assets are your website, your ezine, and your mailing list. Neither of these are doing you any good unless you use them to gain new contacts and build relationships.

How do you do that? With your website, there is a good chance that you are only using a fraction of the available web space. Use some of the remaining space to place links and or ads exchanged with other webmasters. Yes, your surfers may visit your competitors sites, but your competitors surfers will also discover your site. If your links are properly constructed you can even get your visitors to just open another browser window instead of leaving your site completely.

In any event, you and other webmasters are gaining nothing from having unused web space - so why not use it to help each other grow? Along the same lines, you probably have extra ad space in your ezine when you first start out. Use that space to trade ads with other ezine publishers.

Simply email ezine publishers who's ezines you like and offer to make equitable exchanges. You both benefit by gaining additional exposure. In this case and with the link exchange, you are probably exposing yourself to many new customers. There may be some customer base overlap, but not much.

Since money is usually the asset in short supply when you first start out , you can stretch your budget by exchanging a lot more than advertising and links. You can also exchange services such as: webpage or banner design, translation services, copy-writing, programming or scripting, proof- reading, etc.

In reading many of the ezines out there I see that proofreading is always needed. We simply do not notice some mistakes in our own work no matter how many times we look it over. Get someone else to look it over before presenting it to the world. Remember presenting that correct, professional image is essential.

In looking at what you might offer in exchange for business- growing products and services, just use your imagination. The main idea in this article is that you will grow and succeed a lot faster if you help each other.

Without that help, you're struggling all alone in a very big wilderness, and your chances of survival are lessened considerably.

Willie Crawford is a well-know internet marketing consultant and writer.
His website is filled with articles designed to help you succeed.
Visit http://www.williecrawford.com today!
This article may be freely used in your ezine or on your website as long as it is reproduced in it's entirety, to include this footnote and it is not altered.
* Copyright © 1999 Willie Crawford All Rights Reserved *