It was Arie De Gues who said “your ability to learn faster than your competition is your only sustainable competitive advantage.” – This quote is actually more apt for individual internet marketers and online entrepreneurs than anyone else. Fact is, in our fast changing online world, you cannot afford to miss a trick.
Today I’m out to remind you that, as you get settled into your 2009 routine, you must never lose your hunger to learn new things. New ways of generating traffic. New ways of making your blog look better, and do new things. Because, the moment we switch off and think we know it all…it all changes, and we can find we’re knee deep in deep trouble.
So what is it you need to be doing? Simply to understand what the core customers and target audience in your niche wants, and to make sure you’re delivering exactly that. To get a feel for what skills and knowledge are key to provide your clients with these products or services. To do that, you really need to keep up with the current – keep learning, because that’s a key ingredient to increasing your revenues year on year.
Before we talk about learning though, it’s equally critical to understand exactly what it is that your clients want from you. Change can be important when the trends are shifting – but sometimes, inaction can be the only action required. Don’t believe me? Just ask ebay…
1. Understand What Your Business Clients Need And Don’t Fight Them…Look What Happened With Ebay – It Misread The Trends & Now It’s In All Sorts Of Trouble
In the recent past, John Donahoe (CEO of ebay) faced serious challenges and questions with regard to his leadership of the company. It seems that a lot of ebay clients are turning their backs on the giant auction firm in favour of low cost alternatives like Amazon and Play.com. The company’s stock levels are bumping along levels not seen since the dot com crash in 2001 – naturally, stockholders are pretty ticked off.
The main problem has been the change in ebays core business model, from being less of an auction site to more an ecommerce site – after years of being a successful online auction, Mr Donahoe inexplicably decided that ebay would change strategy and encourage more of their sellers to offer fixed price items, as you would find on sites like Amazon.
But why? The whole point of ebay is that it joins smaller, solo traders with the public. So that bargain hunters can find cool little products at prices they like. So Susan could potter around and find some unique trinkets of jewelry for a couple of dollars without leaving her bedroom. So Larry could find a DVD of The Rock and pay a few bucks to have it delivered at home. The bidding process was all part of the fun of ebay, many buyers were hooked on that very aspect of the auction site. That’s what made ebay so special. So unique. And ultimately, so very profitable.
Ebay failed to understand what people wanted from it. It failed to understand that it had a perfectly unique and successful business model, and moved away from this model in favour of a model crawling with competition, that small sellers found uneconomical and buyers failed to see value in. In the process, it aggravated it’s customers, sellers and stockholders alike.
Frankly, ebay has a history of making abrupt, often thoughtless policy changes that has harmed thousands of the very people who contributed to it’s success. For example the way it treated it’s digital product selling community has been nothing short of disgraceful. It didn’t listen to the protests then. It’s not listening now.
This will apply to you only if you already have a vibrant business going –if this is so (and well done by the way) understand exactly what your clients WANT from your business. Then, deliver it. And, before making any ground-breaking changes, make sure it’s what your CLIENTS want, not what you think must be best because some guru somewhere sold a product or course that said so.
2. Your Knowledge Is One Of Your Most Powerful Assets – Just Ask Those People Making Five Figures+ A Month…Make Learning An Active Part Of Your Day
Say what you like about the internet – the simple fact is that there has never been a more incredible, genuine opportunity for individuals to earn staggering amounts with minimal outlay of capital. And, the beauty is that there are so many different online business models to follow, and succeed at. I cannot believe anyone would even consider doing a job, or setting up a bricks and mortar business, when they could be an internet entrepreneur.
Of course, there are challenges – such as learning the key information and skills that are needed to set up your business, and get traffic to it.
One thing that’s common to EVERY successful online entrepreneur is that they share a thirst for knowledge. They want to learn about ways of improving their business in every respect. They want to learn about increasing traffic, increasing their conversions on that traffic, building a list, using PLRs, using the social media phenomina to build business even more, learn about new sites that they can leech potential clients from… and this is always an ongoing process.
The best thing is that as the internet business niche has exploded over the past few years, the availability of learning material has sky-rocketed.
And it’s easier and cheaper to learn today than ever before – Whereas a decade ago when I first started my online business, I had to rely on poorly written ebooks to get a grasp of technical and theoretical concepts, today we can download videos and audios that teach us the same with a lot less pain and confusion. It’s really brilliant, and it means if you’re reading this as a newbie, you can master the learning curve with a lot less hassle than a decade or so ago.
Ultimately, one of the laws of life is that whatever industry you’re in, the more you learn the more you’ll earn. Hopefully, you’re serious about setting up your own empire of niche businesses. In this economic era, there can be fewer better things you’ll ever aspire to do. And, if you’re serious then you’ll understand that learning is an integral aspect of getting to where you want to be. So, whether you’re currently earning zero or twenty grand a month, make learning an active part of each and every day.
If you can do that, and if you fearlessly apply everything you learn…the simple fact is that you’ll understand how to set-up and grow a flourishing business that has clients coming to it again and again, from all over the place. You WILL earn money, and probably more so than you might dare imagine. Or, as a worse case scenario, you’ll at least be able to get a high paying job as CEO of ebay and show it’s board how not to shoot itself repeatedly in the foot.
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