Each month, I am besieged by nice, well-meaning folk who desperately desire to be writers, consultants, coaches,
speakers, and information marketers.
Many of these people actually have quite a bit of talent for writing, consulting, coaching, speaking, and authoring
information products.
Yet most will not succeed for a single common reason?
They have nothing to teach, write, or speak about.
You see this all the time?
** Marketing consultants who have never held a corporate marketing job or worked at an ad agency or created a single winning marketing campaign.
** Numerous sales trainers who were either mediocre salesmen or never sold anything at all.
** Business opportunity marketers who have never actually done the businesses that they write and talk about.
** Financial newsletter editors who haven?t made a dime in the market in years.
** Internet marketers who sell e-books written by freelance ghostwriters who knew nothing about the topic and just
researched it online with Google.
To succeed as a writer, speaker, consultant, coach, and especially as an Internet info marketer, you need just 2 things: (a) the ability to write, speak, consult, or coach and (b) something to write, speak, consult, or coach about.
To be fair, you also need to know how to (c) market, promote, and sell yourself to get leads, customers, and sales.
Lots of people have the (a) and (c) can be learned, but too many lack (b), a subject to write about.
RS, author of books and newsletters on gold and gold investing, once told me: If you can gain specialized knowledge, you will never go broke.
The best way to gain this knowledge is as a participant in or practitioner of the skill or specialized field you want to write about.
People believed RS when he recommended investing in a particular gold stock, because before he edited a newsletter on gold stocks, he spent 3 decades as a mining consultant.
Some wanna-be gurus decide they will master a field by reading about it and studying it, and neglect to actually participate in it.
That?s a mistake.
Book learning is important, but there are limits to how far it can take you, and it is no substitute for real-world experience.
For instance, years ago, I signed up at a local adult education program to take a course in mail order.
At the time I had a small mail order business, and I had been in direct marketing for decades?but I am always reading and taking classes to see what extra knowledge I can pick up.
When the class started, it was obvious the instructor?a business teacher at a local community college?was reading from a textbook and had absolutely zero experience in and knowledge of mail order.
The class bombarded her with questions which she could not answer. Since I had identified myself when the teacher took attendance, I was trapped into answering them and pretty much teaching the rest of the class?not what I wanted.
I once read an article by professional speaker Mike Aun in which he talked about the fact that in addition to being a speaker, he ran a successful insurance agency.
He asserted that no one should be a full-time professional speaker; having a real business gave him the knowledge and content he needed to deliver in his talks.
I agree with Aun. I am frequently asked when I give a seminar on copywriting whether I just give seminars or do I still write copy.
I am proud to reply that I am an active participant in every area (copywriting, Internet marketing, book publishing, freelance writing) that I teach others through my how-to writing and speaking.
I don?t see how I could do otherwise. Active participation keeps your skills sharp and your knowledge level current.
It also gives you a living laboratory in which to test out your ideas to make sure your advice works in the real world.
And, it establishes your credibility with the audience or reader.
I once heard a speaker tell a group of aspiring speakers to read books on their topics an hour a day every day for a full year.
?If you do, you will be an expert on your topic and qualified to teach it to others,? the speaker said.
To which I reply: no, you won?t.
You will have a theoretical knowledge of your topic.
But you will lack the confidence and depth of knowledge that having actual experience in a process, skill, or activity gives you.
The other danger of learning only by reading instead of doing is that a lot of how-to writers don?t know their subjects that well?and frequently give wrong advice.
If you have no real-world experience and haven?t tried the methods you teach, you have no way of knowing whether they work or not.
Writing, speaking, and consulting about a topic you know thoroughly is easier?and a lot more fun?than trying to fake your way through a subject in which you are barely conversant.
When you?re a true expert, your reports, e-books, and other information products seem to fly out of your PC with lightning speed and always ring true to your customers.
In addition, your customers will recognize and praise your genuine expertise, giving a big boost to your self-esteem and ego.
Plus, as a true expert, you are light years ahead of your competitors who only know your topic through second-hand
research or minimal real-world experience.
Therefore you enjoy a significant competitive edge both in the quality of your products and services and the effectiveness of your marketing.
And it all starts with knowing your topic inside and out.
Bob Bly is the author of ?World?s Best Copywriting Secrets? and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him ?America?s top copywriter?.
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Source: http://www.internetmasterycenter.com/blog/2012/03/14/why-infopreneurs-fail-by-bob-bly/
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