This is a guest post Zach of Truth In Marketing.
The internet is a scary and deceiving place. It’s littered with websites, products, and guides that promise you success if you follow their simple strategies. What the average consumer doesn't realize is that most of these sites and guides are scams aimed directly at them. The sales copy is flawlessly written and perfectly appeals to the emotions of the online newbie who’s trying to break into the internet scene. Unfortunately, many of these internet newbies, including myself,buy into these false promises and end up learning the hard way that success on the internet only comes from hard work, time, and dedication.
Hopefully you've found this post soon enough so that you can make informed decisions about how you want to go about starting up your first website or web business. If you have, then great. I'm going to tell you the TRUTH and give you some solid advice on how you SHOULD be going about starting your first online journey.
Be Patient
I cannot stress this enough. There's no way to gain instant success or traffic or sales on the internet. This is one of the things that I struggle with the most as well. I'm definitely guilty of checking my traffic stats far too often. Sometimes I check my stats multiple times a day. There's absolutely no need for this. All it does is discourage you when you see that your stats haven't really improved.
In the world of internet success, slow and steady wins the race. An easy way to get way from being impatient is to set long term goals instead of short term goals. Sure, short term goals are important when determining what needs to be done each day, such as write 5 new posts maybe leave comments on 5 new blogs you’ve found. But, when it comes to traffic and community building, set your goals a couple months out. For example, instead of setting a goal of signing up 10 new subscribers this week, set a goal of signing up 200 new subscribers in the next 3 months. That way, you won't feel the urge to check your stats on a daily basis.
Don't Lie
This one is so easy, but so many people are guilty of it. The reason people end up misleading others is because at some point in time, they were also mislead. Thus, they have this idea in their head that a valid strategy for making sales online is to mislead people by appealing to their needs and desires. All this does is create a vicious cycle of false promises and inferior products littering the internet. So, trust your conscience and your instincts when it comes to your actions online. If you find a product that looks and seems like a scam, it probably is. When you're writing your content, if you find yourself purposefully making false claims to make yourself or your product more attractive, simply erase it. Be up front with your audience and tell them the TRUTH.
Share Your Story
People don't care about your product or your website. They care about you. You are the reason they are choosing to visit your site as opposed to the other thousand sites they could visit. So, give people what they want and tell them about yourself, and be HONEST when you're doing it. Tell them your REAL story. If you are up front with them, they will be able to relate with you because if they found your site, they probably share the same interests and struggles that you do. People like hearing about the struggles that you went through, especially if in the end you overcame them. They will want to hear about your determination and what helped you get through these struggles because it may offer them a solution to their own problems. It can't hurt to be HONEST with your audience.
Support Others
There are too many people on the internet concerned about only themselves. These people will follow the usual progression of trying to basically get back links for free while never giving anything in return. This strategy is usually never successful. Sure, getting back links is really important, but be willing to give as well as receive. Instead of just spamming popular sites with comments or emails that simply say "Link for link?" build a relationship with these people first. Start following their site or blog and leave a comment when you feel it's appropriate. Send an email to introduce yourself. Just be civil. Treat it as if you're meeting someone for the first time in real life. You would never just go up to a stranger and demand something from them. You would get to know them first and build a relationship with them. Then, maybe, after you get to know them you two would decide to work together on something that would benefit both of you. As you can see, by being willing to give something back and form a relationship, you're still benefiting, but you're going about it the RIGHT way.
Do What's Right
It's really that simple. Follow your gut as well as your conscience when it comes to how you behave online. If you don't have a conscience, then I suggest you find one real quick if you expect people to TRUST you. If you follow everything I've mentioned in this post, then you will have a solid foundation of TRUTH that you can use to build your first successful website or online business.
As always, thanks for your support.
Zach from Truth In Marketing is new when it comes to succeeding online. He’s on a journey to become an expert in the internet marketing field while maintaining truthful and honest marketing strategies. Learn more about Zach and his online journey.
Photo by: puer.aeternus
