The Open Source Marketer

I am full up of over night success claims!

That’s right, you heard me. FULL UP!

And no, there’s no “until I tried this” or “wait till you hear about that” coming next.  It’s ALL horse fertilizer designed to get people excited and draw them in for the sale, end of story.

Here’s why.

Nobody, not a fine art painter, a guitar player, a computer programmer, or a street corner pimp learns how to make a stack of cash over night, none of them!

Yes, over time they may all learn a few valuable lessons of their trade that they can put to work, but those lessons still take a finite amount of time to learn. The human brain just doesn’t normally absorb, organize and act on information that fast. It just doesn’t work that way. It takes time to learn what you need to do, organize your thoughts into actions, and then actually do something.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

Twenty Years To Make An Overnight Success

One day at an art show, when I was sixteen, I came across a very talented artist. He was selling beautiful paintings for a healthy price. Being young and financially challenged, I asked him how long it took him to paint the picture. My “by the hour” mentality at the time equated time spent into value in dollars. The painter was polite and had obviously heard the question before so he responded, “Twenty years”.

At first I didn’t get it. How could it take someone twenty years to paint that! I mean it was pretty, but come on. Then I realized, the painter had studied art, tirelessly practiced his skills, thrown away all the paintings that didn’t work, and finally twenty years later on Saturday afternoon he had produced the painting I was now hassling him over.

You see it took him twenty years to be an overnight success. He didn’t just produce the painting on day one. He spent hours up front learning how to do what was now on display.

That’s not to say that it takes twenty years to produce an overnight success on the Internet, but time and effort are still required. When was the last time you heard of something online and thought that it was brand new only to find out it had been around for several years?

Google in all it’s current Google goodness is ten years old this month. That’s a short time frame compared to twenty years, but it still took time and effort to get things off the ground.

Reality versus Fantasy

You see, most people I want to believe that it happens overnight without blood sweat and tears. They want to believe that all the rules of the game have changed and the simple flip of the computer power switch will turn on the money machine and set us free financially, but it’s just not true!

Generations of smart people have been mentally crippled by the idea that they will hit it big without an investment of time and effort. We keep hoping and dreaming, chasing that next best thing when the answer is already in front of us. We just don’t want to listen.

The truth is, no one is going to simply hand us all their hard work in an easy push button solution and they’re certainly not going to push the button for us.

Yes, I’ve read the same sales letters you have. I’ve been enticed to know more by just putting in my name and email address. I’ve even put my money where my mouth is and purchased ebooks, training courses, and site memberships. But what I’ve learned from all the behind the curtain stuff is this, there really is no silver bullet. Real study, real time, and real effort is still required to make things happen. These materials can help accelerate the learning process, but time and effort is still required.

Now, am I saying online success isn’t possible? No I’m NOT! A lot of things are possible on the Internet. In fact, more things are possible online than offline. But when we, you and I, talk ourselves into believing that something is true when it’s not, then we get hurt because we stand to loose our motivation, or desire, and our money and that just isn’t productive.

Moving Past The Hype

So what are we suppose to do and who are we suppose to trust? How are we suppose to learn what we need to know and do what we need to do if outrageous claims are everywhere?

The answer is simply this:

We have to understand why Internet Marketers make claims of overnight success and we must learn to move past the hype and understand what they really have to offer.

Let me explain.

People, in general, work hard for their money and they aren’t willing to give it to anyone who politely asks for it. So, Marketers have learned over time what to say and how to say it to get people to make a decision. The headlines must be compelling, the copy must be long enough to remove doubt and explain benefits, and the timing must be urgent enough to promote immediate action. If the Internet Marketer doesn’t present the offer just right, then people won’t buy, period. The marketer might say please, and have an attractive site, but if he doesn’t hit the right mental triggers then you and I won’t give them our money.

This creates an environment where outrageous claims become common place to get the buyer to pull out their credit cards. Believe me, most marketers would much rather provide you with a simple order page where you can quietly buy their product without the need for flashing lights and Broadway dancers, but that’s just not the way things really work. So, they come up with bold claims that sound attractive to get buyers to take action.

When a marketer says he’s made $100 thousand dollars overnight he’s probably being completely honest, but what he’s not saying is that it took him several years of learning how to do all the things required that led up to this success. He’s probably not telling you that he spent a lot of money on training courses or spent long hours at seminar taking notes and studying all he could before getting to this point. He’s probably not telling you that he had to give up half of his current profits to his affiliates to make that dollar figure, which still isn’t a bad deal.

What we have to recognize is that marketers are in the business of constantly trying to get us to take action. It’s that simple.  That’s what they do. Yes, we can still learn plenty of things from them, be first we have to identify and move past the hype to get to the good stuff.

Internet Marketing can teach us how people think and how we can encourage action. They can show us how to test sites, and how to look for advantages in the online market place. They can give technical advice and show us how to combine systems to create value for site visitors. They can make suggestions and recommendations based on hours of study and research in an industry that is constantly changing. Most marketers do have some value to offer beyond the hype. What they can’t give us is overnight success without any prior knowledge or experience.

So what should you do to shake free of the overnight success bug?

• Fix in your mind that you are building a long term business

• Look for ways to be efficient and productive and stop looking for shortcuts

• Decide to commit to what you are doing even when it seems like the payoff is way off

• Recognize hype as just a way to sell products and services

• Remember that get rich quick is ALWAYS a lie

• Remind yourself daily that success requires time and effort

For now the goal is simply to get ourselves off the sugar high of looking for an overnight way to get rich. Once we can recognize the lie and remove it from our expectations, then we can start to look for real solutions that get real results.

Remember, at no other time in human history has someone been able to have an idea, start a global business, and begin making money without ever leaving their home. But it still doesn’t happen overnight.

There is money to be made online. There are creative ways to generate traffic and market to buyers. Success is out there waiting for you. Just remember it all takes time, and it all takes effort.

Just keepin’ it real.

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com