Reply To: How long have you been trying to build your online business?
Bob,
I hear all the time about how fierce the competition is.
Sean may disagree with me, and I’d be interested in his comments, but I think that it’s a bunch of baloney.
Why?
Because more people aren’t connected to the Internet than who are.
Now you could argue that the people who aren’t connected live in third world countries, and you’d be right, but you’d be amazed at how many mobile phones, for example, people own in these countries.
If you own a smartphone, then an internet connection is possible.
And what language are these people learning?
English.
Where I do think that things are saturated is in the kinds of solutions that are available and the marketing methods that are used.
There doesn’t seem to be much innovation there.
And there’s a good reason for that, too.
It’s because everyone is copying everyone else.
You’re an English teacher, so you know what good writing looks like.
You also know that a lot of books are published every day; maybe more than ever.
If there ever was a place where the competition is fierce, then it’s in the book trade.
So why are there still bestsellers from authors that no one ever heard of?
It’s because those people produced something that all the other authors didn’t.
Good marketing has a lot to do with it; but if you market junk, it still won’t be a bestseller.
My point is that you have to focus on creating something that is better than what anyone else has done.
(Where have we heard that before?)
But better doesn’t necessarily mean bigger, or more of the same.
Rather, it means that it solves the problems that people are having better than what’s currently available.
Is this hard?
Absolutely.
If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.
And that’s the problem.
Everyone is doing what’s easy.
Bruce Hoag PhD
The Internet Marketing Psychologist
The Mindful Writer - for deep and persuasive copy
