Pro’s and Con’s of Internet Marketing Seminar Networking

Internet Business September 23rd, 2007 Say Something (0)

Any life coach or marketing expert will tell you that the key to a successful venture is remembering you are not in business alone. First, there is the client to think of, and how to get more of them. Second, there are the suppliers or employers who provide or pay for your services and finally there are the experts. The Shutting yourself away from knowledge, techniques and resources is a sure ticket to a mediocre business and unsatisfying career. more information you get from other people the better a job you can do with your business.

Naturally, when you go to an internet-marketing seminar the first question you have to ask yourself is, “how can I make the most of my time and money?” The first answer should be to obtain as many resources as possible. Networking is the practice of meeting clients, or contacts and creating a relationship with them that is mutually beneficial and adds to the resource structure of your business. It involves not just the simple swapping of contact information, but a commitment to work together in a support way that shares the best of what business has to offer.

As you set out to do some networking at the next seminar, its best to take a look at the pro’s and cons of the practice.

The Pro’s Vs. Con’s 

Pro: You have the potential to meet someone who can provide effective techniques or client support in a way that rockets your income. New ideas from other sources are important to keep your business fresh and active.

Con: You may also end up giving your contact information to someone who wants to use your ideas and becomes overly dependent on you for resourcing without having much to offer in return. Make sure to try to keep your relationships in balance.

Pro: You get to learn new ideas about ways to bring more traffic, clicks, success or clients to your website. As people learn better ways of handling the rollercoaster ride of internet business you can benefit from that knowledge and add new components to the website.

Con: Everyone at the seminar is learning the same techniques as you. So when you get home and get your plan into motion, remember, 2000 other marketers just started doing the same things too.

Pro: You get the advice of people who have worked in internet marketing longer than you have and know what makes the whole project tick. Successful entrepreneurs can fill you in on secrets you would have never imagined.

Con: Not every secret is a good one or a legal one. Its especially important to remember to check out ideas against the rules of your terms of service agreements and make sure things are okay before you end up getting kicked off a server for violating policy. The person who shared the tip with you is not the one who is going to take the fall for wrong behavior. If it sounds wrong to you – it probably is.

Pro: Networking brings new people into your life work and adds a sense of camaraderie to your profession. It can give you more joy and community to share in as you work to make money.

Con: Networking takes time and energy away from the seminar. You will have to balance the time you spend networking with others with the time you are devoting to the main speaker and principles of the seminar. Don’t get so carried away with the participants that you forget the purpose of the event.

Pro: Networking can bring you out of your comfort zone and encourage you to create prospects for your own business as well as help you adapt to the social business world found beyond the doors of your computer room.

Con: Networking can also take your focus away from what you do best. Diversity may be good for a full portfolio of web opportunities, but if you spread yourself too thin by trying every niche idea or strategy available your income will soon go down in all your interests.

Pro: Networking helps you make a name for yourself, your business and your websites online so more people can find you and find out about the products or projects you promote. It is a great way to build a client base or get the message out to others about your site.

Con: Networking also lets others know what you are doing and can create a situation where other people follow your example. Suddenly, you’ve gone from having an exclusive site on the web to having a portal that others are using to piggy back on your success. You can suffer from a loss of uniqueness through the imitation of ideas you have given to allies.

Summary 

Overall, with all the plusses and minuses put together, networking still seems like an important way to continue looking for business success. With careful limits and the right amount of boundaries and balance, you can limit the risk to your business and maximize what you hope to achieve. Networking creates success in a social context, which is every bit as important as the individual work you are doing. It also can help you find fresh prospects, develop databases of information and resources and keep you on the cutting edge of skills and practices. Even though you work for yourself, you don’t have to go it alone.

Changing Your Attitude Toward Networking

Internet Business September 19th, 2007 Say Something (0)

More than Fish in The Sea 

    It is not uncommon to talk to people who have returned from an internet marketing seminar and complained that their networking efforts seemed like a waste of time. Not only did not they meet many people to connect with, but the ones they did couldn’t offer them much in the way of information. It is not the case that networking has been unsuccessful. It is more the case that the people doing it were unsuccessful. People who give up on networking never get to see the full potential it can have for their business and personal development.  What they need to do is change their attitude toward what networking is and who they should be connecting with.

It’s Not About You

The first major mistake many entrepreneurs make in networking is seeing people like fish in a sea waiting to be caught in their net simply to provide them with sustenance. If a fish doesn’t meet your criteria, just take it off the hook and throw it back into the water - catch and release.  When you look at people that way, you make a grave error in the purpose of networking.  People don’t go to internet marketing seminars to provide you with information or clientele. They go to learn their own way around the internet business arena or work for their own dreams to come true.  The key to successful networking is to stop seeing the goal of connection to be getting a hold of people who have something they can do for you and start seeing the goal as creating relationships that support your profession.

The other important thing to help your attitude about networking change is to stop writing off people who don’t instantly meet your criteria.  Don’t throw the fish back in the water only to discover much too late that they were valuable indeed.  If you meet someone who is new to internet marketing, the first impulse is to pull away because you don’t want to be a mentor - you are looking for someone to be a resource to you.  However, when you cast that person aside, you are also casting away all the future people they might meet, all the potential knowledge they could share, and all the genres of business they could introduce to you.

People are a Promise, not a Product.

It is never a waste of time to invest in getting to know people and making a connection that mutually supports both of your businesses.  Relationship is more important than any tip or trick someone can teach you, because like all good investments, it pays off in dividends for a long time to come.  When you get to know a novice in the business, you may spend more of your time teaching than listening. But as they grow in experience and start mature, soon they can teach you new things they discover and take you to new heights.

The way to see each new contact isn’t to look at what they can give you today, but use your imagination to see what they can bring to your tomorrows. They are a promise of wisdom and contacts to come.  Learn about who they are as a person and measure their capacity to both learn and teach.  If they are good at networking, it won’t be long until they are introducing you to more people.  Every person comes with their own relatives, ties and connections.  Don’t assume a newbie to keyword article websites has nothing to give to you and let someone who has connections from a previous job or computer programming interest slip through your fingers.

Interaction breeds action

The most positive part of networking is the energy, joy and action you get from being around and connecting with other people.  Energy breeds energy and when you get to know people whom you can laugh with, bounce ideas off of, and share both successes and joys - you will walk away from the encounter revitalized and be ready to sit down at your keyboard and increase your income. Relationships make us better at what we do because they inspire in us all the things we need to be successful at work and to connect us to the world around us.

Create A Unified Front

The final reason relationship networking is so important is that is helps internet marketing solidify itself as an actual profession. When you go to Internet Marketing seminars you see rooms full of unconnected people learning how to create employment and income out of their computers.  But once networking takes place, you see a professional arena of people working together to prove that the skill, perseverance and ingenuity it takes to make this job work is a testament to its legitimacy as a business.

If you are tired of seeing people roll their eyes when you tell them you work at home or you are an Internet Marketer, start meeting more people and create professional associations that can stand together and challenge the “lone wolf” ideas of a business community that does not understand.  Stand together to create a united front of talent.

Stop fishing for people to feed your needs, and start greeting and meeting a diverse group of professionals who can share with you in the future on Internet Marketing and make your job, and your life more interesting, fulfilling and profitable.