I've been trying to understand, so as to write about it, why internet marketing is so frustrating for people.

You hear about product reviews where people say this product works, or that product doesn't work. I've figured out why some product DON'T work.

As with all small businesses, online and offline, the initial setup stages are filled with many mini failures. You keep trying different things until you figure out what works.

There are three variables which you have to consider when looking at why your hard work fails:

1. Your level of experience - company maturity - in the market place, and how much credibility your company has in the market place.
   
2. Product maturity - which is how saturated your product is in the market place, how well do people know about the product and its benefits.
   
3. Industry maturity - how many competitors there are - how saturated is the market place with product, Overall experience of the market place.

It's a good idea to think about where you are in your market place. example... if you're a new inexperienced company working in a mature saturated market place, it may take you longer to succeed than if you were an experienced company in a new market place.

There are challenges and hurdles no matter what level you 're starting at in developing your business.

THE 80/20 RULE.
When starting a business there is no road map for success for sale at the local store.

When I look back at some of the businesses I've developed, there were many times when I spent weeks on a project that was later scrapped. I've done that several times over my career. I've spent time on developing things that at the time were a good idea. Later, I realized they weren't valuable and scrapped them.

YOU MAY HAVE TO SCRAP SOME OF YOUR WORK
Is it possible that in order to be successful you may have to scrap 80% of the things you build and keep the 20% of things that work? That's what I'm starting to think. R&D like everything else is a numbers game. Especially on the internet. you have to keep trying and monitoring different things until you find what works for you, your company, and your industry.

If you can become comfortable with knowing that you may have to scrap 80% of what you build, you will have an easier time of developing your business.

It is important to keep in mind that monitoring the success and failure of what you build is very important. The whole thing is to know when to scrap things and when to keep them.

The 80/20 rule of marketing and developing your website is a good one to remember.

Articles from December 2005
More articles from Year 2005

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