Chislyn

My first job was selling telecommunications packages door-to-door in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. It was of course all year round so we’d work outdoors in both great and terrible conditions. It was commission driven and as you can imagine we dealt with a lot of rejection. This leads one to find out what their strengths fast, or quit. I almost quit, but three months into the job I found my rhythm. I went from miserable, cold, and poor to excited, (still cold because I clicked in December), and now had enough to pay the bills and then some.

What happened? It wasn’t magic. I changed my approach. Maybe I changed faster than I normally would have because of my circumstances, but I changed, and found something that worked. It wasn’t a book I read or a seminar I attended, but instead of doing the canned script we are told to use, I built and perfected my own script, and used some creativity with the fliers I dropped. The change was very simple, and it fit my personality, and finally things started to click.

Ok, so what does this have to do with Internet Marketing?

The point here is to find your strengths, and push them as far as you can. Everyone has experiences, knowledge, and skills that are unique. I’d bet that most people in life never use their strengths to the full potential, or even know what they are. Most peoples’ best sites are sites they know something about, or have knowledge about something that the rest of the population doesn’t. I’m not just talking about content, but design, and the overall system.

Here’s an example. I used to work in telecommunications. This industry, like many, is filled with lingo and words that few people outside the industry know, or at least be familiar enough with them to put them into the keywords they bid on. This isn’t a complicated example, but NPA NXX is the area code and the next three digits of a phone number. This keyword is more likely searched by telecom people, and depending on yours site, would give you better quality traffic. Also with the relevant knowledge and awareness this topic as a whole, you could also have better targeted ads. 212 is the NPA (area code) in New York:

Again this instance isn’t brain surgery, but I worked in telecommunications so I am aware of this particular niche. That circled ad for the New York area code is another source of potentially cheap traffic for something besides a phone book. Most area code ads are very poor, but if you know the area and demographics of the area code, you could have great targeted ads.

Another example:

I am a Michigan Wolverines fan. If I were selling Michigan merchandise (the best selling college brand in apparel) I know these words would be less expensive as the big sports clothing, memorabilia, or ticket advertisers probably wouldn’t know them:

• “big house” - the name of the football stadium. no michigan wolverines ads here.
• “bo schembachler” - the recently deceased famed head coach (RIP Bo). no bid bidders with highly targeted ads here.
• etc etc

The same thing applies for choosing ads to put on your site. You as a person close to the topic know more about what you would click on if you were on a related site.

So use your edges, leverage your strengths. Don’t worry as much about your fall backs, they will take care of themselves.