Website Promotion is Not a Technology Issue

A few weeks ago, I had a poll on my blog asking my readers to tell me where they were getting stuck in terms of promoting their site and marketing online.

Interestingly, no one concluded that the technology was the issue when it comes to website promotion or marketing online and yet when I go onto some of the Internet Marketing forums, it seems that what people think they need is more “know how.”

They don’t just want to know how to put up their own blog or website, they want to be masters of graphic design or coding because they feel that this is what is necessary in order to get the job done and succeed online.

This myth has been endorsed partly because after spending thousands of dollars on home study courses, they have little or no money to pay for other services to get their business up and running online. This forces them to turn to doing it themselves which, is fine if you have the time, patience and ability but what invaribly happens is that after spending months trying to get either a blog or static website up, they lose the real motivation for marketing online … in essence, their dreams get buried in a sea of frustrating technology.

I actually do not do any of my own graphics despite the fact that I build blogs and websites.

And I’ll tell you something else … “I have zero intentions of trying to learn how to!”

I spent about £300 (about $600) once on a graphics package and ended up giving it away. I know enough to get by, but it certainly isn’t good enough for display on a commercial site. But, I refused to let the graphics be a stumbling block to what I’m good at – building blogs and consulting.

So how do I get by?

I outsource all of my graphics work which, by the way, isn’t what makes a blog or website work as many people think.

Look, I’m happy to use Virgin Airlines whenever I fly to the States, but I’m so glad Richard Branson isn’t my pilot! I’m not saying he can’t fly a plane, but I bet he’s not as proficient or as patient as the pilots his company hires that fly aeroplanes for a living … I hope so anyway!

So why is it people on the forums think they need more “know how” and yet my readers are more concerned with traffic, sales and leads?

I personally think it’s down to mindset. My experience has been that people who are new to business and decide to start out by using the Internet as their marketing medium tend to think they have to do it themselves rather than ask “who can I hire to do it for me?”

And of course, because they’re told that marketing online is cheap, they will willingly max out their credit cards using the last $2000 they had to buy a home study course, but then find that they have to do everything themselves because they don’t have enough money to buy other services.

Even worse, and I don’t want to offend anyone but it needs to be said … they contact me and ask me to build them a blog for free or for cheap or for a trade because they’ve just spent $5,000 with two of the top Internet Marketers and they’ve got kids and they can’t afford my services.

I’ll tame it down in terms of what I really want to say to these people, but I sure know those same people wouldn’t have told the guru’s they purchased the course from that they can’t afford their course so can they have it for free, or cheap or for a trade.

If technology really isn’t your strong point, you can use getafreelancer.com or elance.com to find some great talent who will build you a blog “cheap.” Just be certain to ask lots of questions about their skills since in my experience, some of them are just desperate for a project and will tell you they can do anything when they can’t.

Whatever decision you make though, remember that promoting your business online isn’t about how much technology you know, but how well you promote yourself, your business and your products.

The most successful people in the Internet Marketing world are not those who do the building, but those who do the promoting.

Until next time,

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