For all the talk of ‘building a real business' it seems there are a few areas that people are still clueless. Sure they can get the traffic sources, niches, and tracking down but many affiliates forget that it helps to have a connection to your piers that goes beyond a business relationship.
Let me start with a little story. Once upon a time, before the PPV Playbook days, I was hired to do some consulting for a marketing forum. The forum had a lot of members but had lost a little steam and people just weren't posting as much. My first ‘day on the job' we had a conference call to talk about a game plan and what we would be doing in the forum.
A suggestion I had was to create an off topic section of the forum. Nobody understood what I meant exactly by an off topic section (not sure why) so I explained that it would be just one small section of the forum where we could talk about things like favorite tv shows, funny news headlines, or even industry gossip. Nobody really said much about my idea.
The next day I learned that I was almost ‘fired' from this project for suggesting such a thing. Apparently they thought this was the most idiotic idea they had ever heard of. I tried to explain the idea behind an off topic section was to get people to post, get them to interact with other members, and make the forum a place people wanted to log in and hang out. This idea was completely lost on them so I gave up. Things didn't turn out so well for them. Not just because they didn't have an off topic section obviously. It was really that the reason they couldn't understand why that section would be important translated into all areas of their business.
I haven't got many complaints about my own forum but it cracks me up that a couple of the ones I have got were about this very issue. One person couldn't believe I was posting about music or something when I should be posting only marketing info. Somehow the fact that number of these posts are so small compared to marketing related discussions gets lost.
S0, with that in mind I'll leave you with another story (I'm changing the details a little to respect people's privacy but this actually did happen). Once upon a time in the PPV Playbook forum there was a post about people's favorite TV shows. In that thread someone posted how they liked this really old, obscure show nobody had heard of. Another member came along who had heard of it and the two started a dialogue on IM. Long story short, through the friendship they developed, ended up adding tens of thousands of dollars to their income as a result of working together. Of course, they also made a new friend which could be considered priceless.
“they also made a new friend which could be considered priceless.”
brb, I’m going out find someone to hug
Good post – mentality of your forum consultees reminds me of my b2b days.
This is so true! I bet over 85%+ of the traffic on Wicked is people going to STS. I’ve made some relationships that have led to some good things from meeting other members just like posted above!
Great post here. These are really some valuable lessons in the business world. Networking++;
As the saying goes.. most business is done on the golf course. Even though I’m not a frequent golfer most of my business relationships start as some sort of a friendship just because there is a compatibility there. I know compatibility is a term used more often on a dating site but the truth is that you want a business partner that compliments your skills and expertise as well as your personality.
I think I should start posting more on the forum and find people who are on the same wavelength. It is tough to discuss ideas with employees/family members/friends who just don’t have any idea what you are talking about.