At least online that’s how it is. Offline, there’s things I can do and say when I’m promoting myself as far as being an internet marketing consultant for small businesses, or someone who creates websites, whereas I can’t do any of that stuff in my health care capacity. We all know the rules and limits to what we can or can’t do.

Online, though, some of those limits are off because of the apparent anonymity of most of us. Take our friend Dennis, for instance. Outside of internet stuff, I have absolutely no idea what he does, and he doesn’t tell us in his About page either. But take a look at mine, and you’ll be able to track me back to my main site, where you could read my bio and know who I am and what I’m all about, know where my business is located, along with my phone number, etc. So, because I’ve done that, I have to uphold a certain standard no matter what I do, whereas Dennis could be one person online and something completely different offline. I not saying he is; I’m just saying he could be.

So, I guess this ties back in with the other post I had that you’ve recently commented on about promoting oneself. They’re not the same, but some of the same questions have to be answered.

Sometimes I think it comes down to either shining our light for the world to see or hiding it under a basket.

For most of my life, I really haven’t liked to talk about what I do, and – even now – it’s difficult to explain affiliate marketing to people who don’t know anything about it.

Building cars is something that nearly everyone can at least understand, even if they don’t relate to it. So, it’s easy for him to explain what he does and maybe make a new connection to a future customer.

While you and I, and others who may read this, would love to connect with new prospects, our work is harder because it’s difficult to explain.

I think affiliate marketing works best when the link to the merchant is just a natural step in providing information and the person who clicks never even makes the connection.

The trouble with this is that business is hit or miss, at best.

To build our businesses, we have to establish our brand, identify what we do so it is understandable and easily explainable, and then get not only repeat visitors, but readers who trust us and subscribe to what we write.

That’s when we start making the difference. The money really isn’t in the list, it’s in what we do to continue communicating with the people who subscribe to our list and how well we help them solve their problem or get what they want.

It’s more difficult, but more productive, both for ourselves and our readers, when we stick to a topic, explain what we do, and convert those great people into customers.

It’s something I understand, but I’m having difficulty applying it to my marketing business.

What do you think? Am I close or way off base?

Act on your dream!

JD

PS. I once knew a lawyer who was rather (in)famous for “landing” his plane in the top of an oak tree. It wasn’t a clown suit, but people made the connection when you mentioned lawyer, plane, and oak tree in the same sentence.

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