Friday, August 12, 2005
The "Your Turn" Trap
Hey, I'm on a roll with these traps that delay or derail many Internet businesses, so I might as well ride it out.
The "Your Turn" Trap is closely related to The Lottery Trap. Both result in the marketer expecting big results to come from little efforts. The difference I see, though, is that the "Your Turn" Trap is far more unrealistic. While the Lottery Trap raises false hopes of finding a simple formula or a single tool that guarantees success, the "Your Turn" Trap clings to false hopes of success coming because... well, just because it's the world's duty to bestow success on the person just because they tried.
It goes like this: the person caught up in the "Your Turn" Trap slaps up a few pages, a few products—all with the least effort the person can exert—and then sits back waiting for success.
There's a little problem with that. "Did you make the effort to find something that people want?"
"Well, no, you see, there was this company out there that said that if I signed up with them, they'd put up a website with all their products on it and people would just come running to buy from me."
"How are you promoting your site to attract people to it?"
"I don't need to do that. People are supposed to find it, aren't they?"
"Are you doing anything at all to promote sales?"
"Well, no. But now that you mention it, it's been two days since I paid for my site and I haven't gotten any checks yet. I think I'll call the company that sold me the site and find out what's the delay."
That's a pretty extreme example, but pretty close to some actual conversations I've had with people who were firmly entrenched in the "Your Turn" Trap. The expectation is that the world is obligated to reward them handsomely for any little effort toward success.
But it's a trap that even those who are working hard and trying to learn the Internet biz can fall into. It can take the form of an expectation that adding some new product, or some new promotion method will suddenly skyrocket sales.
But there's still no substitute for a steady, methodical approach and an ardent focus on what the potential customer is looking for instead of on what y
Hey, I'm on a roll with these traps that delay or derail many Internet businesses, so I might as well ride it out.
The "Your Turn" Trap is closely related to The Lottery Trap. Both result in the marketer expecting big results to come from little efforts. The difference I see, though, is that the "Your Turn" Trap is far more unrealistic. While the Lottery Trap raises false hopes of finding a simple formula or a single tool that guarantees success, the "Your Turn" Trap clings to false hopes of success coming because... well, just because it's the world's duty to bestow success on the person just because they tried.
It goes like this: the person caught up in the "Your Turn" Trap slaps up a few pages, a few products—all with the least effort the person can exert—and then sits back waiting for success.
There's a little problem with that. "Did you make the effort to find something that people want?"
"Well, no, you see, there was this company out there that said that if I signed up with them, they'd put up a website with all their products on it and people would just come running to buy from me."
"How are you promoting your site to attract people to it?"
"I don't need to do that. People are supposed to find it, aren't they?"
"Are you doing anything at all to promote sales?"
"Well, no. But now that you mention it, it's been two days since I paid for my site and I haven't gotten any checks yet. I think I'll call the company that sold me the site and find out what's the delay."
That's a pretty extreme example, but pretty close to some actual conversations I've had with people who were firmly entrenched in the "Your Turn" Trap. The expectation is that the world is obligated to reward them handsomely for any little effort toward success.
But it's a trap that even those who are working hard and trying to learn the Internet biz can fall into. It can take the form of an expectation that adding some new product, or some new promotion method will suddenly skyrocket sales.
But there's still no substitute for a steady, methodical approach and an ardent focus on what the potential customer is looking for instead of on what y
Comments:
Post a Comment
© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Jeff Baas, One Stop Web Support
