Posted by peter on April 15, 2008 | No Comments
Just got an email from Mike Filsaime saying that he’s launched another new site which give you loads of free graphics that you can use on your website.
If you’ve been involved in internet marketing for more than 10 minutes, when someone says that something is free, your bulshit metre automatically goes into overdrive (or it should!). In this case, I can confidently say without a shadow of a doubt that Mike had nothing to do with this graphics package, he’s just putting his name to it and taking the share of profits thank you very much.
Profits? Didn’t you say this was free?
Yes, but like I said, you quickly become a cynic in internet marketing, and when something is free, expect to get the upsell, if you don’t get an upsell, something has broken in the universe, please try turning it off and on again.
The graphics are decidedly average at best - I checked them out, I can’t see myself ever using them, and of course, being the worlds greatest designer (my tongue is firmly in my cheek when saying this!) I would rather do my own!
The upsell is $47, but I don’t see the value for graphics that are no more than average in design. Maybe you will see the beauty in them, see for yourself FreeMarketingGraphics.com
Posted by peter on April 14, 2008 | No Comments
Right, so yesterday I looked at the key skills required for internet marketing success, and I promised that I would look at the skills everyone thinks they require, but really they don’t. Unfortunately, too many people focus on trying to gain these skills when there’s absolutely no need to.
So let’s take a look at the skills “you thought you really needed, but don’t really” (I’m working on the catchy title as we speak).
- Great Design and Photoshop Skills
Simply not true. You can get any number of graphic designers to make you an attractive mini site for less than $100. Alternatively, check out the free salesletter templates I’ve made for all the readers of this site. If you are worrying that you don’t have the design skills for becoming successful in internet marketing, don’t be. Some of the most successful salesletters have been bog standard black text on a white background.
- Copywriting Genius
No way, if you can write passionately about your product, you can write a salesletter, after that it’s just a matter of continuously tweaking and testing different things like headlines, features, bonuses etc. Alternatively you can out source the salesletter writing too 
- The Uber-Programmer
Let’s make one thing clear, of all the internet marketers, 99.9% don’t know their function from their class (that’s techno programmer geek speak to you and me). Programming is the hottest thing to outsource to companies like Agriya.com who can create your scripts for you on a budget.
- SEO Guru
Believe it or not (and being an SEO weanie, I can’t believe I’m about to say this), SEO is not important when it comes to internet marketing. Saywah? Yes, SEO is not an important factor for internet marketing. You need to learn how to sell and convert people that do come to your site. If you know how to sell, you can get people to come to your site
Well that’s my take on what skills you don’t need to become a successful internet marketer. Do you agree? Is there something that I missed? Do you have a different list of ’skills you don’t need’?
To be honest, to have any one of those skills would be nice, I’d love to be a designer and programmer, but I know I’ll never make it (well, maybe if I really had nothing else in the world to do I might try my hand at programming again).