200-Proof Marketing

I have always dreamed of cruising around the Carribean on a yacht for months or even years at a time. Maybe it’s a result of me being a Parrot Head (Jimmy Buffet fan).

Until now I haven’t been able to afford that dream but I’m getting very close. My goal this year is to earn enough money to make buying this boat a no brainer:

The Fountaine Pajot Highland 35

Interior:

Pretty nice eh? I tend to lack focus and motivation so I’m hoping this will keep me motivated throughout the year.

Actually, just it case everyone thinks I’m an alcoholic, I should make it clear that I do not drink very often. Maybe a couple times a month. 200 Proof Marketing is just a catchy way of saying “Pure Marketing.”

Back to the topic…

As you may have noticed I tend to disappear from time to time. This time it was due to a mixture of work and vacation.

I love the Bahamas and Caribbean, so I’ve been spending alot of time there.

I also served on a jury for the first time recently. Most the people were whining about missing work and being inconvenienced but I thought it was very interesting. I guess that’s because I work when I want and not when someone tells me to.

They settled before we had a chance to reach a verdict so I didn’t get the full experience. Oddly enough the prosecutions most important piece of evidence was inadmissible because the prosecuter forgot to ask a specific question before submitting it. Without that evidence they had no case. Overall it was a good experience that I would do again if I had the chance.

I’m working on several new projects. Three projects are new digital products and one is a physical product that I think would be very successful.

Stay tuned, I’ve got a few interesting things I’m going to write about in the next few days.

Some of you may have noticed there have been no articles/entries/posts(whatever you want to call it) for a few weeks…

The reason for that is because I was on vacation in the Bahamas for a week. I spent some time on Grand Bahama(Lucaya), as well as Nassau.

I’m considering buying a nice little 2 bedroom condo on Grand Bahama so I can spend part of the year there. It’s an amazing place, and it’s growing at an incredible rate. Billions of dollars are being spent on development and real estate values are going to sky rocket over the next 5-10 years.

I did a little fishing(more on that later), and alot of drinking and gambling.

Whenever I go on vacation I always set aside a specific amount on money I’m willing to lose in the casino. If I lose it all, I stop and it’s no big deal. This time I was luckier than usual because after 20+ hours(overall, not at once!) of Blackjack, I was up by $200 bucks! I know that’s not much, but it’s nice when you were expecting to lose more than that.

Actually, I was down a little bit when I sat down to play for the last time, then I hit a big winning streak. Can’t beat being paid to be entertained. Oh yeah… I also placed third in a Blackjack tournament with over 100 people.

One of my favorite parts of vacation is checking my sales when I get home. This time I came home to a pleasent surprise…

My sales were almost double the average on most the days I was gone!

Maybe I should take more vacations?

Now back to the fishing. I was thinking about business and fishing and realized there were some big similarities. Enough similarities, that I would say a good fisherman already knows what it takes to run a successful business.

So here’s the lesson…

When you go fishing, you have a fishing pole, lures, bait and whatever else. You don’t have to reinvent the tools used to catch fish, that would be a waste of time.

The same is true for business. You don’t waste time reinventing the tools when they have already been created.

What about how you catch fish. You don’t whip them with the pole, or chase them around the ocean with a hook in your hand.

You learn the proper technique for casting, setting the hook, and reeling them in. No need to reinvent the technique.

The method for running a successful business is the same. You learn from others how it’s done and then do the same thing. The “technique” used to sell has already been discovered, no need to start from scratch.

Now what’s the difference between a fisherman that easily comes back with his limit of fish and one that struggles to get half that?

It’s the same as the difference between a successful businessman and one that fails.

The better fisherman, knows where the fish are. So while the other fisherman is out looking for good fishing spots, the better fisherman is busy catching his limit of fish.

It’s not that one knows the area better than the other, it’s just that the better fisherman did the research and let other fisherman before him find the good spots.

This couldn’t be more similar to what you do when you’re looking for a profitable market to sell to.

Don’t waste time looking for new never before touched markets when there are others out there that have already found the best ones.

Alot of people new to business(niche marketing or whatever else), try to reinevent the process and tools of selling.

Others think they can only sell to markets that have no competitors. They want to be original, and avoid copying others.

Listen… The process is freely available for you to learn, and the markets/fishing spots have already been found.

The quickest way to success is by copying other successful people. Not plagerism or product theft, but finding whats selling and competeing for those sales.

Let other people find the hot markets, while you focus on exploiting them.

That’s exactly how I run my business now. I no longer spend time trying to be original or looking for untouched markets.

I simply take a look at what other people are doing well with, have a similar or better product created, and then directly compete with those people.

Right now I’m preparing to launch another niche product, as well as having one made that I will launch in two or three weeks. Both are far from original, in fact one has at least 10 competing niche ebooks.

Don’t listen to people that whine about copying, let them waste their time being original while you take their customers.