Let’s face it – unless you’re lucky enough to have a huge opt-in list or deep pockets for PPC or JV bonuses, chances are your Internet marketing and affiliate marketing have taken a real hit since the ‘recession’ hit online sales the last week of April.

You see signs of it everywhere in the biz today – Internet marketers suddenly selling everything and anything they can get their hands on for $1.98 or $2.95 (an unsustainable, knee-jerk reaction), gurus suddenly switching to bringing offline businesses online and the like…

Naturally, they couch the latter in glowing terms, but let’s be honest a minute – people who have been making millions online suddenly focusing on finding clients in the offline world to charge them $5,000 up front and maybe $500 a month to continue with the program. The ongoing SEO etc is outsourced, so they keep a portion of that, and some are touting it as the way of the future, right?

Here’s a point to ponder… How many of those offline businesses would it take to match the millions they were making? How much time would it take to find and convince enough offline businesses to use the service? Even if that were possible in this economy, once all the clients come aboard, how much time would be involved in setting up and coordinating the ongoing services? In servicing and reporting back to the clients each month?

Appears to me that like all the rest of us, they’re doing a lot more work, putting in a lot more time and making a lot less right now…

Another example that’s harder to spot until you reach a certain level is demonstrated by Jeff Dedrick’s Send Button Profits launch that’s on right now. I and many other of Jeff’s friends and JV partners starting promoting it right from the start of the pre-launch – and some of us have done very well with it, since it’s a truly great product/service/pricing combination…

When the actual launch started on Tuesday, at least 4 of the A-Level gurus sent their first promos on it to all their lists. Now understand, these are guys used to sweeping in on the launch and capturing first spot with an e-mail… Fact is, 24 hours later not one of those 4 was even in the top 20! Yet another view of the diminishing returns we’re all experiencing right now! (If you haven’t seen Send Button Profits yet, feel free to visit it through my affiliate link – as I write this I’m still Top-10 there and would really like to keep it that way. But do it for the great free & paid content, not just to help me!)

OK – so no big news there, right? Everyone’s talking about, and blaming, the recession…

But what if it’s NOT a recession, but turns out to be a CORRECTION in the economy?

After all, how many manufacturing jobs are left in North America right now? How much income have both the population and the Governments of Canada & the U.S. lost as a result? Same with the 1 million plus jobs that have disappeared since the start of the year…

And some financial types pointed out for years that the stock market had gone from about 7,000 to 11,000+ with no underlying increase in GDP – a bubble waiting to burst? And burst it did, as we all know, forcing the governments worldwide to pump billions or trillions collectively into propping up the economic cycle – funds taken from their depleted incomes and/or yet to be paid by future generations…

I’m no trained economist, not even a financial expert – but maybe, just maybe, this isn’t a recession but instead a new reality… What then?

Internet marketers and affiliates who cling to the hope of a quick return to better times will be washed out of the business, realizing too late the changes they need to make… And the effects will be most dramatic at the top levels, where big dogs have heavy overheads from technological services, staff wages, outsourcing costs, etc.

Marketers just starting out will find it harder to get a true foothold, but won’t be as negatively impacted as they have yet to get to a level where they depend on their online income to survive. Mid-level marketers will probably be divided into two groups – those who acknowledge the truth early and take steps to continue their growth, and those who don’t and slide downhill til they have to find employment offline once more.

Survival and prosperity would still be possible in the Internet marketing industry and for work-at-home affiliate marketing businesses – but it will most likely take two things, both antithetical to most marketer’s personalities:

Financial Prudence and Hard Work!

The first is proved by a simple concept – if you have less sales revenue or affiliate commission coming in, your spending has to reflect that too. Only governments can seemingly continue spending more and more while revenues drop – and even they eventually have to face the music.
Take a long hard look at your monthly commitments and keep only those that directly benefit you and your business and contribute directly to your bottom line.

Don’t slash your spending recklessly – that can kill a business just as much as overspending can. But be sure you’re not still paying for resources you don’t use anymore, or for perks that were more appropriate when times were good. This is the first global downturn the Internet marketing industry has faced, and some of what we all considered benefits that go hand-in-glove with our online businesses will need to be forsaken – and it’ll sting even more at first since we’d never envisioned giving up any part of our elevated lifestyles!

‘Work Smarter – Not Harder!’ has been a rallying cry in our industry and many others for years – but maybe now it’s time to alter that to ‘Work Smarter AND Harder!’ This is where I’ll lose some of the people reading this post – those who were attracted to the biz by nonsense like promises of a 4-hour work-week or get-rich-quick promises made by unethical promoters. (Notice I said promoters, not marketers – no professional marketer would make claims so easily disproved or so corrosive to their long-term success.)

It’s not as bad as it sounds, though – it’s a matter of keeping up to date with what’s working best RIGHT NOW, increasing your reach through building a bigger opt-in list and doing more to generate targeted traffic, only paying for ghostwriting and outsourcing when it will increase your net profits in short order, and more effort put into networking for joint ventures and a larger mastermind pool to draw inspiration and ideas from.

To use Jeff’s launch as an example once more, 3 of the Top 5 positions in the JV contest are held by TEAMS of 2 or more marketers, each of whom might have been at that level on their own before everything changed – Smart marketers who are already accepting the new reality and taking action to minimize the effects it has on their businesses!

By keeping your overhead as low as prudently possible while still allowing you to grow and increasing both the volume and effectiveness of your efforts, you should still be able to build a solid & sustainable Internet marketing business and do very well with it – both individually and collectively in conjunction with those you partner with.

And if the economy DOES turn around and reach those lofty levels again?

With a low overhead, growth strategies in place and your increased output and effectiveness, the potential for profits will be higher than ever before! Avoid the most common trap – don’t increase general overhead just because you can, let the same diligence govern your spending as during this time. And don’t ease up in your personal activity level or networking – during good times they represent not mere survival but the foundation of more rapid rises in status and income!

Yes, you can spend more as you make more (within reason) – just make it purchases covered by existing funds, not debt that will add to your overhead again! Couple that with avoiding all but necessary long-term contracts and you’ll keep your overhead low – protecting you better from the next hiccup in the economic cycle…

Now don’t misunderstand here – I’m no legally-licensed legal, financial or business expert and the above cannot be construed as professional advice, so please accept it as it’s meant: Observations from a friend and mentor who’s been online full-time since the 1990’s and the conclusions I’ve personally drawn from my experience and observations. And, I hope, of some help to you both in surviving the current state of the economy and WHATEVER the future holds for the industry!

To You continued and ever-increasing success,

Doug Champigny,
Internet marketer, super-affiliate, mentor & speaker.
http://DougChampigny.com

Technorati Tags: Internet marketing, affiliate marketing, work-at-home marketing, succeeding online, online success, economy, recession, economic downturn, economic rebound, business strategies

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Why Internet Marketers Love The Recession

© 2008 Doug Champigny. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Internet marketing experts are thriving today as never before; more people are making money online than at any time in the 14 years the World Wide Web, and Internet marketing, has existed. But those considering starting a business online may not realize that Internet marketing is still viable during the current world-wide financial meltdown.

The global recession is an accepted fact – right now every major economy in the world is suffering a recession, as defined by two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Worldwide, media outlets scream their headlines of the latest layoffs, foreclosures, bankruptcies, bailouts, devastated retirement savings, repossessions and the like.

On a personal level, every intelligent, caring human hates it – the pain, suffering and stress it generates, and the jump in hunger, homelessness and true poverty that results in more and more instances.

Offline businesses hate it too. In the business-to-business realm, keeping your own business afloat, supporting your share prices and maintaining a positive cashflow are just the start of it – but what about your customers and suppliers? As businesses slash their expenditures, customer lists are shrinking and average order value is plummeting.

And ‘Just-In-Time’ supply systems, the darling of the 80’s and 90’s with it’s reduced inventories, has become a major headache. With no existing inventory to fall back on, corporations are finding it necessary to prop up their suppliers or face a lack of product while they search for new sources.

Business-to-Consumer business is just as bad, if not worse. Millions of jobs have evaporated in the past year alone, taking those salaries with them. Falling home values in the US and UK, for example, have dried up many equity lines of credit, and the general credit squeeze is making it even tougher to ride out the storm on credit. Credit card companies are lowering limits and/or raising the interest rates for those already struggling, exacerbating the situation even more.

And even families with no job losses or income reduction are realizing that savings are at all-time lows while household debt is reaching record heights. So again spending is curtailed in an attempt to pay down debt and rebuild a financial cushion against the unexpected.

Yet Internet marketing and its subsets – affiliate marketing and niche marketing – continue to thrive and even boom during it all. If you’ve been considering getting into Internet marketing but have hesitated because of the recession, it’s time for a major reframe of your viewpoint…

Let’s start with the headspace of people using the Internet in general. In tough economic times people don’t head out to the mall as often – because the mall is a place to shop and spend money. But the main reason people go online is for information, so that psychological barrier isn’t there. While they’re still willing to spend SOME money, they just aren’t heading out LOOKING to spend it.

Second, no market is expanding, or has ever expanded, at the pace the Internet community is growing today. Every single day tens or hundreds of thousands of new people come online, and some will be potential buyers for any online business. Even if Internet marketing had reached market saturation, new blood would provide a new potential market every single day.

But the truth is, Internet marketing is nowhere near market saturation – not by a long shot. Think of the number of stores in the offline world. Not in your locale, your city, your state or even your country – but in the WORLD. Obviously, the number dwarfs current Internet marketing ventures. Even the biggest Internet marketing opt-in e-mail lists have just millions of subscribers out of the billions of Internet users – and most Internet marketers have lists of less than 50,000.

But even if the market wasn’t growing, sales and profits would still be climbing fast due to higher conversions through new tools and techniques. Like Internet marketing itself, the World Wide Web is still in it’s infancy – new technologies like audio & video are being developed all over the world. And as older phone company and cable company hardware systems are upgraded, these technologies will advance faster and faster, both in penetration and presentation.

Web 2.0 sites like YouTube, Google Video, FaceBook, MySpace and Squidoo provide easier access to additional users, and services like Technorati, Twitter, MyBlogLog & Pingoat make getting the word out much simpler. And the best of these tools, blogs, have made it easy for anyone to start Internet marketing.

Free blogging software like WordPress and free blog hosting sites like Blogger and WordPress have eliminated the need to invest financially in your startup – a major boost for people at risk from the recession. Using a blog to promote affiliate marketing opportunities removes all financial risk, something that can’t be done in the offline world.

But what of the recession’s effects vis-a-vis Internet marketing? How can all the financial malfeasance and misfortune be good for Internet marketing? Let’s look at each of the three main areas – Internet marketing, Affiliate marketing and Niche marketing…

Mainstream Internet marketers sell products and services that teach people how to make money online. In any economic downturn it’s natural for more people to look for ways to increase their income, top up reduced income or replace the income from a lost job. Additionally, the increased workplace stress leads many to consider getting out from under the tyranny of bosses and the corporate world in general and strike out on their own. Since starting an online biz involves the widest opportunity and lowest financial risk, the Internet is the logical choice for a growing number of people.

Affiliate marketing is booming as well – and no wonder! It’s the online specialization that requires the least technical savvy, the least start-up capital and has the shortest income horizon when done properly. What could be better suited to cash-strapped neophytes who need quicker returns?

But niche marketing is the area of online business most likely to derive the greatest benefits from the recession. Consumers who might otherwise head out to exotic restaurants will stay home and create their own meals – and need good recipes to keep up with their accustomed diversity. More people will opt to do their own home repair, meaning they’ll need instructional e-books and videos, and often printed plans as well.

Kids today will not react well to reduced allowances or fewer new computer games – wise parents will be all over the Internet looking for new activities to keep their kids at bay. And how many backyard mechanics first started working on cars because they couldn’t afford exorbitant mechanic rates? Again, someone needs to explain the practices and procedures to them, especially with today’s highly computerized engines!

And being home more rather than continuing their expensive nights out will leave people with a hole in their timetable they’ll need to fill – whether they fill it with reading books, watching DVDs, playing computer games, finding a new hobby or learning a new language, new opportunities are presented for niche marketers.

So how will YOU spend the extra time you have on your hands during the recession? Watching TV? Playing Computer Games? Spending more than you can afford to? Or making money online and building toward your own independence? Be smart – look into Internet marketing opportunities today!

About The Author…
Doug Champigny is a world-famous Internet marketer, super-affiliate, mentor and speaker. Learn more about Internet marketing by subscribing to his free Internet Marketing e-zine at http://DougChampigny.com . You can also follow him on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/SuperAffil  

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Technorati Tags: Internet marketing, affiliate marketing, niche marketing, doing business online, starting a business online, starting an online business, making money during a recession, increasing income, surviving the recession, economics, Internet commerce, e-commerce, Doug Champigny

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Is Internet Marketing The Cure For Global Economic Woes?

© 2008 Doug Champigny. All Rights Reserved.

Internet marketing is continually becoming the saviour
for those caught out in the current economic crisis. And
no wonder – just look at what’s going on out there in the
world right now…

Just from today’s headlines, we find that Hewlett-Packard
is getting rid of 24,600 jobs, nearly 8% of it’s workforce
according to Jordan Robertson of the Associated Press. That’s
on top of the 15,000 already forced out by the company’s
restructuring in the last 2 or 3 years. FORTY THOUSAND JOBS
GONE in one company alone, with half of those axed living
in the U.S.A., the rest scattered around the world.

Remember how, not that long ago, we were all told that
computing skills would make us indispensible? Ooops!

Also today, Yahoo! News reports that Lehman Brothers,
the 4th biggest Wall Street firm, had filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection – this is a firm that’s been
operating for 158 years, and a shut down would put
another 24,000 people out of work.

In related news, Bank of America is buying troubled
investment bank Merrill Lynch, the world’s largest
brokerage. Both companies have already layed off
thousands of employees, and no doubt more will follow
where the two firms’ services overlap.

Pretty dire situation, but it could still get a lot
worse. According to the Wall Street Journal, AIG – the
American International Group – is seeking an additional
$40 Billion USD in emergency funds, on top of the $20
Billion USD it already raised earlier this year. That’s
BILLION, with a ‘B’…

But think of how many people, possibly even yourself,
would be affected if AIG, the world’s largest insurance
company, were to fail. While Lehmann is the biggest
bankruptcy in US history in terms of assets, it would
pale by comparison to the collapse of AIG.

These days, perhaps more than any time in history,
people all over the world are experiencing the old
Chinese curse: ‘May you live in interesting times.’

Interesting times indeed! But how can you protect
yourself, your family and your loved ones when the
big ‘Blue-Chip’ firms are faltering, stock markets
are spiralling downward, inflation is running amok
in the fuel, food and related indexes, mortgages are
no longer a safe investment for the rich or available
at all to the middle class?

For a rapidly-growing number of people world-wide,
the answer is self-employment through Internet marketing.
While no firm numbers exist, there are at least tens of
thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands that are now
making money online, from a few extra bucks each month to
keep up with inflation to those earning 6, 7 and 8 figure
incomes online.

Far from the traditional economic model of the ‘normal’
entrepreneur, the Internet marketing business model is
gloabally based, providing something of a hedge from any
country-specific economic woes. The industry operates
24 hours a day 7 days a week, so there’s no concern over
when you work or where you’re online.

Most importantly, there are two major differences from
operating a microenterprise or monoenterprise in the offline
world. First, the industry is based on shared knowledge – no
other industry is as quick to make the ‘business success
secrets’ available to all and asunder. Thousands of Internet
marketers write online newsletters – e-zines – that detail
the steps to success in the industry, explore trends as they
happen, and recommend the sites, services and products one
needs to succeed online in Internet marketing.

The biggest difference, however, is the level of startup
capital required – in fact, one can easily start part-time
without any expenditure beyond their computer and Internet
connection, and use the income they earn to build their
online business into a full-time activity – often generating
far more profits than they’ve ever dreamed of before!

And since no large startup investment is required, the
people who need the income most are able to get started
without going into debt, and debt-free companies always
survive the ups and downs of entrepreneurship with less
difficulty and a greatly reduced incidence of bankruptcy.

Think about it… No major investment, no ‘boss’ to
fire you, no threat to job security from mis-management
or fraud by someone above you, a schedule to fit your
own desired lifestyle, and an income limited only by
your own goals, effort and abilities… No wonder it’s
one of the fastest growing industries world-wide – it
really CAN be YOUR solution to the world’s economic woes!

Technorati Tags: economics, finance, Internet marketing, making money online, job losses, layoffs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Hewlett Packard, HP, American International Group, economic difficulties, economic woes, job security, entrepreneurship, monopreneurs, microenterprise, monoenterprise, global solutions, avoiding bankruptcy, Doug Champigny

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