Charles Lau dot Com

Working on an online business is not as hard as you think it might be. It only takes you to create a website which you already know, rather to work on a new project which you still are not sure what the contents are. It can be daunting to find out that you are always pursuing information which makes you like an expert, and yet you don’t feel like one. It also can be a real pain to get everything started when you can’t think of any expertise you have, except to learn from the Internet Marketing “gurus” who overcharged you to buy their courses which don’t require any further action from them, except to duplicate the contents.

I had just reviewed EmpireDotCom. I mentioned about the social bookmarkings that he has been self-servicing on his own blog. And now, right after I have done a review, I start to see some bookmarks on my site from Chendong, the creator of EmpireDotCom. What’s interesting is that Chendong has sphunn my sponsored post about his website, and I see another person desphinned it, commenting “Submitting a review of your blog that you paid for … no thanks…………..”. That’s very interesting point I have mentioned previously that he has fallen into again.

I have a feeling that the Web 1.0 marketers have disillusioned many amateurs in their online startups. Those Web 1.0 marketers themselves have done a pretty good job in creating a reputation that they are really expert in the Internet marketing when they want to teach. Well, in fact they have done well to provide such a benefit to their customers. I don’t particularly like Matt Bacak’s way of promoting himself. By the way, he called himself “Powerful Promoter”. I remember clearly that I have unsubscribed to his newsletter, and yet he is trying his luck to send me emails after a short period of time.

In this world where permission marketing comes, my favorite marketer - Seth Godin - has revealed that permission marketing is anticipated, personal and relevant to the people who eagerly want to be marketed. I am a huge fan towards permission marketing because that creates the real lifetime value of customers.

There is a difference between the small companies and the multi-national companies. Small companies focus on cultivating relationship with their customers, even up to the extend of making no money or even lose money for a period of time. But the return is good to make them grow. That’s how small companies especially in Singapore are working towards. You tend to see those “underdogs” making extra efforts to serve you better, while the big companies simply don’t care generally even if you are not giving them business. The mentality of the big companies is all about number game. If they are interrupting 100 people and 5 customers are giving them business, they will spend more money to market towards 100,000 prospects for potential 5000 customers. It sure does make sense to them since they are working on the mass level. It also gives the small companies a disillusion that they have to look for more money to be like the big companies.

However, permission marketing has changed it all. It gives the companies instant access to the customers’ pocket for more money because the customers gave them permission to. So it takes an expert to be personal to his customers because we all know he is an expert. It turned out that he might be having 90 customers out of 100 prospected people!

The reason why those small companies in Singapore remain small, is because they are acting like a big company. They are paying high rents for office space, thousands of dollars on job salary, and miscellaneous expenses. Also, not to forget to buy goods from suppliers! Technology has changed all these. Internet has become the perfect system to work as a small company, and make huge money like a big company. People don’t mind to receive emails because they are checking emails only when they are free. But they will definitely mind people doing cold calling, only to say “Sorry to interrupt you, we are from this company.”

All these things are going to change for sure… And we will start to see a good combination of the three major mediums - Internet, TV and Radio. They are definitely not going to replace the other, but they are customizable to the marketer’s needs.