Robert Fulgham’s timeless assertion “All I Really Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten” is applicable to every aspect of life, work, and business. Online marketing is no exception. This is how you can apply his ground rules to online marketing for achieving excellence.
Share everything. If you know a few tips, software tools, useful websites, etc. share it with others. Don’t be afraid of others taking your share of the pie. The pie is huge and you will never be able to eat it alone.
Play fair. Competition is good but play by the rule. Think of it as a sport. You practice and practice a little more to win. Likewise, you acquire a few online marketing skills and apply them, experiment with them and then measure your success. If the techniques work for you, leverage that knowledge to acquire more skills without foul play.
Don’t hit people. You hit somebody because you are angry with him. Don’t badmouth somebody because you think you did not get a fair deal from the person. Try to resolve your differences. If the person is not reasonable and does not want to play fair, share the facts with others without name calling and labeling.
Put things back where you found them. If you are going to use somebody’s contents with their permissions, give credits to the creators. If you are referring a web resource in another site, make it easy for users to find it, e.g. provide a link.
Clean up your own mess. Get organized and create a plan before you start your marketing efforts. Write down exactly what you are going to do and for how long you will execute your plan before making a determination on the plan’s success. Also, know how you are going to measure your success.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours. This one should be easy to understand. Not only don’t steal others contents but also don’t try to hurt somebody financially using foul plays. Don’t think how you are going to reduce your competitor’s profits. Think how you can increase your take.
Say you are sorry when you hurt somebody. You have customers even if you are running a free website. Don’t let your customers think that they are hurt by your actions. If they do, apologize for their inconveniences and fix the problem.
Wash your hands before you eat. This one is not that difficult to understand. It is there to protect you from people who don’t want to play fair. Find out more about pundits’ opinions, software tools you install in your computer, programs you buy to increase your skills, etc. Don’t take every thing blindly. Think about it before taking an action.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. You will excel when you mix new knowledge and old skills or new ideas with existing opportunities.
Live a balanced life. Always execute a few techniques at any time. It will help you weed out unsuccessful ones quickly. But don’t try to experiment everything you come across on the web. Pick a few at a time that you are comfortable with and you believe you can implement using your present skill set.
Take a nap every afternoon. Relax and take a break. Take your mind off from things that don’t work instead of going out to all the online forums and posting one hundred questions. When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Seek out like-minded people from online forums and social networking sites. Form your own groups in the social web. Network with a few influential people in your areas of expertise.
Be aware of wonder. Sometimes unexpected things will happen. If you or people in your network cannot explain the cause, don’t spend too much time thinking and analyzing it. Just be aware of wonder and move on to new things.
They all die. So do we. Old techniques will become ineffective. Methods and websites that worked yesterday might not generate incomes today. Anticipate this outcome and be prepared to take actions before that happens.