I hear it all of the time from clients, audience members and even friends...
"There is too much competition for me to make money on the internet."
You're right. Pack up your things and go home. It's over.
No, really, statements like those are called myths for a reason. Because they are not true.
Let's look at successful businesses in general before we discuss online possibilities. If the founders of Starbucks had decided that there were already too many coffee shops, they would never have ventured into what is now a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ. Here was an English teacher, a history teacher and a writer who together decided to tap into a market that was already saturated. They differentiated themselves with their unique coffee names and sizes. It became the in-thing and hip to order a Vente Mochachino, even with the higher price tags. In addition to their desire to serve the highest quality coffee, they also set themselves apart by offering even their part-time employees medical insurance and stock options. There is always room in the marketplace you just have to differentiate yourself.
In the offline world if you didn't offer customer service you probably wouldn't be successful and the online world is the same. You need to know how to effectively market on the internet. You can't just think you can put a website up as if you are staking your flag in the ground and suddenly you have claimed your territory and your piece of the pie. It doesn't happen like that. There is work involved and you need to spend your time doing it effectively.
Let's look at Facebook for a minute. MySpace was already in the space of social networking. They were already set up, established and very successful. Facebook offered something different in that it is more interactive, it is easier to communicate with each other and expand into a community rather than just a wall of postings. Facebook continues to create new ways to serve its users better by listening to them and meeting their needs and wants.
I had previously self-published three books when Hay House bought the rights to my fourth book, Your Destiny Switch. I originally wanted to call the book, The World Doesn't Need Another Self-help Book. Funny, right? Within the walls of my first Hay House meeting room I was the only one who thought so. As I saw it we did not really need another self-help book, but there would be one more... there would be one thousand more. There will always be one more relationship book, one more wealth building book, etc. For me there were a lot of books on self-help and they seemed very complicated and I thought it's just not that complicated.
The world doesn't need another message, it needs another messenger. Each of us is an individual and we need someone who will deliver the message in a way that is going to help us "get it." The messenger must give us better clarity so that we can more easily reach that level of understanding. We need to be shown the way through tools and strategies.
Many entrepreneurs who have built a presence either online or offline have done so because they felt there was a need and that they were qualified to fill that need. So don't shy away from internet marketing because there is competition. Look at it as a great open space waiting for your unique brand and way of filling a need that already exists.
Peggy McColl is a New York Times best-selling author and an internationally recognized expert in the field of personal and professional development and Internet marketing. As an entrepreneur, business owner, mentor and professional speaker Peggy has been inspiring individuals to pursue their personal and business objectives and achieve ultimate success. She provides effective Internet marketing solutions for entrepreneurs, authors, publishers, professionals, and business owners, who want to establish an online presence, achieve bestseller status, build their brand, grow and/or expand their business online. You can find out more about Peggy at her website, Destinies.com.