20 years of sowpub. The best lessons. #1

[GordonJ]

In our early days, we had a lot of outside salespeople here at SowPub. These folks were the "shoe leather", direct marketers. There were successful YELLOW PAGE salespeople.

We had a lot of guys selling ads on mugs, restaurant placemats, hotel room menus, daily special menu boards. Others sold products door to door or office to office.

Cookware and cutlery. Cleaning items. We had curb painters and deck washers.

Realtors and chattelers. I loved this place. (Sounds like a Toby Keith song).

Then the roller coaster ride aka, the INTERNET marketing stuff took center stage. This forum came about when eBay was exploding, and making the buying and selling of chattel a BIG DEAL (still is).

We existed BEFORE Facebook, Amazon was still mostly a bookstore. Five years before YouTube. And you will find in our archives, notes, comments and people embracing the new in the pursuit of making a buck.

Many have done well with those and other NEW Internet platforms. And it continues, twenty years later. So many new things, it could be a huge distraction too.

The Making Money, Biz-Op, even the Get Rich Quick crowd have found a permanent and evergreen place on the Internet.

There are so many ways today, to do the HOW, it may be the biggest opportunity the Internet gives us...the OPPORTUNITY to waste time, spin our wheels and get deeper and deeper into a rut.

Today, many early sowpubbers are entering their 60's. They were young 40 ish folks, and there were many in their 30's too.

Twenty years has gone by pretty fast.

What would you tell a beginner? What wisdom would you share with a son or grandson, or grand daughter starting out on the Internet with the idea of making their living online?

Feel free to share.

My advice to the young is DON'T. Make your IM a side hustle. Make it a part time gig. Explore. Don't commit to any one way. Instead, go out in the world, have adventures if you are in your 20's. Get to know how the world works. Take a few jobs. Do different things.

Learn how to balance your checkbook, or debit card. OBSERVE. Then IGNORE much of what you see going on because you are watching self serving distractions.

If they were in their 30's, then the advice would be different, if they were married or starting a family, or if they were single, each a worthwhile track and no right or wrong. The family person needs a stable FOUNDATION, and jobs are OK. Focus harder when on your side gigs.

Single people. OK, you've had your adventures (or should have), NOW get down to business. DECIDE on doing something which gives you the lifestyle you want. Today, you can swing 2 dead cats (oh, the memories) and knock over a dozen people traveling the world, working out of a suitcase, on their phones, with only a laptop...

and doing so from the sandy beaches of Bali, Hawaii, France. And that has an appeal to those younger people. Not so much to us old geezers who can get our own bed sick in a few days on South Beach.

If you are in your 40's. You should know yourself, and again, depending on if you have become a family man or a forever bachelor, it may be the most productive decade of your life.

If in your 50's...friend, TIME is running out on you, and the sands through the hourglass are going much faster.

In your 60's. Probably too late. Historically and statistically speaking, with exception of course, we all love the Col Sanders stories.

So the HOW you choose may depend on your age, is my point. Young people think they have a full tank of time. And maybe they do.

Older people KNOW time is running out.

What advice do you offer?

Based on the above, we can see why different APPEALS work with certain groups, with young males you can't go wrong with their prurient and ego wants. So we see a lot of the FAST CARS, McMansions, boats, bikini clad girls...all things a 13 year old boy wants, even when they are 33.

If there is a universal lesson we've learned here, it is a MESSAGE TO MARKET match works best. Be it online or off. You have to speak the language of your Target and Prospects.

We have focused on making money within the idea of self fulfillment here. Doing a money making activity which may not be a passion, but it isn't a dread either.

One way to look at the potential is via AGE, and it often corresponds with an upward mobility on the Maslow Pyramid.

Another way is via SPEED. Fast money is made by fast transactions. Sell your TV today online, on your front porch, or via an ad on a bulletin board at the supermarket. SUSTAINABLE money takes longer. Ongoing, recurring and so-called passive income takes the longest to set up, with a few exceptions.

Today, there are so many teens, with their popular YouTube channels making tons of money, older people are bewildered. WTF? How can some idiot on youtube do stupid stunts and haul in millions a year? It does baffle us older, albeit maybe not yet mature geezers.

HOW. The answer is yours, and yours alone, it must be personal because we aren't the same. But if you aren't there yet, then consider:

Your AGE.
Your marital status, family.
Location, and if by choice, why?

GOALS. What do you want and why? (The 35 year old SQ1 question which the majority can't answer).

The I N T E N T OF YOUR money making efforts. Speed and fast cash? Longer term? Something to do with your day? A passion or hobby?

If you use the search feature of the forum, in the old forum, you may find some fantastic ideas.

In 2006 we had an upgrade to software, and it pretty much reset the forum to blank, thanks to Dien's archival skills we were able to save a lot of that early work.

Now then, which way and HOW do you want your income coming in?

Gordon