Sort of provoking title, but this is the conclusion I came to recently: when you read the acronym “IM” in relation to marketing, the “I” doesn’t always mean “Internet”, but, more often than not, “Idiot”, or “Idiotic”. I can now state it with certainty, thanks to my direct experience in dealing with those individuals.

Once upon a time…

I still remember the times when running a business meant “effort”. Starting a company was not something to be taken lightly, and a good deal of planning was needed. Even more important, one had no chance of success unless he/she could provide a valuable product or service to his/her customers.

With the exception of the US, where consumerism seems to have been a doctrine ever since the Industrial Revolution, monetary transactions were relatively scarce and people relied on their own skills to improve their lifestyle. I had the luck of knowing personally men and women who built their own house from the ground up, carved their furniture out of good quality, solid wood and wove their own clothes. A few of them took pride in their work and became entrepreneurs, with mixed results. What all of them had in common was the objective of doing something good, not becoming rich.

The modern Era

As everyone and their mothers know, Internet is now so widespread that we’ll soon connect to it via our microwave. The amount of information available online is huge, and this wonder-tool (yes, it’s a tool) seems to have infinite uses. It’s like an infinite-feature swiss knife. One of such features is, of course, business, and here lays the problem. We all know of at least a hundred of companies who profited from the Internet and, probably, we use their services on a daily basis (Google and Facebook anyone?). We read every day how many million-zillion-trillion dollars they are worth, and all looks so easy. They started with a “stupid” idea, they expanded it, they marketed it and they got rich. They are “for profit” companies, and they don’t miss an occasion to make it clear. It doesn’t matter if their service is good, useful, needed, superfluous or plain and simply bad. They do all they can to sell it to you, and to convince you that you need it and you like it. All for profit. Cash is king, the rest can f.ck off.

The marketing “gurus”

Of course, with all these stories of money everywhere, it was just a matter of time until the “little people”, who, until then, earned their bread with labor and sweat, wanted to join in. But it was hard game, coming out with an original idea and bringing it to a success. Then someone came out with the holy grail of easy money: Internet Marketing. No need to produce anything, no need to do a good job, no need to do any job at all. Just promote someone else’s product, trick people into buying it and let them deal with their purchase.

Of course, these people were salesman and had no difficulty in selling their idea. They spread the word that it’s easy, that it requires little or no investment and that everything goes on “autopilot”. Just relax on a sandy beach and watch your bank account grow. To reinforce the idea, they published their bank statements, showing six-figures incomes. The trick worked: flocks of little people joined in, following this Hamelin Flute. Some struggled and turned to their gurus for help. And the gurus happily obliged… After the payment of a “modest” fee. The little people saw some results, bought more services from their mentors and started a vicious circle. Every now and then, one of the “members” of such circle decides to aim higher, and presents himself as the “guru 2.0″, hoping to attract more people.

The truth

Truth is, the IM world is full of bullsh.t. I had the chance of observing the behaviour of many of the so-called experts, and they all aim to one single thing: their own personal profit. I tried to point this out, but the reply from the circle of fake-friends was unanimous: isn’t profit the target? The answer is “unfortunately, it is, while it should not be”. And that’s why, at a steady pace, the “I” in IM is meaning more and more often “Idiotic”, rather than “Internet”. Enter the circle, part from your money, trick someone else into doing the same.

Just have a look at any of these “make money online” forums: there isn’t a single person producing anything even remotely useful outside the Internet Marketing circle. Any product or service is designed to help people doing their Internet Marketing homework, such as promoting their own product to make Internet Marketing easier. It’s all a pile of rubbish, kept alive, once again, by the “Cash is king” dogma.

There’s a better way

The answer is not on the Internet, but in our past: focusing on doing a good job is thousand times more rewarding (and easier) than focusing on piling up cash. Money alone won’t make you happy; aiming only to profit is idiotic (as in “Idiotic Marketing”) and it won’t do you, or anyone else, any good. If you want to break free, to feel better and to have a happier life, focus on something that really pleases you. If you want to make it a business, even better! You’ll enjoy what you’ll be doing, and this will reflect on your customers. They will be happy to come to you and, as a result, you will make a profit. And everybody will go home with a smile.

The world doesn’t need millionaires, it needs good people.

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How to turn spam to your advantage

by Diego on 23/11/2011

The idea for this post was kindly provided by a wasp. I normally don’t like them, due to many painful stings I received, but this one was showing me something interesting: she was flying around, just outside of my window, presumably looking for food.

What surprised me the most is that we are already in late Autumn (for those who don’t know, Summer comes a month late and ends a month early, in Ireland), and that the temperature is already fairly low. In fact, most wasps are already dead or hibernating; yet, there she was, searching for something.

While I admired her perseverance, I asked myself what on Earth was she hoping to find around the window frame. Wasps are predators, but almost all their preys are hidden or dead at this time of the year. Then I saw her picking something up and flying away. I didn’t see what it was, but the whole scene inspired me a way to apply it to Business.

Click to continue…

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We almost died… Laughing all the way to the end!

October 31, 2011

Strong title, and even stronger if you think that I wrote the truth. On 17/10/2011 I was on a plane with my wife and my wonderful baby daughter, returning to Dublin after a short visit to my parents in Italy. We were almost at the airport, when the captain announced that, due to strong wind, [...]

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Mastering your own Experience

October 9, 2011

This post is about a lesson I learned recently. To better understand it, imagine yourself in the following situation (it’s a bit surreal, but try to “see” yourself there): you wake up in a bed that’s not yours. You don’t remember how you ended up there, and you find yourself surrounded by people who speak [...]

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Myths and Truths about Passive Income

September 23, 2011

As some people know, I left my job some weeks ago and started working towards building a reliable source of passive income. The whole thing started in September 2010, when I was still employed full time and spending three hours a day in commuting. I’ve never been a “good commuter” (I hate the feeling of wasting [...]

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