Upon speaking with some of the C2M Publishers at the Affiliate Summit West Conference one of the discussions that kept coming up was what to do or what were some ideas to implement when you just feel like nothing is going your way. Unfortunately, for the ones who asked this question you already know how I responded with a VERY “in your face approach”. Fortunately for me, everyone of you took it better than I expected. I was actually trying to piss someone off because that is how you separate the people are dedicated to making money online VS people who are just interested in it. There’s a huge difference there and I assure you, it’s a very selective process that is done everyday online. If you’re serious, I’m serious. In this business, people have to pick their battles intelligently or ultimately you are just wasting time.

For people who dont know me, or will stumble upon this post in the future I will let you in on a little bit about myself and experiences. I never claim to be an expert because I dont think there is one in ANY business. I would consider an expert to be someone of perfection and nobody is perfect, so there. I have however made a living online the last few years as a personal publisher and as a consultant on many publishers and corporations behalf. Sure, I was not an expert nor claim to be but I was damn good at what I did. I fooled Corporations and Companies into thinking I was a PPC Management Firm (sry if you heard this before ha) when in reality I was handling their accounts from home in my underwear. To this day, they dont even know it. I handled everything from landing pages, site development, ad copy, keywords, tracking and ultimately their entire cash flow from ad spend to profitability from my computer.

Trust me when I say that I have been in a ton of “oh shit” situations. Imagine being in multiple situations with people who care nothing about the “problems” that arise. All they care about are profit dollars. They do not give two shits about anything else. You dont produce, you dont get paid. I learned one very important lesson when I was managing other people’s businesses as well as my own thru the years.

You’ve got nobody but yourself to rely on when this type of thing happens.

So with that said, let’s go over some of Ruck’s Rules Of Preventing Marketing Failure.

1. Expect The Unexpected And Always Work Off A Worse Case Scenario - As a marketer this is by far the most important one. Those days of checking out cool ebooks with flashy cars and bullshit bling in the headers are gone for you if you are reader of this blog. You have moved passed that crap (I hope you have anyway). You now know and realize just how hard you have to work in this business to stay afloat. I will tell you right now that staying a float is really a synonym for being a “lazy f#cK”. Here are some of my bullet points for expecting the unexpected and working on a worse case scenario:

• Expect the offer to end eventually. Even better, expect the offer to end tomorrow.
• Expect competition to make your life a living hell especially if it’s a good offer.
• Expect that nobody is going to give you anything useful to help scale your campaign.
• Worse Case Scenario - The offer will end at any moment.
• Worse Case Scenario - The Network you work with will tell you the offer is ending only to put it on private after the miraculous data you gave them allows them to put their “bullshit In-House Search Team” on it and ultimately drive you out of the market.
• Worse Case Scenario - The offer is going to suck even after your research and instincts tells you it could work. This scenario alone should put you in build it as fast as humanly possible mode to spend as little time and resources as possible in setup phase.

2. Learn From Mistakes But Dont Conclude It Doesnt Work After One Shot - One of the most overlooked aspects of marketing is that marketers test an offer and assume it doesnt work. Now, we are all pressed for time but I learned something very valuable while managing other peoples niches, campaigns and their money. DONT EVER OVERESTIMATE A FAILURE. I’ve seen publishers create a review page for an offer and it just not work for them. So what? Did you test a regular presell? Did you test an Optin Squeeze Page offering something and then a follow-up recommendation later? Typically, the rule of thumb is that it takes 7 contacts before making a sale. I dont know who come up with that (nor do I care) but I have always thought about that while building email lists. So many marketers think that cpa offers should be a one shot deal and I will tell you right now, you are seriously crippling your business. So before canning a campaign think about some other alternatives of how to market your offer such as:

• A Presell only for the offer
• A review page
• A multiple comparison review
• A Squeeze page highlighting something to get people on your list and following up
• A direct linking campaign

Not only is the WAY you marketer your offer of importance but how you marketer the offer with WHAT METHOD on WHAT TRAFFIC SOURCE. A very typical scenario comes from new marketers under the impression that Facebook and/or Myspace advertising is the greatest thing since baked bread. However, 99% of those that try will fail. Why? Most of whom I speak to always give me the same answer.

• Marketer - I tried the campaign on Facebook and it didnt work
• Me - Oh yea, how did you promote it
• Marketer - I cloaked the offer and went straight to it
• Me - Ok, did you also try preselling, reviewing, or getting optins from it?
• Marketer - No, should I? I mean it didnt work the first time ya know.

I’m here to tell you that you are seriously just kicking your own ass. Matter of fact, thinking and responding like that is why this business is so great. With 99% of the publishers thinking like that, you make it so easy for someone like me to tell people that I know who will put in the work and probably benefit EASILY from your mistake. Never Over-Estimate a failure. It can cost you big time.

3. Prepare For Battle - Your entering into a business model where people like myself and thousands of others are looking to cut your throat. That’s right, I might be a friend to you but if you step into my vertical be prepared for the biggest fight of your life. I’m going to smarter, I’m going to work harder and ultimately I am not going to quit until you piss off. When you finally give up (which you will), I’m going to go headhunting and look for the next weak link.

This business is the most cutthroat business you will ever get into. Marketing and Advertising is dirty no matter what you think about it. No business, no company, no publisher is going to let you stand for very long if they can help it. If you dont have the “take no prisoners” prepare to be that guy in prison who picks up the soap without thinking about it all the way thru. Your going to take hard rides being the best, that is what makes you best. Why should you stand around and let the next guy have it any easier than you did?

You dont have to be the best in this business to make money but you DO have to be better than the next guy/gal to make MORE than them. Staying afloat is for the prey. Their are predators everywhere you look and it only gets worse each day. Prepare for the battle of your life, because it is not going to be easy.

4. Learn From Your Mistakes - When it’s all said and done, you either made money or you lost money. If you lost money then figure out how, why. Sometimes that’s not easy to do unless you just conclude that the offer you had sucked, the traffic sources you ran it on blew, and no matter how you tried to market it, nothing really made a difference. Cutting losses and moving on is inevitable. It’s going to happen more times than not. Learn from your mistakes though. If the offer lost you money you can always look at and get something positive out of it.

• How much time did I spend? If it was a lot, even though I lost money I can figure out ways to trim the time it took for me to finally conclude that it all sucked.
• How much money did I spend on this loser? If you found yourself at the end of a losing campaign conclude all spend from ALL traffic sources and marketing types of the offer itself. This will give you and idea of how to lower spend next time and not break the bank.

5. Be More Dedicated Than The Next Guy - You are going to fail. Almost every time in fact. Those of us who have built our businesses online and keep at it knew it from day one. Realize it fast. You have to work harder than anyone else. Complacency in Marketing is Suicide. You basically just kill yourself. Just because you bank on an offer with a positive ROI dont mean shit. Seriously, if you are happy with that, congratulations on being a successful marketer right now. However, your not successful in this business until you can keep building and reach your goals. If your goal is to just have one profitable offer, I commend you on a job well done but I have yet to talk to someone that didnt want it all. A piece of the pie is only satisfying for so long. Everyone wants more, it’s human nature and more so as a business person.

Dont stop building. All I can tell you. The second you stop building you are putting yourself at a huge risk. You are already at risk BY building in this business because what is going for you can end at any instant. Try absorbing some of the risk by not slowing down. In the end it all comes down with what you are happy with.