I’m sick of Internet Marketing
I’ll admit it.
My name is Adam Linkenauger… and I’m an Internet Marketer.
Much like an alcoholic would stand before their AA group… I stand before you to admit what I am… well, was… and what I will never be again.
An “Internet Marketer”.
Around a decade ago.. I was a fresh faced college dropout. Unsure of my future and what I wanted to do with my life.
I just knew for a fact what I DIDN’T want to do.
I knew I couldn’t handle becoming normal.
Having a boss.
Having a desk.
Having a set salary.
The feeling I’d likely fall within the realm of average FREAKED me out…
I had to figure out a plan.
In college, I was a savvy combination of internet nerd meets athlete. A Clemson University ACC Champion high jumper who had an obsession with online poker.
I had made money “online” at this point… but on sketchy overseas poker websites…
… not internet marketing.
Admittedly, I didn’t realize what internet marketing was until I saw some dude selling a vertical jump training program online when I was looking up high jump results on a track and field website.
It was a typical internet marketing asshole giving fake claims, poor and dangerous training at insane prices. Praying off the desires of children by selling them snake oil.
I was disgusted…
But that was the moment I realized my future. I was going to be the moral and proper version of the vertical jump “internet marketer”.
If THAT GUY can do it teaching SHIT.. I’ll make tons of money doing it the “RIGHT WAY”!!
Oh, was I green to how things worked in the realm of “Online Marketing”…
My plan was:
I was going to provide awesome training at reasonable prices.
I was going to combat the “Internet Marketers” in my niche, beat them out, and expose them for what they were.
Dramatic, I know.. but it was my goal.
And boy was it ugly.. My first three years resulted in a net loss of $6,000. Which is pretty bad considering I had only made $3,000 total over 36 months of 12 hour days, 7 days a week.
Doing it “Right” was literally KILLING my chances of making money online.
I couldn’t compete with the the fake testimonials, lying result claims, and obnoxious price points of my competitors and the market was EATING THEM UP!
Fast forward to today, and I co-own and operate the world leader in Basketball Training Online, I Love Basketball.
We’ve had influencer deals with Nike, Speed Stick, Wilson, Eastbay… Built a following in the millions… a mailing list over 500,000 active players and have sold over 100,000 training programs to date.
(And if you bare with me… I’ll show you how I went from -6000 to a Million a year without Internet Marketing…)
Back to the story:
Back to starting out…
I knew what I had to do to succeed, I had to become an Internet Marketer, and no longer JUST a vertical jump coach selling his training online.
I read copywriting book after copywriting book.
I began to study paid traffic
I built sales funnels before they were a “thing”
I joined Internet Marketing mastermind groups.
I ran Split-tests
Had Upsells..Downsells.
Used Scarcity tactics.
Held Joint Venture Product Launches.
Set up Automation.
Insane Follow Up Email Campaigns
Made Strong Guarantees
And the results began to come slowly but surely. Another year went by, and I was in the black. The next year, I was making “good money”, and even had a Joint Venture Launch cashing in 117,000 dollars in just 4 days!
Internet Marketing allowed me to make money online, which was a major goal, but I did NOT feel like a business owner, nor did I feel in control of my future despite reaching a six figure income using these “IM Tactics”.
To me, the “Internet Marketer” is the vulture of business. They look for something that will possibly make money and attack with vengeance.
There is a reason it’s said that “Internet Marketer’s ruin everything”… Though stereotypical, I’ve seen it first hand.
Flooding YouTube with shitty “affiliate VSL” videos…
Facebook Groups used to steal customers from competitors…
Keyword Stuffing Blogs…
Black-Hat Shenanigans.
We’ve seen it all… and I even took part in some of this shittiness.
Though I never sacrificed morality or integrity, making my products and services high quality and value-packed. I did what I could to “compete” with the vultures and “eat as often as possible”.
Sketchiness seems to be the status quo in Internet Marketing, and I could have made millions of dollars more over the past 10 years had I completely sold out.
I chose to stay true to my values, but fell into the “Internet Marketer” stereotype and earned little respect in the process.
Saying this, the last decade has been life changing, and I wouldn’t change a thing. The education I received in the process has made me who I am today.
Internet Marketing gave me an incredible life of freedom and happiness.
It’s a way to make money. And there is NOTHING wrong with that.
But it’s not business model. It’s NOT a business. It’s NOT a future.
So if Internet Marketing isn’t a business model, then what online is?
It’s creating an Online Business.
When you shift from concentrating all of your efforts from marketing to instead “serving” your clientele, then your business will remain secure, and you’ll never have to worry about chasing the next “meal”.
An Online Business builds brand, establishes credibility through serving clients, and develops an audience through content that is powerful and unique on it’s own.
Your “Marketing” efforts shouldn’t revolve around just getting your next customer but instead serving an audience through unique, powerful content such as blog posts, YouTube videos, or podcasts. A standalone experience for anyone that would fall under your market’s umbrella.
Customers and clientele remain the goal but become a byproduct through building an audience who obsess over your BRAND even if they’ve never invested with your company.
Social Media is a great tool to make this happen. The ability to use social media to build a community of like-minded people and deliver them a unique training, information, and most importantly, an experience will grow your online business as a rate that no copywriting book or split-test could ever do for you.
An internet marketer on the other hand will never stop attempting to improve how they CONVINCE their market to invest instead of serving their market in a way that leads their audience to wanting more.
An internet marketer spends more time hunting their next customer than serving those who already have invested time and/or money with them.
The big shift for I Love Basketball and how it began to grow at a rate that I would have said to be unimaginable is simple…
We stopped putting all of our efforts into CONVINCING someone to invest with us… and instead redirected everything in our power to building a brand and community around the LOVE and development of basketball.
We stopped concentration on marketing and began serving our audience instead.
We built a massive “Media” around a likeminded community and goal, and provided that community unique and powerful stand alone (meaning the free stuff was GOOD) content.
In short, I built an Online BUSINESS… and STOPPED being an Internet Marketer.
And to clarify quickly, Internet Marketing tactics WILL always serve a purpose. Copywriting, advertising, SEO, Paid Traffic WILL have a place within your online business, but they should only be a PORTION of your online business, not it’s entirety.
So, to wrap this up.
Goodbye, My name is Adam Linkenauger and I am NO LONGER an internet marketer. I’m an Online Business Owner.
Until next time!
See Our Community:
http://facebook.com/ilovebasketballtv
http://youtube.com/ilovebasketballtv
http://instagram.com/ilovebasketballtv
