Marco Abanico Inbound MLM

personal development (an internet network marketer’s definition)  – the process of an individual network marketer’s self-development.  At the level of the individual, personal development includes goals, plans, or actions oriented towards developing strengths or talents in internet marketing.

I get tons of e-mails from people asking me how to drive traffic to their websites or personal blogs.  When I first started out in internet marketing in 2005, I didn’t know the first thing about getting prospects for e-commerce, my very first online business.  Back then there were no beginning internet marketing classes that I could take.  The prices of seminars and conferences were way out of my budget.  And the person who first showed me the back office of her website only knew how to do PPC (pay-per-click) advertising for her business.  Back then, I thought PPC stood for porn, pills, and casinos.  All I knew is that my mentor in e-commerce was an expert in PPC and that her platform of choice was Google Adwords.  I ALSO knew that from my past experiences in running a home based business is that paid advertising gets a VERY, VERY, low rate of return on investment (ROI).

Right then and there, I knew I had to learn something if I was to be successful in online marketing.  One day, I attended Donald Trump’s Trump University conference at a hotel in Dallas.  The conference was giving out free books for all attendees.  The name of that book is called Think Like a Billionaire.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with that book, this real estate guru’s book is about personal development and success in real estate.  In his book, the “Apprentice” host teaches that you can achieve success by engaging in personal development with books related to real estate investing.

Then I had an epiphany.  In order for me to be successful in online marketing, I knew that I too had to study books.  Therefore, I sought out books related to online marketing, and the very first book I studied was Peter Kent’s Search Engine Optimization for Dummies.

Personal development is very important if you want to learn or develop talents and skills in life just like the skills I’ve learned in Peter Kent’s book.  That is true for anything in life whether you want to learn real estate, accounting, medicine, baseball, or internet marketing.  Those in network marketing wanting to learn internet marketing HAVE TO pick up some books on this topic.

Too many network marketers wanting to learn online marketing think that their idea of personal development is reading totally non-essential books like Who Moved My Cheese and The One Minute Manager.  Don’t get me wrong.  Those ARE good books especially Who Moved My Cheese which is about change and keeping up with changes.  But if you are a savvy individual who has picked up on the teachings of Dr. Spencer Johnson, you should know that in order to keep up with change, you have to be willing to learn some new things.  Internet marketing is no different as it is a rapidly evolving and changing topic.  Strategies in internet marketing that worked in 2000 won’t be as effective if you’re doing it in 2010.

For those who aren’t keeping up with the latest developments or changes in online marketing, you’ll be outmanned and outgunned by people who are.  Those network marketers who attend internet marketing conferences or read up the latest books on internet marketing will be ahead of their competition who still proclaim that bugging strangers at social functions to look at their MLM opportunity is still the “in” thing.

Think of it this way.  If you were to study internet marketing in college, do you think colleges would include Who Moved My Cheese on their list of required textbooks?  Probably not.  But I’ll guarantee you this.  Colleges WILL include a ton of textbooks related to online marketing such as PPC (pay-per-click advertising), SEO (search engine optimization), video marketing, article marketing, blog marketing, e-mail marketing, or web analytics.  Why should your personal development program be any different?

Keep in mind that if you’re studying internet marketing for your network marketing business, it is NOT considered personal development if you’re reading Who Moved My Cheese or People magazine.  Reading such books to learn internet marketing is like studying chess books to learn chemistry.  On the other hand, it IS considered personal development if you’re reading Jerri L. Ledford’s The SEO Bible or Jerry Lee Ford Jr.’s Increase Your Web Traffic in a Weekend.  The kinds of books or magazines you read will give you the knowledge or skills needed to be successful in the marketing aspect for your network marketing business.

If you read junk books, you’ll be clueless when doing the marketing aspect for your MLM.  If you read quality books, you will be equipped with the knowledge to do the marketing.  So why would you want to feed your brain with items having little to do with internet marketing for your network marketing business?

It never ceases to amaze me how many hotshot network marketers claiming to be “experts” in internet marketing can’t even come up with the name of ONE book they’ve read on topics related to internet marketing yet they can come up with the names of several of Pastor John C. Maxwell’s books on leadership.  Therefore, doesn’t it make sense to study up on the essential books related to the marketing aspect for your business?