(Web) Working@Home: Doing It Alone on the Internet Won't Cut It!

During the last week of January, I set my one of my promotional plans to action. I contacted a few e-zine publishers and asked if they'd be interested in doing a cooperative venture with me.

The cooperative venture? A customized version of a free e-mail workshop I created to promote my e-book. In the customized version, the e-zine publishers are the "sponsors" and the links in the workshop pointing to my e-book's sales page are their referral links. I'm selling the e-book through Clickbank so if they promoted the customized version of my e-mail workshop to their subscribers, the publishers earn when their subscribers purchase my e-book through their links.

While I was writing my introduction letter and offer, I realized no matter how hard I promote anything on the Internet, I won't get the kind of results I want unless I ask other people's help.

I'm a shy person by nature. I'm an introvert and I never go to parties or any social gatherings. Other than speaking at (very selected) events and conducting face to face workshops every other month or so, you won't catch me out of my home office. Although I do consultancy work for an international organization, I work right from home and only go out when absolutely necessary. And when I do go out, the neighbors end up asking my mother about her house guest. My mother would reply, "She isn't a guest. She's my eldest daughter."

The Internet isn't designed for a one-person team. Instead, the Internet thrives on the principles of cooperation and information sharing. Partnerships, joint ventures and mutual cooperation are the ideal models for the online environment.

And in order to develop successful partnership undertakings on the Internet, someone needs to take that first step. Thus, I know that online, my shyness won't get me far. It won't bring me my desired results. I won't achieve them unless I get rid of some of my shyness and muster enough courage to approach people and ask for their help. And it begins with a simple and direct e-mail introduction.

And really, that's all there is to it. I approach people, ask them politely and see if they're receptive and willing to work with me side by side. If they give me a no answer -- well, it's a good thing they didn't have to give it straight to my face!

But seriously, approaching someone on the Internet with sincerity and honesty is the only way to be successful online. No, it isn't the best way. It's the only way. Show anything short of that, and true success is going to be elusive. :o)

Next Week: Specialize... then Diversify!

When we think about it, many of the things we do seem to 'snowball.' We come up with an idea, we work on it, we execute it. Then a second idea comes up as a direct result of the first idea. Along comes a third idea and it's very much related to the first two ideas. Even though it was never in our plans to get from the first idea to the third, they all seem to fall into place. They all... jive.