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The other day I watched the movie “Traffic” on Dutch television. It’s an impressive account of America’s war on drugs as taking place on the border with Mexico. Three separate storylines come together as the movie evolves:

  1. First there’s a police officer in Mexico who’s fighting the drugs export at the border and who is being sucked into the corrupt system of officials who allow this export for some kartels while trying to destroy the others.

  2. Secondly there’s the ‘drug tzar’ who’s in charge of official couter measures to stop drug trafficing having official meetings and press conferences while in his own home - unknown to him - his A-student daughter is sniffing cocaïne and heroïne…

  3. And lastly there’s the rich wife of a drug baron who finds out what her husband’s real source of income is after he gets arrested. Their accounts get blocked and it looks like her life will be destroyed. After some kartel threatens her to kidnap her boy if she doesn’t come up with 3 million dollars quickly, she decides to take over her husbands business…

It’s pretty complicated so see the movie for yourself if you’re interested in learning how it all plays out. The reason I am mentioning it here is because I was intruiged by the personal motivation of all characters involved to do what they do. Which is definitely not your average good guys vs. bad guys stuff…

Obviously a lot is about money and becoming rich. The wife grew up in a very poor neighborhood and doesn’t want her children to live through the same kind of childhood she had. Her love of her son makes things a little more complicated and when faced with the threat of losing him, she makes a conscious decision to run a cocaine smuggling business.

Don’t we all want the best of the best for our children? Yet, how far would you go to achieve this? Would you consciously decide to make money of teenagers - destroying their lives in favor of your own kids…

Then there’s the drug tzar - a government offical who’s a judge as well and taking this job for a couple of years may very well result in becoming a judge in the supreme court. His family life is a disaster however. He’s sacrificed his role of being a good father in favor of a great political career. Which means being away from home a lot, not having enough time to spend with his daughter. As long as she’s performing well in school, there is no need for this?

What do your kids have to do to get your attention before you make a decision about what matters most in your life? As my own father-in-law discovered on his death bed: when the end is near all your political and business contacts mean nothing. You simply want your family to be there and feel loved.

The police officer from Mexico has to find his way in a corrupt system. There’s a general with way more power than he’s got who wants to basically rule the country. The drug kartels are helping him to fund his moves, so he plays them out and allows some to continue smuggling drugs. The police officer cannot openly do anything against this as it will cost his life (demonstrated in the movie with the execution of his partner who tried to tip the DSA about what the general was planning).

This guy is smarter though and while pretending to play along, he also has connections with the DSA helping them to build their case. The DSA offers to make him rich. And that’s where it gets interesting: he doesn’t want the money for himself. Instead he asks them to build a baseball stadion with proper lighting. A place for the local youth to engage in sports and spend their time in better ways than hanging out on the streets and being vulnerable to join the street gangs.

So he wants to invest in the future. Take care of the immediate needs of the children now so they won’t turn out criminals or drug addicts. Giving them joy and hope and some meaning in life.

What does this have to do with internet marketing?

First, I’ve grown quite ’sick’ of many of the internet marketing campaigns. Mainly because of the way they are conducted and the lack of genuine care for the customers. The aggressive intrusion in your inbox. The constant demand to read and buy. Sign up for more newsletters to receive more free reports and software. Many of which are total junk. It’s been taking its toll.

The internet marketing niche is a highly competetive one so I do understand the need for all the marketers who are selling to this niche to shout so loud. Yet the shouting turns you off of reading anything all together. Including the mail from those few who really have something interesting to say.

Secondly I’m really shocked by some of the mainstream ideas about customers. I’ve read messages and reports from pretty well-respected marketers that to grow a business you need to keep your audience addicted to what you’re selling. The way to do this is to never give the complete solution to anybody’s problem. That way you can always ‘reveal more secrets’ and people will continue to buy from you. (It’s a fine balance of course - if you don’t give enough information in the first place, you will have lost a customer for life.)

That’s the same way the drug world works. They create addicts by giving their stuff away so once addiction sets in they have a customer for life. And they don’t care where their customers get their money from and how the addiction destroys their personal life.

I don’t care about who first invented this system for success. It works and it’s being used in many areas of life. And if you’re employing it yourself consciously, whether because you want to be filthy rich or to gain social respect because of your success or have power or whatever the reason, know that it comes at a price. You may not be paying it yourself right now, but at some point you will. As a matter of fact I think this world is currently going to pieces because of this…

Yet it’s not too late to make a difference. I honestly don’t know at this point how you can be successful online without newsletters, blogging and selling products. But in whatever you do, put yourself in the second place and your customer first. Please make an effort to provide good, useable content at a fair price. And when you have your big break-through, think about how you can share some of your success with the children of today so they have a nice future to look forward to as well.

Thank you for reading my ‘rant’. I wish you the best for 2007!

Patricia

P.S.
I’m currently looking for a partner who’s genuinely passionate about internet marketing to help me manage my too-many websites and allowing me to focus more on product creation. I’ll post more about this soon.

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Posted by Patricia Ritsema van Eck | Print This Post | EMail This Post
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