Do You Want to Be Fed or Learn to Fish?

I have a bunch of blog posts in my head right now. Some are a lot more fun, but this one is the one that is pulling me the most right now. There’s always time for more fun stuff.

I have noticed over the past few years, as more people read this blog, and have joined my Squidoo for Beginners course, that there are definitely two different types of “new marketers” and I’m sure it probably translates to the rest of the world as well.

Those Who Want to Be Fed.

I get emails regularly from people who have questions. Many times the questions come from an email I sent out, or a lesson in one of my courses. Often times the answer is directly in the message the person has been reading.  If it’s not,  it is a question that is general knowledge and the person could easily find the answer themselves, but, instead of looking for an answer, they instead email me.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love talking to people and helping them move forward. Questions about the intricacies of a marketing plan I welcome and enjoy. However, these “feed me” questions not so much.

When I first started, and even still, when I had a question I went to Google and asked the question. 9 times out of 10 Google will give me the exact answer I’m looking for on the first page.

For example, today I received an email asking if  Google sees RSS feeds on a Squidoo lens.

By itself it’s a pretty good question, however, the answer was in the email the person replied to. I decided to go to Google and see what it told me.

I Googled “Does Google See RSS feeds on Squidoo lens” (without the quotes. Here’s what I found 6 listings down:

I clicked through to see the whole article, and there is a grand explanation of Google seeing RSS feeds there.  So how long did it take me to find that information? All of about 30 seconds.

How long did it take someone to email me the question, wait for me to get the email, wait for me to reply?

Way more than 30 seconds.

It just surprises me a little how little this group of marketers will do for themselves. I have yet to figure why this is.  Because there is this other set of new marketers, the ones who are learning to fish.

Those who are Learning to Fish:

This group of people tend to go to Google for answers, if they can’t find it at Google they look somewhere else. They search for the how’s, why’s and when’s on their own. If once they have found some information and have tried to put it together but are having difficulty, they THEN ask a question about the information they have found.

Those questions help them hurdle a marketing bump and they continue to move forward.

Here’s what I’ve noticed about being fed vs. learning to fish.

Those who want to be fed do not succeed.  Sorry if this pisses some people off, but it’s the truth, in Internet marketing at least. Here’s what I see. Those who want to be fed, have an easy out when someone doesn’t feed them what they want/need.

These people are already looking for an excuse to quit. They are looking for someone to blame beside themselves when they don’t “make money online” and the fact that so and so wouldn’t help me is a perfect way to do it.

The people who are learning to fish are the ones who read, learn, and act. They are the ones who will build an internet marketing business no matter what! They are the people who do not let anything stand in their way. They will hunt down information, find a way around a problem, and continue to move forward.

These are the people who will not let anyone stand in their way, and no matter how long it takes will find success.

Who are you?

Are you looking to be fed or are you learning to fish?

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying people can’t change. Maybe recognizing there is another way to do things may give you the push you need to start learning to fish, or maybe you’ll take this as the perfect excuse to quit before you even get started. However, when you give up on this whole “make money online” thing take a look at your reasons and who you are “blaming” for your lack of success.

What have you done, what did you learn, and how did you implement all of it?

You can’t say “squidoo doesn’t work” if you have actually put up 100 lenses.

You can’t say “keyword research doesn’t work” until you’ve built a list of 1000 keywords and built sites around a LOT of them, and a lot is not 5.

You can’t say “so and so is such and such” because they couldn’t/wouldn’t answer your question that you could easily have found the answer to if you had just taken the initiative to look.

Really, there’s really no right or wrong in this, it’s just a matter of awareness, and taking responsibility for yourself and where you are in your life.  It’s at least something to think about, who you are, and what you expect from yourself and others in your online marketing journey.