Super Mario and Internet Marketing?

Roy here.

Do you recognise the following screen?  It’s over twenty years since I played my first Mario game in the 80′s.

I love games.   They provide perspectives.

Yesterday, I had some fun with Wii’s Super Mario.  Granted, it’s 100 times more sophisticated that what it used to be.    The fundamentals of winning the games are the same.  These principles do apply to internet marketing.   Here are some of my sharing:

1) The Tortoise, mushroom and the clock?

You need to know the game, including the objective of the game, enemies and the ground rules.  In Super Mario, the objective is to save the princess.  There are tortoises, mushroom-men (amongst many others) and the time limits.   You need one step to kill Mushroom-men while Tortoises need 2 moves.   You need to “eat” mushroom and flower to empower and grow yourself and be able to shoot fireballs.   Also, you are given 300 seconds to pass a certain round…

As for internet marketing, the demographics of the niche is the setting.  The objective is to get your message to your potential customers or readers in your chosen niche and give value to your readers in return for the rewards (e.g. leads, optin and ultimately sales!).   The “enemies” are the existing players, although you may need to joint-venture with them sooner or later.   You need to equip yourself with knowledge and tools (e.g. mushroom and flowers).    Also, you need to time yourself and don’t go overboard, as time is limited.  You need to plan how much time you will allot to a niche, including research, site building, monetarization and etc.

If you don’t know the rules of the game, it’s better that you stop and re-think before resources are spent.  It’s a MUST to understand the rules of the game, before you take actions, as it will save you time, money and frustration, down the road.

2)  “Oh, I did not know it can be played like that!”

I kept failing certain rounds many times over, until I knew that there were some special moves which required a combination of keys on the wii’s controller.  I just did not know they existed, as I was trying to play Wii’s Super Mario, as it were 20+ years ago.

The Mario game has evolved over time and it’s much more sophisticated than what it used to be.

Same for internet marketing, the technology has advanced so much that, advanced scripts have been developed to accelerate the speed of list building, viral marketing and the like.  Unless you apply them, you are left in the dust.   You need to equip a few skills before you can proceed with this business.

Things like:

- how to create products
- how to craft a sales message/ create a website
- how to collect payment and deliver the product/ service
- how to leverage on traffic, affiliate recruitment and etc.

You need to learn the tools of the trade in order to move on to the next stage, so to speak.

Is this possible?

The latest version of Super Mario in Wii has a feature;  if you can’t get passed certain level continuously, you can invite the console to demonstrate it for you.  I could not figure out why I could not pass certain level and I kept on failing and failing time, time over again   – until the console demonstrated how it should be played.

All you need is perhaps someone to show you if something can be achieved.  For example,  John Reese had his first 1 Million dollar day a few years back.  That’s unheard of at the time.  Now, it’s common to hear people making several million dollars under a 12-hour period.   It’s just a matter of visioning of what’s possible.

3) It only takes a split second to fall into the hole!

Whenever I attempted to talk to my friend during the game, my Mario would kiss a tortoise or fall into the “holes” – resulting “death”.  A split second of distraction is all it takes.

Do you have more than 1 second of distraction while you are working on your internet marketing?  e.g. reading some “opportunity” emails, watching your TV, playing with your cats, and etc?  We all know the answer.  It goes without saying that undivided attention is a MUST.

How do you kill distraction?

Devise and commit yourself to a plan.

Remove yourself from various marketing newsletters; better yet, open a new email account for the purpose of keeping track of the latest marketing info for research purpose.

Tell your beloved ones that you are occupied during certain hours.  Turn off your MSN messenger, Skype and ICQ, or whatever device that grabs your attention from time to time.

Put a list of things to do and commit yourself in completing them on time.

You may ask, what you should do?  For that, I recommend you download the 10 day business blueprint, if you have not.  It will help you to stay focused.  Print and stick it to your computer, and refer to it from time to time, whenever you feel distracted.

Put a clock in front of your monitor.   Make yourself aware that you are running against time.

This helps you to stay focused.

I hope you find the post useful.

To your success,

Roy