I read a wonderful post by marketing genius, Seth Godin called “Hope and the Magic Lottery” that addresses the hope that all business owners, entrepreneurial types, and creatives have. The hope that someone, the big publishing house, the big venture capitalist, or Oprah even, will discover them and take them out of obscurity into success and riches. The big dream of the overnight success.
As artists, we all have that dream as well and we’re always hoping that perhaps the next media mention, the next open studio, the next art show, or the next sale on our website will be the one that catapults us into recognition and success. The same kind of thinking applies to your website and/or blog. People are always looking for the next new technique, the next great tool, or the next magic “thing” that they can do to their websites to bring a ton of traffic and sales.
But things don’t often work that way. Very few people tweet their way to fame and riches. Success doesn’t usually come to those with the most Facebook friends and the money doesn’t come rolling in because you have the coolest website. The successful website or blog is built one visitor, one sale, one customer at a time. Even those that are “overnight” successes are usually the result of years of hard, steady work. And while the cool techniques and tools like advertising, social media, and SEO does help, often it’s the hard stuff like always answering emails and phone calls, responding to customer feedback, consistent and systematic followup, a steady stream of new products that customers want, and plain old fashioned hard work that leads to success.
Be sure to check out Seth’s post here. Bookmark it…and the next time you feel the need to find that “one thing” that’s going to make you a success, read it.
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I believe every word you wrote. There are so many Geru’s out there, selling “instant riches” but if you take the time to read the disclaimers, they always tell you, in very small print, that there is no short cut to hard work. But “hard work” isn’t really hard if you enjoy what your doing. Nice post, thanks for sharing.