DaveLindberg.net

The way you define success also defines your strategy and your actions. Case in point: I’m just coming off of a month-long experiment in internet marketing web 2.0 style. Mike Mindell ran a brief article in a WordTracker email about his involvement in the 30 Day Challenge, an online course in web marketing given by Ed Dale and friends. The object of the game was to learn a slew of new marketing techniques; the “challenge” was to earn ten dollars online in a month.

I’d seen some of Dale’s work before, and heard good things about his group, so even though the event was already well under way, I was able to work through the archives and pick up from the beginning. Besides, the price was right.

But right from the start, I had some misgivings about the intended outcome — sure, a first sale is an important milestone, but the short term emphasis made me wonder if the program sacrifices sustainability for quick results. While some of the techniques presented could produce almost instantaneous search rankings for a period of time, I’m not all that interested in working hard to achieve a traffic bubble.

In addition, the number of participants (which seemed to be way beyond the organizers’ expectations) meant that on any average day, Ed would introduce a concept, unveil a web tool, and unleash thousands of enthusiastic newbies to release their blog posts en masse. Early on, hundreds of new and often spammy listings were posted to Tumblr daily, taking the site by surprise; many new accounts were promptly shut down. Just the nature of the event: many of the 30DC marketing “tips” being presented would immediately become less effective.

Between the course’s short-term emphasis and legions of followers, it felt better to follow along, pick up some tips, meet some motivated people, and focus on the business. All in all, the 30 Day Challenge was a remarkably effective and structured run through the basics of marketing: lots of market research; developing solid and meaningful content; SEO and link building. A recap of some tools I was familiar with, and some new sites that that make the process quicker. My online business is growing steadily, and I’ve had the opportunity to work with some smart and dedicated people.

So who won the challenge? There are 44 posts in the “I made a sale” forum thread. Out of how many, it’s hard to say. Not surprisingly, it looks like there was a lot of fall-off during the month: compared to the first 30DC video posted on Youtube, the last segment posted 29 days later received only 15% of the traffic. But unless you’re Ed Dale, the numbers here aren’t all that important. It’s the people who finished the course and are still doing the work — the research, the writing, the numbers — that have the potential to succeed.