Since I spent so much time ripping on the IM space yesterday..<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a related & timely question I got from an Email Players subscriber:<\/p>\n
(not sure he wants me to name him or not)<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you think online marketing space is not worth pursuing anymore and should focus on something else online\/offline?\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My answer:<\/p>\n
Yes it is, but you just have to curate harder than ever before, and focus more on smaller, but higher quality, versus bigger, but lower quality. Some of this may all change again in the coming years though.<\/p>\n
But the current flakey business environment is simply not sustainable.<\/p>\n
Too many fat and happy years with easy access to credit have made people complacent.<\/p>\n
The mindless hook-line-and-sinker buying into generative so-called AI is proof of this.<\/p>\n
In my opinion, we\u2019re in the equivalent of 1998 or 1999 or very early 2000 right now. The same sort of thing happened then, with a collapse, with the online marketing space shrinking as a result, goo-roos who capitalized on it who thought they were geniuses suddenly going back to living at home and parking cars for a living, etc.<\/p>\n
Then it all came roaring back a few years later.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the exact same this time, but it\u2019s eerily similar.<\/p>\n
The whole \u201cHistory Doesn’t Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes\u201d is often true.<\/p>\n
I came into the industry a couple years after the 2000 internet bubble chaos, and about 5 months after 9\/11, and it was an advantage in two ways:<\/p>\n
(1) I was broke and there wasn\u2019t a glut of goo-roos to have to discern who\u2019s full of it or not, most were solid resources<\/p>\n
(2) I got to ride the bounce back up, since it\u2019d already hit bottom<\/p>\n
And I can tell you this:<\/p>\n
The guys who survived, thrived, are still around today didn\u2019t do it by bouncing from one trend to the next. They did the basics: build list, mail it offers they want to buy, give good Service & Experiences, leverage relationships, strategic JVs, etc etc etc.<\/p>\n
Nothing \u201cnew\u201d about any of it.<\/p>\n
People chasing new and trendy are fooked and don’t even realize it.<\/p>\n
Will not explain.<\/p>\n
For more on my approaches to marketing, copywriting, business see the paid Email Players newsletter.<\/p>\n
You can learn more about it here:<\/p>\n