?? to sell or not to sell to fellow wa members ??
Is this a good idea or not such a good thing to do? The question has raised its head as a controversial one. Some think it’s a great idea. Others harbor concerns about the risks involved. This short missive attempts to address the issue.
We’ll use a simple decision making technique for which Benjamin Franklin gets credit; aptly called the Ben Franklin. It takes some critical thinking saturated with honest objectivity. We simply state the pro and con sides of the question. Then we weigh the value of both sides to determine the winner. If reasons in favor outweigh those against, guess what. But if the risks embedded in reasons against are stronger, guess what.
PRO – Latin meaning: “FOR”, loosely translated: ‘in favor of”, “Go for it.”, Hoorah!!”
1.There is a decent chance that 1 of 5 in the WA community might be interested in my niche and make a mad dash for my website. 20%, not bad.
2.Members are a captive audience.
3.This is a natural source of customers. I have tons of followers who know me and whose comments are generally positive.
4.The membership as a whole likes me and would be tickled to help. After all, I’ve helped many of them. They will be happy to reciprocate.
5.New members join every day and they are ripe. All I have to do is follow everybody who shows up and encourage them to follow me.
6.Because they already know me, they may be more inclined to be repeat customers. My product fills an ongoing need for continued replenishing. Think of address labels.
7. Mine will be a dedicated website just for members inclusive of a blog page directed to their interests.This will mean repeated WA visitors to my site with more sales. Nice!
8.Targeting WA members can give me a quick start in my business which I can later expand to sell to the remaining people in need on the World Wide Web.
CON –Latin meaning: “AGAINST”, looslely translated: “Are you nuts?” No Thanks.", Booo!
1.A 20% response may be possible, but maybe not. All statistics carry a certain margin of error. They represent averages. The largest groups give the lowest margin of error. The more risky smaller groups yield the greater margins of error. Dreams on an average of 1 out of 5 of WA members could very well be unrealistic. And many members on the books are inactive. This statistic should reflect only active members.
2.Oh, really? Do members here really want to be captured? The WA community largely consists of those trying to escape the Internet marketing predators. Our community is a safe haven, an oasis, in a world of “Hooray for me and down with you.” It is based on trust and communal support. It walks its talk. Freedom from fears of solicitation from fellow members should not be compromised regardless of product.
3.Just because the fruit is ripe on the tree does not give us license to pick it.
4.They like me now because I respect them. If I were to show myself in wolf’s clothing. How long would they respect me? Helping should be a free gift with no pay back.
5.The easiest way out can be robbing the baby from the cradle. That does not take much effort. Building an online business does. Leave them alone to learn and grow. Help, don’t take advantage. The community is a support group, not a store front.
6.Fact of the matter is that most community members would not want to be our customer in the first place if they experience us attempting to sell them. We are risking resurrecting their memories of abusive marketing scammers. Those negative instigators hurt the overall group, especially the newbie.
Most people love WA because of its absence of those tactics. They do not sell their stuff to members because the purpose and integrity of our community would be compromised. It could open up a Pandora’s Box of destructive abuses; everything could be up for grabs at that point.
7.I thought the WA community site had a blogging feature already in place. If I’m concerned about its adequacy, maybe I should write a blog there on its usefulness. But, would I be trying to fix something not broken; trying to reinvent the wheel?
8.Chances are that selling to fellow WA members will have very limited success. There are too many assumptions in the PRO section about who the community is and how it manages to operate within a healthy, successful environment.
The best bet is to learn and absorb the offered training and concentrate on building a niche market that does not attempt to take advantage of the WA community. Why bite the hand that feeds you. Whether our product could benefit them or not, is not the issue here.
Now you know where I stand on the issue. But you judge. Does the PRO or the CON group come out on top? Some will agree with me; some will not. It is the division of minds and ensuing debates that most often result in the best choices.
Help the community; offer your thoughts. – Al Hurley
Recent Comments
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urtimelyal - I just asked Kyle on our chat if his stance on no promoting to other WAU members was cast in concrete and he said it was - and would never be changed. All of the members on the chat agreed with Kyle's policy. Thanks
PS I was not trying to promote selling but rather just asking the question.
Hi Larry, I am fully aware that you were just asking the question, which was absolutely the right thing to do. I wanted to see what other WA's sites looked like and clicked yours. I did NOT feel as though I was being promoted. Another reason I have gone to WA sites is that I wanted an idea of what could be done with Word Press. How do these sites look? Do they appeal to visitors?
Thanks for your comment, Larry - Al Hurley
Spam is a no no here at WA or any sort of promotion. If you have anything to promote, it should be reserved for your OWN website.
There are far too many scams out there and once we allow ONE promo, we have to allow them all. This is an education platform here at WA and there is no space here for promoting "stuff" to fellow members.
That is the entire purpose of your website, to help people and ultimately build trust. Once you have that trust, you can then consider promoting products/services that can help them.
I think the biggest issue is there is no way to prevent it from spiraling out of control and us getting swamped with spam, junk and people just trying to take advantage of other people. The whole idea is that it is a safe environment to focus on improving our sites without having to be bombarded by selling tactics from others.
With that being said i know there are people who have shared their sites for feedback and comments and end up getting people from WA that are interested in their product/site and who bookmark it and go back to it. If that is the case then so be it but I am def. on board with the WA policy that we should not be allowed to promote ourselves. The closest you can get to letting anyone know about your site here is if you ask for feedback on it, share a page for comments, and don't forget that you can always add it to your profile under the websites area so that people can see that you have it when they look at ya.
Hey, autumn56, Thanks for the reply. Right on. We're all climbing the same mountain here;,we should be sharing our sites with one another for review and helps. And if someone happens to say "Self, I like that product for me. I want some." Fine, but don't sell it to me. If I like it, I'll sell it to myself.
Hi. Actually, it's against WA policy to promote or try to sell to other WA members. If you need further details just type "Spam Is A No No" into the search bar and you will see a list of things we cannot do. Hope this helps address the questions.
Thanks, Rick. That list of No No,I'll bet is not like a list of WA sins to avoid. It is more probably a list of behaviors in WA we could do with benefit personally and to the community. I'm going to access it.
- Al Hurley
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Your comments were great and could not be made any clearer.