Published December 2000

Mastermind your way
to success on Internet

When Napoleon Hill, author of “Law of Success” and “Think and Grow Rich,” interviewed the 500 most successful people in the world, he discovered that one of the keys to their success was having a “mastermind” partner.

Hill defined a mastermind as an alliance of two or more people, working together in a spirit of perfect harmony to accomplish a definite purpose.

Strategic alliances represent a key to unlocking the “mastermind principle” and creating profound success for your online enterprise.

The nature of the typical client/vendor relationship does not create a common objective under which both parties can work together in a “spirit of perfect harmony.” Most companies hire a vendor to develop their Web site and provide paid-for promotion services at the lowest possible cost. The vendor is motivated to provide their services as economically as possible so they can move on to the next development project.

However, successful online marketing is not a one-time job. It’s an ongoing process. Updates to content are a necessity, and standard promotion techniques that work for one product or service may not work for another.

Ongoing evaluation and shifts in marketing strategies can be a necessity to reach your projected audience or to adjust your marketing focus as new, and often unexpected, markets present themselves. These aspects of Internet marketing make forging a strategic alliance for your Web site development a natural winner.

Charles Betterton, founder of “Success in America,” a portal for success training resources, said, “I selected someone who had an international reputation and expertise to design my Web site, provide hosting and Internet marketing and promotion services. What I discovered was that my site did not get the attention it deserved. Frustration led to my learning Front Page, which took me only so far. Finally, not to be held hostage, I began to seek a collaborative partnership for development that modeled cooperative enterprises like those I’ve learned about through Income Builders International.

“By soliciting a strategic partner for development, I created a common ground and a vested partner with a sustained interest in my online success. Instead of working with a vendor to just load my information into a page layout, I received input on creating sticky content and marketing messages that served to better draw in my site visitors. Instead of a rush to complete a task at hand, I found a partner who devoted personal time to refining marketing and promotion strategies until the results were achieved.”

Opportunities for strategic alliances also are available through other trade relationships. Alliances in the form of affiliate marketing and referral marketing can have a tremendous impact on your online success — look no further than Amazon.com. Even the search engines bear this out as rank criteria are significantly based on the number of links to your site.

Betterton said, “According to Brian Tracy, one of the top success experts in the world, the old sales paradigm was based on 10 percent relationship building, 20 percent product knowledge and 70 percent closing. The new paradigm has flipped to 70 percent relationship building, 20 percent product knowledge and 10 percent closing. This new model certainly holds true with Internet marketing and creating win-win alliances.”

How can you negotiate collaborative alliances to create win-win Internet marketing strategies? Consider offering equity in your business or paying a commission on actual Web site sales to create a vested relationship with your developer. Look for affiliated non-competitive products and services with which you can trade referrals and share in the benefits.

Strategic alliances can serve to reduce the risks related to non-performance and can go far in expanding your revenue earning (and sharing) opportunities. It is apparent that the “mastermind principle” and the new sales paradigm are applicable to successful Internet marketing.

To find more information on the “mastermind principle,” the subject is presented in “The Magic of Masterminding, Quantum Leap Your Effectiveness,” which is available from SuccessInAmerica.com along with Hill’s books and tapes.

Debra L. Malmos, AAP, is president and CEO of iFULL Enterprises, an Internet services provider for access and hosting, Web site development and Internet marketing. She can be reached by phone at 360-321-6242. Her Web site is www.ifull.com.

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