“I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
Stephen King, The Gunslinger
Internet marketing is a strange beast. We enter into it with hopes, dreams and ideals. Many of us leave bereft of all three. Those of us who persist are faced with a consistent challenge - to be true to ourselves while forging our way through a market that has long since lost its lustre.
There are things that we swear we will not do and yet the joker in the deck keeps handing us the same card, daring us to play it. I've been in this game a long time. I'd like to think that by and large I know my limitations and I know what I'm doing. I've had various levels of success and I've crashed and burned on more than one occasion.
It's those times that I've crashed and burned that I'd like to talk about.
Business traditionally relies upon the interaction between two people - a buyer and a seller. Both parties should respect each other. In a face to face situation, doing business is relatively straightforward because there is genuine interaction between two people.
Doing business on the Internet is not as simple. It is easy to hide behind your computer screen and get lost in numbers, ratios, percentages, click through rates, upsells and a host of other garbage. In my times of failure, I've fallen prey to this mentality. It's something I'm not proud of. You could say that I've felt like I'd forgotten the face of my father.
In Stephen King's epic tale, the Dark Tower forgetting the face of your father is seen as almost the ultimate sin. Those accused of this crime are seen as treacherous and unworthy. They have given up their principles for some reward, be it money, power or lust. A gunslinger (Knight) accused of such a crime is banished to the Wastelands and condemned to wander alone forever. Forgetting the face of your father is to turn your back on what you know to be right and true. There is no coming back from there.
Several years ago, I reached a point in my Internet Marketing where I'd lost sight of who I was and why I'd gotten into the business. Things went OK for a while, but I became increasingly unhappy. Predictably, the wheels fell off and I banished myself to the wastelands of Internet Marketing.
I came back seeking redemption and I've been looking for the vehicle to do that for some time.
I've found it and it's totally different to anything that I've ever been involved in.
The vehicle is the Hive blockchain. It encourages cooperation, participation and engagement. It's something I can really embrace and recommend. Although its founders would never have envisaged it becoming a haven for Internet Marketers, it is a match made in heaven.
I'm not the only one who understands this. Jon Olson and Blain Jones at CTP were early adopters. They've brought a lot of people with them and they're pretty keen to show everybody how this blockchain can benefit them.
There does not need to be a buyer or a seller. You can build an income by being a creator or a responder. Does that even compute?
This is going to get big and it's going to stay big. Internet Marketing will be a part of the overall system, but it will be sustainable and most importantly in a non-predatory way.
I'm confident in endorsing Hive, CTP, List Nerds and Start Earning Today. I'm restructuring my entire online business strategy and even considering cutting back on my freelance writing so that I can spend more time working in and on Hive. It feels like I've come home. You could say that I'm remembering the face of my father.
Redemption is possible after all.
Cheers.