People are much more interested in how I fell down a 12 foot hole while heading toward the pub (it would have been much more understandable heading home after a few beers) than they are in how I first went pot holing in my early teens.

They’re more interested in how I got arrested by the police while illegally putting posters up around town advertising my band’s up and coming gig than they are by the fact that I was first published as a writer at the age of 12 (a very short piece I’ll admit, but I did get paid for it).

So I came to the conclusion a log time ago that failure is just as important in life as success – perhaps more so, because you can’t enjoy one without the other, and in terms of learning a lesson from the ‘University of Life’, failures are like being awarded a doctorate, but without the fancy hat.

 Which must be why of all issues of my newsletter it’s issue 5, where a bad Internet Marketing business decision left me out of pocket by $1,000 is the most re-visited newsletter on the whole site. Yes it makes interesting reading , but I’m no Milton – instead there’s one HUGE reason why people like that particular newsletter – people can relate to failure.  

And that’s the reason why no marketer, no matter what level they’re at should ever try to hide or gloss over their cock ups.

As marketers this should be obvious to us. Most of us haven’t made a fortune from a pottery factory but I can’t think of many people who haven’t dropped a plate at some point.

Your subscribers/readers will get tired pretty quickly of hearing about how you earned $100,000 last month from this or that deal, especially if you leave them with sketchy details or miss out some vital information. It’s boring.

Yep – making $100,000 a month is BORING if all you do is read about someone somewhere in some gold plated office somewhere is doing it and you’re not.

 How useful is ‘I made $100,000 over the last 30 days through affiliate marketing’?

It’s not – unless you tell your subscribers and readers exactly how you did it.

Don’t leave out the detail (we all know that’s where the Devil is but it’s also where the DOLLAR is) because every piece of the puzzle, no matter how small contributes to success.

I try and leave in every detail of my successes and failure in my newsletter – (you can subscribe and get instant access to the back issues using the opt-in form on the right) and that’s why I have both a loyal readership and a lot of egg on my face.

New marketers especially who think they have nothing to contribute because they haven’t yet started earning online, listen up-  your failures, are you best marketing tool.

Start a blog documenting how you tried to make some money using ‘so and so’ method, or by promoting whatever opportunity. Then set down in detail what you did and why you think it didn’t work.

Blogs/websites/reports like this are GOLD DUST in an industry where too many people try to ‘fake it till they make it’. Be honest with your readers – they’ll opt in to your newsletter or list to find out how you’re going on, and when you do finally pull in that elusive first hundred dollars (and you will) they’ll be there to buy the ebook or report you write about it, because they trust you, they want to know your methods and they can relate to you.

Just never forget they were attracted first of all by your failures.

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