Insanity or Perseverance? Which do you Choose?
You are told from those who achieved success: "Stick with it. Don't give up. Persevere." There are no signs which say your idea and investment will the path to success.
"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.” - Buckminster Fuller
You are also reminded to not be stupid or act like someone who is insane:
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
Which is it?
- Persevere, do what you love and stick with it?
- Stop doing something over and over that is obviously unproductive and a dead-end?
The danger is that if you are unable to clearly separate insanity from the invisible path to success, there can be a perception that everything is going as expected when there is only a dead end ahead.
"Burn the Boats"
Does it make sense to risk your assets and relationships to achieve the ultimate success?
The ancient Greek warriors understood how to keep themselves focused and motivated. They Greeks possessed an unwavering attitude to victory and commitment. When the Grecian armies landed on their enemy’s shore, the first order the commanders gave was “Burn the boats.”
These commanders knew the power of motivation and necessity.
With no boats to retreat to, the army had to be successful in order to survive. As the soldiers watched the boats burn, they knew there was no turning back – there would be no surrendering.
What is the next action?
- Burn the boats and remove all options of retreat.
- This gives no other option but to fight for what you believe. There is no "give up" since success becomes the only option.
- Use the mind that God gave you to make rational, logical decisions along the way. When in an area of high risk or completely new to you, trust but verify.
- While you may have burned your boats, you did not dump your assets overboard. Protecting assets from the predators, cons and incompetent remains a priority.
- Carry a toolbox which allows you to measure success each step of the way.
Now that you have "burned the boats", you turn to books, training and experts for support with marketing. You need a tool to "trust but verify".
For anyone claiming to be an online marketing expert, you can use Marketing Grader as one method to evaluate their expertise.
The advantage to Internet marketing vs. offline traditional marketing is: Data and transparency. While there is not exactness with the data and each tool may show conflicting results, all the analytics tools give opportunity to show trends and patterns.
How to Measure Inbound Marketing Results on the Internet Weekly:
Marketing Grader NEW!
Marketing Grader is a new tool to measure marketing activities and is more in sync with the new Internet trends than the more traditional tools. Combining the best of both gives you insight as to whether you are insane or if you should have hope.
Grader.com includes a suite of tools that helps you measure and analyze your marketing activities.
Website.Grader.com
This free SEO tool measures the marketing effectiveness of any website you choose. Website Grader has graded over 3 million websites and is the winner of numerous awards.
TwitterGrader.com
Twitter Grader is especially helpful to those new to Twitter. The suggestions Twitter Grader offers keeps the user focused. Twitter Grader is a free tool for measuring the power, authority and reach of a Twitter user.
Book.Grader.com
Writing a book is on your "to-do" list for 2012. Don't wander in the dark. Use this tool if you are an author to measure and improve the marketing of your books.
Press Release Grader has been taken off the list.
Facebook.Grader.com
With over 700 million active users on Facebook, there is a draw to have a Facebook business page (or Fan Page). Each day thousands of businesses are setting up Facebook pages to help reach their potential customers. If you are one such business, Facebook Grader will shed light on how to proceed.
Search.Grader.com NEW!
The most important aspect of your website for getting found is ranking for keywords. How do you rank? Search Grader shows you which keywords your website is ranking for and how you're doing on SEO.
Burn the boats and measure your results with these tools weekly. If your "scores" improve, this is expected to be represent more traffic and better conversion. Knowing you have an arsenal of tools to measure results will keep you from choosing marginal service companies.
Most importantly, the tools will keep you informed as to whether you are making progress or spinning your wheels over and over like many business owners do.
Hubspot software has the tools listed above built in along with many other features. If yoou are interested in a free 30 day trial, sign up here:
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