As I continue watching Internet product launches, I'm becoming increasingly concerned. Many promises are made, some are kept. A few IM niche marketers make lots of money. Most don't.
You've all seen the acronym "ROI" (return on investment). I've just invented a new measurement, related to ROI and more important: "ROT."
ROT stands for "return on time" and has two components: the AMOUNT of time you invest in anything (attending school, working at a job, learning an Internet marketing course) and the monetary VALUE of your time, broken down in hours.
Before choosing an Internet training program, before checking out the PRICE ($47, $97), estimate how many available HOURS you can set aside to complete the course.
Let's say you estimate 100 hours. Ask yourself first if you have 100 hours available. If you do, you must COMMIT yourself to allocating 100 hours of your time to complete the course. If you don't have 100 hours, you shouldn't purchase because the ROT (return on time) will be nil.
Then, estimate what your time earns. If you spend 100 hours of your time to generate $100 per week in month two, you initially earn $4 per hour ($100 per week X four divided by 100 hours).
If your time investment results in earning $200 per week in month three ($800 per month), then you've earned $10 per hour ($400 to get going in month two; $800 in month three for a total of $1,000, divided by 100 hours).
If your time investment continues growing, you ROT rises; if it diminishes, your ROT goes down.
Now, subtract your monetary investment and the value of time spent maintaining your investment (PPC advertising, cost of product, joint partner ayments, etc.). Let's say it's $500.
Your return on time generated $1,000, but your costs reduced that by $500. So by month three, your net gain is $500. You've earned $5 per hour ($500/100 hours). Is the investment worth your time?
Both quality and poor Internet marketing courses take time, your most precious resource. Some Internet marketers are honest and up-front about earnings, like Affilorama's, but many are not. The latter usually have promotional names such as "how to make $10,000 on Twitter in one week" or "Blogging to the Bank" and such.
Some Internet marketers play off people's general reluctance to spend time and consider their ROT. That's why so many newbies and others continue buying new courses, because the previous ones were time-consuming and ineffective.
You have to decide whether the promise of riches is realistic and the amount of time it will take to achieve a profit rather than just making money. (The two are different.)
"Free" bonuses are not really free because they require your TIME and lower your ROT. The best rule of thumb is to take on only ONE course at a time, put all your time and effort into learning, then decide if you want to move on to the next one.
But before choosing any program, calculate your RETURN ON TIME. To avoid considering ROT will cause you a lot of pain and no gain.
Mobile website owners, similar to non-mobile website owners, may believe that website optimization, mobile analytics, search engine marketing and other digital marketing techniques are too challenging, take excessive time and, in many cases, become impossible to manage. This convinces some mobile marketers to "fly by the seat of their pants" when assessing mobile website performance.
