Two marketers: Fred and Jason.

Two marketers: Fred and Jason.

(If you get the movie reference, you win a virtual doughnut.)

Jason.

Jason, a dating affiliate, promotes a Pay Per Lead (PPL) dating offer for HockeyMaskLoverDating.com and earns $5 every time he refers a free registration. Considering himself a clever marketer, Jason puts together a marketing plan. Said marketing plan looks like this:

Traffic --- > Domain Forwarding --- > HockeyMaskLoverDating.com

Thus, happy with his plan, Jason jumps into action:

• Jason buys a short .com domain from Godaddy that looks similar to the dating offer: HockeyMaskSingles.com.
• He gets his unique affiliate code for HockeyMaskLoverDating.com, the one that earns him $5 per free registration, and sets up forwarding on his own domain, the one on Godaddy. Now, whenever anyone visits HockeyMaskSingles.com, they are automatically sent to HockeyMaskLoverDating.com, where Jason can earn his $5 per registration.
• All I need now, Jason tells himself, is traffic.
• Jason thinks long and hard.
• Where, Jason asks himself, does my target audience hang out?
• Epiphany! Jason figures out where at least some of his audience hang out.
• Jason gets a bunch of videos of bikini-clad chicks wearing hockey masks; dancing, bouncing, twerking. He plops a watermark on each video. Add Me on HockeyMaskSingles.com! He learns how to rank a video for a keyword on Youtube. Jason uploads 100 videos a day.
• And not only to Youtube. To every video sharing site.
• Jason gets an unholy amount of pictures - of, you guessed it, bananas. Also, he gets a few pictures of bikini-clad chicks wearing hockey masks, and, just like his videos, he watermarks them: Add Me on HockeyMaskSingles.com!
• Jason syndicates those pictures to every last corner of the net where his target audience hangs their hockey mask. And he does so every day. He syndicates hundreds of images every day.

Jason is making money. Quite a bit. He earns, on average, 21 cents EPC. In other words, for every single person who visits his domain, HockeyMaskSingles.com, he earns an average of 21 cents. And Jason - Jason is shifting some traffic. He sends 2,000 uniques a day through HockeyMaskSingles.com, earning himself $420 a day.

Is $420 a day enough? Not likely. Jason gets an idea. He figures out that some syndication platforms, where he syndicates his videos and pictures, have no problem at all with automation; at least they don't include anything about it in their Terms of Service. Yet again - epiphany! Jason gets a copy of Macro Express and makes some basic macros to automate uploading and sharing his videos and pictures. (Had he been smart, he would have bought uBot; but, as you're about to find out, Jason is not that smart.)

Jason now sends 10,000 uniques a day through his domain, earning himself $2,100 each day. (10,000 X 0.21 = $2,100)

Is Jason happy? With $63,000 a month? Well, sure. He won't be buying a mansion anytime soon, but hey, he can afford to buy tons of neat hockey masks. Jason? He's happy.

Fred.

Now, Fred, Fred is smart. More so than Jason. Not right away, you understand, but he gets there.

Fred, you see, he catches wind of what Jason is up to. Jason, not being the sharpest tack in the box, tells a few people.

So what does Fred do? He runs for Godaddy. But - before he can get there - a chap called Tom grabs him by his striped jumper, tosses him on the floor.

And looking down at Fred, Tom points his finger and sets Fred straight: "Listen. When you setup an online business, the first thing you do - are you listening? - the first thing you do is setup a system of ASSET BUILDING. All that traffic you intend to have flowing through your domain? CAPTURE IT."

Tom talks. Fred listens.

And 20 minutes later, Fred has revised his marketing plan. It now looks a bit different to Jason's:

Traffic --- > Domain --- > Assets --- > Monetizations

Thus, happy with his plan, Fred jumps into action:

• After a lot of market research, Fred comes up with a unique idea for a viral magazine website, aimed at his favourite bunch of people: men and women who like wearing striped jumpers and want to find dates, hookups, heck, even marriage.
• Fred calls his site StripedJumperSingles.com.
• Prior to launch, Fred does a few things. A great many things, actually. Chief among them: Fred adds all manner of content, infused with viral potential, and yes, optimized for search engines, too; articles, memes, images, gifs, videos, infographics. Whatever CAN go viral? Fred adds it. But he also adds a bunch of other stuff. He integrates a newsletter. He adds big, obnoxious social buttons, that point to his pages and accounts on Facebook and Twitter and - well - you name it. Fred, he even adds a forum. Why not, hey? Fred - he builds asset platforms.
• Launch comes.
• Now, imagine 2 types of rocket. Both of them are launched into the sky. One is a little firecracker purchased at a 7-11; the other, a NASA space shuttle. StripedJumperSingles.com? NASA space shuttle. The launch - let us say, the launch goes well.
• The world, the world that matters, the world of people who wear striped jumpers and want dates and hookups and marriage, that world, that world takes notice. Oh boy, do they.
• Fred does many things that Jason does. He also does a whole lot more. And before long, Fred has a website getting 5,000,000 visits a month.

Is Fred happy? He's pretty happy. His newsletter is growing. His social follower counts are climbing. Heck, even his forum is rolling along. Fred earns $105,000 a month, quite a bit more than Jason, of course, and Fred is not hurting for cash. Before long, Fred's wardrobe is positively heaving with striped jumpers. Fred? Pretty happy.

Uh-Oh.

The internet is dynamic; it changes, literally, from second to second. Which, of course, means internet marketing changes. Not always from second to second, children, but it changes. And, sometimes, when it does change, your business can break. Heck, it can sometimes become obsolete. Death. Yes, indeed.

The Grim Reaper pays Fred and Jason a visit.

And to each of them, The Grim Reaper speaks:

"Terms of service changes! Algorithm changes! Social network changes! Did you think, mortals, that I, The Grim Reaper, would sit idly by, would not, listen to me mortals, usher in that which I am DESIGNED, though paradox it may be, TO GIVE BIRTH. I, mortals, am the BRINGER OF GONE. I, mortals, am the ARCHITECT OF END. And you, mortals - you, mere sand at the edge of an infinite sea, sand molded by an endless tide. And I . . . I am the tide."

Months Go By.

Jason, having lost all but a trickle of traffic, earns $30 a day.

Fred, who owns a popular website, it's arms stretching to the four corners of the net, Fred, who owns assets, subscribers, followers, members, Fred is doing better than Jason. Quite a bit better. Fred earns $80,000 a month. Not a King's ransom, no, but Fred can sleep at night. Sometimes, Fred is even lucky enough to dream. He likes a good dream, does Fred. His favourite dream, the one he had last night, saw Fred lounging on a beach. It was a nice day. The tide slid in; it slid out. Somewhere, whenever the tide did slide it, Fred thought he heard screams, but surely - just his imagination. Why would anyone scream on such a nice day? The tide, it slid in again, and there it was again - the scream, sounding, if Fred was not mistaken, a lot like Jason. Imagination. Surely.

It was, after all, a nice day.