Just finished writing up a blog post about what webmasters and internet marketers can learn from the Art of War. Not really into shameless promotion, so I spun the article (so Google doesn't slap me for duplicate content) and here it is. The Art of War is unquestionably a incredible, exceedingly inspirational, and completely useful text on military affairs. Yep … military affairs. So I assume you’re thinking about what the heck I’m doing diiscussing something intended to assist generals and warriors wage warfare while combating their foes. The Facts inside matter is, that as a webmaster or internet marketer – we too are generally linked to being a commander in the war fought on multiple fronts. The war against our challengers usually stretches through several borders into the depths of the online world and is frequently savage. From Google rankings, to market namesake, to product superiority/differentiation we are continuously and usually unknowingly at war. Getting straight into it, the real question is how can this book be applied to our online endevaours? I’m planning to pick it apart, and try and translate its military significance into something we could depend on and comfortably employ. Here we go. . 1. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. This is now one among my individual favorite quotations from the book, and has been some thing I’ve perceptibly carried through into different online undertakings. This also reinforces the concept of urgency I do think some people will neglect to utilize when attempting to earn money. Without drifting off point, There's no doubt that the worst error you can create seriously isn't applying urgency to your work. My interpretation is that essentially when introducing a project, it is often better to keep the launch a secret, other than creating a sense of suspence. Why? Because your competitors can feed off this foresight, and as a result engage in a advertising campaign in order to move the attention off your task come launch time. I’ve had success with practically appearing out of no where, and carrying out an extensive and serious marketing campaign. By the time my opponents have been able to react, I would have already established myself in the industry which consequently make their efforts are less difficult to offset. 2. Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. This is a very solid quote, nevertheless I want to create an emphasis on conducting market research before you launch a product. It’s absolutely vital to realise what exactly your competitors want to accomplish, and identifying trends in their business model. These details will therefore help you anticipate how they will react. Sometimes utilizing the Way Back Machine can prove extremely beneficial. I believe it’s also useful to note that doing anything to generate money online constitutes operating a business, at least on some level. It should consequently be handled as a bricks and mortar enterprise would, with a thorough degree of exploration and preperation being employed. 3. Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must be roused to anger; that there may be advantage from defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards. The literal interpretation is a bit savage, nevertheless after you apply this to what we’re doing, it actually makes quite a bit of sense. Once more, it is something that I’ve put in place prior to now – specially when running a web host business a few years back. Mainly ‘killing the enemy’ represents a universal ambition(for instance attaining a certain market share, or generating a specific profit) that your entire team should be working in the direction of. Your team should therefore be inspired in achieving this goal through getting some sort of reward; whether it be financial or private or whatever. For the record, I’m discussing an award as well as the usual wage. Appropriately encouraging personnel, or contractors, is something no webmaster or internet marketer should ever forget about. 4. You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended. This in my opinion is a crucial mistake countless webmasters and internet marketers seem to constantly make. That's of course – targeting exceptionally flooded markets without implementing any true type of category, which therefore just leaves them subjected to a flood of rivals – mainly of which are usually equipped with monsterous market share and finances. As such, the guidance of the thoughtful Sun Tzu is as a result with merit. Attacking undefended arrangements, or markets, will be an less complicated strategy to effectively make certain achievement and therefore gives you the advantage of usurping a significantly smaller number of competitors. The web is so readily available to everyone and virtually anybody these days. Because of this a good portion of sites catering to a saturated industry characteristically fizzle out since nobody pays attention to them. No one can focus on them. As cliche as it sounds, envision you were after a few ringtones, and you were hypothically standing infront of a mass near 20 thousand people, with each individual yelling at you to check out their web site. You may most likely only understand what the people at the front are saying and likely impart them with a shot out of sheer convienience. Who knows what gems are resting at the back of that mass – but are you genuinely gonna sort through 20, 000 sites to get the best ringtones site? Definitely not. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Wow, that's an interesting point of view you have, feeling inspired? Im a barbarians at the gate kinda man anyways.
A great way of looking at the way you run your business. You have a really interesting outlook, and i will be using some of your ideas in my own business, thanks
Thank you for sharing, I must admit, I have used Sun Tzu's theology in many other aspects of life and found it an asset!
What about this one: All warfare is based on deception. Could we say the same about marketing? Is all marketing deceptive? Do we, by our very nature, deceive our prospects and customers?
Thank you for share. I think not just webmasters and internet marketers can learn from the Art of War.every person and industry can learn too.
I think unfortunately that seems to be the case these days, however I don't think this quote should be interpretated to reflect marketing I had actually written somthing about this quote, but decided the others are better suited to what I was trying to at. I wrote something along the lines that creating the impression that ones website is busier than it actually is (for example employing forum posters in a new forum) is a form of 'deception' that is beneficial, yet not harmful to visitors and prospects. Thanks for all the positive comments guys.
If you think about it, most marketing is deceptive yes. Not 100% of the time and I'm not only speaking about online marketing either. Think about all the commercials you see throughout the day. For example, Pro Active. You know damn well that not one of those people on the commercial ever had acne (it's obvious because they always have such perfect skin) but they "deceive" us into thinking that all these people had acne and used Pro Active and now it's gone so the same will work for you. You could put that spin on any commercial or magazine advertisement or whatever. Especially ones that have to do with appearance (weight loss, acne, teeth whitening, building muscles, etc.) They target people with low self-esteem about their particular problem with themselves and basically trick them into thinking their product will solve all their problems. Now of course some of the products may work and some don't. Same can be said about selling stuff online too. Not ALL CB products are useless and some of them do have benefits to them. But regarding the article, it was awesome. I like how you related everything to marketing and it really makes perfect sense. Crazy how a strategy on war can be related to what we do online and even crazier how you connected the two. Great job.
Wow i don't have words to speak; simply all points are awesome. I will try to implement your words in my way.
There's much more you could have added - I'm thinking mainly the use of spies. Also, keeping your own people content and fairly treated... I enjoy reading The Art of War from time to time - pity the world's leaders seem never to have picked it up.