My family loves to tell people that I am smart but have no common sense. They find that amusing for some reason. In some areas (like putting things together) I’d agree with them, but when it comes to my business, I fully disagree. (I can see my family shaking their heads, but pay no attention to them).

I use common sense in my business constantly, and I highly recommend that you do the same. It’s easy in this fast-paced world of Internet Marketing to get caught up in the “make lots of money online now, now, now” atmosphere. But any time you come across a self-proclaimed guru wanting to sell you this line of er, um, “hooey”, take a step back and evaluate it.

In other words, take the time to turn off the greed and turn on the common sense. Does it really make sense that all that has been promised will come true? And on the flip side of that coin: If you implement the guru’s strategies, does the end result make common sense for the end user? If you were the end user, would you buy whatever it is you’re trying to sell them? Put yourself in the user’s shoes for a moment. Does the concept make sense to you? Would anyone with a lick of common sense want what you are offering? If so, great! Go with it! If not, seriously reconsider.

There are many times that for one reason or another, I can’t take the time to fully test an idea before implementing it. In those cases, I rely on common sense to guide me. If it makes sense to me as the idea implementor, and I believe it will make sense to the consumer, then I run with it. If either of those scenarios don’t make sense, I rethink the idea first. Just because it might make sense to me as a business person (”Hey, I can make lots of money off of that idea!”), doesn’t mean it will make sense to the people who would be the ones actually spending the money. The idea has to make sense for both parties for it to be viable.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering…I’ve occasionally run with an idea without considering the common sense elements first. Each of those ideas failed pretty quickly. Live and learn!

(from Smash Mouth. "AllStar" Astro Lounge. Interscope Records, 1999.)

Posted on October 4th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Making Money Online