A number of people have asked me what I mean by the terms “Push” and “Pull” used in the explanations of the different types of arrows on page 7 of the PearlMaker Overview document (see previous post).

Waaaay back in the mid 1990s there was a concept called “push” versus “pull” communications. Nowadays they’re known by other, more fancy names (see “Barker’s Eggs”) like “Attraction Marketing”, “The Secret”, “Interruption Advertising”, “Permission Marketing” and similar. (Branding is everything in the 21st century.)

I still like “push” and “pull”. Their simplicity and clarity have always appealed to me.

It’s pretty easy to understand: if a message is pushed at you by a publisher or advertiser, that’s “Push”.

If you have the choice to request messages be sent to you with your consent, that’s “Pull”.

Not exactly abstruse, is it?

It’s like the three forms of selling (there are only three, by the way. Anyone who says otherwise is just trying to sell you something.)

1. Advertising — which pulls the consumer toward your offer.
2. Visual Merchandising — which pushes your offer toward the (hopefully) rapidly approaching consumer.
3. Personal Selling Skills — which close any gap left by the first two.

Unfortunately, impatient sellers couldn’t wait for consumers to be pulled toward their offers, so they created ways to push their ads by invading the personal space of consumers at every opportunity. That glowing example of integrity and intelligence resulted, eventually in such even-handed legal niceties as the “Do Not Call” registry and “No Advertising Mail” laws.
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The long-awaited PearlMaker Professional Sponsoring System is finally nearing release… the only Fourth Generation™ system of its kind (five years in development and testing by The Profit Clinic).

Its final structure and sub- systems can be seen in the newly released PearlMaker Overview PDF document (15 pages) available from http://myPearlMaker.com/bulletins/overview-2010.pdf (no registration required).

For all those network marketing professionals who’ve been waiting patiently for this “mother-of-pearl” of all business building systems, it’s time to think about planning for the imminent launch. Stay tuned for announcement of free webinars, pre-launch templates and more in the coming week.
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There are a couple of ways you can use specialist software to create articles online:

1. Software that “scrapes” content from other people’s web sites, articles, etc online and creates a composite article. The risk here is that you’ll end up with the article equivalent of Frankenstein’s Monster.

2. Software that “spins” existing articles into revamped versions (changing words, phrases, etc).

There are several clever programs that will “spin” new articles from a core article you write (forget “scraping” software that compiles articles off the web — that even more unethical) and submit them to article directories, but here’s something else to consider:

These scripts create endless variations on a single theme. It’s the same content presented in hundreds of different word combinations.

It’s like having 4,000 cable TV channels, ALL of them broadcasting the same program, with the same cast and plot, just with minor differences in the dialogue.

How does that contribute to the QUALITY and VALUE of content online?

It doesn’t. It just floods the web with garbage… QUANTITY, not quality.
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In Australia we call a baby pacifier a “dummy”. (Apart from anything else, most babies have less trouble relating to that word than to “pacifier”.)

We also have a colloquial expression: “spitting the dummy”.

It refers to a toddler’s violent display of righteous indignation, when they spit out their dummy with a “so there!” attitude and facial expression. Parents are supposed to be suitably chastened and reluctant to repeat the offending behaviour that led to such displeasure on the part of their infant. (In your dreams, kiddo!)

The expression is also used to describe adult ego tantrums, when people get upset about something trivial and over-react in an infantile fit of pique. It’s almost always about bruised ego.

It’s an expression that instantly reduces the tantrum to its true relevance. In other words, it raises a very real question about which is the real dummy… the object being spat, or the childish egotist spitting it?

Rob Toth, a Canadian internet marketer who has done very well, spat the dummy BIG time today when he replied to several people who dared to point out an important error he’d made in the subject line of his previous pitch email to his list. It was an important message promoting Dan Kennedy’s upcoming event. (Dan is one of the most respected direct marketers and copywriters in the world.)
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George Fourie, the owner of http://thatMLMbeat.com, is a very savvy Web 2.0 strategic thinker. One of the best I’ve come across, actually. His concept — and his promotion of it, using the Top 50 MLM Blogs awards — is nothing short of brilliant, and I’m just glad that I spotted it and its amazing potential right from the start.

If you’re interested in using Web 2.0 tools and strategies to build your network marketing team, this is where you should be. Seriously.
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