One of the members of IBOtoolbox recently put out a blog on the fact that a lot of people in network marketing, or internet marketing, are trying to cover all bases. It is a valid point and worthy of discussion. Covering all bases to me means trying to be the go to person for all of internet marketing by attempting to provide as many tools, services or opportunities as possible, so that everyone comes to them. I hate to disappoint those marketers with this strategy, but the truth is that it is a strategy that is not likely to work. Why, you might ask? First of all there are a variety of reasons why this strategy is not likely to work. The first thing is that internet marketing is a vast field. It is huge field with many different things in it. One person alone could not possibly cover all the different parts of internet marketing. Second, it is better to specialize in one particular area and really focus on being knowledgeable in that area.

The strategy of "covering all bases" has a net effect of causing everyone to work alone, individually, without collaborating with anyone. This is detrimental to the IBO spirit. It is important to interact with other IBOs and when warranted to form a working relationship with that person. IBOtoolbox is supposed to be a family, a community of independent business owners, who support each other, through various methods of encouragement. Attempting to cover all bases is just another way to say that you don't want to work with anyone. It is all about you and nobody else. It is an "individual" way of thinking, emphasizing on I-working, a stark difference from Net- Working. Networking is a team sport, so the people that are best able to work in a teamwork atmosphere ultimately win. It is very difficult to succeed in this industry without collaboration and without partnerships.

Partnerships work to make everybody stronger. It is a way to share knowledge, skills, expertise, so as to help everyone to be successful in their ventures. It is a great way to promote teamwork and to build a large organization by combining efforts. This is by the way, just one of the areas that need to be improved upon, if internet marketers have any chance of lowering the 97% failure rate in the industry. It is a huge part of the reasons why internet marketers don't make money. It is this attitude that everyone is out for themselves. I am better than you in designing websites, even though I have absolutely no knowledge of how to build a website. This in essence makes internet marketers out to be liars. And there is A LOT OF LIES among internet marketers. This needs to stop. Incidentally, this is another HUGE REASON for the 97% failure rate in the industry, "The spread of lies" or to better put it "false advertising".

The spread of lies otherwise known as False Advertising, is by far the NUMBER 1 reason for such a high rate of failures in an industry that otherwise should have a lot more people making money than it is currently experiencing. It is so perverse in the industry, that overtime, even a brand new person in the industry begins to learn and understand that fact. The consequence of that is to spread and infect everyone in the industry, except a small few. False advertising is like Cancer, it spreads and spreads. This leads me to believe that the 3% of the people in the industry who are successful and who are making money are immune from all the false advertising. They are a tightly protected group of people that know each other and that works well with each other. They are able to exploit any opportunities that come to market. It is time that the rest of us learn from them. It is time we stop these horrific practices that breaks down the level of trust among us, and causes us to work against each other instead of working together towards a common purpose.

Patrick Saint-Jean

E-mail: psaintjean1@gmail.com