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Terry: Beautiful. So that was really the first big break for you then; the toy collecting and the toy business.

Ty: Yea that was actually one of my first big breaks. I’ve had a few since then, but that was actually the first big break for me.

Terry: Now let’s just back up for a moment. These ads that you’re placing in the toy magazines… are they ads for people to order a specific toy or to order a catalogue?

Ty: Well, no, I didn’t have a catalogue; it wasn’t that advanced at that time. I placed two types of ads. The first was a want ad where I would buy collections from people to sell to other people. So, let’s say that you had a collection in your basement and you wanted to get rid of it, you could call up and say, “Ty, I have this collection and I want to get rid of it. I don’t know how much it’s worth or anything, it’s a bunch of junk/toys, how much would you give me for it?” I’d say, “Ship it to me.” When they sent it to me, I’d look at it and I’d give them an assessment and an honest opinion of what it was worth and I’d usually pay half of what the resale value was on those collectables. That was the first type of ad I made: want ads.

At first I was spending more money than I was making, because it was a hobby for me; I wasn’t business minded at that point. It’s like a lot of Internet marketers who spend more than they make because they are jumping in on all the new ways to make money or to get traffic to your site or some new way to get leads. You’re always spending more money initially until you get those “ah-ha” moments. The “ah-ha” moment for me was when I realized that I should be placing want ads as well as sell ads.

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Terry: So you end up having to continually find something new to smooth out the ups and downs of the business.

Marc: Absolutely. Or, you could never leave your day job because you can never say, “This is going to pay my rent next month and my car payment,” or reach your goals, whatever they might be. So, I knew that something had to change. In 1998, I had first studied joint ventures. I should back up a little bit… I had been reading about joint ventures since I got online. At that time, it was put on a lofty, mysterious platform, which I think it still is a little bit. Guys like Mike Enlow and Jay Abraham were the names talking about joint ventures. Ted Thomas as well. These three people seem to hold a mystical key that no one else could grab a hold of. I know that people have paid them $25,000 to come to their seminars, but I didn’t think that it was possible.

One day, I got an e-mail from Mike Enlow or someone who worked for him that said, “You can consult with Mike for one hour for $500.” At that time, I said, “That’s insane; who would do that?” But, Terri and I talked about it and we realized that this man might hold the key to unlock the power of joint ventures. So, let’s pay for it. We shelled out $500 and we scheduled a call with Mike. I tell you, Terry, that was the best $500 I spent at the time.

Terry: Fantastic. Before we go on, can you just explain what a joint venture is, for anybody who isn’t really sure of what it is?

Marc: Sure. A joint venture, in its simplest terms, is a partnership. It involved two or more parties, which could be individuals or businesses, partnering up, sharing resources, and leveraging off of each other’s strengths and weaknesses to bring more money in that didn’t exist before. I’ll simplify it: most people think that a joint venture is when, I have a product, I want to contact Terry, and I say to him, “Can you send this out to your list and I’ll pay you 50% or 60% or 70% of the profits that come in from your endorsement mailing of my product?” That’s been bastardized on the Internet; it’s been beaten to death.

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Terry: So what if I’m the opposite to exactly what you said, where I don’t have a business that’s totally unique, I don’t feel that I’ve developed something that someone hasn’t already done, and I can’t use anything else that any other business has done? What if I’m a business that, online especially, is in an extremely crowded marketplace? For example, like online marketing, instead of having two or three stores offline that are selling furniture or electronics or whatever, if you Google something like “online marketing,” you get 50 million results. How would I become a leader in an industry where there are millions of other websites that are my competition are just as accessible as I am or maybe even more so. How am I going to actually get to my prospects?

Marc: That’s a great question. It’s funny that you started out by saying that traditional offline businesses are less competitive than online businesses. The fact of the matter is that it’s 2006 when we’re recording this. No matter if you’re an online or offline business, your customer or prospect go online to research whatever it is that you’re going to sell before you buy it. There are a ton of very competitive industries both online and offline. The Internet isn’t doing anything but make it easier for the competition to enter the market. It’s lowering the barrier of entry so that any business can wake up one morning and find out that a furniture store is competing with a manufacturer from China.

People are saying, “I just bought something from online and bought it from a manufacturer,” or, “I just bought something online from the local furniture store here that’s national and competing against small businesses.” The Internet has opened up so that it’s difficult for offline businesses. Online marketing and businesses that are specifically online are extremely ramped. My first suggestion is to go run and hide. The reality of it is, if you jump into something competitive like online marketing and you haven’t been around for a while, be prepared to get very good at what you do.

The days are gone where you can just take someone else’s information, polish it up a little bit, put my name on it, and go sell it as well to make a little bit of money. Maybe those were very early on in online marketing, but those days are gone. Unless you’re prepared to become a very good online marketing guru and student, then you will find that it’s going to be a very tough up hill battle requiring ability to make yourself different, more unique, or special compared to your competitors out there.

All that said and done, when you find an industry that’s really competitive, for a marketing person, that’s a great sign. That’s a sign that you have a market that will sustain a lot of players. If you have a market that will sustain a lot of players, that means there’s a lot of money going around in that market. If there’s a lot of money flowing around in that market, that means that you have to figure out what you need to do to put your net in that cash flow and extract the amount that you think is worth your time, energy, and effort to be in that competitive industry.

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Terry: Just before we go on, can we go over what the difference is between a feature and a benefit so people are clear on that?

Jay: A feature is what is in your product and a benefit is what that means to them and what they get out of it. One of my clients goes to Norway to get their furniture. They get Norwegian slat beds. That?s the feature. The benefit is that you have a more inexpensive sleeping surface that gives you the body support you need and you don?t have to worry about a dirty innerspring mattress, you can use a slat bed. People only care about what is going to benefit them out of a product or service, and not care about anything else. Did that answer your question, Terry?

Terry: Yea, I just wanted to make sure our listeners know the difference between a feature and a benefit because way back in the day when I was in advertising, it was very difficult to figure out the difference between them. That explanation is absolutely perfect, thank you.

Jay: Here's the thing to keep in mind, quality is not what people think it is. Quality is not what you put into a product or service; quality is what people get out of your product or service. Don't talk to them about you, talk to them about themselves and they'll care like crazy.

Okay, so the first sentence talks about the purpose of your marketing and the second shows an advantage you have to achieve that purpose.