Yesterday, Internet marketing superstar, Rich Schefren, of Deerfield Beach, Florida, unexpentently launched his newest "manifesto" named the The Attention Age Doctrine.
Rich is warning most business owners, entrepreneurs, and particularly online marketers that there is a much greater threat to their longevity lurking in the wings if you are just ready to see it and think incisively about it.
It's not, Schefren says, about lousy email deliverability rates; it's not about the need for search engine optimization or the obvious shift from written sales letters to video.
Nor is it about pay-per-click, or the movement to any other form of online advertising; or I would add: the newest fad of buying traffic on the cheap and re-selling it, or using it to sell your own stuff.
It's none of this.
It's about the market for products or services itself: you and me.
It's about the horrendous amount of "information we are all supposed to try and keep up with in this hyper-charged rat race to the eluding finish line.
It's about just how damned tired and disinterested we have all become, with shorter and shorter attention spans.
We have become a society of multi-tasking do nothings.
We think we're accomplishing a lot; but Schefren points out with specific examples from several research studies, that the more information we try and acquire, the faster we are dumbing ourselves down.
"We are now more skilled in generating information than almost anyone is in managing it.
" We are suffering from "information overload.
" In a short ten years, it seems we have devolved to a point where we can't tell the good, relevant information from the crap.
Schefren poses six basic reasons for this happening: (1) Now there is more relevant information than we can even begin to process; (2) We are bombarded by unsolicited information, e.
g.
spam (3) The speed of this new information keeps accelerating; (4) Then the real value of this information starts to plummet; (5) Therefore, the amount of contradictions increase, with conflicted points of view: e.
g.
what really is true? Who can I really believe? (6) Now, in order to just keep up, our information needs increase exponentially; we are inundated with data.
Drowning under this information deluge, we are severely conflicted because of doubt.
Lee Segal said: "A man with one watch knows what time it is.
A man with two watches is never quite sure.
" The result is too many bad decisions.
The tie in between information and action is severed.
Now we don't even have the time to do what we know.
We're too busy keeping up.
So we really don't 'get' that we are starting to think in sound bites, with very short attention-spans and hence a reduced ability to reason, think, or even enjoy life in a quiet space, where we are free and open to epiphanies...
if they come.
Unfortunately in this economy and society, rewards come from what we "do" not what we "know".
We have so many tools and toys that take so much of our valuable time to learn how to use them, we just don't stop to think about Pareto's Law: what you know as the 80-20 rule..
..
only 20 percent of the tools accomplish 80 percent of the work; or 80 percent of your problems are usually caused by only 20 percent of your customers, actions, or decisions.
We have been brainwashed in school to learn everything we can...
"just in case.
" Perhaps we should think of being much more selective with our precious time, and learn only what we need "just in time" and only if we need it.
There is no need to horde information; it no longer brings us more power as in the past, when information scarcity ruled the game.
Schefren wants entrepreneurs to stop and realize that they are becoming addicted to being in a state of "online compulsive disorder.
" If anyone is going to be more successful in business, s/he is going to have to face this fact of business life...
stop constantly doing and start being.
Reduce the number of tools, toys and tasks you are playing with simultaneously.
Get organized.
Start thinking more and playing less with stuff over which you have no control, which has no relevant significance to your personal business success.
This new 'awareness' of attention-deficits also addresses your own market.
Your market for selling almost anything on or offline today is comprised of people just like you.
They too have a very short attention span.
They think and talk in sound bites.
They do not practice deferred gratification.
Their motto is "what's in it for me?" You are going to have to learn how to penetrate the media and noise clutter, make a meaningful impact, and still be able to get the order.
How to do that depends on your market, your product or service, and your dedication to financial success in the months and years just ahead.
Stay tuned for more, next time.
©Copyright, Roy MacNaughton, 2007
Rich is warning most business owners, entrepreneurs, and particularly online marketers that there is a much greater threat to their longevity lurking in the wings if you are just ready to see it and think incisively about it.
It's not, Schefren says, about lousy email deliverability rates; it's not about the need for search engine optimization or the obvious shift from written sales letters to video.
Nor is it about pay-per-click, or the movement to any other form of online advertising; or I would add: the newest fad of buying traffic on the cheap and re-selling it, or using it to sell your own stuff.
It's none of this.
It's about the market for products or services itself: you and me.
It's about the horrendous amount of "information we are all supposed to try and keep up with in this hyper-charged rat race to the eluding finish line.
It's about just how damned tired and disinterested we have all become, with shorter and shorter attention spans.
We have become a society of multi-tasking do nothings.
We think we're accomplishing a lot; but Schefren points out with specific examples from several research studies, that the more information we try and acquire, the faster we are dumbing ourselves down.
"We are now more skilled in generating information than almost anyone is in managing it.
" We are suffering from "information overload.
" In a short ten years, it seems we have devolved to a point where we can't tell the good, relevant information from the crap.
Schefren poses six basic reasons for this happening: (1) Now there is more relevant information than we can even begin to process; (2) We are bombarded by unsolicited information, e.
g.
spam (3) The speed of this new information keeps accelerating; (4) Then the real value of this information starts to plummet; (5) Therefore, the amount of contradictions increase, with conflicted points of view: e.
g.
what really is true? Who can I really believe? (6) Now, in order to just keep up, our information needs increase exponentially; we are inundated with data.
Drowning under this information deluge, we are severely conflicted because of doubt.
Lee Segal said: "A man with one watch knows what time it is.
A man with two watches is never quite sure.
" The result is too many bad decisions.
The tie in between information and action is severed.
Now we don't even have the time to do what we know.
We're too busy keeping up.
So we really don't 'get' that we are starting to think in sound bites, with very short attention-spans and hence a reduced ability to reason, think, or even enjoy life in a quiet space, where we are free and open to epiphanies...
if they come.
Unfortunately in this economy and society, rewards come from what we "do" not what we "know".
We have so many tools and toys that take so much of our valuable time to learn how to use them, we just don't stop to think about Pareto's Law: what you know as the 80-20 rule..
..
only 20 percent of the tools accomplish 80 percent of the work; or 80 percent of your problems are usually caused by only 20 percent of your customers, actions, or decisions.
We have been brainwashed in school to learn everything we can...
"just in case.
" Perhaps we should think of being much more selective with our precious time, and learn only what we need "just in time" and only if we need it.
There is no need to horde information; it no longer brings us more power as in the past, when information scarcity ruled the game.
Schefren wants entrepreneurs to stop and realize that they are becoming addicted to being in a state of "online compulsive disorder.
" If anyone is going to be more successful in business, s/he is going to have to face this fact of business life...
stop constantly doing and start being.
Reduce the number of tools, toys and tasks you are playing with simultaneously.
Get organized.
Start thinking more and playing less with stuff over which you have no control, which has no relevant significance to your personal business success.
This new 'awareness' of attention-deficits also addresses your own market.
Your market for selling almost anything on or offline today is comprised of people just like you.
They too have a very short attention span.
They think and talk in sound bites.
They do not practice deferred gratification.
Their motto is "what's in it for me?" You are going to have to learn how to penetrate the media and noise clutter, make a meaningful impact, and still be able to get the order.
How to do that depends on your market, your product or service, and your dedication to financial success in the months and years just ahead.
Stay tuned for more, next time.
©Copyright, Roy MacNaughton, 2007
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