Picking Blackberries

What does picking blackberries have to do with marketing?

I guess I'm addicted, but just about anything I do now days gets me thinking about how it relates and sometimes gives me a topic to write about (like this did) so I can complete my daily mission on APSense again.

I feel fortunate to live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, in the upper left corner of the United States. One of the benefits we enjoy is a prolific blackberry crop every summer and we don't need to plant them or furnish any of their care, they grow wild all over. They make delicious jams and pies, as well as an enjoyable evening my wife and I can spend together getting our share for free.

As we were reaping the bounty from a nearby spot in the country, it made me think how easy it is to just pick the fruit from the outermost leaves and stay away from the sharp thorns, but only the first person by would get much. Then if you brush aside a few sticky vines, it reveals even more of the big sweet berries that were missed. Finally if you get aggressive you can use a board (or a ladder) to mash down the outer vines and enter the treasure of untouchable goodness that awaits you for thinking outside the box.

Isn't that a lot like Internet Marketing?

You can take the easy path and throw up a few links or show your canned page in a traffic exchange, but only the low lying fruit is included in your harvest. Dig in a little deeper and apply some advanced skills to create unique pages that attract more attention and your reward expands, but it takes thinking outside the box to come up with the highly productive methods to become super productive.

So the bottom line is, don't be satisfied with the easy path, you need to brave a few thorns to get the sweet rewards that will give you a sense of accomplishment as well as true success in your endeavors.