Make Stuff That Has Real Value

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. make-stuff I subscribe to dozens of internet marketing newsletters and skim-read a couple each day, just to see the tactics used in that type of marketing.

I’m always saddened by how many of them are trying to sell the dream that you can make millions by making crap. They often advise people to create digital products by "slapping together" anything you can get rights to. The word "quality" does not seem to be in their vocabulary.

I won’t dispute that many of these newsletter writers are making money by making crap. I just think trying to get rich by avoiding real work and making crap is the primary reason the world economy is in the toilet.

I just finished reading an interview in Salon magazine with travel guru Rick Steves that puts it pointedly when it quotes him saying, "A headline today, "Americans lose 18 percent of their wealth." Well, no, it wasn’t real wealth, it was a bubble. You’re down 18 percent? You’re not. It shouldn’t have been up there in the first place. So get over it. Shut up. Go to work, produce stuff that has value. I really think the days are gone, I hope, when people can rearrange the furniture and get rich on it. You got to produce something."

Rick Steves has been making things of value for years. His travel guides and shows give real value to his viewers and readers. As a byproduct, Steves has gotten rich doing work. Work he loves, but still work.

Some people say work is a four-letter word. "Work" is not a four-letter word in my studio. It’s a holy mantra. Work is what I live for. It’s where I find meaning and fulfillment and happiness. When I wake up in the morning, my fingers are itching to go to work. And when I go to sleep at night, my dreams are about working.

I’m a maker of stuff. That’s been my primary means of making a living for three decades. Making good stuff is work. It’s often hard. Frequently frustrating. It is never, ever boring. And it is always in demand.

Spending the precious hours of your life making crap is an insult to your own creative spirit and your Creator.

And in this economy, it’s downright self-destructive. People can make crap and get away with it when the economy is fat. But when it gets thin, buyers start taking a second and third look at where they spend their dollars. And you’d better be offering something of real value.

Bottom line–the world doesn’t need more crap. It needs more people waking up their gray matter, stretching their creative muscles and getting to work making things of real value.

My book, shown her, shows step-by-step how I create and sell a wide variety of products, both hard goods and digital goods. The book has real value, especially for creative, intelligent people that don’t think work is a four-letter word.

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Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.If you want to spread your creative wings and make stuff to market on the web, my book, "Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High-Profit Products" will inspire you to be your most creative, successful self by showing you just some of the many ways I use the internet to make creative cash.

Update: Here’s another article I wrote about my struggle to understand why so much of the stuff sold by internet marketers has little or no real value. It’s titled "What Is A Product?"

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine and this companion The Internet Wizards Blog to teach self-employed people and small businesses owners how to leverage the internet for advertising, marketing and promoting their business. To stay in touch with her, type your name and email into the subscriber box in the upper right corner of this page. You’ll be glad you did!