What Scrooge McDuck Taught Me About Internet Marketing

When I was a kid there was a string of hit Disney cartoons that aired in the after-school hours on weekday afternoons. There was the Gummi Bears, Tale Spin, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, and Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers.

As a cartoon-loving kid, I was in my glory. I loved all those shows, but my favorite was Ducktales.

image source: http://sharetv.org/shows/ducktales

Ducktales revolved around Donald Duck’s nephews and his Uncle Scrooge McDuck. It was a classic cartoon and I still enjoy it today with my own kids thanks to DVD.

So what does watching Ducktales have to do with internet marketing strategies?

Let me explain.

Your feelings about money and work (and everything else for that matter) are the result of many different experiences and influences. Your parents and siblings. Your friends and their families. What you read in a book or saw on tv. All of these influences intermingle and come together to form your opinions and feelings.

And sometimes the littlest of things can have a big influence on your life. I had one such moment while watching an episode of Ducktales as a child.

The episode revolved around Uncle Scrooge in a series of flashbacks to his childhood. (I’m going on memory with this so forgive me if I get some of the details wrong).

One flashback shows Scrooge as a young duck without a lot of money (he would later go on to be the richest duck in the world so you can suspect these flashbacks will show a hint of how that happened). Scrooge found himself a job shining shoes, and wouldn’t you know a customer comes in who looks like he just walked through a patch of wet cement and let it dry.  I mean these shoes were so bad poor Scrooge’s heart must have missed a beat when he saw them!

Well good old Scrooge takes a chisel and starts chipping away at them.  He spends his entire day cleaning this guy’s shoes until you could see your face in them. By the time he’s done he’s out of breath, his back is killing him, and the store is closing.

He proudly stands up and holds out his hand expecting a mighty tip for performing such an amazing service. But instead the man simply thanks him, hands him a single coin and strolls right out the door.

Scrooge is seriously pissed! He busted his ass shining those shoes and he got paid chump change!

He stomps his way all the way home, slams the door on his way in and sulks around until his father asks him what is wrong. Scrooge tells him the story and his wise, old father simply tells him, “Scrooge my boy…you have to learn to work smarter, not harder.”

The next day Scrooge goes back to work with a brilliant idea. He creates a simple machine that allows him to use power he generates by riding a bicycle to polish shoes for several customers at a time.  He’s able to polish many more shoes while doing only a fraction of the work…and his income absolutely explodes!

Scrooge learned a valuable lesson. If you want to make enough money to achieve financial freedom, working hard isn’t enough.  There are millions of people who work themselves to the bone their whole lives and still have nothing to show for it.

Working hard is important, but working smart is more so. You see, there’s a limit to how much any one person can accomplish no matter how hard they work. And working yourself ragged will only leave you frustrated and burnt out.

If you want to take the next step toward financial freedom, you have to learn to delegate or outsource tedious tasks to others.  Automate time-consuming processes and leverage the work of others wherever possible.

Automation and Outsourcing

Let’s brainstorm a few ways you can automate/outsource tasks so you can concentrate your time on other projects that are more profitable (or have more time to spend with your family).

Autoresponders help you build a mailing list of targeted customers and prospects so you can keep in touch with them.  Once someone signs up for your list you can send them helpful tips and articles and build a relationship with them.  When you have a responsive list at your command all you have to do is send out an email promotion and wait for the money to come rolling in.

There are plenty of autoresponders to choose from but I recommend Aweber.  They’ve got a great track record and their delivery rates are the best.  I use Aweber myself so I have no problem recommending them.

What else can we automate or outsource? 

How about graphic design?  I don’t know a thing about designing and creating logos or ecovers and my attempts have always looked rather amateurish.  But why spend hours tinkering with a logo that’s just going to look like crap anyway…instead ask around the Warrior Forum and you’ll find graphic wizards who can do a smashing job for around $50. 

Have trouble writing?  You’re not alone…the demand for private label rights content is booming.  When you buy plr articles you can edit them as much or as little as you want and then add your name is author.  You can post them to your blog, create your own info-product, and more. 

If you don’t want to do any writing at all, just outsource the work.  Its not that hard to find ghost writers who will write quality content for as little as $5 an article.

I know what you’re thinking…I can hear it now…

“Mike, all those ideas for automating and outsourcing cost money and I’m on a budget!”

Yes, unfortunately if you want to build your business the smart way you’re going to have to open up your wallet and spend a few dollars.  That doesn’t mean you have to drop $1000 a month…start slowly and then increase your budget as your revenue increases.  Build slowly and you’ll see that your increased revenue more than makes up for the added expenses.

Be a Scrooge…Scrooge McDuck that is.