You ever heard of a scattergun?
Think shotgun… long barrel… big boom… and when you pull the trigger, it sprays a cloud of little metal pellets everywhere.
When I was 18, my mate had a scattergun approach with dating.
Didn’t matter who it was.
He’d just ask.
Everyone.
One after the other.
No shame.
Guess what?
He got way more dates than me.
And he met his future wife that way.
Didn’t hook up for another 15 years… but still, he planted the seed.
Now… in business, people love to tell you the scattergun approach is “bad and dumb”
They preach laser focus.
And sure, knowing who your ideal customer is is a BIG needle mover.
Especially if you don’t want to spend time and money targeting people who have no interest in whatever it is you’re promoting.
But there’s a problem…
Humans are weird.
We don’t buy in neat little boxes.
A $20,000 Rolex?
Not just yacht guys and CEOs.
I know a call center rep who saved for 7 years to buy one.
On paper, I could walk out the door and buy a new car this afternoon… but I won’t.
Meanwhile, I’ll drop stupid money on art and sports memorabilia… and wear cheap crap T-shirts every day.
We all have our “this is worth it” quirks.
It’s never as clean as the marketing books make it sound.
That’s why the scattergun approach still works.
Especially in affiliate marketing.
You can throw five different ideas out there… and only one needs to land to make it worthwhile.
I know a guy who tested offers by building fake sales pages with “Buy Now” buttons that didn’t even work.
If 5% of visitors clicked through after putting in their name and email, then he’d put together a full promo for the REAL thing.
He did this over and over.
Spray. Check for hits. Ignore the blanks.
Same with me, I’ve had promo’s flop.
Some tank so hard you’d think they came with a leak!!
But they don’t sink me, I expect some to miss.
The wannabes?
They get one dud, get all disgruntled about it, and quit.
It’s like a footballer hanging up his boots because he missed a penalty.
Business isn’t about making every shot.
It’s about firing enough shots so that some land.
Then doubling down on those.
Shoot your scattergun.
Fire in all directions.
Track the hits.
Forget the rest.
Because if you never load the damn thing… you’re definitely not going to hit a winner!
