Getting the attention of a large group of people *once* is relatively easy. Online you use YouTube, social networking sites, AdWords, etc. Offline you can buy full page ads or a 30 second spot during Super Bowl. If you repeat this often enough you could build a business around it. Witness the constant barrage of TV ads from the fast food industry. Celebrities also fall in this category, but the are a special case since their business is *literally* attention for themselves.

Since I don’t have a billion dollar budget, I’ve chosen to work hard to gain the respect of my readers and customers. My blog may not yet get the attention of Google, but I’m happy to enjoy the respect of a few Internet business entrepreneurs who regularly come to read, learn and exchange ideas. And without me having to pay someone for their attention each time.

Nick Dalton
Tips, Tricks, Tools & Techniques

Hmm. Definitely a good question.

Online, well I think you have to get at least some attention to start with - then, if they don’t find something to respect enough to hold their attention you are (insert rude word)ed.

I mean, I think those of us who had an account with You-tube did respect it in a way, even before Google got their grubby paws on it - we respected it as a good source of videos on everything and anything.

The quiz idea that I use on my site is a good attractor, but if there’s nothing else with any meant, how would I keep the attention of those who visit?

It’s the same with you, Rich. Your site doesn’t hold our attention because you are a sexy blond airhead - it’s because we respect you and what you have to say.

Respect Gained = Attention Forever!
Respect Lost = Aversion Forever !

We’re aligned with Aretha Franklin on this one…

R
E
S
P
E
C
T

Above all, self respect.

It can take a lifetime to build and a moment to destroy.

Are you a DotComPreneur? Take the quiz and find out at: http://www.DotComPreneur.com

Respect is hard to gain and easy to loose. I think the place to start for Internet marketers is from right where they are. What I mean is, it is easy to get into the mode of “I would command respect if”

IF… I had a big list

IF… I had enough money to build a really cool site

IF… I had that product done

But you can’t sell ‘futures’ and gain respect.

You only have 10 people on your list? Do what you need to do now to command their respect.

If you have your prospects best interests in mind, deliver on your promises, and admit when you make mistakes (when, not IF) then respect follows.

Good point Rich, but I don’t agree with your title. You can certainly have attention AND respect, but I think it’s better to command respect first, then seek attention.

@Nick Dalton “And without me having to pay someone for their attention each time.” Great point. If you always have to pay JV partners or advertise to get attention, there is no guarantee of respect.

Rich

Attention with out respect is as fleeting as your average mugshot that is flashed up for 15 minutes of fame. If your good looking or have money they will update your story the next day.

OJ will go free and the world will shake its head in disrespect. OJ had it all on the field, his life after football has become a colossal mess.

We should pay more attention and give respect to those who deserve it. I believe that there are enough crazy people in the world we don’t need to glorify them.

Tim

Amazing! (Great article, by the way).
The reason I’m impressed is not just because what you say in great insight, but also because I was just thinking about this very same idea this morning. (Several hours before I opened your email today).
Here’s the gist of it…..
Just think about how many people spend years of their lives preparing to be actors, but end up being waiters, driving taxis or some other job (not that those aren’t respectable careers). Yet professional athletes who have no acting skills, have several movies under their belts. (Without even trying).
What they did have was attention.
Same thing with musicians. Think of all the people (like that guy from American Idol) who has no singing talent, but is now making millions.
What he had in abundance, though, was his ability to draw attention to himself. He commanded ‘millions of eyeballs’, which is what TV, movie and book publishers are all craving….an ‘attention-drawing lightning rod’ for their products and services.
I could go on and on, but you get the point.
(I’m glad to see someone finally wrote about this, because I was just about to place a piece like this on my blog that I putting together.)
Nice job Mr Schefren.

you get attention if you actually provide utility, product, price, and service. Those are the for cornerstones of any business. They collectively equal value

Interenet marketer are focused on selling, and the term value is meaningless. For the most part the people who are involved in it are turd polishers. They polish turds and try and pass them off as rare gems.

It is easy for me to understand why they get no respect. They pass themselves off as experts on marketing.

They are actually hustlers that prey on the uneducated and illinformed, in what is a decaying and crumbling society, where people get a little poorer everyday..

It gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling doesn’t it?

Ralph Dreifus
BS ACC MBA CPA JD

You gotta have respect, period. That’s the only thing that can guarantee repeat sales from repeat customers - they respect you and trust you to provide quality product(s). You may have had to shout real loud to get their attention the first time, but you had to get their respect to keep them coming back. Ahamed said it very succinctly - and it’s true.

They go together.

One without the other is useless. The examples that you note Rich are examples of that.

All the attention Paris is getting doesn’t do her any good without the respect to persuade.

Respect with no attention does not do any good either. If your kids / employees / subscribers respect you but don’t ever pay you any attention, then that respect is pointless.

Attention = connection
Respect = influence

People have to pay attention to hear you, then have respect to accept what you say and be influenced.

My thoughts….

Definitely have to come down on the side of respect. But one doesnt necessarily negate the other. There are lots of ways to garner attention and respect at the same time.

As marketers and entrepreneurs, we think outside the box as a matter of course. It shouldnt be all that tough to come up with twenty ideas that can go viral on something like YouTube and garner respect at the same time. Maybe we should start a contest?

Barbara

Thanks for this opportunity to post our oppinion for some Attention.
Attention is great and needed to start with but respect is what keeps them comming back.
1st = ATTENTION
2nd = RESPECT
then after respect follows repeat customers, and that is where the rubber meets the road.
Join me in a type of utube that was created to earn respect
http://freeiq.com/gps Sign up here, then click on learn more, then upload your material and start getting attention.

Get the Attention, then, Earn the Respect?

Maybe it comes down to this: attention could make you rich but earning respect could make you wealthy.

Remember, respect is earned not given! Just like alot of people had an enormous amount of respect for former President Bill Clinton. He gave in to Monica L. and lost the respect of his wife, peers, the American people ect….

With respect comes personal responsibility.

In other words, you have to safe guard and perserve it!

Just my 2 cents.

I would give the visitors what they want. Even though it seems that alot of surfers look for trashy low quality videos, I think the market will soon shift back to quality materials and this is what I will focus on. Geting the attention and getting respect as a result.

#1: Attention. Everyone in our society is conditioned to expect a
” grabber” at the start of almost every message or ad. We use them in every copywriting effort. Then we proceed to #2 Respect.
This can be almost instant, we only need to show our “Integrity”
in our “copy” or whatever follows our ” grabber”.

What a great question. When we are young we do not see what respect
does for us until we have used up a few avenues of trial and error and
see what people think of us “the next morning”.

In business, Specially people do not shop with people they do not trust. When it comes to someone’s money they have worked hard for, they want to know they can call you up, drop an email or order on line and trust you will
take care of them. I believe in under promising and over providing service.
If I tell a customer to expect their package on Friday and it shows up on
Wednesday I will get a call from a pleased customer… who tells their
friend about the service, who then tells about the product who now
wants to try it because ” so and so said…..” I will take Respect.

Which brings us to The Rich Jerk. It would seem that being really good at Attention can bring mega-success.

Attention? Exposure too eh?

I’m a musician originally from the Seattle-area. For 15+ years I’ve remained devoted to what I’ve believed in. Fortunately I’ve found that in music lies the power to change lives, and in some cases even save lives. Although I am still a “starving artist”, I take great fulfillment in testimonies I’ve received to this regarding my music. The most fulfilling perhaps are the words from people who say they decided against suicide because of one of my CD’s.

Still, relatively few people know about my work. And people can’t buy what they don’t know about. And while I don’t “do it for the money”, if people don’t buy I don’t eat and neither does the family.

So thank you for this information. And please do let me know of any suggestions you may have.

Sincerely,

Isaac Barham
www.myspace.com/isaactunes

I think it’s a trick question. Both is the answer. What good is attention (traffic) if it doesn’t turn into sales? And, I think a certain level of respect is necessary for that.

What good is respect (in business) if only a handful of people know about you… again, no sales. I think you just have to have both.

Hi Rich,

Let me disagree with you here.

“Respect is not something to be commanded or
demanded”

It is something to be earned! … with ones’s actions
and value additions.

Courteously — S. Kumar
http://www.learnhomebusiness.com

Dunno, Rich –

People land on my site and presumably, if they think I have something they want, they stick around, maybe sign up for my newsletter, maybe even buy something. There is so much hype on the web, so many empty promises … some scumbag with no integrity is probably out there with an offer like mine, and a surfer may not be able to tell the difference.

My hope is in availability … people presumably want to see what is behind the web site, so I have my contact information, my Honest-E logo, and anything else that says I’m really here, not hiding behind a web server and a PO box and a yahoo account.

But regardless of credibility and availability, there needs to be visibility (which I guess is ‘attention’) and something that makes the visitor believe he has found what he needs.

Hi there,

I do not come from money & Paris Hilton makes me sick…

I take respect over attention, I started my business from my bedroom in my parents house, I’ve worked night & day to earn my customers respect, they respect my opinion and listen to my suggestions. They make time in their busy work schedules to pay attention to my honest advice.

The only attention I’d like is from potential customers who can see how different & unique my services are, this channel of attention is very difficult for me to find…working on a solution erf !

Rich,

What a great stimulant you’ve stirred into my Saturday breakfast!

I agree that these are two qualities that are deserving in business: respect and attention. For lack of respect many suffer from an incurable disease of attention and end up with tons of misfortunes. Marketers, actors, politicians, artists use all sorts of tricks to grab attention, which could boomerang.

The more blatant and unrefined their pursuit of attention, the less respectable they become. Marketing is an art which should use attention not as an end but as a consummate process to achieve respect.

Jesucita
www.yourmoneycashhere.com/marketingleverage

Great post Rich.

In the absence of having both, i would want attention first and foremost because it gives you the opportunity to earn respect.

Get their attention–>tell them your USP–>gain the respect of your customers (they order from you)–>deliver your USP–>repeat

Both are important but as the owner of an editorial site I would favour respect before attention.

If my site is so respected that an average reader would visit it five times in a month, then to get 1000 visits a month, my site only needs to have come to the attention of 200 visitors.

If my site is less respected and an average reader would only visit it once a month, then to get the same amount of visits, I need to bring my site to the attention of 1000 visitors - five times as many… and that equates to at least five times the effort and / or cost of traffic acquisition.

Even discounting cost and effort, 200 repeat visitors who read what I have to say regularly, follow my recommendations, suggest my site to their own friends etc. are worth a lot more to me than 1000 one-timers.

Hi Rich,

Having a business on the blink, a seller had $26.00 and over $1,000.00 in his inventory. He paid all that he had to get started
again. He announced his sales as the best quality items as
being in the “dirt”. As the shoppers came he made the sales
and sold all that he had. He got their “attention” and earned
their respect. He had been there before.

Hmmm…Ok, here is what I think:

You asked to pick one or the other for me and my business.

For me personally, I pick respect. It’s very valuable to me personally. I’d rather live and die with respect than live and die with attention.

But I just want to add my 2 cents here. respect doesn’t have to be stiff, dry, all fixed up or “keep a distance” type a thing. You don’t need to be conservative to gain respect. You can be friendly and yourself and natural and go all crazy and people respect you more than many others. The main key to respect, is not to hurt others feelings or integrity. Otherwise, YOU become disrespectful, not the other.
It’s very easy, example: person Y insults person X. Does that make person X disrespectful? no, it makes person Y disrespectful. It’s as simple as it is.

Another example, a seller says, I offer this free trial of my product. Contact me at this address if you’re interested. Person X contacted
the seller. The seller ignores X email. Who is the disrespectful here? the seller, abviously. She doesn’t respect her own word! you think she will respect her customers? I doubt it.

A third good example, Arnold (the famous actor). Before he builds his fame, people in his surrounding used to make fun of him, just because he was saying, I’ll go to hollywood and become a famous actor and I’ll marry from the Kennedy family. Did that make him disrespectful that they laughed at him? no, it made them disrespectful.
Tell me which entrepreneur is not crazy, not abnormal, not different from the others. All the examples you mentioned are crazy people. They are not common. Art is crazy. Without craziness, art doesn’t exist. The best inventions come from people we call crazy. They think out of the box, they dare to do the uncommon things and business is not a common sense. They can go to extremes to discover new possibilities while others are stand still. They can do the impossible because they’re crazy, they don’t understand impossible. Those people are rare but they are valuable.

The guy who invented the aireoplane, he was crazy, he made wings and tried to fly. He died. But he invented aireoplanes.

Oprah is crazy, she did things in her show we never thought a talk show could do. She danced, she cried, she laughed, she was very close to her audience, she didn’t build a wall between her and her audience the way all other talk shows did build.

Princess Dianne? Another crazy woman. She broke all the royal family stiff rules. She used to come to breakfast with walkman in her ears, she violated all the royal family strict rules, she opened her heart to the world and reached the poorest without fear, without sticking to the old royal image. She changed the stiff image of the royal family. She brought fame to the Royal family because she was different, she was real, she was herself, she was crazy to dare to do what others before her and after her couldn’t do. and the list go on and on and on….

For my business, I would pick attention. I’ll tell you why, and I might be wrong, but that’s my view today. It’s very simple, consider this analogy:

2 men enter a marketplace. The day was crowded with people. People are selling, buying, bargnning..etc The 2 men are selling tickets. One man is going very low voice, very quietly, asking around. The Other man stood somewhere in the market and screamed loudly, extremely loud: “excuse me everybody”. Guess who will get people’s attention quicker?
The two men are polite in their asking and respectful. But The man who screamed will get all the attention.

Same with online business, in my opinion. The first fraction of a second, people don’t know my business well enough to respect or disrespect it. it’s the attention that will make them click.

bye bye Rich!

Without attention, you have nothing.

But gaining that attention ethically commands respect.

Dear Rich

With all due respect, the process, in my opinion, is as follows:
1: Get attention.
2: Hold attention long enough to create credibility.
3: Close the sale
4: Earn respect.

It takes a continuous stream of “Maybees” and “Yesses” to make a sale, but only one “No” to kill it. One can conclude a sale WITH attention and credibility, but WITHOUT respect. One cannot conclude a sale without BOTH attention and credibility.

Respect for the product, the service, or the Seller is earned AFTER successful use of the product or service.

Best wishes,

Kevin Chisholm

great insight!

ATTENTION comes with no value and could lose RESPECT over time.

RESPECT comes with values and could grow ATTENTION over time.

I LEARNED THIS LESSON THE HARD WAY with my University Of Victory (online education for entrepreneurs) project. I got lots of attention in the media (mostly based on my ongoing feud with Trump University and Success University, but when it came time to get the big name authors to contribute to my program, I found I hadn’t yet earned their respect, mostly because I just looked like a marketer who was good at getting attention.

Then I applied the “SET A GOAL BIGGER THAN YOUR-SELF”. I knew my concept and purpose behind UniversityOfVictory.com was good, so I gave it a new fresh face and started again. Now it’s called World Vision Entrepreneur. The NAME is not ALL ABOUT ME, and within my first week of RELAUNCH I attracted 2 best selling authors to get involved. Since then I have been networking my way amongst absolutely top of their field authors, educators, entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants etc with zero effort. I even met the guy who did the original viral marketing that prelaunched THE SECRET. And I’m networked with one of the hottest hollywood celebs of the day! And I’m about to do a JV (joint venture) with my favorite entrepreneur-author of all time!

AS MUCH OF A STRUGGLE as my first attempt was (lots of ATTENTION but NO RESPECT…) my second attempt has first got people’s respect and then I’ve successfully networked my way to go where I need, so I’m no longer looking for mass public attention.

THANKS FOR THIS GREAT TOPIC, RICH!
anyone interested in my new project it’s at www.WorldVisionEntrepreneur.org

~Victory Darwin

I’d go for attention first and worry about the respect after I had the eyeballs.

However there are many types of attention, and some of them will equate to nil or no profit. Much of the Youtube attention is fairly untargeted and often hard to monetize. I’m not saying it can’t be proftiable because I have monetized it fine, but it’s not like you are dealing with Adwords type traffic.

Another thing I think is important is for people to realize that comedy and fame doesn’t always bring in the bacon. Just because someone has a following or admirers doesn’t always mean they are breaking out the credit card for artist or vendor.

I could show you dozens of so-called famous artists that have a hard time just making their bills. But hey, they have 65,000 Myspace friends!

Last time I checked, Bank of America doesn’t cash Myspace bucks or friends lists.

However, once you want to get into the serious profits I think it’s crucial that you build some type of trust, credibility, and respect.

True respect is seldom gained in a day for most people though. The average Joe has to really work at it, while it comes natural for others in the know.

When I think of the question posted in the blog post it makes me think…

“What good is respect if you have no attention”?

That’s a great post Rich, and a very interesting question…

Respect or Attention? In the internet marketing industry, I’d have to say it’s more about attetion. Sure, you want people to respect you but that doesn’t mean you’ll get attention. You already see that you can get attention without respect.

It was said like this before: They are people who hate howard stern, and they are people who love howard stern. For the people that hate howard stern, they listen to his radio show for more than 1 hour. The people that love howard stern, listen less than 1 hour. So if it’s adapted to business, either you love me or hate me, you still can make sales and get attention.

Look at the Rich Jerk, so much people don’t respect him, but he still manage to get their attention and still sell his products and his image, so all in all, it’s the “either love me or hate me, you’ll still pay attention to me” attitude. I rather have both, but if it’s down to one, it would be attention first, then I can build respect.

Terrance Charles
www.terrancecharles.com

Hi Rich,

Between attention and respect, the winner is respect.

First let me begin by saying that I respect you greatly for your achievements, but more than that, for who you are.

There are alot of short-lived stunts that can win attention for a moment, but those are usually forgotten the “next morning.”

I am in agreement that winning long term respect means the loyalty of your lifetime customers.

By consistently underpromising and yet overdelivering value the successful businessperson sets himself in a class atop the rest.

This is where I view you.

I think back to the first time I saw one of your videos.

I loved your stage presence and ability to impart the entreprenuerial mindset to internet marketers who were really looking for more than internet marketing. They were looking to become entreprenuers.

You guided them into that reasoning and way of thinking so that they were able to conceptualize what they must do next to plan successfully for the growth of their business.

Those who heeded your advice were successful. Those who didn’t kicked themselves the next morning.

You are a master of “what works.”
For that and many other reasons,
you command by respect.

Thanks,
Doug

Respect is earned through the attention you attract.

You earn respect through positive attention preserved by taking responsibility, and delivering - leading by example rather than just words - action speaks louder than words.

You lose respect through negative response to your actions by shirking your duties, and not delivering - again leading by example.

Respect is gained or lost from the reaction to the attention you get seek

It took me a long time to learn to give before getting!

Hi Rich,

I would say attention is temporary, but respect holds attention.

Respect is what I’d prefer.. Respect and the recognition for the 30 plus years of research work, striving to pull together a project that will actually save the future of our country.. My country, the USA.
Ultimately, the world….

Respect for the ten years service for my country when I joined the navy and set out to do that which my officers had ordered me to do as I was young, wild and full of spit and vinegar. while serving in-country, Vietnam to get us out…

Respect for a program I developed, which would pay off our country’s ten trillion dollar debt within ten years, while helping tens of millions of people within that period of time, and likely hundreds of millions within twenty years, doing what has to be done anyway, and has already been done haphazardly and totally disorganized thus part of dozens of reasons we are in this mess in the 1st place..

Respect and recognition with an open understanding mind, to gain the knowledge thats been given by our Supreme Of Being, thousands of years ago…but only feasible to comprehend within the past few years as the results of thousands continuing to strive to educate even those who profess they already know everything.

Attention is not what I desire, because attention almost got me killed numerous times by those who knew not my true intentions, but recognized that my presences could disrupt their evil doings.

I had a vision in 1974 that was literally so far in advance of the mindset of the populace, I was considered a freak, an outsider.

I can only hope that this will draw, some intellectual’s attention who would be curious enough to ask me how they may help, as this is a project bigger than myself alone, bigger than the Big Boss as He has set it up. I need respect and recognition.
I almost have it all together, maybe your attention would help..?

Sincerely,
Will Lovsmith

If 100,000 prospects gave me their attention today, I would want to gain their respect. However, to advertise a product, initially is to look for attention. A poor product will lose that attention and any chance of respect. On that day I would lose. I may fatten my bank balance if I gain some customers through some initial attention, but if I lose the chance of respect, I also lose my own respect. Subconsciously I guess that means I feel guilty to make gains without respect.

So in a nutshell, I want respect more than I want attention.

Without respect I would be looking for another 100,000 the next day.
By building respect, the first 100,000 may actually get me another 100,000.

To gain some respect I would offer a good product. A good product may gain both respect and more attention. Using that attention may also gain even more respect. That attention may both feed you and earn you respect. This system is self serving. I feel I would win, both today and the next.

We must use attention, even though we may search for respect. To gain respect we must at first gain attention. If you can hold attention you may earn even more respect. You must win overall.

Personally I would be pleased with respect alone.

Financially, and practically, I need the attention much more than I need the respect.

The answer for me is attention. Even though personally I really only want respect. But I cannot see how I could gain any respect without first holding some attention.

I expect with good products I would earn that respect in the morning.

The $64 question - Could I convince them to become my customers.

I think the product has to convince them of that. Personally, when I am pressured by hard convincing I run a mile, or trash the email. However, if it is a good product that holds my attention I may become a customer.

I do wonder why so many seem to hide their product behind brash, wild statements of gold and glory? For me, they lose any chance of respect, and they get little attention.

Having said all that, the “What’s In It For Me”, that would be the basis behind most peoples thinking may mean that attention and sales has nothing to do with respect. So the respect is just a self serving component.

My own “What’s In It For Me”. I’m turning in circles.

Hey Rich.
I’m a dedicated student of your now and want to contribute to your long list with:
As Nalle Phoo said: Thank you both. But by the second thought, I think I rather have the respect first ; BECAUSE i EARN IT!
I’m old and uggly enough to see that the world is made of delusions and illusions. It seems today, that sexy is the same as success, you can watch miss Hilton and her lot: What have they accived? A lot of attention without respect, living in a state of never-never land, and in a few years of time, the age has catched up with them. Then what? You are not cute when you are 60+ acting like a little spoiled girl. On opposite side you may look at miss Helen Mirren sexy as .. in her late 50th, in her wonderful plays as Queen Elisabeth 2nd and Elizabeth 1st . Abou all respected and admired. I think quality will never be out of date. We need it more than ever in our world.
For my own business www.elsware.no
I really love people and:
All my customars are import