Where Is The Little Pea? Not many people know much about statistics and many of those who think they know, don't know that much.
The general perception of statistics is that they are unassailable, absolute facts concerning some subject which are reinforced by numbers.
The truth is that statistics can and are manipulated to serve any agenda.
For example; I was recently reading stories about how the current economic slowdown has affected the internet marketing industry, and they were quoting numbers in the billions reflecting marketing dollars spent.
But when they compared the numbers spent before the slowdown to the numbers spent after, they were still in the billions.
They then went on to name some of the larger advertisers who were cutting back their online advertising.
It stands to reason that in this kind of economic environment, the big advertisers would trim back, but is that also a wise move for the smaller advertiser? Perhaps another strategy is in order? Opportunities? Think about the Pay Per Click or PPC arena and how the large advertising budgets have tended to drive the cost of keywords up and out of the reach of the smaller advertisers like the average affiliates marketer or small e-commerce business who can't afford to pay $45.
00 per click.
Perhaps statistics that are gloom and doom to some, are good news to others.
You know, one man's trash is another man's treasure? This could be a bonanza for those who live off of the low hanging fruit in the keyword competition world.
Of course, the slowdown effects us all, but it's still all about traffic and exposure, the size of the consumer pool only means that marketers must work harder for the market share.
And I'm sure that there are those who have been enjoying the easy life for so long that they won't be able to make the necessary adjustments.
Too much comfort for too long can result in a kind of trance state during which ambition takes a holiday.
Manipulating Reality The bottom line here is the necessity for maintaining a high degree of awareness at all times because we live within environments that are full of influences designed to manipulate our beliefs, attitudes and views in order to further one agenda or another.
Statistics are an old tried and true method for manipulating consumers behavior, but statistics are only one of many techniques that only work if we are not aware of what's going on around us.
It is not only the consumers who are subject to being manipulated either.
The internet marketing players aren't immune to influence, we may read some report that is trying to sell us on one perception or another and if we are not on the ball and take the time to do further research to validate or invalidate the information, we may make decisions based on that information.
In today's marketplace success may well depend on staying sharp and paying attention to whose trying to sell what idea and why.
This was never more important than in times like these where some are trying to sell the pessimistic view while others are trying to sell the optimistic perception.
The global nature of today's market condition may indicate that we need to take a more balanced position between critical thinking and reasoning, and hopeful expectations.
But we recommend caution whenever someone is trying to support their position by using statistics, because they can be useful, useless and or downright damaging.
Good luck out there!