Internet Marketing and Garlic

Posted on 08. Aug, 2008 by annaverawilliams in Anna Vera Williams

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What Can You Learn from a Newbie?
by Anna Vera Williams

I’m going to tell a story which might at first not seem very related to Internet Marketing. But keep reading, and you’ll see. A few years ago I was reading and studying about herbal remedies and natural healing techniques. I got very enthusiastic about it, I learned how to make all sorts of concoctions to treat this or that illness or condition, and I became known for getting getting my friends out of bed when they were sick and helping them get rid of their illnesses and maladies.

Of course, to my friends, I looked like a real professional genuine witch. But from the viewpoint of a professional herbalist I’d have been considered an absolute beginner, as green as green can be.

At one point, I was reading about how to get rid of warts or boils on the skin. I learned that one way to get rid of stubborn bumps was through the use of garlic. I read that one could just apply garlic cloves to the welt, or whatever it might be, and maybe bandage it on for a while, and that the bump would disappear. I don’t remember exactly what types of bumps were being referred to. But in any case, I did get the concept that garlic was a possible home remedy for difficult, hard bumps on the skin.

One evening I came home and looked in the mirror to find two enormous pimples on my forehead. I thought, “Oh no. I can’t have this. And I am not interested in spending an eternity trying to get rid of these.”

I decided to use my newly discovered tactic, to rid myself of these unwelcome red bumps as quickly as possible. I had a fresh bulb of garlic. Not only that, it was organically grown garlic. That means it was much stronger and more powerful than ordinary garlic.

I took a clove of garlic, cut it in half, and lay each half over each pimple. I then attached them with a band-aid, and went to sleep. Quite happy with my ingenuity.

In the morning I woke up and removed the band-aids.

The pimples were definitely gone, but so was all of the skin that had been in contact with the garlic cloves all night. I had two gigantic, almond shaped, red patches of missing skin on my forehead – exactly the sizes and shapes of the garlic cloves.

Now these were, of course, too big to cover with makeup (not that I didn’t try) and there was little one could do to hide such large patches of missing skin, save grafting or perhaps applying new band-aids (which would not have looked much better).

I did what I could with makeup, but it was pretty hopeless. At that time I was working in a professional capacity and dealing with many people every day. So when I arrived at work, you can imagine the questions I received.

“What happened to your forehead?”

Now I invite you all to take a moment of silence as you imagine what would have been going through my head when I tried to decide how to answer that question.

Right.

I actually can’t remember how I answered these questions … the rest of this incident seems to have faded out for me somewhat, in a blank fogginess which is similar to the ambiguity in memories of things like car accidents.

But these red spots stayed on my skin for weeks and the questions continued to repeat … “What happened to your forehead?”

So … what does this have to do with Internet Marketing?

Well, I doubt that any book of herbal remedies would have told me, “don’t tape garlic to your forehead.”

I mean, I don’t think any professional herbalist would have thought to say something so obvious, right? It would never occur to them to do something so obviously idiotic as taping garlic to their forehead all night, in an effort to get rid of a pimple.

So now we are approaching the part of this article where we see what this has to do with Internet Marketing.

I recently came across a blog post somewhere, in which people were commenting on the uselessness of Internet Marketing blogs written by newbies.

Their point was that many who are new to making money online try to give advice to others, or to sell them this or that product, when they themselves have never made much money online and frankly don’t know what they are talking about.

I can’t agree with this more. That is, I can agree wholeheartedly that a blog from a newbie, who pretends to know more than he does, is worse than unhelpful.

But there are other types of blogs written by other types of newbies.

These are blogs where said newbies are open about themselves and their experiences. They don’t pretend to be professionals when they aren’t, but they share their experiences as they go. They share what they learn. And as part of this, some of them might even share their embarrassing mistakes, so that others don’t repeat them.

What kinds of mistakes? The kinds of mistakes that professional Internet Marketers might never have even thought of making! Like taping garlic to your forehead.

Now, in case you are wondering if I just made that story up for sake of example, I didn’t. I really did tape garlic to my forehead.

But that was many years ago, and I’m much older and wiser now.

And I of course have never, ever, made any idiotic mistakes online which I would be embarrassed to discuss.

Have you?


by Anna
Residual Streams of Income

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11 Responses to “Internet Marketing and Garlic”

  1. TheDavinator

    08. Aug, 2008

    LOL, Well Anna, that’s an interesting story. If I ever meet you in person and we become friends offline, and for some unknown bizarre reason felt so inclined as to kiss you on the forehead…please stop me!

    Davin

  2. annaverawilliams

    08. Aug, 2008

    Well I will remember that Davin. Hopefully, though, the garlic has worn off by now - it’s been a bit over 7 years!

    annaverawilliamss last blog post..Holly Mann’s Honest Riches 2008 | Honest Riches 3

  3. manystories

    08. Aug, 2008

    There are some great stories about now-famous herbalists who discovered attributes of certain herbs by doing things by accident, like drinking a half a quart of something normally dispensed by drops or splashing something in one’s eye - something scary. So, perhaps the garlic has a useful purpose. Let’s see, removing freckles?

  4. Internet Marketing and Garlic

    08. Aug, 2008

    [...] Alex wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt… Williams I’m going to tell a story which might at first not seem very related to Internet Marketing. But keep reading, and you’ll see. A few years ago I was reading and studying about herbal remedies and natural healing techniques. … [...]

  5. catklc

    09. Aug, 2008

    That story is too funny Anna.. I’m still laughing from the visual of you doing a balancing act with the garlic on your forehead, trying to get the bandaids on!!LOL!

    Now, be honest, did you find yourself glancing up at those two heaping mounds protruding from your forehead as you lay in bed, repeating a mantra, “I’m a professional herbalist, I’m a professional herbalist”..
    (Had you met your husband yet?? With that lingering smell, he must be Italian! lol)
    ok, enough of this, sorry..I can’t help myself, because I’m sure if this were confession, I’d have something to confess, ..just give me time to think (since I’m jewish, and we don’t have confession, I’m gonna get off easy on this one, (though I do remeber a crazy friend twenty years back shaving off one eyebrow just to see what would happen!)

    Have you ever heard of the segment on Dave Letterman, “stupid pet tricks?” I’ll bet those professional Internet Marketers you spoke of have done a few embarrassing things in their lives/marketing careers, they’re just too chicken to share their stories..too bad. I give your story a 10!

    Karen

  6. annaverawilliams

    09. Aug, 2008

    Thanks Karen! I’m glad you liked my story. No, I wasn’t married yet. And honestly I didn’t give much thought to the garlic band-aids until it was too late. Isn’t that how it goes sometimes?

    As far as Internet Marketing is concerned, maybe we should arrange a thread somewhere for embarrassing confessions … I’m sure we could all learn from them. Maybe we would have to set it up to be anonymous.

    And you are right - the pro’s have probably had their own garlic incidents. The worst part is figuring out how to answer the question “what happened to your forehead.”

    I mean - how DO you answer that??

    annaverawilliamss last blog post..Holly Mann’s Honest Riches 2008 | Honest Riches 3

  7. catklc

    09. Aug, 2008

    That’s not a bad idea having a thread for embarrassing confessions….Going anonymous would certainly eliminate those inhibitions and we may be reading some great stories from some unlikely individuals. Hey we could call it, “What happened to your forehead?!”lol

    How DO you answer that? hmmmmm..I once heard that when you’re in a jam and at a loss for words, respond with a question, so..”What happened to your forehead?”…

    “What happened to my forehead….??hold on I have a phone call..”(play the dumb card)
    just a thought..

    Karen

  8. Holly

    09. Aug, 2008

    Anna, this was very funny and interesting. I loved it. :) Thank you for sharing this. Did you ever find a remedy for the pimples? :)

  9. annaverawilliams

    09. Aug, 2008

    @Karen - yes, we COULD call it “what happened to your forehead.” But how to make it anonymous? Hmm …

    Yes, “I have a phone call …” I think I did use some of those tactics. Or just pretending to be in a rush and now having heard the question …

    @ Holly - well there are lots of natural remedies for pimples. Lets see … clay (the powder, use like a mask overnight) tea tree oil, fruit juice mixed with water (use like astringent), hydrogen peroxide (general disinfectant), then there is MSM lotion and Aloe Vera for scars (not that any of us would pop them, how disgusting), Dr. Schultz’s Intestinal Formula #2 is also a great face mask … hmmm …. what else. Oh! Yeah! Photoshop!

    annaverawilliamss last blog post..Holly Mann’s Honest Riches 2008 | Honest Riches 3

  10. JK Swopes

    11. Aug, 2008

    Hahahaha…Anna, this is priceless! I love it! Oh wow…lol. But you are so right, newbs will make some mistakes that other will not even have the opportunity to make, and we can learn from that.

    I will not be putting any garlic on my forehead!

    JK Swopess last blog post..Look at the Bloggers Joe Sees

  11. annaverawilliams

    12. Aug, 2008

    Thanks Joe. I’m glad you liked my story. Your blog is terrific by the way. I like your videos - I was doing some more intense work which gets a bit mind-numbing after a while and when I felt needed a break I could pop over to your blog and chat away. It’s great. You are doing very well at your branding too!

    annaverawilliamss last blog post..Some People Like a Frog | Make Money Online with a 5-Year-Old

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