The Ferriss Principle: Can The Four-Hour Workweek Work With Internet Marketers?

Timothy Ferriss is not your run-of-the-mill best-selling book author. He lectures at the prestigious Princeton university, competes in cage fighting, dances the tango, models for popular swimsuit designer and retailer Speedo, designs nutritional pharmaceuticals, and works as an entrepreneur. He also works four hours a week – a rather surprising fact that surrounds the success of his current book, the wildly and widely popular “The 4-Hour Workweek.”

According to Ferriss, you can cut out as much as fifteen hours of useless time from your workweek by doing only important things, and then delegating the rest of your work to people who can do the job better, even cheaper. In his book, Ferriss does away with answering emails personally and making reports; he concentrates on running his business and passing jobs on.

The prospect of working for only four hours a week can be tempting to employees, but annoying to employers who expect their employees to be as visible as possible. Employers also want to have their employees close by, so that if emergencies arise, they know just where to reach their employees to get reports done, or broken things working again. That said, businesses such as Internet marketing might not work too well on the four-hour workweek basis, especially since clients often need their Internet marketing team to be present on demand.

However, not all companies need a twenty-four hour monitoring program for their Internet marketing schemes. Moreover, not all Internet marketing schemes need to be tweaked or watched constantly. So, can Internet marketers work on a four-hour workweek?

What is the Four-Hour Workweek?

Before plunging into the advantages and disadvantages of working for only four hours a week, it would pay to take a look at exactly what the four-hour workweek entails. According to Ferriss, answering all personal emails, and even stopping to read them, is a waste of time. Instead of reading each email message, Ferriss recommends that people set up an auto-response and setting time for reading email messages.

Ferriss recommends that people check email only at certain times each day. He also recommends the following items in the auto-response: a reminder to call instead of emailing if the matter is urgent; a reminder that no response should be expected if the email has no questions that require the recipient to answer them; and a call to contact people directly involved in an activity if the recipient is only a contributor and not privy to it.

In other words, the secret to working four hours a week is to delegate. Ferriss himself outsources tasks, such as report writing and research, to people who will work for lower fees. This way, he saves money and time.

Can the Four-Hour Workweek Work for Internet Marketing?

Although the email appears cold and vicious to a point; and the outsourcing looks like an exploitation scheme that preys on cheap labor, Ferriss can indeed rest more and earn more in the process. As for the question of the four-hour workweek for Internet marketing, the answer is: it depends.

The four-hour workweek works best for companies that have more skilled employees to which the tasks can be delegated, as well as for companies that have the connections to cheap labor in order to make the delegation successful. In the case of Internet marketing, this can occur if a company or a large team can split the tasks among its members, and can practice good task coordination. The four-hour workweek, moreover, rests largely on the premise that the people to whom the tasks are delegated are skilled in their respective fields.

Skill is difficult to gauge in Internet marketing. A team needs to agree completely on website design, the contents of email messages used in email marketing, and even the prices of products or services offered online. A team also needs to monitor how clients react to certain marketing methods, and if a suitable return on investment is being made. This means that a team has to meet regularly, coordinate with each other more, and change techniques, sometimes at the last minute, in order to meet client demands or customer interests.

In this case, Internet marketing might not work too well with a four-hour workweek. However, if the Internet marketing to be carried out needs only a website without email marketing, then a web designer can simply accept updates sparingly, say, once or twice a week. In this case, perhaps a four-hour workweek can be feasible. In other words, if Internet marketing is not too intensive, then little work can be done.

Four-hour workweeks can look pretty good to the tired and weary office person. But if you spend too much time at home, that seeming weekly retirement period can feel boring too.